Frequently Asked Questions

No, you will run the job. The trades you hire will need to have their relevant license - i.e. Licensed Building Practitioner/certified plumber etc and will need to be able to provide the required record of work/producer statements etc to cover their work on your home.

It does depend on the complexity of your build and how fast you want it built, but generally if you can make a few calls at work at lunchtime and spend a few hours in the weekend checking on the site, you can manage your build while working full time. We have also had a mother with 2 kids manage their own home build. 

You can get started with a computer and a phone. A majority of your build is managed through emails and phone calls. There are some things on-site you'll need like a site box, and this is all priced into your build. 

We recommend going to a mortgage broker early on, to see how much you can borrow. Build Your Own Way can help you to produce the documents and accurate pricing needed to get you over the line with the banks. Since we are also a project management and pricing company, we can help meet the bank's specific requirements.

Build Your Own Way can support you when looking for the right piece of land. We have a checklist which ensures you are covering all bases when looking at potential land, and discuss costs associated with different types of land. We have 70 plans available which you can look through to put on your potential land, or help you shape something from scratch.

Covid 19 and other worldwide pressures like did make getting materials a challenge, but now we are coming out the other side and things like GIB is available more easily now, and timber prices have come back down closer to where they were. Building can be expensive in NZ, which is more reason to manage your own build to keep those costs - and your mortgage, significantly lower. 

This does depend on the complexity of your build and your timeframe, but generally, if your keen and have the right support, patience and willingness to learn, you will be able to manage your own home design and build. We have had full-time mums and full-time career folks run their own builds successfully.

You won't know the true cost of your build until you have been through the costing exercise. However, we are constantly pricing a few builds to check where things are sitting and can go through these with you to give you an idea of what your budget can afford. 

Trying to use a m2 rate can be misleading, for example, there could be a 150m2 square home with basic finishings built on a flat section for say $2500/m2 and alternatively, a 150m2 architectural passive home built on a slope for $7500/m2, or anything in between.

These two homes above are the same size but have vastly different m2 rates.

A m2 rate, however, can be handy to get a rough idea of how much you can afford if its a relatively fair comparison. Build your own way have various plans we keep up-to-date prices for, that you can use as an indication of what your budget may get you, so you can start getting closer to getting a plan that suits you, which you can then price accurately using our pricing system and training.