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Ask HN: Have you built a house?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#151

Post by twothamendment »

dwild wrote: post #90
jerrre wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 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.

I 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.

Right, 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.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#152

Post by twothamendment »

ams6110 wrote: post #134
Blackthorn wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> do pros ever actually tape a ceiling border? Nope. They either use something that looks like a trowel, or freehand it.

I'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.

Yes, and when you paint as much as they do they get good at it. I've seen a guy who's freehand looked better than what I can do with tape - and he was much faster.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#153

Post by wilsmex »

dionidium wrote: post #136
koliber wrote: post #6

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…

I'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,…

I just finished building a shed and put my build on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaN1hnR7pSk

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#154

Post by emodendroket »

notananthem wrote: post #120
jerrre wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 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.

Attn people trying to sell their homes, this is why we don't buy them- because we saw you decided to do the bathroom yourself and you're an idiot

Well, it's true that homeowners sometimes bite off more than they can chew, but that's not really what I'm talking about. Even if you do a great job, the minor imperfections are going to be very noticeable to you. Whoever did the staircase in my house splashed woodstain on the white paint parts (it's got white for the front of the steps and natural wood on top) and I never even noticed until I did basically the same thing to the side of the house staining the deck.

Also, if your house is in the right area people will buy anything.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#156

Post by smilesnd »

I have done construction since I was 8.

First off laws, you be surprise what kind of laws there are in your state/city. Where I live you must have a 3 foot drop on your roof. The only allowed material for building houses is wood and bricks. You wouldn't be able to build steel or cement house where I live.

Second location location location, you be surprise how many house get flooded because they are built in a bad spot or because while they were building the house they accidentally rerouted water paths. The other thing is you find some exotic or endanger animal on the premise and have to stop all the construction. Do your research, walk around the land and property, and go during different weather what might be a warm spot in the sun might be a swamp in a lite rainfall.

Third define massive because my definition of a massive house is everyone with there own bedroom and one extra room besides the kitchen and living room.

Fourth hooking up to water, electricity, and internet. Just because someone down the street has all these things doesn't mean they going to run them to your house. I have family friends that has neighbors that they can wave to each other through kitchen windows yet they can not get the same ISP hook up they have and have to use satellite internet. They also cannot get city water like them for some odd ball reason only thing they get is electricity.

Fifth you be surprise what unknowns cost in construction. There is a reason why neighborhoods have the same cookie cut houses covering a neighborhood. When you buy $100k worth of material it comes with a no return policy. If something funky happens you have to absorb those cost no matter what. You hire someone to build a house and $10k worth of material got stolen! You going to have to toss in another $10k to cover that stolen material.Also you might be surprise how difficult a bank loan is to get for new constructions.

In my experience unless you you have more money then you know what to do with a custom house won't benefit you more then a prefab or buying used. Just like new people to software they only see the surface think I can do this then learn what kind of hell it is. You will either be the 99% that regret it or the 1% that loves it. It is going to cost you more then you think, and take longer then you think. You will have to jump over a lot of hurdles and learn things you never knew existed.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#157

Post by Infernal »

drelihan wrote: post #118

Finishing my first build now. It was a tear down of an old house and replaced with a slightly larger ( ~ 4200sqft ), custom house on the same footprint. A different design ( curved roof and lots of glass ), but less site work ( e.g. driveway, well, retaining walls, etc already in place ). Rough timeline ( just under two years from start to finish ): - starting looking seriously in Nov 2016 - Found property in Jan 201…

I'm trying to understand your dates.... should I %s/2018/2017/g ?

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#158

Post by wlesieutre »

dice wrote: post #104
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It'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…

>budget overrun of 40% and spent close to twice the number of hours I estimated up front Sounds typical for construction.

Needed more practice in construction estimating, which is yet another discipline that you wouldn’t immediately think of when someone says “build a house.”

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#159

Post by telaport »

If you are in the States then unless you're licensed in like 30 areas, you will not be able to build your house "autonomously".

You will need permits for everything - properly doing concrete for walls and ceilings is a huge undertaking.

You will need to hire electricians and then get your local city to inspect everything. Again, if you plan on laying anything within your concrete structure, you will have a ton of back and forth in terms of approvals and inspections.

Before I forget, you will also need to make sure you run your plans by a professional since you may not realize something you need to run within your flooring or foundation. For example, I have worked on a basement-less home where the ground floor is concrete slab. Well, all sewer, electrical, water, etc was run through this in 1977. We wanted to make certain extensions but were limited by where certain water, gas and power outlets were already run. For one section we had no choice so we trenched the foundation to run new water and sewer lines. It was not easy. It was not cheap. It was a lot of work. So, if you do this, you can't just assume you have planned everything correctly in your head. You have to hire someone to at the very least look over everything and assure you that you're not forgetting anything. Otherwise it will be twice as expensive to go back and fix things later.

The biggest thing you need to do focus on right now is your budget. If you told me how many square feet you wanted your house to be, we could estimate something for the base concrete costs - including permits and labor. But your house will need windows, flooring, carpet, wood, doors, HVAC, tiles, tiling, fixtures, lighting, electrical, moulding, etc etc etc... you can easily blow your budget on just your foundation, or in just one bathroom where you pick the wrong tiles or go overboard with too many fancy design and aesthetic choices. A custom shower with a modern shower system and a concrete floor that allows for custom tiles in the shower for example will be costly in terms of time and effort, but something you can do yourself. You will again need to make sure any plumbing in this bathroom is properly done otherwise your local inspector will literally make you tear it all up and do it again properly.

tldr - there are a million ways this can wreck you. Unless you live on a farm in the middle of nowhere and are a millionaire with access to contractors who can deliver all these things to your land for you to experiment and play with... I would not consider building a massive concrete house "autonomously".

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