Construction stages: the right order to build a house
The stages of building a house, from clearing the lot to handing over the keys, in the order they happen — and what can't be skipped in each one.
Building a house is a sequence: each stage prepares the ground for the next, and skipping or swapping one usually costs more later. This is the most common order for a one-storey masonry house, with what matters in each phase.
1. Site preparation
Clearing the lot, temporary water and power, a fence, a shed for materials and the layout that marks on the ground where each wall goes. It looks minor, but a wrong layout shifts the whole house.
2. Foundation
The base that carries the house's weight down to the soil. Its type (footings, slab, piles) depends on the soil report and the structural design — don't pick it on price. After the pour, respect the curing time before loading the foundation.
3. Structure
Columns, beams and slabs. This is where an engineer's design and site supervision matter most: rebar, forms and concrete have to follow the plans exactly.
4. Masonry
Raising the walls, with lintels over doors and windows to prevent cracks. This is also when the paths for wiring and pipes are left in place.
5. Slab and roof
With the walls up comes the roof: framing or steel structure, tiles or shingles, gutters and flashing. A covered house protects the next stages from rain.
6. Electrical and plumbing
Conduit, boxes, water and sewer pipes, run before plastering. They usually overlap with the end of the masonry and the roof. Test the plumbing before closing the walls.
7. Plaster and subfloor
Scratch coat and plaster on the walls; a level subfloor on the ground. The quality of this stage shows in the finish: a crooked wall can't be fixed with paint.
8. Flooring, tiling, doors and windows
Floors, tiles, doors and windows. Buy extra material from the same batch — different lots can come in slightly different shades.
9. Painting, fixtures and finishes
Skim coat, paint, sinks and toilets, faucets, outlets, lights. It's the stage of details, and where many builds blow the budget with last-minute choices.
10. Final cleanup and handover
A fine clean, debris removal, checking that everything works and a walkthrough before paying the last installment.
Stages can overlap. Wiring runs alongside the masonry, and the subfloor can start while plastering finishes. What you can't do is reverse dependencies: tiling before testing the plumbing, or painting before the roof is closed.
How to keep track of each stage
For each stage, keep three things written down: what it should cost, when it should start and end, and what has been spent so far. In Minha Obra you start with these stages ready — the Building from scratch template already has all of them, with expected dates — and log each expense on the right stage.