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I am building a house in a rural area, where land is cheap. Building is not. Timber is certainly expensive, but you know what else costs a lot? All the other s

I am building a house in a rural area, where land is cheap. Building is not. Timber is certainly expensive, but you know what else costs a lot? All the other stuff, much of it subject to state building codes that get more restrictive every year. Asbestos survey, assessment, abatement: $10k Asbestos air monitoring: $1k Tipping fees: 20k Spray foam insulation: $27k Foundation $50k Solar: 40k (not including rebates/incentives) Requirements for outlets. Requirements for windows. Setbacks from a utility pole on our property, 50 yards/meters from the nearest road. We have to deal with that mess and pay extra to site the foundation, not National Grid! Even if we were getting a manufactured home (built to looser FEMA standards) we would still have to deal with some of these costs, such as asbestos, tipping fees and foundation. And the cheapest double wide is $300k.

jghn 3y ago
> Tipping fees What is a tipping fee
- kevingadd 3y ago
  Waste disposal. Construction and remodeling both produce huge amounts of waste and it needs to be disposed of in specific ways.
  - jghn 3y ago
    Huh. Have never heard that called a tipping fee. When we've had work done there's just a line item for dumpster/removal/etc
    - kevingadd 3y ago
      Yeah, I had to look the term up to make sure I was right. The terminology probably depends on where you live.
- shawabawa3 3y ago
  You need to tip the builder 20% of constructions costs in the US (Just kidding, it's the fee for taking the waste to the tip)
  - fnordpiglet 3y ago
    Really the issue is the PoS terminal the builders use default to a 20% and all the options presented are higher. You feel like a real creep tapping other and typing in 0 in front of them.
D13Fd 3y ago
If you are building from scratch, why do you need an asbestos survey? What are you surveying? And does your state really require spray foam insulation and solar? Or does it require an R-value for insulation and spray foam is the easiest way to get there with your design?
- ilamont 3y ago
  Demolition of existing structures from the 1920s and 1970s. R-value required. This was the easiest/least expensive option. Solar not required. If we didn't do it, we're paying ~$5k for power every year.
  - D13Fd 3y ago
    It makes sense that the asbestos stuff would be required for a building that has asbestos. Improper remediation can cause harms outside of your property. The R-value also makes sense IMO. "You can't build houses that aren't properly insulated" is probably a net good -- although only if the insulation level makes sense for the region. If it's too high, I agree with you. I don't think it's fair to complain about the cost of solar if it's not required.
    - giantrobot 3y ago
      > I don't think it's fair to complain about the cost of solar if it's not required. I didn't read the solar comment as a complaint but rather an additional enumeration of costs. They wanted solar so it's a non-zero cost on the house. They could have also gone with the cheapest-to-regular slab thickness and saved money but didn't.
  - turtlebits 3y ago
    Spray foam is the most expensive way to get R-value. Unless you have space constraints, or existing air sealing concerns, you should not use spray foam. Cheapest is double stud construction + blown in.
Gibbon1 3y ago
Spray foam insulation: $27k Got to say using spray foam to insulate the wall cavities instead of using external insulation over the structural elements is about the worst idea ever. Also how much solar can you buy for $27k? Enough to supply 60kwh a day to run a heat pump.
- foxyv 3y ago
  Building a perfect wall with external insulation is kind of expensive and hard to get approved by an inspector. It's much easier to just do it the way everyone else does and follow national building code.
bombcar 3y ago
When land is cheap, do what the locals do - out buildings abound! It can be worth your while to sit down and map out house areas, purposes, and requirements, and change as many of them as you can to avoid mandatory features.
Loughla 3y ago
What rural area enforces building codes strictly? And what market are you in where a double wide is 300k? And why are you doing anything with asbestos if it's a new build? There is a lot in this that doesn't really add up to me. We didn't have to worry about code, because it's not enforced by the state, but local governments. We did build to code though. A double wide was 125k fully installed. We chose to build a little smaller stick frame for 100k. Asbestos. Um. Why? And spray foam insulation is a terrible choice, unless the wall is already up. Why would you not do the much much cheaper blown in?

jghn 3y ago

> Tipping fees What is a tipping fee

kevingadd 3y ago
Waste disposal. Construction and remodeling both produce huge amounts of waste and it needs to be disposed of in specific ways.
- jghn 3y ago
  Huh. Have never heard that called a tipping fee. When we've had work done there's just a line item for dumpster/removal/etc
  - kevingadd 3y ago
    Yeah, I had to look the term up to make sure I was right. The terminology probably depends on where you live.
shawabawa3 3y ago
You need to tip the builder 20% of constructions costs in the US (Just kidding, it's the fee for taking the waste to the tip)
- fnordpiglet 3y ago
  Really the issue is the PoS terminal the builders use default to a 20% and all the options presented are higher. You feel like a real creep tapping other and typing in 0 in front of them.

D13Fd 3y ago

If you are building from scratch, why do you need an asbestos survey? What are you surveying? And does your state really require spray foam insulation and solar? Or does it require an R-value for insulation and spray foam is the easiest way to get there with your design?

ilamont 3y ago
Demolition of existing structures from the 1920s and 1970s. R-value required. This was the easiest/least expensive option. Solar not required. If we didn't do it, we're paying ~$5k for power every year.
- D13Fd 3y ago
  It makes sense that the asbestos stuff would be required for a building that has asbestos. Improper remediation can cause harms outside of your property. The R-value also makes sense IMO. "You can't build houses that aren't properly insulated" is probably a net good -- although only if the insulation level makes sense for the region. If it's too high, I agree with you. I don't think it's fair to complain about the cost of solar if it's not required.
  - giantrobot 3y ago
    > I don't think it's fair to complain about the cost of solar if it's not required. I didn't read the solar comment as a complaint but rather an additional enumeration of costs. They wanted solar so it's a non-zero cost on the house. They could have also gone with the cheapest-to-regular slab thickness and saved money but didn't.
- turtlebits 3y ago
  Spray foam is the most expensive way to get R-value. Unless you have space constraints, or existing air sealing concerns, you should not use spray foam. Cheapest is double stud construction + blown in.

Gibbon1 3y ago

Spray foam insulation: $27k Got to say using spray foam to insulate the wall cavities instead of using external insulation over the structural elements is about the worst idea ever. Also how much solar can you buy for $27k? Enough to supply 60kwh a day to run a heat pump.

foxyv 3y ago
Building a perfect wall with external insulation is kind of expensive and hard to get approved by an inspector. It's much easier to just do it the way everyone else does and follow national building code.

bombcar 3y ago

When land is cheap, do what the locals do - out buildings abound! It can be worth your while to sit down and map out house areas, purposes, and requirements, and change as many of them as you can to avoid mandatory features.

Loughla 3y ago

What rural area enforces building codes strictly? And what market are you in where a double wide is 300k? And why are you doing anything with asbestos if it's a new build? There is a lot in this that doesn't really add up to me. We didn't have to worry about code, because it's not enforced by the state, but local governments. We did build to code though. A double wide was 125k fully installed. We chose to build a little smaller stick frame for 100k. Asbestos. Um. Why? And spray foam insulation is a terrible choice, unless the wall is already up. Why would you not do the much much cheaper blown in?