Is it Really Possible to Construct a House in the Winter?

It is often assumed that building a house in the winter is either impossible or prohibitively difficult. A combination of generally low temperatures, snow and hard and frozen ground, creates conditions which are far from ideal for undertaking building work. However, as unpleasant as it can be working in a construction environment in winter conditions, if you take the right precautions then you will find that you can use the winter to your advantage.

There is now a range of building methods and materials which can be used in order to allow construction projects which would have been impossible just a decade ago. These advances have also made it much easier to construct homes and other structures in inhospitable environments and climates.

Not only is building in the winter months now a possibility, there are in fact a few advantages to waiting until the winter months before undertaking construction works.

Build Your Home Quicker

While you might initially think that the winter climate would slow down the rate of work and would limit the number of daylight hours in which you could work, there are in fact a couple of things about building in winter which allows construction to be completed faster than usual. The winter months are generally the quietest for construction, leading to much smaller backlogs of permit applications. This means that permit applications tend to be processed much faster during the winter months. In general, planning for construction projects during the winter months is much less stressful.

As well as a much smoother applications process, because there are fewer houses being built during the winter, there will be more contractors available to take on any construction work that needs doing. Having more contractors to choose from will allow you to find a better price and a contractor who is able to work to your schedule.

Strong Foundations

One of the most common concerns people have about constructing homes during the winter is that the freezing temperatures will make it more difficult to work with and pour concrete. In reality, however, while it might take the foundations longer to fully cure under wintery conditions, it turns out that pouring your foundations during very cold weather can lead to an even stronger foundation than usual.

Snow is Better Than Rain

Anyone with a reasonable amount of experience working in construction will have more than a few tales of bad weather and the impact that it can have on a project. There’s nothing you can do to avoid bad weather altogether, but by selecting the season that you undertake construction in you can exercise a small amount of control over the kind of weather hazards you are likely to face. Torrential rain can make construction sites unsafe and can prevent you from undertaking certain work and it is also hard to defend against. By comparison, a blizzard can be effectively repelled simply by putting up tarp to keep the snow out.

Constructing a building during the winter months isn’t just possible, in many ways it is desirable. There are unique advantages to constructing during the winter which many organizations are passing on simply because they don’t know that they’re there.