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Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

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Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#171

Post by unregistereddev »

bluGill wrote: post #148
ctroein89 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> While you are not wrong, those requirements are the same for all houses. Not every house needs triple-pane windows and R25 insulation in the walls, sitting on a 8-ft deep basement, with a steep roof pitch for snow to slide off of. Generally, you want to cut corners, because building to code in New York would be overkill in Texas. You could have unique plans for each climate zone, but then the slope of the land and…

> Not every house needs triple-pane windows and R25 insulation in the walls Yes they do. Cooling is a large energy cost. Besides, you end up with that much space in your walls anyway just because for material strength reasons you need wide walls. > sitting on a 8-ft deep basement A basement is a line item that can be added or deleted at will. If you don't have stairs to the basement you still need that space except i…

> you end up with that much space in your walls anyway just because for material strength reasons you need wide walls.

For material strength, walls are fine with 2x4 framing. However, 2x4 framing is limited to R19. So this is actually not true. The reason builders went to 2x6 framing is entirely to allow for a larger insulated cavity.

> They still build the same roof pitches so rain runs off.

Roofs do not require the same pitch to dispel snow as they do to shed snow. Roof pitches are genuinely steeper in areas that see particularly high snow loads.

Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#172

Post by ghaff »

ilyt wrote: post #162
ghaff wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I owned two cars in New England, it was a pretty big win to get both cars inside during the winter especially if a storm were coming. Always took a bunch of cleanup in the fall to deal with all the crap that had migrated out to the floor of the garage during the summer.

I feel like not having dedicated shed/storage area in the house plan is one of most common architectural mistakes, given just how often garage ends up being just that

On the other hand, I've often thought of adding a shed and it would invariably end up being a case of crap expanding to fill the space allotted to it. I don't need another 10'x13' shed to store more stuff. (I admittedly already have a workshop that sticks off the side of the garage.)

Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#173

Post by slackfan »

FinnKuhn wrote: post #167
bluGill wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> lengthy approval process This is corruption. The process of approval should not be lengthy of costly.

It is arguably the opposite of corruption. Everyone is treated the same and everything is checked in order. The option to pay for a faster approval would be corruption. This is just government offices being chronically understaffed.

[flagged]

Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#174

Post by iancmceachern »

polonbike wrote: post #9

Not completely what you are looking for, but still open source plans of house: Wikihouse https://www.wikihouse.cc/ Earthships are also said to be open source, but the plans are (definitely) not free https://earthshipbiotecture.com/ You can also check Open Source Home, by Studiolada (those are free, but the plans are in french) https://www.countryliving.com/remodeling-renovation/news/g46... Open Source Ecology is now…

Also check our Yurts:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.instructables.com/Build-you...

Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#175

Post by turtlebits »

bombcar wrote: post #37

I want the plans for a bog-simple square house with boring peaked roof. I want it to be designed to minimize cuts and make building simple. I want the roof to be two slabs with no fancy protrusions, angles, gables, etc. I want something that is easy to build and maintain. As far as I’ve been able to find out, bardominiums are the closest to what I want.

You can literally sketch this yourself and give to a structural engineer and file for a permit to build.

Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#176

Post by wrmanis »

hasbot wrote: post #125
wrmanis wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is a little buried - but I own a truss manufacturing operation and I'd totally recommend finding one to talk to. If you can find drawings, or sometimes even just sketch out a floorplan (we frequently build out barns or other simple structures based on literal napkin drawings) we'll give you a layout of all the trusses, joists and beams that you could take and just stick frame it yourself based off. Natura…

Is the price of a truss fairly linear or is there a length where the price starts to really accelerate? I'm considering building a 30'x60' pole barn with 18" or 24" eaves making the trusses 33' or 34' long.

It's fairly linear for the same kind of truss, like say a 15 foot span to a 20 foot span - just think bigger triangle. Past a certain point, in order to support the shear/wind/snow loads across a span requires increasingly higher grades and width of lumber and you start getting into non-linear territory. Pole barns are an extremely common order for truss plants, and that size should be pretty standard. In single family houses, though, you start getting into "features" pretty quick which affect the price quite a bit, think ceiling trays, HVAC platforms and so on, so you're pretty quickly into some nonlinear territory there as well.

Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#177

Post by philomath_mn »

rcazangi wrote: post #154
toast0 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Financially advantangeous would be simple: Get an itemised estimate of the cost of land, cost of construction (include permitting and utility connect fees), and cost of housing while under construction, convert those to net present value, and compare to the all-in purchase price of the house with taxes and fees. If you think future taxes or maintenance will be significantly different, you can estimate those in net pr…

Doesn't sound so simple to me :) In any case, I take it as a matter of tradeoffs. And the financial side of it is one of the tradeoffs. I probably would not build my own house - despite all the benefits - if it cost me double compared to a house readily available for sale, for example.

I just moved into my semi-custom build. Nothing crazy, economical design (basically a big box), and it came out to ~$190 / sq ft which is crazy cheap, but still at least 25% too high compared to slightly older comps in my area.

This should be our home for at least 15 years though since I have a good track record of remote work, family in the area, and young kids. So hopefully the extra expense won't matter as much in the long run

I don't think building is ever cheaper unless you put years of your own labor into it and you are really good at that kind of stuff

Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#178

Post by zo1 »

jacob171714 wrote: post #59
junon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The earthship biotecture project is really neat, thanks for sharing.

Its best to take and use the principles of it in another house. I personally don't want a bunch of tires breaking down and leaking chemicals and fumes into my house over a couple decades. Also much of the savings are from using your labor or volunteer/intern labor rather than paying someone else.

Its such a shame that a great sustainability project is ruined by some weird drive to "recycle" something stupid like tires. Just buy the effing bricks, have a construction company do it, have a factory safely recycle the tyres, and we can all save the environment. It strikes me as a very, for lack of a better term, misguided "hippy" commune kinda thing.

Re: Ask HN: Where to find open-source house plans?

#180

Post by digging »

lostapathy wrote: post #99
digging wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that have to do with this thread? The OP isn't buying a prebuilt house. Probably because they're not good houses.

Even if you're having a new house built, you get a lot less choices than you might think. To most builders, "custom home" means you get to pick the paint and flooring, not that you have appreciable input into anything structural. I'm sure it varies regionally, but where I'm at (Kansas City market) you have to be in about the $800k range, generally, to be able to work with an actual architect and build something custo…

I know, but I was assuming the OP already knew they had the opportunity to dictate the architecture of their house, since that's what they were asking about. Either they have money or they have volunteer labor and low expectations.
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