Unexpected costs can have a serious impact on the progress of a construction project. Here are two things you can do to prevent extra expenses from arising during your building project.

Pay very close attention to the information in your land surveyor's report.

If you have paid one of your local land surveyors to draw up a survey of your plot, it is extremely important to read through their final report carefully and to keep the information found within it in mind throughout the course of your construction project.

The reason for this is as follows; if you overlook pertinent information within the land surveyor's report, there is a very good chance that you may end up incurring a large number of unexpected costs.

For example, if you don't check the report to find out exactly where the boundaries of your plot lie and, as a result of this, you accidentally build your structure on land that you do not own, there could be disastrous financial repercussions.

In this situation, the individual that owns the land could sue you, in which case you would have to incur the cost of hiring a lawyer, and potentially pay compensation to the landowner. Additionally, you would also have to pay to have the illegally-built structure demolished and spend money repurchasing the demolished materials so that you could continue with your construction project.

This type of error could cost you thousands of dollars, and if your contingency fund is quite small, you may end up having to take out a large loan to cover these extra expenses.

Secure your site.

A lot of people who carry out construction projects do not bother securing their building sites, as installing things like CCTV systems and security fencing can take quite a lot of time, effort and money.

However, this is a short-sighted mistake that can lead to a lot of unexpected expenses. The reason for this is as follows; if a building site is left unsecured and unmonitored, there is a much greater chance that the extremely expensive equipment and construction materials on it will be stolen and that its partially-built structures will be vandalised.

If you make this error, you may find yourself having to spend money replacing stolen materials and equipment, or having to pay a professional to repair or clean the vandalised sections of the building.

As such, it is best to view the cost of hiring a security guard or fitting security fencing around your site as an investment, that could potentially save you a lot of money in the long run.