Construction

Construction is a members-only skill that allows players to build their own houses and provide furniture for them. To begin Construction, players must buy a house from one of the estate agents. A starter house will cost 1,000 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 ( icon on the map) 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 the options menu, 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. See the Constructed items list for details on what you can build at what level. Players can also visit a friend's house if they are home and using the same portal. Construction is widely regarded as one of the most costly skills to level up.

Estate agents
Estate agents are located (identified with the house icon on the map) 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.
 * Hosidius House south of the Mess, on Great Kourend

House portals
Estate agents can move a player's house from its starter location Rimmington to a new location identified by the portal icon on the map. Your house cannot be moved to Yanille on the Deadman Mode servers.

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

It is worth noting that for each new style of house you get, the enter tune for the house changes, based on the style your house has.

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.

Maximum number of rooms and area
Up to level 49 Construction, a maximum of 23 rooms and gardens can be built. This rises to a maximum of 33 rooms at level 99 Construction.

There is also a maximum area that can be built on that also goes up with Construction level, starting at 3 rooms by 3 rooms up to 8 rooms by 8 rooms.

As your maximum house dimensions goes up, so does your yard space. Yard space increases by adding a row to the top of your current yard space, and a column to the right. You should plan accordingly should you desire a centered house, as increasing your construction over time will off-center it.

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

Sawmill operator
There are two sawmill operators in the game and can be identified by the  icon on the minimap, their main purpose is to exchange logs into planks for a fee. They also sell other construction supplies such as bolts of cloth, some nails, and saws, by trading with them. A saw is essential to begin construction.

The Sawmills are located at Varrock Lumber Yard and in the Woodcutting Guild.

Nails
Nails can be made using the Smithing skill from all types of bars. Additionally, the sawmill operator sells bronze, iron, and steel nails for 2, 3 and 5 coins each, respectively. 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. 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 stonemason in Keldagrim.

Limestone bricks (21 coins) and limestone (10 coins) can also be bought from the Mort'ton building/general store.

Players can also mine their own limestone east of Varrock or Arandar and use a chisel to make it into limestone bricks.

Bagged plants
The Garden supplier in the 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 the Skill Hall.

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

Herald
Players can buy maps, landscapes and portraits for decoration by talking to a Sir Renitee in the White Knights' 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
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 be asked to pay him or her again. After using a servant's services eight times, you are required to pay him or her or the servant will quit.

Servants can be found in the very northeastern building of Ardougne.

It is required that you have a second bedroom with a bed in your house to hire a servant.

Strategy
Building oak furniture at your workbench provides a nice balance of cost and experience. You could also break down and build oak larders in your kitchen, which uses 8 planks each build and is thus as fast or faster than building oak furniture at your workbench which you have to drop.

You can use noted oak logs with your servant, who will exchange them for unnoted oak logs, and then send him to the sawmill to get oak planks.

At level 28 Construction, players can make Skill Hall armour stands, provided that they have either full Castle Wars armour or have 68 or higher smithing. These stands provide from 67.5-80 experience per oak plank (2 needed), and can be taken apart, allowing players to regain their armour. As most things made with oak planks provide only 60 experience per plank, this provides more experience, however, it is much slower than building oak larders which use 8 oak planks instead of 2.

For level 33-40, limestone seems to be a cheap option - building lots of fireplaces. After you have reached level 40 or above, you should switch back to oak because the experience will be too slow after this for you to level.

At level 74 Construction, dungeon oak doors (10 oak planks) will be faster than oak larders (8 oak planks); 4 dungeon doors instead of 5 larders for the same experience. In the skill room, or elsewhere, build a stairway going down to a dungeon stair room. Costs would be same as armour stands.

As we can see from the table, Construction costs at least 3 coins per experience point, and in practice, getting fast experience will mean spending closer to 6-7 coins per experience point.

Have a Dining Room near the Kitchen (if you're doing larders), the Workshop (if you're making flatpacks) or the Skill Hall (if you're making armour stands) and therefore a butler bell-pull so you can summon him quickly when he wanders off around the house. You can also keep him near you while training by starting to build before completing conversation with your butler. This will usually prevent them from moving.

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

Total supplies

 * A hammer and a saw
 * 500 Iron nails
 * 120 Planks
 * 510 Oak planks
 * 4 Steel bars
 * 1,040 Teak planks
 * 92,140 Mahogany planks
 * 480 Bolts of cloth

Temporary boosts
Depending on the type of shelf, tea will give 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.

The crystal saw will only work with items that require a saw to build them (will not work when building rooms, placing monsters or growing plants) It will also work simultaneously with bonuses from tea (to get max of +6) or Evil Dave's spicy stew, allowing for a maximum of +8 to Construction!

For the maximum effect in Evil Dave's stew, add the orange spice 3 times.

Trivia

 * The watch, sextant and chart cannot be used in your house, trying to use it will give the message: "The sextant doesn't seem to work here".
 * In RuneScape Classic, there was a skill that had no use called Carpentry. The skill today of Construction was an updated version of this unused skill.