Building your own house

[curly_kate]

Has anyone who does NOT have experience in the construction industry have experience with building their own house? DH & I are making plans for our house on our new property, and he seems convinced that he will be doing most of the work, short of pouring the foundation. He is fairly handy, and I am fine with him doing stuff like framing out the rooms, putting up drywall, and even plumbing. But as for actually putting up the structure of the house itself, I am not convinced I trust him to take on a job that big. What do you think? Is it less complicated than I think it is?

 

[SKR8PN]

As long as it is a fairly simple structure(one floor ranch etc) I would think he would do OK. Two story houses, and any design that has dormers or multiple roof joints and angles, may be a bit more of a challenge. You are going to need to hire some labor to help with setting trusses and heavy stuff like that.

 

[curly_kate]

I would like a ranch, but he has other plans. So maybe that is incentive to get what I want. His other issue is that he has a pathological avoidance of asking for help, which is going to make it even more difficult. :/

 

[Mackay]

We are in the middle of constructing a house right now.
My husband is a retired architect who never build more than a geodesic dome green house in college and a shed in the yard about 15 years ago, and some decking here and there.

What you really need is gut level determination... and a few good books.

Although DH is an architect he does not know the ins and outs of much of construction, how to fit this board to that, etc. but he has learned a lot over the last two years, we started with the garage with studio upstairs that we now live in. He does know about loads, and bearing walls, and what sizes of walls to make to to avoid material waste and stuff I don't even know what to call, anything of course that an architect would have to consider.

But this stuff is in books

We had the concrete foundation done professionally.
He had a lot of training is solar in school so we will have passive solar. He knows all about the type of glass, the placement of window, the orientation to sun, the slope of roof, but hey, it is out there in books too.

Man, you just gotta ask for help. How is he ever going to lift those BCI joists to the second foor? Who is going to stablilize things in the wind when he nails them down? Who is going to help him place windows... they are kinda expensive to drop.

Although DH does much of it we do hire some help.. we have hired highschool type kids when it is grunt work with little training requried. We have hired sheet rock people when it just seemed to hard to install sheet rock on the 12 foot high ceiling of the garage for somebody 60 years old.

This year we were out looking for more grunt workers willing to pay $10 an hour. We lucked out and found someone very experienced in construction looking to pick up a little extra work. Man is he good and DH felt guilty so we are paying him $15, when he is really probably worth 25.

Then when we can we solicit help from our boys, who come up when they can which isn't often but when we did the garage one son brought a friend who was very experienced and he worked for 3 days, elevating the roof framing on the garage,, and man is it steep. He refused to accept pay... so when we are done he has about unlimited use of our studio for vacation after we are in the house..

We did also hire for help in the roofing... that will depend on what kind of roof you have... with the slope we are doing DH had no business doing it alone... so design a house where you can do most of it yourself, and that would be one story for the most part.

If you are doing a two story house you gotta get scaffolding.. for extra safety!! it is imperative! Don't worry, scaffolding sells well used after you are done. We got ours on Craigs list and some at an auction. At the auction, after we won the bid several people came up to us and tried to by it from us!

Most of our hired help was for 2 to 4 day stints... except for an old friend of DH from college days. DH designed his house. He comes to Idaho from oregon to help about 3 weeks each summer. He does ok. Will only take $8 an hour. He's a laid off nanotechnologist. Most of his time here is party time. DH only works 5 or 6 hours a day.

Now if your DH wont ask for help I suggest that you start lifting the bar bells right now to get in shape...

I have been about worthless to this project due to my general physical weakness and inability to tolerate the sun. DH always waits to the hottest part of the day to work...go figure. I did help him lay lines in the concrete foundation for the sunroom for hot water heat that wil be solar. Getting him to go out there before high noon was about impossible. Im good for many hours if it is not hot, with heat Im good for about 30minutes... there are a few things I have done to help but pretty limited....to me building is a guys thing....give me tractor work any day

 

[Up-the-Creek]

My DH and I built our own house from foundation up and neither of us had any previous experience. We did have a good friend who works in the construction industry help. He made sure we were all square and plumb and made sure we knew how this went and that. Without him we would of had no clue. It took us only 6 months to build it and move in. It is not a big house, it is less than a 1,000 sq. ft, but I will tell you nothing is more better as the satisfaction of being in your own home that you built with your own two hands. In our part of the country there is very little codes or permits to have to uphold to or have, but that is something you have to make sure you have right. We were only required a building permit, and a inspection from a certified electrician. Sometimes its good to be in the middle of nowhere.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Cob is pretty good for DIY. You might check into that. Lots of people call it a post and beam home to get the permit, since some areas are more lenient that way.

 

[2dream]

My DH built the house we are now living in. Built before we married. He had no construction experience beyond minor repair work. Took him 2 years and lots of friend help. Nothing is as plumb and square as it should be but you really have to live here daily to know that. A friend of his was an electrician by trade and did the wiring. Another friend of his was suppose to be a plumber by trade but I question that. I figure if he plumb all his paying jobs the same way he plumbed this house its no wonder he lost everything he owned and died a very broke man.

Non perfect walls you can live with. Plumbing problems you don't want to have to live with, so make sure that is done RIGHT.

 

[Marshmallow Man]

Home Depot sells a real good book on framing where they cover all the basics and the different scenarios. Make sure he uses a good book. Even something as simple as framing a door or window can be done 5 different ways by 5 different people and of course there is only one method that produces the strongest frame. He can also go to a construction site after hours and walk around and look at the way things are built. I did that when we had a new house built. I went at least every 3 days to be sure they weren't taking any bad shortcuts. Picked up quite a few ideas by doing it. Always room for more ideas in my unused brain.

 

[curly_kate]

Thanks!! I guess he's not as nuts as I thought.

 

[Strutter]

http://zinedistro.org/zines/163/firewood-1/by/sine-firewood