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I've built a house, in the sense that I was working as the general contractor and hiring out crews and tradespeople to do the actual work. My involvement differ
by koliber 8y ago
I've built a house, in the sense that I was working as the general contractor and hiring out crews and tradespeople to do the actual work. My involvement differed anywhere between hire-a-crew and pay them when they are done down to doing certain things myself 100%.
A few takeaways:
- Things seem simple from the outside, before you do them for the first time. They are in actuality quite complicated. Even something as straightforward as painting a wall will be hard when you are doing it for the first time. You will make mistakes if you do it yourself. Try to do it yourself only in areas where you can tolerate such mistakes.
- The more project management experience you have, the better off you will be.
- Keep things simple. If you are trying to do things non-traditionally, you are not only attempting a non-trivial task for the first time, but will also have limited or no resources to lean on when questions or problems arise. Walk first, then run. If this is your first house AND you are trying to build it autonomously, you are trying to do two things you have little experience with. Consider building your first house using traditional methods. Try to automate it when you build your 5th house.
- Why a concrete house? How will you insulate it? Do you have enough funds to do it this way?
- Learn as much as you can before you even buy a plot of land. Read about foundations, building materials, roofing, windows, exterior doors, interior doors, wood flooring, tile flooring, concrete flooring, flooring in general, wall tiles, plaster, drywall, painting, insulation, plumbing, electrical work, stairs, waterproofing basements, ground settlement, building codes, gas installation, pest-proofing, garden planning, driveways, carpentry, weatherproofing, heating, cooling, ventilation, sewers, patios, exterior finishing, fences, gates, garage doors, how heavy a truck full of cement is and whether they can access your property on the type of road that is present, liability insurance, permits, weather forecasts and what things can be done in what type of weather, dumpsters & garbage disposal, portapotties, area maps to see what is planning in your neighborhood, earthquake considerations, flooding considerations, wind and snow loads, glass & mirror installations, safes, interior and exterior lighting, and particularities of hiring crews.
- openfuture 8y agoCould you recommend resources for the topics you mention as good to learn?
- koliber 8y agoI moved to Poland and built a house there. I can recommend some Polish-language resources here. Where are you planning on building the house?
- openfuture 8y agoAh, I'm not the op but I'd like to build a house some day, as of now Africa feels like a likely suspect.
- tucaz 8y agoIf you look for the desired task on YouTube you will find a LOT of REALLY USEFUL resources ranging from 2 [1] minutes video to 30-minutes [2] long video with all necessary details. In addition to the parent's advice, I would say for you to prototype/test the technique/task you are trying to accomplish before doing it in the actual part. You will screw it up even the simpler tasks so make sure you screw up something that you don't care about before trying it in "production". [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McH3Cha7dnk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McH3Cha7dnk - 1 minute video on priming a wall [2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETRU3AxYq0w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETRU3AxYq0w - 15 minute video on the same topic
- jm_l 8y agoMy landlord's son-in-law was telling me about his adventures building a house. He seems very capable and takes on a general philosophy of "this is actually not that hard" which makes everything seem more accessible. He's been blogging about it at http://www.savingsustainably.com http://www.savingsustainably.com and you can see the whole process up until now (house is still under construction, I believe).
- openfuture 8y agoThanks that's really useful!
- minhazm423 8y agoWas this for your own house? Or for someone elses? If the latter, how did you get into that business?
- libria 8y agoDid you spout that last paragraph off the top of your head? That is a staggering bullet list that I suspect has several layers of unwritten sub-bullets. I have a whole new respect for home builders.
- trhway 8y agoif we knew or cared about anything like that almost 3 decades ago when we were building houses in Siberia as summer student jobs i don't think we'd have been able to build anything :) (just out of curiosity checked couple years ago using satellite photos - the houses are still there :) Though right now i'm very happy knowing that my townhouse meets all the CA tough building codes :)
- johnchristopher 8y agoI am curious. Which points of that list didn't you consider in any way and at anytime - except for specific features of the land that would force you to take into account the possibility of earthquakes or flood - while building the house ?
- semi-extrinsic 8y agoIt's really crazy how much there is that you don't think about up front if you've never built a house. My first build (this summer) was a playhouse for the kids, 8 square meters single story. I built it mostly like you would a real house, omitting a few details (like insulation between inner and outer walls, since it's not heated anyway). I ended up with a budget overrun of 40% and spent close to twice the number of hours I estimated up front. It turned out really nice though. If you're thinking about building a house, I would definitely recommend doing a playhouse or a shed first.
- mauvehaus 8y agoI just finished pressure-washing and painting a deck for some friends. Simple, right? I estimated 20 hours, with another 4-8 of uncertainty. The job took 43 hours. So >100% overrun on my best-case estimate, >50% over my worst-case. If you don't have experience, it isn't just estimating the time that's hard, it's hard to estimate the uncertainty too. And I'd done a couple of decks before, just never any with as much railing or a second story. I nth everybody else's suggestion to take on a couple simpler projects first. If you've never painted, paint something non-trivial. Then build a playhouse.
- karl11 8y ago+1 to everything here, and want to emphasize permitting/zoning since it's buried in the bullet list. For example, even if you have the knowledge and skill to do your own plumbing, in most places you cannot just do your own plumbing (legally). I am building a house for the first time (hired a GC, but making the infinite number of decisions involved and writing the checks) - I went in knowing it would be more work and more expensive than I was planning, and it was even more work and even more expensive than that still.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- megamindbrian2 8y agoNice list, this seems like one of those GitHub projects with a bunch of resources linked in the readme.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ghaff 8y ago>Even something as straightforward as painting a wall will be hard when you are doing it for the first time. Painting is one of the things I do myself, in part because it's something I do often enough that I more or less know the various gotchas, techniques, etc. It's also the case that, when redoing areas that were already painted which is most of what I do these days, I can take some very timesaving shortcuts that someone I hire can't. I can repaint a ceiling without bothering with meticulously masking all the edges and corners. If I don't repaint 100% of the area it probably doesn't matter unless things are in really bad shape.
- mauvehaus 8y agoI've never hired anybody to do interior paint, so I'm wondering: do pros ever actually tape a ceiling border? I've always just cut in by hand. I've found that it's usually high enough that any minor imperfections aren't noticeable. The last time I did a wall or ceiling, the crown molding had been painted so many times, it would have been nigh impossible to tape it and get a satisfactory result. But I've been living in old places. Are you in a newer place with fewer uneven spots to tape around?
- ghaff 8y ago>Are you in a newer place with fewer uneven spots to tape around? Hah. 200 years old. I've used masking tape when I've been making changes in color or it's been around new cabinetry, windows, etc. As I say, when I'm touching up, I'm usually pretty sloppy. No crown moulding.
- Blackthorn 8y ago> do pros ever actually tape a ceiling border? Nope. They either use something that looks like a trowel, or freehand it.
- ams6110 8y agoI've never seen a pro use tape, unless they are spray painting. My guess is that it takes to long when you're probably being paid by the job not the hour.
- ars 8y ago> Why a concrete house? How will you insulate it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulating_concrete_form https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulating_concrete_form > Do you have enough funds to do it this way? For basements they are cheaper than traditional ways, for above ground they cost more initially, but are cheaper longterm.
- emodendroket 8y agoI'm thinking the point was to make the OP think about this question, not to given an answer to the comment.
- emodendroket 8y ago> - Things seem simple from the outside, before you do them for the first time. They are in actuality quite complicated. Even something as straightforward as painting a wall will be hard when you are doing it for the first time. You will make mistakes if you do it yourself. Try to do it yourself only in areas where you can tolerate such mistakes. I'm not a home-builder but I am a home-owner. Let me add that any work you do yourself the flaws will be about 10 times as noticeable and annoying to you as if you'd hired someone to do the work and it had the exact same flaws.
- jerrre 8y agoI think that depends on personality maybe? I'd rather live with sloppy work I'm proud I did myself than to think I hired somebody and they delivered a bad job.
- dwild 8y agoI think his point was that you don't look as closely to the works others people do than the works that you do. Sure if you know there's flaws on both and they are identical, I agree with you, I would rather it be from myself, but I would most probably not takes as much attention at the works others people do than on mine.
- twothamendment 8y agoRight, once you do a job you never look at it the same. By hiring it out you never know the details. The same quality of work might look better to you if you didn't do it, but it may be more satisfying if you do.
- OJFord 8y agoI think that's a property of having experience doing something, rather than of having done that particular instance of it. For example: I re-did some grouting in my bathroom, and only after that started to notice the imperfections in other areas not by me. Bits of tile I'd seen everyday for a years, that only after I had experience grouting I realised had grout smeared over them and let to dry.
- monksy 8y agoAre we talking about software engineering or building? I've lost track.
- monksy 8y agoAlso don't forget considering permifrost and pumbling regulations. In the north that's an issue and we tend to burry pipes deeper.
- tjdalaska 8y agoIf you have permafrost, there are many, many other issues to deal with. (I live in/near permafrost). I think what you are referring to is that in most areas, you are required to extend the foundations below frost depth.
- lscharen 8y agoRight. And even “small” things like deck footings need to use sonotubes or similar to get below the frost line. Otherwise one or two years of frost heaving will ruin that new deck.
- agumonkey 8y agoA lot of stuff is blind hard the first time. Practical physics / material science is subtle. But if you're quant inclinde, you will get up to par fast.
- dionidium 8y agoI'm thinking about dipping my toes into this world by building a shed. As David Lynch said: "Whenever you can build a shed, you've got it made" "I'm a shed builder. If I was just left alone, I would build sheds. I would plan them at Bob's Big Boy Coffee Shop, and I would become very excited with these coffees and a chocolate shake. So, when I left Bob's, I would be racing home with plans for certain parts of a shed, right? Then, I would find the right kind of wood and I would start cutting them up with my power saw, nailing it, fitting it and working it. And I would be almost in heaven with happiness" http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/quotecollection/sheds.html http://www.thecityofabsurdity.com/quotecollection/sheds.html
- damon_c 8y agoI built a shed. https://imgur.com/a/MHm6gpc https://imgur.com/a/MHm6gpc It was fun! Like a "hello world" for human habitats.
- dionidium 8y agoVery cool!
- wilsmex 8y agoI just finished building a shed and put my build on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaN1hnR7pSk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaN1hnR7pSk
- bencompanion 8y agoI'm building a kids playhouse at the moment and I feel the exact same way. I'm in here working at the computer just enough that I can bail to the backyard for the day and cut timber.
- n2dasun 8y agoWell stated. I did the same but self performed a large portion. Have someone who knows what they’re doing work with you to help you get started
- chuckcode 8y ago+1 to this post by koliber. Only thing I would add is to plan as detailed as you can everything beforehand. Draw it up, visualize it. What sort of hinges on doors, how will the cabinets swing, etc. etc. Before you even start building a wall you have to decide how wide you want the trim around the doorway as you'll want the light switch just that far from the door and you'll want a 2x4 there with electrical. So there are a lot of cascading intertwined non-obvious decisions and it is remarkably expensive to refactor a house partway through construction.
- koliber 8y agoAbsolutely. First, try to understand a process. Draw it. Imagine going through the process of building it. Draw it again. Look at your friend's house to see how it is different. Try to imagine how that one was built. I have an interesting tale of how the patio door installer almost caused my kitchen countertops to be installed 2 inches lower. The story is a bit convoluted because many things are tied together in the house. You have levels for your foundations, sills, door bottoms, door tops, window tops, subfloors, and floors. Different layers have different widths. Wood flooring ends up being a certain width, and tile flooring another. If you want things to be flush when you're done, you need to plan everything meticulously, backwards, across months of time and different crews. Moral of the story: pay attention to the levels of everything, across the house, all the time, in one place. Double-check this and verify all the time.
- tcbawo 8y agoAre the software tools used to build a buildprint smart enough to take into account the local code, comfortable spacing/clearances, etc.? Is there a blueprint equivalent of lint?
- chuckcode 8y agoAlmost certainly not for local code. My experience is that building codes make the IRS tax codes look clear and concise. Often multiple conflicting rules apply and you're trying to hammer out some reasonable common sense with 2-3 different people in planning office one of which is almost certain to go on vacation while you're in permitting process. You'd be luck to get city plan reviewer, architect and contractor all in the same room for an extended discussion. There are architectural programs that will render a 3d space to help with visualizations. Or any 3d drawing program like autocad can help as well. Generally the linting is done manually when you ask for bids on your plans from contractors. If your plans are really poor they won't bid or they will come back with suggestions or prices that incentivize you to rethink things.
- koliber 8y agoAlso, for the first time in a really long time, I actually had to use the pythagorean theorem! So brush up on trig as well :)
- bachbach 8y agoFor near mythological geek cred you should use a Babylonian water level :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_level_%28device%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_level_%28device%29