Cost-Saving Construction Concepts: A Construction and Contracting Blog

If you have a limited budget for a planned home extension, it might be time to get creative. Here are some ways to keep the price down. 

Be flexible about building materials

While some areas of Australia favour brick construction, it can often be cheaper to go with other construction materials such as framed construction and fibre cement or even cemented coated foam bricks. These materials are cheaper and they are also easier to installed, so can be a lot cheaper in terms of labour to get installed. This can also lead to a quicker extension, which can also be a cost savings if you are moving out during the home extension. 

If you have some time on your hands, it can also be a lot cheaper if you can source some recycled building materials. This can take some digging through online classified sites such as gumtree to find demolition sites that might be willing to sell you old building supplies, but this can often save you some big bucks on your overall costs. 

Get involved

While you might not be a skilled tradesperson, there is likely to be some tasks that require lower skills, such as removing timber boards, mixing concrete, or fetching tools. You can often help out your builders with being a spare pair of hands and this can help them to finish the job early as well as potentially save some money on trades assistant–type jobs. It's also a good time to involve friends and family - especially if you have friends asking if they can do anything to help. 

Try converting other structures

One of the cheapest options for extensions is to work within your current home foot print. This can include converting a shed to extra rooms, converting your roof space into a bedroom or some storage or converting the area under your home into living space or a carport (especially popular in Queenslanders style homes). This can minimise your cost of actual construction and give you more budget to fit out the areas up to a higher standard. This can be much cheaper than needing to structurally create new spaces. 

If you are looking to do a house extension but only have a limited budget, it can be useful to have a flexible approach. Try speaking to construction contractors to see if they can offer some ideas of the most affordable ways to get the extension you want.