17 ms·

I would wait. I'm an licensed inactive General Contractor. If 14 months ago, they were building them for $450,000, I'd wait. I'd shop around for another cont

I would wait. I'm an licensed inactive General Contractor. If 14 months ago, they were building them for $450,000, I'd wait. I'd shop around for another contractor too. A young guy starting out, might save you a lot. (There's no way to verify he knows what he's doing though.) If you are some what handy, it's not that difficult to owner build your own house. That is if you get the blueprints past the town's council. Getting approvals is the tough part. If you get all the town, county, approvals, and have a very buildable lot (flat, no flooding, etc.). Once the foundation is poured, it step by step, and done. (If you decide to build yourself, don't make any changes. Don't build a custom house either. A simple home will make the process go smoothly. Realize too, the General Contractor just hires licensed subs, and takes a healthy cut off your nut. Then again--if you have never done construction yourself, disregard everything I said. I just pictured a typical computer developer in a wet lot, with an unhappy wife. Muttering to Google translate to communicate with the unlicensed, unbonded, subcontractor.)

throwaway984393 5y ago
I'm picturing a web developer in 2023 wondering why everything is slightly tilted in his DIY house even though he used the poured slab as reference
- donjoe 5y ago
  Well, u can always transform: rotate(X°) in the end ;-)
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    "You asked about that stick by the side of the house? Yes, it applies a style to the house, keeping it straight. No, don't pull it out! Consequences will be... cascading!" (I'll see myself out)
  - klondike_klive 5y ago
    And Ctrl-Z if you don't like the results.
- spiderfarmer 5y ago
  I was a web developer in 2019 building my own office and it never collapsed even once.
  - headmelted 5y ago
    If you were a web developer in 2019 building your own office that never collapsed I have to assume that's only up until the last thing you can remember. May you rest in peace.
    - hutzlibu 5y ago
      2 years uptime without major technology change, is quite amazing in the modern fast paced web dev world ..
      - TeMPOraL 5y ago
        They said they were building it. Not that they completed it. I'm guessing they just left the industry to do something less mentally damaging than web development - perhaps started a spider farm or something.
- beowulfey 5y ago
  I don’t have extensive DIY experience and this joke is sadly lost on me. Why does the slab not work as a reference?
  - bluGill 5y ago
    Because slabs are never level or flat. The framers always start with a level and cut to fit that first wall. Block is generally level, but if they pour it, they don't get very close
edrxty 5y ago
Assuming you are very mechanically inclined but not particularly well versed to traditional construction, what does one do to learn more about this process?
- stadium 5y ago
  I found this book to be extremely insightful on the process and pitfalls. Communication in writing and being specific about grading specs for various finishes was one of my big takeaways. There's a lot more to it though. Having an architect act as an independent PM may be a good idea too if you forgoe a GC. That said, I didn't follow through yet and haven't built anything myself. Even if you do use a GC it's still a great read. https://www.buildwise.org/review-what-your-contractor-cant-tell-you/ https://www.buildwise.org/review-what-your-contractor-cant-t... Edit: I did get as far as talking to my go-to mortgage banker about construction financing, and learned that self-GC'd projects are pretty much not finance-able through traditional paths. Many of these projects end up unfinished, with the GC-owner running out of money. And with no certificate of occupancy they can't be easily sold or refinanced.
  - lbriner 5y ago
    Having an architect can be helpful but it can also be significantly more expensive and if there is a problem, then you are likely to be pulled into the argument anyway. Definitely communication, good diagrams, developing a good rappour with the contractor and not being overly tight or strict with them otherwise you can build resentment. For example, don't withhold all of their expected money because of a single piece of dodgy drywall, give them most or all of the money and make sure they make-good first thing next week.
- throwaway984393 5y ago
  Spend 3 months watching YouTube, you'll probably learn more tips than many contractors know. Then 3 months practicing small mock-ups - building forms, frames, stairs, windows, roofs, installing insulation, vapor barriers, sheeting, drywall. A fancy shed isn't a bad place to start. Plan on hiring a plumber, electrician, and HVAC specialist. Probably another 3-6 months to figure out all the paperwork.
octopoc 5y ago
If I may ask, what are your thoughts on BuildZoom? If I go through them can I be more certain about quality work? I have heard many horror stories of people who had houses built and the builders made terrible mistakes. The person having the house built had to micromanage them and kept finding bad mistakes, like "forgetting" to put insulation in walls before the drywall, putting a window in the wrong spot, or putting crawlspace pillar supports in the wrong area. I feel like right now the most reliable way to make sure my house gets built right is live nearby and check on it every day. Is there a better way?
- satya71 5y ago
  Unconventional, a St Louis entrepreneur built a container house. Few things to go wrong there.
  - okuboheavy 5y ago
    Unfortunately a container house will always end up both more expensive and worse than a traditionally built house. Containers are fantastic as containers but terrible for making a house with. As soon as you start cutting holes in them they lose a great deal of their structural strength which is their main advantage. Terrible to insulate and for condensation as well. The exception is if you’re happy with a single container with no additional holes and only the doors for access and windows and you live in a very low humidity environment.
    - Hendrikto 5y ago
      Could you elaborate on the high prices? I have a friend who plans on building a container house, and who is convinced that it will be much cheaper than a traditional house. Note that we live in Europe, where homes are build from stone and concrete, not wood and cardboard.
      - pasabagi 5y ago
        It depends, actually. Container prices are very volatile. If you're in the middle of a crash, a container house can be cheap. GP was correct however in pointing out they aren't particularly good for building houses that are actually nice to live in. EDIT: There's a caveat here. Because containers are trivially transportable, you have lots of options when it comes to assembling off-site that could be kind of nice. For instance, if you were a carpenter with a nice workshop, and wanted to fit out your house in your shop instead of in a muddy building site, it's kind of cool that you can do all the fitting, then put the parts on a truck. This would also be cheaper. If I was self-building, this would be a big consideration for me, because it's not actually very nice working in a building site, and it's not particularly efficient either.
dboreham 5y ago
Developer who owns an excavator, track skid steer, dump trailer here. Probably a wet lot...
- d0gsg0w00f 5y ago
  Check out Andrew Camarata on youtube. My favorite youtube channel. He's a guy who worked for USPS and wanted to build a metal building on an undeveloped lot so he bought a backhoe, then an excavator, then a dumptruck, then a crane, etc. He buys all his equipment used and maintains it all himself. He quit USPS a long time ago and does work for hire with his equipment now that he has it all.
  - dboreham 5y ago
    Andrew is where I learned that a regular joe could just buy heavy equipment and do the small excavation jobs contractors wouldn't touch. Sometimes he omits safety measures to the point that it's hard to watch (check out the recent bar sickle mower episode). So it's worthwhile reading the comments to find out what not to do also.
    - bluGill 5y ago
      Before buying look at renting. There are pros and cons to renting, but most people won't use that enough to make buying cheaper, and renting means it is maintained for you.
      - dboreham 5y ago
        True but renting doesn't work for me because: 1. My lifestyle is such that I only get an hour or two here and there to progress my projects. It takes probably 2h to go fetch a machine and unload it, so zero work would get done. 2. Around here rental machine availability is very inconsistent: it's quite likely that whatever machine you want is not available when you need it. 3. I've found that it's beneficial to have various attachments and accessories that most rental places don't carry such as a ditching bucket, pallet forks, brush mower. 4. I need to do snow removal in winter and although not necessary, heavy equipment comes in handy for that. 5. Other random things that arise when you own property: lift a fallen tree off your vehicle; unload palletized deliveries from semi truck, etc. 6. Typically the value of machines doesn't drop much, so if you have the cash available, buying machines with the expectation of selling them some time in the future means overall low TCO. That said, I'd rent when I need a machine I would only use for one job.
kebman 5y ago
Why does the USA, The Land of the Free and The Land of Opportunity, have so much bureaucracy? Look, I know fire codes are important, and you don't want a building to crumble in around you, but... Seems the building codes in the US are unnecessarily strict. Is it power hungry bureaucrats or exploitation from contractors that has lead to it? And how can the people be given more liberty to build the way they want?
- Aloha 5y ago
  Notice how that building collapse in Florida is a vanishingly rare event? That's part of why. Also some rent seeking in there. We used to have weak building codes, more buildings fell down.
  - kebman 5y ago
    I get the need to safeguard condominiums and high-rises, but what is that to single or duplex home owners?
    - mellavora 5y ago
      There is some really interesting history here. When we started moving into the prairies after the civil war, we also invented the modern timber-frame house which was shipped via railroads. We soon learned that a simple timber frame with paneling on both sides meant the whole house was a collection of chimneys, which meant any fire would very quickly overwhelm the entire house. So we came up with some building codes which said that the timber frame needed more side-trusses to act as firebreaks. Note that this applies mostly to single and duplex home owners.
    - oivey 5y ago
      Single family homeowners still don’t want to live in collapsing fire traps with railing short enough that their toddler can climb over. The building codes are also different for different building types. Not all hazards in a building will be obviously apparent to a layman.
dougmwne 5y ago
My stepdad was a software engineer and built our house growing up. The house was fabulous. The construction took 15 years of hard labor as a full time second job
- trey-jones 5y ago
  I started in 2008, we moved in in 2016, and there's a lot of work left to do. I admit that it's not a full time second job though. Once we moved in it turned into mostly weekends.
dougmwne 5y ago
My stepdad was a software engineer and built our house growing up. The house was fabulous. The construction took 15 years of hard labor as a full time second job.
pjc50 5y ago
> I just pictured a typical computer developer in a wet lot, with an unhappy wife. Have you heard of the TV programme Grand Designs? It's just this over and over again. Sometimes the wife is pregnant, sometimes they're living in a caravan on site. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs They're not trying to build anything as simple as a house, either, the "grand" part implies some mad architectural vision that will become unliveable within months while also looking completely horrendous in its rural setting.
- joeberon 5y ago
  It's excellent pain-viewing
  - rgallagher27 5y ago
    Excellent drinking-game tv! Take a shot every time Kevin says "bespoke"
    - andysomniac 5y ago
      There was an unofficial drinking game on the internet, Kevin found out about it and deliberately made one episode to ensure all the rules got hit as frequently as possible.
      - frosted-flakes 5y ago
        I need to know more about this.
  - mxmilkiib 5y ago
    https://twitter.com/ukgranddesigns https://twitter.com/ukgranddesigns no context grand designs
    - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
      Also, now apparently releasing direct to YT ... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGa4o2Dc9JhC4xTKa3OKVfA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGa4o2Dc9JhC4xTKa3OKVfA
karolist 5y ago
I know a person who built his aerated concrete house working a day job over 3 years, he did 98% of the tasks himself and probably 95% of those alone whilst maintaining a full-time day job. He has a non-english blog with many pictures and process documentation and was a huge inspiration to me whilst I DIY'd my new 2 bdr apartment from this https://imgur.com/a/UXfmx0Y https://imgur.com/a/UXfmx0Y to this https://imgur.com/a/vGntuhJ https://imgur.com/a/vGntuhJ in the span of 6 months and a day job doing everything myself (all the furniture, electricity, kitchen installation, etc etc). I have many pictures but never bothered to post them up. When you do things yourself you can take your time and do things like this https://imgur.com/a/8cd1iHO https://imgur.com/a/8cd1iHO with the tiles, everyone said it's impossible to do this connection with a laminated floor but I figured it out and it's holding great (took me 4 evenings to make the cuts, pour out epoxy basin to "catch" the heights etc). I guess my point is, if you're interested in DIY it's ... doable, YouTube can be a great help depending on your region. I'm an ISTP in the Myer-Briggs scale and don't get bored digging into little details as I assume many people on this site. 3 years in no failures in anything I've did, people who hired regularly posted cracked corners, even ceilings in the local facebook group.
- dubberx 5y ago
  Would you consider sharing an url to the blog you mentioned? Planning to DIY myself a tinyhouse so I’d love to read a blog like that. (Contact info in my profile if you don’t want to post it publicly)
  - karolist 5y ago
    irnamas.blogspot.com, should be readable with a translator to English, I suggest reading it like a book, from the first posts!
  - orthoxerox 5y ago
    Masonry is usually harder than framing, especially when you live in the US where framing is overwhelmingly more popular. You can get pre-cut studs for your preferred ceiling height; OSB, housewrap, insulation, windows all match standard frame dimensions; roof trusses are common and affordable; renting a nailer and a miter saw is easy. I don't know if it's the same guy, but I watched videos of a guy laying aerated concrete blocks himself and it's much more work: you need a good supplier of blocks with good dimenions, you still have to rasp down and sand down the tops of each row so they form a perfectly horizontal plane for the next row or the glue won't catch, door and window gaps are tricky and upper floors are even trickier if you want to use aerated concrete for the floor/ceiling.
ryanackley 5y ago
The biggest problem with being an owner builder is you don't have an ongoing relationship with sub-contractors. Which means that for any subs you hire, you will be their lowest priority and their smallest concern. Also, you don't really know what you're doing so you will think they made a mistake when they didn't and you won't always recognize real mistakes. I did this for my new house that was being built before, during, and after the peak of the pandemic. I wouldn't do it again. We're moved in now and we find small mistakes all the time that an experienced contractor would have easily spotted during construction. It makes me wonder what we can't see. Oh and it's impossible to get the subs back out to fix the problems because they have all their money at this point.
- j2bax 5y ago
  My friend had a house built by a company and he had many issues left over even after getting all the issues he noticed taken care of. I just had a full house remodel done by a good friend who is a contractor and am noticing things that aren’t perfect. I guess I’m just wanting to point out that my experience is that getting perfection is hard no matter which route you take.
  - mohaine 5y ago
    This. Contractors _mostly_ only care about things that will require rework. Anything that is cheaper to hide and will not be a problem for years if ever will just be hidden.
- wycy 5y ago
  Properly waterproofing the shower is a major one that can be easily overlooked and won't typically manifest in a major way until years down the road. Hope your contractors used appropriate waterproof Kerdi board or cement board + roll-on membrane.
  - sizzle 5y ago
    Absolutely, make sure they put that red stuff over the cement board if you go that route to seal it up and prevent mold growth.
magicalhippo 5y ago
> Realize too, the General Contractor just hires licensed subs, and takes a healthy cut off your nut. Some close relatives bought a plot in a newly developed area, and tried to find a contractor to build their home. After listening to others in the area, it was pretty clear there was a couple of good, reputable ones and one avoid-at-all-costs. So they went with one of the reputable ones. The guy decides at some point to have a look and see how it's going, and finds a somewhat confused-looking 17 year old trying to pour the basement floor/deck on his own. Guy asks wtf he's doing there. Turns out he's the son of the guy running the avoid-at-all-costs contractor, and this was the first time the kid had done this kind of thing. His dad had told him to go and fix this, so being an obedient son he gave it his best... Of course the reputable company had hired the avoid-at-all-costs company to do the job since they were too busy for some reason...
- datavirtue 5y ago
  LMAO!!! This is a perfect example. Not surprised, in fact this is what I would expect to happen. People have no idea how difficult it is to become a good builder and make money. It rarely happens. Stick to buying spec houses. They will always be better than a custom home because people get to examine the house before they agree to buy it. Whole world changes when you are under contract for a build/remodel.
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    We bought a spec house, but it was just getting underway when we signed the contract. I like that option, it worked out well for us. Got to pick all the finishes. Made some minor changes along the way to the plans, changed the appliance choices to fit my preferences, etc. So I got the upsides of a spec build, but I also got to make sure they put in a properly large kitchen island, double ovens, and other improvements that usually get left out of a pure-spec build. I also got to visit the site every day and take pictures, which is really nice to have. Especially the day before they did drywall, I went nuts with pictures and now I can tell you exactly what the inside of every single wall looks like, what the electrical looks like, the plumbing, conduit, smurf tubes, etc. Also, if you are nice and polite, you can talk directly to the subcontractors in some cases and get even more customization at a great price. E.g. the electrical guy offered to run cat5 throughout the house for a few hundred bucks. He couldn't terminate it, because he's not licensed for low voltage, but he could run the wire itself and leave it coiled up in a single gang box in every room. The builder didn't think to offer that, but having a chat with the electrician when he was on site gave us that option.
titzer 5y ago
> If you are some what handy, it's not that difficult to owner build your own house. I'm not sure what you have in mind here, but my brother did an "owner build" in the true sense of the word and sunk every nail into every piece of wood, every pipe, every wire, every window, floor, staircase, insulation, lighting, built all the cabinets, everything. That was 8 years of his life. Two of those years he literally quit his job and worked on it full time. Caution, it is easy to seriously underestimate how much work it is to build a house. It could stretch on for years. Not to mention the pain in the ass that is bad weather, the logistics of sourcing and moving all the materials, plans, permits, etc.
- Tyr42 5y ago
  I thought you were saying he sunk a nail into every pipe, and damn wouldn't that just suck.
  - hbn 5y ago
    It relieves pressure so your pipes never burst!
- PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  I think the parent comment was suggesting to hire subcontractors to do most or all of the work. But I agree: It’s easy to greatly underestimate the amount of work that goes into a house. Contractors will have entire crews, all of the equipment they need, and most importantly they have years of experience to know how to do something quickly and in a way that will pass inspection. A DIYer must first learn each step before doing it, which can take as much or more time than the task itself in many cases.
  - bitexploder 5y ago
    I watched a carpet guy come in and install carpet in our basement in a day and a half. It was a significant sq ft install >1000. Guy was a machine. He had help on a few things, but did it all fast and very expertly. Impressive to watch someone that really knows a physical craft. It would have taken us 3-5x as long if we did it ourselves.
m_myers 5y ago
Or build a house from a kit, as noted building expert Buster Keaton does in the short "One Week". What could possibly go wrong? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6ddOlbKp8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6ddOlbKp8
- NordSteve 5y ago
  You used to be able to mailorder houses from Sears (the Amazon of the 20th century). https://www.vintag.es/2019/02/sears-catalog-homes.html https://www.vintag.es/2019/02/sears-catalog-homes.html
anonuser123456 5y ago
>Don't build a custom house either. A simple home will make the process go smoothly. I don’t get why simplicity isn’t more of a thing. Complexity is just asking for extra maintenance and the very high likelihood of something being done wrong.
BurningFrog 5y ago
> That is if you get the blueprints past the town's council. Getting approvals is the tough part. This is what's wrong with America.
clairity 5y ago
> "If you are some what handy, it's not that difficult to owner build your own house." but without any experience (which is ~99% of us, even if handy), it is difficult to know how to build a house both efficiently (tools, techniques, sequencing, etc.) while meeting regulatory and bioenvironmental goals (airflow, water control, power, waste, etc.), because it's a whole glut of little things to know, most of which are not "hard" by themselves but overwhelming in totality. for the inexperienced, i'd heartily recommend volunteering for habitat for humanity (at least a half-day weekly, more the better) and asking lots of questions of the experienced workers there to learn those little things (esp. the locale-dependent stuff) while networking with them to boot.
darkarmani 5y ago
> Realize too, the General Contractor just hires licensed subs, and takes a healthy cut off your nut. Yeah, but the GC also has all of the good subs. The good subs all have work with GCs -- what normal people can pick up are the "left overs" (not every "left over" is terrible, but probability is high).

throwaway984393 5y ago

I'm picturing a web developer in 2023 wondering why everything is slightly tilted in his DIY house even though he used the poured slab as reference

donjoe 5y ago
Well, u can always transform: rotate(X°) in the end ;-)
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  "You asked about that stick by the side of the house? Yes, it applies a style to the house, keeping it straight. No, don't pull it out! Consequences will be... cascading!" (I'll see myself out)
- klondike_klive 5y ago
  And Ctrl-Z if you don't like the results.
spiderfarmer 5y ago
I was a web developer in 2019 building my own office and it never collapsed even once.
- headmelted 5y ago
  If you were a web developer in 2019 building your own office that never collapsed I have to assume that's only up until the last thing you can remember. May you rest in peace.
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    2 years uptime without major technology change, is quite amazing in the modern fast paced web dev world ..
    - TeMPOraL 5y ago
      They said they were building it. Not that they completed it. I'm guessing they just left the industry to do something less mentally damaging than web development - perhaps started a spider farm or something.
beowulfey 5y ago
I don’t have extensive DIY experience and this joke is sadly lost on me. Why does the slab not work as a reference?
- bluGill 5y ago
  Because slabs are never level or flat. The framers always start with a level and cut to fit that first wall. Block is generally level, but if they pour it, they don't get very close

edrxty 5y ago

Assuming you are very mechanically inclined but not particularly well versed to traditional construction, what does one do to learn more about this process?

stadium 5y ago
I found this book to be extremely insightful on the process and pitfalls. Communication in writing and being specific about grading specs for various finishes was one of my big takeaways. There's a lot more to it though. Having an architect act as an independent PM may be a good idea too if you forgoe a GC. That said, I didn't follow through yet and haven't built anything myself. Even if you do use a GC it's still a great read. https://www.buildwise.org/review-what-your-contractor-cant-tell-you/ https://www.buildwise.org/review-what-your-contractor-cant-t... Edit: I did get as far as talking to my go-to mortgage banker about construction financing, and learned that self-GC'd projects are pretty much not finance-able through traditional paths. Many of these projects end up unfinished, with the GC-owner running out of money. And with no certificate of occupancy they can't be easily sold or refinanced.
- lbriner 5y ago
  Having an architect can be helpful but it can also be significantly more expensive and if there is a problem, then you are likely to be pulled into the argument anyway. Definitely communication, good diagrams, developing a good rappour with the contractor and not being overly tight or strict with them otherwise you can build resentment. For example, don't withhold all of their expected money because of a single piece of dodgy drywall, give them most or all of the money and make sure they make-good first thing next week.
throwaway984393 5y ago
Spend 3 months watching YouTube, you'll probably learn more tips than many contractors know. Then 3 months practicing small mock-ups - building forms, frames, stairs, windows, roofs, installing insulation, vapor barriers, sheeting, drywall. A fancy shed isn't a bad place to start. Plan on hiring a plumber, electrician, and HVAC specialist. Probably another 3-6 months to figure out all the paperwork.

octopoc 5y ago

If I may ask, what are your thoughts on BuildZoom? If I go through them can I be more certain about quality work? I have heard many horror stories of people who had houses built and the builders made terrible mistakes. The person having the house built had to micromanage them and kept finding bad mistakes, like "forgetting" to put insulation in walls before the drywall, putting a window in the wrong spot, or putting crawlspace pillar supports in the wrong area. I feel like right now the most reliable way to make sure my house gets built right is live nearby and check on it every day. Is there a better way?

satya71 5y ago
Unconventional, a St Louis entrepreneur built a container house. Few things to go wrong there.
- okuboheavy 5y ago
  Unfortunately a container house will always end up both more expensive and worse than a traditionally built house. Containers are fantastic as containers but terrible for making a house with. As soon as you start cutting holes in them they lose a great deal of their structural strength which is their main advantage. Terrible to insulate and for condensation as well. The exception is if you’re happy with a single container with no additional holes and only the doors for access and windows and you live in a very low humidity environment.
  - Hendrikto 5y ago
    Could you elaborate on the high prices? I have a friend who plans on building a container house, and who is convinced that it will be much cheaper than a traditional house. Note that we live in Europe, where homes are build from stone and concrete, not wood and cardboard.
    - pasabagi 5y ago
      It depends, actually. Container prices are very volatile. If you're in the middle of a crash, a container house can be cheap. GP was correct however in pointing out they aren't particularly good for building houses that are actually nice to live in. EDIT: There's a caveat here. Because containers are trivially transportable, you have lots of options when it comes to assembling off-site that could be kind of nice. For instance, if you were a carpenter with a nice workshop, and wanted to fit out your house in your shop instead of in a muddy building site, it's kind of cool that you can do all the fitting, then put the parts on a truck. This would also be cheaper. If I was self-building, this would be a big consideration for me, because it's not actually very nice working in a building site, and it's not particularly efficient either.

dboreham 5y ago

Developer who owns an excavator, track skid steer, dump trailer here. Probably a wet lot...

d0gsg0w00f 5y ago
Check out Andrew Camarata on youtube. My favorite youtube channel. He's a guy who worked for USPS and wanted to build a metal building on an undeveloped lot so he bought a backhoe, then an excavator, then a dumptruck, then a crane, etc. He buys all his equipment used and maintains it all himself. He quit USPS a long time ago and does work for hire with his equipment now that he has it all.
- dboreham 5y ago
  Andrew is where I learned that a regular joe could just buy heavy equipment and do the small excavation jobs contractors wouldn't touch. Sometimes he omits safety measures to the point that it's hard to watch (check out the recent bar sickle mower episode). So it's worthwhile reading the comments to find out what not to do also.
  - bluGill 5y ago
    Before buying look at renting. There are pros and cons to renting, but most people won't use that enough to make buying cheaper, and renting means it is maintained for you.
    - dboreham 5y ago
      True but renting doesn't work for me because: 1. My lifestyle is such that I only get an hour or two here and there to progress my projects. It takes probably 2h to go fetch a machine and unload it, so zero work would get done. 2. Around here rental machine availability is very inconsistent: it's quite likely that whatever machine you want is not available when you need it. 3. I've found that it's beneficial to have various attachments and accessories that most rental places don't carry such as a ditching bucket, pallet forks, brush mower. 4. I need to do snow removal in winter and although not necessary, heavy equipment comes in handy for that. 5. Other random things that arise when you own property: lift a fallen tree off your vehicle; unload palletized deliveries from semi truck, etc. 6. Typically the value of machines doesn't drop much, so if you have the cash available, buying machines with the expectation of selling them some time in the future means overall low TCO. That said, I'd rent when I need a machine I would only use for one job.

kebman 5y ago

Why does the USA, The Land of the Free and The Land of Opportunity, have so much bureaucracy? Look, I know fire codes are important, and you don't want a building to crumble in around you, but... Seems the building codes in the US are unnecessarily strict. Is it power hungry bureaucrats or exploitation from contractors that has lead to it? And how can the people be given more liberty to build the way they want?

Aloha 5y ago
Notice how that building collapse in Florida is a vanishingly rare event? That's part of why. Also some rent seeking in there. We used to have weak building codes, more buildings fell down.
- kebman 5y ago
  I get the need to safeguard condominiums and high-rises, but what is that to single or duplex home owners?
  - mellavora 5y ago
    There is some really interesting history here. When we started moving into the prairies after the civil war, we also invented the modern timber-frame house which was shipped via railroads. We soon learned that a simple timber frame with paneling on both sides meant the whole house was a collection of chimneys, which meant any fire would very quickly overwhelm the entire house. So we came up with some building codes which said that the timber frame needed more side-trusses to act as firebreaks. Note that this applies mostly to single and duplex home owners.
  - oivey 5y ago
    Single family homeowners still don’t want to live in collapsing fire traps with railing short enough that their toddler can climb over. The building codes are also different for different building types. Not all hazards in a building will be obviously apparent to a layman.

dougmwne 5y ago

My stepdad was a software engineer and built our house growing up. The house was fabulous. The construction took 15 years of hard labor as a full time second job

trey-jones 5y ago
I started in 2008, we moved in in 2016, and there's a lot of work left to do. I admit that it's not a full time second job though. Once we moved in it turned into mostly weekends.

dougmwne 5y ago

My stepdad was a software engineer and built our house growing up. The house was fabulous. The construction took 15 years of hard labor as a full time second job.

pjc50 5y ago

> I just pictured a typical computer developer in a wet lot, with an unhappy wife. Have you heard of the TV programme Grand Designs? It's just this over and over again. Sometimes the wife is pregnant, sometimes they're living in a caravan on site. https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs They're not trying to build anything as simple as a house, either, the "grand" part implies some mad architectural vision that will become unliveable within months while also looking completely horrendous in its rural setting.

joeberon 5y ago
It's excellent pain-viewing
- rgallagher27 5y ago
  Excellent drinking-game tv! Take a shot every time Kevin says "bespoke"
  - andysomniac 5y ago
    There was an unofficial drinking game on the internet, Kevin found out about it and deliberately made one episode to ensure all the rules got hit as frequently as possible.
    - frosted-flakes 5y ago
      I need to know more about this.
- mxmilkiib 5y ago
  https://twitter.com/ukgranddesigns https://twitter.com/ukgranddesigns no context grand designs
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    Also, now apparently releasing direct to YT ... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGa4o2Dc9JhC4xTKa3OKVfA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGa4o2Dc9JhC4xTKa3OKVfA

karolist 5y ago

I know a person who built his aerated concrete house working a day job over 3 years, he did 98% of the tasks himself and probably 95% of those alone whilst maintaining a full-time day job. He has a non-english blog with many pictures and process documentation and was a huge inspiration to me whilst I DIY'd my new 2 bdr apartment from this https://imgur.com/a/UXfmx0Y https://imgur.com/a/UXfmx0Y to this https://imgur.com/a/vGntuhJ https://imgur.com/a/vGntuhJ in the span of 6 months and a day job doing everything myself (all the furniture, electricity, kitchen installation, etc etc). I have many pictures but never bothered to post them up. When you do things yourself you can take your time and do things like this https://imgur.com/a/8cd1iHO https://imgur.com/a/8cd1iHO with the tiles, everyone said it's impossible to do this connection with a laminated floor but I figured it out and it's holding great (took me 4 evenings to make the cuts, pour out epoxy basin to "catch" the heights etc). I guess my point is, if you're interested in DIY it's ... doable, YouTube can be a great help depending on your region. I'm an ISTP in the Myer-Briggs scale and don't get bored digging into little details as I assume many people on this site. 3 years in no failures in anything I've did, people who hired regularly posted cracked corners, even ceilings in the local facebook group.

dubberx 5y ago
Would you consider sharing an url to the blog you mentioned? Planning to DIY myself a tinyhouse so I’d love to read a blog like that. (Contact info in my profile if you don’t want to post it publicly)
- karolist 5y ago
  irnamas.blogspot.com, should be readable with a translator to English, I suggest reading it like a book, from the first posts!
- orthoxerox 5y ago
  Masonry is usually harder than framing, especially when you live in the US where framing is overwhelmingly more popular. You can get pre-cut studs for your preferred ceiling height; OSB, housewrap, insulation, windows all match standard frame dimensions; roof trusses are common and affordable; renting a nailer and a miter saw is easy. I don't know if it's the same guy, but I watched videos of a guy laying aerated concrete blocks himself and it's much more work: you need a good supplier of blocks with good dimenions, you still have to rasp down and sand down the tops of each row so they form a perfectly horizontal plane for the next row or the glue won't catch, door and window gaps are tricky and upper floors are even trickier if you want to use aerated concrete for the floor/ceiling.

ryanackley 5y ago

The biggest problem with being an owner builder is you don't have an ongoing relationship with sub-contractors. Which means that for any subs you hire, you will be their lowest priority and their smallest concern. Also, you don't really know what you're doing so you will think they made a mistake when they didn't and you won't always recognize real mistakes. I did this for my new house that was being built before, during, and after the peak of the pandemic. I wouldn't do it again. We're moved in now and we find small mistakes all the time that an experienced contractor would have easily spotted during construction. It makes me wonder what we can't see. Oh and it's impossible to get the subs back out to fix the problems because they have all their money at this point.

j2bax 5y ago
My friend had a house built by a company and he had many issues left over even after getting all the issues he noticed taken care of. I just had a full house remodel done by a good friend who is a contractor and am noticing things that aren’t perfect. I guess I’m just wanting to point out that my experience is that getting perfection is hard no matter which route you take.
- mohaine 5y ago
  This. Contractors _mostly_ only care about things that will require rework. Anything that is cheaper to hide and will not be a problem for years if ever will just be hidden.
wycy 5y ago
Properly waterproofing the shower is a major one that can be easily overlooked and won't typically manifest in a major way until years down the road. Hope your contractors used appropriate waterproof Kerdi board or cement board + roll-on membrane.
- sizzle 5y ago
  Absolutely, make sure they put that red stuff over the cement board if you go that route to seal it up and prevent mold growth.

magicalhippo 5y ago

> Realize too, the General Contractor just hires licensed subs, and takes a healthy cut off your nut. Some close relatives bought a plot in a newly developed area, and tried to find a contractor to build their home. After listening to others in the area, it was pretty clear there was a couple of good, reputable ones and one avoid-at-all-costs. So they went with one of the reputable ones. The guy decides at some point to have a look and see how it's going, and finds a somewhat confused-looking 17 year old trying to pour the basement floor/deck on his own. Guy asks wtf he's doing there. Turns out he's the son of the guy running the avoid-at-all-costs contractor, and this was the first time the kid had done this kind of thing. His dad had told him to go and fix this, so being an obedient son he gave it his best... Of course the reputable company had hired the avoid-at-all-costs company to do the job since they were too busy for some reason...

datavirtue 5y ago
LMAO!!! This is a perfect example. Not surprised, in fact this is what I would expect to happen. People have no idea how difficult it is to become a good builder and make money. It rarely happens. Stick to buying spec houses. They will always be better than a custom home because people get to examine the house before they agree to buy it. Whole world changes when you are under contract for a build/remodel.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  We bought a spec house, but it was just getting underway when we signed the contract. I like that option, it worked out well for us. Got to pick all the finishes. Made some minor changes along the way to the plans, changed the appliance choices to fit my preferences, etc. So I got the upsides of a spec build, but I also got to make sure they put in a properly large kitchen island, double ovens, and other improvements that usually get left out of a pure-spec build. I also got to visit the site every day and take pictures, which is really nice to have. Especially the day before they did drywall, I went nuts with pictures and now I can tell you exactly what the inside of every single wall looks like, what the electrical looks like, the plumbing, conduit, smurf tubes, etc. Also, if you are nice and polite, you can talk directly to the subcontractors in some cases and get even more customization at a great price. E.g. the electrical guy offered to run cat5 throughout the house for a few hundred bucks. He couldn't terminate it, because he's not licensed for low voltage, but he could run the wire itself and leave it coiled up in a single gang box in every room. The builder didn't think to offer that, but having a chat with the electrician when he was on site gave us that option.

titzer 5y ago

> If you are some what handy, it's not that difficult to owner build your own house. I'm not sure what you have in mind here, but my brother did an "owner build" in the true sense of the word and sunk every nail into every piece of wood, every pipe, every wire, every window, floor, staircase, insulation, lighting, built all the cabinets, everything. That was 8 years of his life. Two of those years he literally quit his job and worked on it full time. Caution, it is easy to seriously underestimate how much work it is to build a house. It could stretch on for years. Not to mention the pain in the ass that is bad weather, the logistics of sourcing and moving all the materials, plans, permits, etc.

Tyr42 5y ago
I thought you were saying he sunk a nail into every pipe, and damn wouldn't that just suck.
- hbn 5y ago
  It relieves pressure so your pipes never burst!
PragmaticPulp 5y ago
I think the parent comment was suggesting to hire subcontractors to do most or all of the work. But I agree: It’s easy to greatly underestimate the amount of work that goes into a house. Contractors will have entire crews, all of the equipment they need, and most importantly they have years of experience to know how to do something quickly and in a way that will pass inspection. A DIYer must first learn each step before doing it, which can take as much or more time than the task itself in many cases.
- bitexploder 5y ago
  I watched a carpet guy come in and install carpet in our basement in a day and a half. It was a significant sq ft install >1000. Guy was a machine. He had help on a few things, but did it all fast and very expertly. Impressive to watch someone that really knows a physical craft. It would have taken us 3-5x as long if we did it ourselves.

m_myers 5y ago

Or build a house from a kit, as noted building expert Buster Keaton does in the short "One Week". What could possibly go wrong? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6ddOlbKp8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6ddOlbKp8

NordSteve 5y ago
You used to be able to mailorder houses from Sears (the Amazon of the 20th century). https://www.vintag.es/2019/02/sears-catalog-homes.html https://www.vintag.es/2019/02/sears-catalog-homes.html

anonuser123456 5y ago

>Don't build a custom house either. A simple home will make the process go smoothly. I don’t get why simplicity isn’t more of a thing. Complexity is just asking for extra maintenance and the very high likelihood of something being done wrong.

BurningFrog 5y ago

> That is if you get the blueprints past the town's council. Getting approvals is the tough part. This is what's wrong with America.

clairity 5y ago

> "If you are some what handy, it's not that difficult to owner build your own house." but without any experience (which is ~99% of us, even if handy), it is difficult to know how to build a house both efficiently (tools, techniques, sequencing, etc.) while meeting regulatory and bioenvironmental goals (airflow, water control, power, waste, etc.), because it's a whole glut of little things to know, most of which are not "hard" by themselves but overwhelming in totality. for the inexperienced, i'd heartily recommend volunteering for habitat for humanity (at least a half-day weekly, more the better) and asking lots of questions of the experienced workers there to learn those little things (esp. the locale-dependent stuff) while networking with them to boot.

darkarmani 5y ago

> Realize too, the General Contractor just hires licensed subs, and takes a healthy cut off your nut. Yeah, but the GC also has all of the good subs. The good subs all have work with GCs -- what normal people can pick up are the "left overs" (not every "left over" is terrible, but probability is high).