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Ask HN: Have you built a house?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#161

Post by damon_c »

wilsmex wrote: post #153
dionidium wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Whoa. Now that’s a shed!

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#162

Post by owenversteeg »

I'm currently most of the way done with building my home, which is a steel boat. Anyone else here on HN built their own liveaboard (or a substantial part of it)?

When I got started I just bought the rusty hull, with almost nothing attached, and built my way up from there.

Feel free to ask me anything about it.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#163

Post by dionidium »

wilsmex wrote: post #153
dionidium wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Awesome!

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#164

Post by patagonia »

Jedd wrote: post #138
patagonia wrote: post #106

My family built our house. It was while I was in highschool. We did everything except pour the foundation, the septic system, and stuff required by a certified folks like some electrical work and building code stuff. Unless you’re building in an un-zoned area with no permits required you’re not going to be able to truly “build it yourself”. We had the benefit of having big equipment available due to our family busine…

> But straw bale houses are a lot like concrete houses. Once built difficult to re-work. Great for insulation. Horrible to re-work. Environmentally-focused / permaculture types tend to like concrete floor + strawbale. It solves a lot of heating / cooling problems, but naturally the benefits there depend on the climate you're in and local costs of materials. Anyway, to your point. Strawbale housing comes in two broad…

Yeah, load-bearing. With gunite (concrete) exterior. I guess my point was more to the OPs situation, that a concrete house would be difficult to re-work. Which matched my experience with our house.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#165

Post by TYPE_FASTER »

beat wrote: post #66

I did not build this, and it doesn't meet all your design criteria, but it's very interesting... A couple of months ago, I visited a friend and her fiance at their home in the Colorado Rockies - way up in the mountains, not down on the front range. The architecture was very interesting, straightforward, and inexpensive. They simply cut a house-sized trench into the side of a mountain (about a 45 degree slope there),…

Our neighbors growing up had a house built into the side of a hill like that. It is warmer in the winter, and cooler in the summer. It really seemed to work well, if you don't mind part of the house not getting light. They put a ton of windows/skylights in the front to mitigate that.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#166

Post by bahmboo »

omar12 wrote: post #41

I have not built a house, but I have done enough renovations to know a few basic pointers: * Buy extra materials than what you actually will need. If it's your first time doing a specific task, mistakes will happen, some will be costly, some, minor. * Ensure you are building up to code. Make sure you read what your local residential building code specs are. Having things "not up to code" can be costly and fail inspec…

Also extra materials can usually be returned which saves a lot of time vs making yet another run to the store.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#167

Post by bencompanion »

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'm building a kids playhouse at the moment and I feel the exact same way. I'm in here working at the computer just enough that I can bail to the backyard for the day and cut timber.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#168

Post by beachy »

jakamau wrote: post #21
sonaltr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, and cutting trees down and transporting wood around is so great for the environment...

I'll entertain this line of thought. 1. Most of the trees that are cut down are coming from farms. The trees were planted with the express purpose of being harvested. 2. The transportation network for traditional building materials is built for scale. Outside of the last mile, that transportation network is far more energy-efficient than transporting materials and equipment for non-traditional buildings. Counter-poin…

> Tree farms use a good deal of water and fertilizer

Really? In my country trees are planted and then nature does most of the rest (apart from thinning). After 25 years, trees are chopped down, and the process repeated.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#169

Post by gavanwoolery »

I recently wanted to pour some slabs for a sidewalk on part of my house. A 16 sqft slab (4' x 4'), to my surprise, ended up taking 750 pounds of concrete/cement and hours of effort to mix by hand. Building concrete walls is much harder and requires a complex form unless you are just laying bricks. Choose your battles wisely!
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