The length of time to design and build a new home can vary greatly, and there are a lot of factors that come into play. It's important to remember that although you may think your Quonset hut home will be small and simple, and thus it shouldn’t take more than a few weeks or months to design and build, it is still a custom home that you are undertaking to build, and a custom home of any size is no small undertaking. Design and construction of a good custom home takes time.
Quonset Home Design Process
I always start the design process by creating a 3D model of the design, showing the arch panels in their exact size and shape, which allows me to model literally every component in the building to accurate scale. It is crucial to understand the exact three-dimensional geometry of the curve of your hut in order to create an overall composition of spaces that is both beautiful and functional, not to mention in order to get the technical details right. Once we have the essentials of the design worked out in the 3D model, we refine the plans, sections, and elevations as 2D drawings. Lastly, as we refine the drawings still further, we create the technical construction details. Clients often want to revise and change things as we go, which is totally appropriate to the task at hand, but also requires additional time and effort.
I meet frequently with my clients throughout the design process. The best ideas never spring fully formed onto the page; the best ideas require a process of refinement. In fact, the simpler and more elegant the design solution, the greater amount of refinement and editing it required to get there.
Quonset Hut Home Construction
Once designed, the project moves to construction. It's important to remember that the construction of even a small, simple custom home still requires all the various subcontracted trades to show up, in the proper sequence, to do their job, however minimal it might be. All these companies have many other projects competing for time in their schedule. Since certain things have to happen in a specific sequence in order to build a home, it is challenging at best to try to get a construction project to go quickly. Various phases of the project require inspections as well, which takes time and can cause delay. Some components will have to be special ordered, which again takes time. All of this coordination, scheduling, and ordering takes time whether it’s a smaller job or a larger job.
You should not expect this to be a fast process, just because you perceive your small, simple custom home build to be, well, small and simple.
Bottom line: the design process is often 6-9 months; building permits can add 3-6 months depending on the jurisdiction, although this can vary greatly also. Construction can take anywhere from 6 months (extremely fast) to a year (more common) or longer.