4 ms·

Not the original commenter, but I’ve done extensive renovations of different sizes, and walls off restorations of 3 houses. The 30k to me, sounds possible ish,

by yial 2y ago

Not the original commenter, but I’ve done extensive renovations of different sizes, and walls off restorations of 3 houses. The 30k to me, sounds possible ish, but also hard especially without a helper. Personal example, I’ve gotten many materials for free. Including several hundred square feet of hardwood floor. But thinking through some basics of just tools needed, and being cheap- and also with an assumption that you have time, and land with wood. And assuming you find cheap / used tools but not junk. Decent chainsaw: $600-$1,000 Alaskan sawmill: $120 Stuff to setup basic kiln house: $600 6-12 months wait on wood. Planer: $400-600 Jointer: $200-300 Impact, drill, sawzall, oscillating saw, jigsaw, circular: $700 Mitre saw and stand: $400 Table saw: $200 Basic plumbing tools, pex or copper : $200 But when I start to think through things aside from that: If you start to buy materials… I think it could be done, if you did a cement or block foundation yourself, and did very basic construction. But my just off the cuff guesstimates, assuming 1500 sq ft ranch house: Lumber for framing: $4,100 Toilets: $240 Fasteners: $500 Drywall: $1,500 Piping, fittings: $1,000 Electrical: $2,500 (assuming electric stove, and electric dryer) HVAC: $8,000 …. I start to see a hard time doing it for 30k, but, I’m sure there’s a way!

RajT88 2y ago
Re: free stuff, this is how my house was built. Leftover materials from a construction site have to be disposed... Unless you are a builder who wants a house and owns a truck and some land... It is a weird house, but built with pretty nice materials. I bought it from the nephew of the builder.
- doodlebugging 2y ago
  This is how my grandfather started his home-building business. He built one house using scraps, cutoffs, and reclaimed materials from demolitions. Once he completed the house a local man who had been watching the construction offered to buy it. He sold that house and made enough money to buy another lot and build another larger house. People started coming to him to have him build homes and he became a custom home builder, building homes, churches, businesses, etc. all over the area for around 60 years till he passed away.
potato3732842 2y ago
Do not attempt to mill your own lumber for your own house. Unless you are building a log cabin in BFE Alaska where you can't truck anything in and need to remove the trees anyway it just ain't worth it for the labor you'll have invested. Second, blocks and bricks are a massive f-ing waste of labor when working as an individual since you have to handle them so many times. It's worth forming up 10yd worth of stuff and paying for a truck. You can probably get it done under $30k if you are super cheap and only buy materials at auction and buy used tools.
- ty6853 2y ago
  I built my block foundation in 4 weekends. I would use a truck for footings and grout next time as mixing and wheel barrowing 300 60# bags of quikrete was brutal. Total cost was <4000, but that includes excavator rental and site prep. If you hire a truck i think it is difficult to handle that much without help and you are fucked if it sets too soon. A concrete truck would not even make it down my road though... and many of the blocks were carried in small bundles by 4x4 truck. Building a road for heavy trucks would probably cost as much as the house.
  - potato3732842 2y ago
    > If you hire a truck i think it is difficult to handle that much without help and you are fucked if it sets too soon. Foundations, walls and footings are cake because they're all formed, you just gotta finish the top. It's the flatwork that has lots of finished area for volume and is very laborious
- yial 2y ago
  Having milled my own lumber, I will 100% say it is not worth it for the time and energy involved if I was using it to build a house. It is worth it when you have trees that will otherwise go to waste, and you can get high quality appearance / live edge / etc cuts out of it. If I had a lot of trees that needed to be cleared, and lots of time, I might be tempted to try using a portable mill in the 25hp range. Bricks as an individual are miserable to handle. Even with tongs it’s tedious. When I was younger, I once reclaimed tons of brick from a house that was being demolished. More recently from a driveway someone removed. Both times in small amounts(<1,000 bricks) for specific projects. I do know of a story of a restaurant, local to me, that somehow ended up needing to reclaim all these bricks that had mortar still on them. They invited over everyone they knew, gave out free beer and wine, and lots of eye protection, hammers etc. I can’t imagine it was an easy project but they successfully reclaimed it to build part of their facility.

by yial 2y ago

RajT88 2y ago

Re: free stuff, this is how my house was built. Leftover materials from a construction site have to be disposed... Unless you are a builder who wants a house and owns a truck and some land... It is a weird house, but built with pretty nice materials. I bought it from the nephew of the builder.

doodlebugging 2y ago
This is how my grandfather started his home-building business. He built one house using scraps, cutoffs, and reclaimed materials from demolitions. Once he completed the house a local man who had been watching the construction offered to buy it. He sold that house and made enough money to buy another lot and build another larger house. People started coming to him to have him build homes and he became a custom home builder, building homes, churches, businesses, etc. all over the area for around 60 years till he passed away.

potato3732842 2y ago

Do not attempt to mill your own lumber for your own house. Unless you are building a log cabin in BFE Alaska where you can't truck anything in and need to remove the trees anyway it just ain't worth it for the labor you'll have invested. Second, blocks and bricks are a massive f-ing waste of labor when working as an individual since you have to handle them so many times. It's worth forming up 10yd worth of stuff and paying for a truck. You can probably get it done under $30k if you are super cheap and only buy materials at auction and buy used tools.

ty6853 2y ago
I built my block foundation in 4 weekends. I would use a truck for footings and grout next time as mixing and wheel barrowing 300 60# bags of quikrete was brutal. Total cost was <4000, but that includes excavator rental and site prep. If you hire a truck i think it is difficult to handle that much without help and you are fucked if it sets too soon. A concrete truck would not even make it down my road though... and many of the blocks were carried in small bundles by 4x4 truck. Building a road for heavy trucks would probably cost as much as the house.
- potato3732842 2y ago
  > If you hire a truck i think it is difficult to handle that much without help and you are fucked if it sets too soon. Foundations, walls and footings are cake because they're all formed, you just gotta finish the top. It's the flatwork that has lots of finished area for volume and is very laborious
yial 2y ago
Having milled my own lumber, I will 100% say it is not worth it for the time and energy involved if I was using it to build a house. It is worth it when you have trees that will otherwise go to waste, and you can get high quality appearance / live edge / etc cuts out of it. If I had a lot of trees that needed to be cleared, and lots of time, I might be tempted to try using a portable mill in the 25hp range. Bricks as an individual are miserable to handle. Even with tongs it’s tedious. When I was younger, I once reclaimed tons of brick from a house that was being demolished. More recently from a driveway someone removed. Both times in small amounts(<1,000 bricks) for specific projects. I do know of a story of a restaurant, local to me, that somehow ended up needing to reclaim all these bricks that had mortar still on them. They invited over everyone they knew, gave out free beer and wine, and lots of eye protection, hammers etc. I can’t imagine it was an easy project but they successfully reclaimed it to build part of their facility.