Construction

Construction is a skill that allows players to build their own houses and provide furniture for them. It was released on May 31, 2006.

Basics
To begin Construction, players must buy a house from one of the Estate Agents located in
 * Varrock, just east of the palace.
 * Seers' Village northeast of the bank.
 * Falador between the furnace and the east bank.
 * Ardougne west of the south bank.

A starter house will cost 1000 coins, and will be in Rimmington. A level 40 Magic spell can then be used to teleport to the house, or players can walk to Rimmington, where there is a portal that will teleport players to their house. The house starts off with only a small room and garden, but more can be built. To build, go to Player Controls, select "House Options", and set the build mode to on. Players will then see what looks like ghost-like "Hot Spots" where new objects can be built. Players can also visit friend's houses, if they are home and using the same portal.

See the Constructed Items list for details on what you can build at what level.

Estate agents
Estate agents, located in various cities can redecorate your home for you and move it to a new location.

Estate agents can also redecorate the outside of your house for a fee.

Rooms
There are many different rooms that can be added to houses. The house a player buys will begin with a garden and parlour, but more rooms can be added. Different rooms will require different Construction levels and will cost money.

Materials
Many different items are needed for Construction, especially planks, nails, cloth, bricks, soft clay, and steel bars.

Sawmill operator
The sawmill operator, just south of the Varrock lumberyard, can turn logs into planks, for a fee, and also sells cloth, some nails, and a saw. In order to begin Construction, you must have a saw. Players can get planks by taking logs to the Sawmill Operator. Right-clicking on this NPC, there will be a "Buy planks" option. Players can then choose whether to make regular, oak, teak, or mahogany planks.

Nails
Nails can be smithed from all types of metals by players. Additionally, the Sawmill Operator sells bronze, iron, and steel nails. When constructing objects using nails, there is a possibility that players will bend a nail. With higher level nails such as rune, this possibility becomes less likely. However, because higher level nails are expensive, most players prefer to use mid-level nails such as iron or steel.

Stonemason
Players can buy various stoneworking materials from the the Stonemason in Keldagrim.

Bagged plants
The Gardener in Falador Park sells a variety of different plants that can be used by players in their Gardens and Formal Gardens.

Stuffed heads
Players can get monster heads, randomly dropped from monsters, turned into frightening trophies at the "Taxidermist" in Canifis. These trophies can then be used in Skill Halls.

The taxidermist can also stuff large bass, large swordfish and large shark, which are randomly obtained through fishing the correct type of fish.

Herald
Players can buy maps and portraits for decoration by talking to the Herald in Falador Castle - he's upstairs on the east side of the building. Additionally, the Herald can change a player's family crest, which appears throughout the house and on armour created by the player.

Servants
To hire a servant, players must have at least two bedrooms. There are five different servants, which can do different things. If you already have a servant, you will need to fire him or her in order to hire a new servant. All servants are able to greet guests entering a players' home, but some will have different abilities, such as taking items to and from the bank or sawmill. The higher level servant you have, the faster his service is. After using a servant's services seven times, you will need to pay him or her again.

Strategy
Initially, Construction seems to be an extremely money-intensive skill. It may be that Jagex have intended player-owned houses as money-sinks (see Gold_sinks), and the intention is to take considerable amounts of cash out of the game.

Building oak furniture at your workbench seems to be the best option at the moment, with a cost of roughly 5 coins per experience point. You could also break down & build oak larders in your kitchen, which uses 8 planks each build.

At level 28 Construction, players can make armour stands, provided that they have either full Castle Wars armour or 68+ smithing. These stands provide from 67.5-80xp per oak plank, and can be taken apart, allowing players to rerain their armour. As most things made with oak planks provide only 60xp per plank, this is an excellent balance of cost and experience.

For level 33-40, limestone seems tobe a good option for building lots of fireplaces. After you have reach levels over 40, switch back to oak, using a butler to take logs to the sawmill for you.

Strategy: - Oak. Cut oak trees outside your house (should be in Rimmington, Rellekka or Yanille), go inside, give your oak planks to your butler to take to the sawmill for you. Run to your workshop, collect the planks from your butler and make flat-pack furniture at your workbench. You will need in your inventory After making the flat-packs, exit your house, drop the flat-packs and cut trees again. Repeat. This strategy will cost roughly 275k for 60k experience points, and is reasonably fast.
 * Lots of cash
 * Saw
 * Hammer
 * Axe (wielded)

This strategy gives a good balance of fast xp and cost, though it is still expensive (4.5 mil roughly for 1 mil experience), it's not as expensive as, say, prayer. However, if you wish to upgrade your house to looking nice too, the costs quickly mount up extremely high. Completing the Miscellania quests (1, 2) appear to be a good way to get Teak and Mahogany logs, providing roughly 65 of each a day with 750k in the treasury. You'll also receive coal to sell for the cost of your investment.

Experience
This chart shows the experience given per object when each object is used.

Temporary boosts
Depending on your type of shelf, tea will give you a 1, 2, or 3 level bonus. With a normal cup, tea gives +1 construction. With a porcelain cup, tea gives +2 construction. With a gold-rimmed cup, tea gives +3 construction.