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Do you have much experience with construction? I own a construction company ($10m-20m annual revenue) as my side hustle. It’s generally speaking not cheaper

Do you have much experience with construction? I own a construction company ($10m-20m annual revenue) as my side hustle. It’s generally speaking not cheaper to refurbish something once you consider all of the factors. I’m on mobile so I can’t enumerate those but I’ll try to return on desktop where I can properly type and give an overview.

qeternity 5y ago
> as my side hustle. If you don't mind my asking, what is your main hustle?
- severine 5y ago
  C++?
  - Plasmoid 5y ago
    rust
  - cplusplusfellow 5y ago
    Yes, and Golang but I’m wanting to get into Rust soon.
- nsonha 5y ago
  Maintaining open sourse C++ libraries for free :))
radu_floricica 5y ago
But how about you don't refurbish? The point is satisficing vs optimizing. An old house or apartment is already livable, in a supermajority of cases. It "needs" nothing, in the strictest sense of the word, and putting it through capital repairs will very likely put it in the red, possibly even compared to building a new house. Sure, some repairs and improvements may be useful. A universal coat of paint is probably the lowest hanging fruit, mostly due to the broken window effect, and especially if it includes common spaces. Very cheap credits for stuff that will definitely pay itself in a few years, like thermal insulation or heat pumps, depending on climate. Regular checks to make sure it passes very very low safety standards. And that's about it.
- IshKebab 5y ago
  You're suggesting making more affordable housing by taking existing housing and painting it?
  - radu_floricica 5y ago
    The discussion upstream is about building new non-affordable housing, which will automatically increase the supply of used housing, some of which is affordable. So in a way yes :)
raverbashing 5y ago
Let me guess, because modern houses are build with cheap wooden frames and frail plasterboard? Instead of actual brick and mortar?
- cplusplusfellow 5y ago
  We build with concrete and steel and 2x6 walls. We use spray foam insulation and good materials for flooring and trim that won’t wear out tomorrow. We build for about the same as it would cost to take an existing house; demo out all the stuff that doesn’t meet code, make it meet code, then put back all the good materials that won’t wear out tomorrow. Trust me your big line items are still there when you refurbish something to meet codes; and governments aren’t going to fund projects that don’t meet code. That is before you even get to the discussion of what people actually want their finishes to be.
  - raverbashing 5y ago
    Ah I see, thanks for your answer. I suppose the levels of grandfathering of old rules varies from place to place, no? Though for public financing I guess they want less "old" stuff?
- criddell 5y ago
  Brick and mortar isn’t a great choice in a place that is seismically active.

qeternity 5y ago

> as my side hustle. If you don't mind my asking, what is your main hustle?

severine 5y ago
C++?
- Plasmoid 5y ago
  rust
- cplusplusfellow 5y ago
  Yes, and Golang but I’m wanting to get into Rust soon.
nsonha 5y ago
Maintaining open sourse C++ libraries for free :))

radu_floricica 5y ago

But how about you don't refurbish? The point is satisficing vs optimizing. An old house or apartment is already livable, in a supermajority of cases. It "needs" nothing, in the strictest sense of the word, and putting it through capital repairs will very likely put it in the red, possibly even compared to building a new house. Sure, some repairs and improvements may be useful. A universal coat of paint is probably the lowest hanging fruit, mostly due to the broken window effect, and especially if it includes common spaces. Very cheap credits for stuff that will definitely pay itself in a few years, like thermal insulation or heat pumps, depending on climate. Regular checks to make sure it passes very very low safety standards. And that's about it.

IshKebab 5y ago
You're suggesting making more affordable housing by taking existing housing and painting it?
- radu_floricica 5y ago
  The discussion upstream is about building new non-affordable housing, which will automatically increase the supply of used housing, some of which is affordable. So in a way yes :)

raverbashing 5y ago

Let me guess, because modern houses are build with cheap wooden frames and frail plasterboard? Instead of actual brick and mortar?

cplusplusfellow 5y ago
We build with concrete and steel and 2x6 walls. We use spray foam insulation and good materials for flooring and trim that won’t wear out tomorrow. We build for about the same as it would cost to take an existing house; demo out all the stuff that doesn’t meet code, make it meet code, then put back all the good materials that won’t wear out tomorrow. Trust me your big line items are still there when you refurbish something to meet codes; and governments aren’t going to fund projects that don’t meet code. That is before you even get to the discussion of what people actually want their finishes to be.
- raverbashing 5y ago
  Ah I see, thanks for your answer. I suppose the levels of grandfathering of old rules varies from place to place, no? Though for public financing I guess they want less "old" stuff?
criddell 5y ago
Brick and mortar isn’t a great choice in a place that is seismically active.