How long does it take to build a house? Scroll down this page to see an example of a typical construction schedule for a large custom home. It was produced using Microsoft Project^® 4.1 scheduling software and includes most, but not all, of the activities involved in the process of building a new house. Sample construction draws have been included for reference purposes, although individual lenders & mortgage companies will most likely have their own draw schedules.

Notice that because construction draws from the lender typically follow the completion of various phases, or milestones, the cash flow on a project can be very irregular. While the money flowing out of a construction company; for employee salaries, benefits, office space, vehicles, insurance, equipment and other company expenses, typically occurs on a regular calendar based timeline, the money used to pay these expenses follows an event driven schedule. Therefore, besides the "normal" unplanned events that can affect the progress of a home building project, it is not uncommon for home builders to rearrange construction schedules in order to gain access to draw money so that they are able to pay subcontractors and suppliers in a timely manner. By the way, this is generally a good thing (provided you have an honest builder) because subcontractors tend to follow the money and happy subs are almost always preferable to unhappy ones:-)

Will your house take this long to build?

Probably not; most home building projects will take less time, but some will take even more. For example, the timeline for a smaller house, with few options and less detailed finishes, which has been built many times before by professional builders, might be as short as 8 to 12 weeks. However, 6 to 9 months from start to finish is probably a more realistic average. While a larger house, with more options, custom features, fancier finishes, and more owner involvement -- especially if the owner has little construction experience -- may very well take 1 1/2 to 2 years to complete. Then again, if you build your own house, and make the common mistake of moving in before every last detail is finished, well, you might be looking at decades instead of months or years --- Some quick and dirty production builders throw up a house in only three or four months.

The schedule can be impacted by availability of capital, labor and materials. The biggest problem is the cost cutting measures by builders who want to maximize profits by minimizing quality. The areas that are often cut relate to using an incompetent or insufficiently trained labor force. Much of the actual labor consists of day labor aliens (most from Mexico) who can not read, write or speak sufficient English. It is a formula that invites much disaster. Construction sites are often crime zones.  

The actual schedule of completion for a specific project will vary based upon many factors including, but not limited to, size and degree of difficulty of the structure, site and weather conditions, material and contractor availability, crew sizes, effective scheduling and communication, the knowledge and experience of those managing the project, and perhaps most significantly, the number, timeliness, and complexity of the changes you will inevitably make to the original contract after construction has already begun.