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Ask HN: Have you built a house?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#191

Post by badpun »

_mrmnmly wrote: post #189
dice wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

or for software development :)

Software development is more like - couple hundred percent over spec in time and cost, code base is a mess, almost nobody uses it and finally, after a couple of years, management changes and the new mgmt calls a spade a spade and terminates the project.

At least that's often the case in huge organizations trying to do crazily ambitious projects (esp. given their general incompetence). I tend to consult on such shitstorms because it pays well. The scars are for life though...

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#193

Post by koliber »

libria wrote: post #31
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…

Did you spout that last paragraph off the top of your head? That is a staggering bullet list that I suspect has several layers of unwritten sub-bullets. I have a whole new respect for home builders.

I looked around my house and tried to remember the decisions I needed to make along the way. Some things did not apply, like seismic considerations.

Once you've built a house, you realize that every single little thing you see, and every thing you don't see because it is covered, involved a decision about technology, materials, crew, method, minor adjustments, and sometimes fixups. I mean, EVERY ONE. Each square inch. It did not get there by accident.

As for the list, the good news is that most of the knowledge and experience came from others. For most of those things, I just needed to find our enough about it to know whom to turn to, or to make a decision to NOT to do it because it involved more costs and complications (i.e. basement).

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#194

Post by mothsonasloth »

anadem wrote: post #121
mothsonasloth wrote: post #28

Hey, Not a self build, but I have just completed the first phase of a renovation. For me the main struggles were getting it wind and water tight especially in a location with bad weather. Renovation is a gamble, people have said it makes it easy and hard at the same time. Easy in that you have a clearer vision of what you want to do (fix up, restore etc), but harder in that you are constrained by whatever the existin…

Lucky man, what a wonderful place to be. Nice job you're doing there! Many years ago I bought a similar place on Skye to renovate, but had to pass it on as I went broke (unrelated to the renovation project). It was one of life's forks in the road, and we've somehow ended up in Santa Cruz California instead so I can't complain too much, but do miss those Hebridean feels.

Small world, this property is on the outer hebrides!

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#195

Post by CyberFonic »

gonvaled wrote: post #4
CyberFonic wrote: post #3

I have built a two level house, more conventional brick veneer. It is a massive amount of work even when you hire various trades, etc. Don't know about all concrete houses. Wet concrete is extremely heavy and you need to know what you are doing when it comes to formwork, etc. You would also need concrete pump to get the stuff to the upper floor. You will most certainly need the services of an architect and structural…

Interesting. Did you plan the whole thing yourself, including plumbing, electrical installation, etc?

Yes I did all the plans and sketches but then hired an architectural draftsperson to draw up plans to the local building control body's requirements. The actual plumbing and electrical work was subcontracted out. In Australia you can't DIY - you need to be licensed for those trades.

I had previously worked on a renovation project, helped a family member build a house from scratch and worked for an electrical contractor. It also helped that I had experience as a project manager on large infrastructure projects.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#196

Post by CyberFonic »

megamindbrian2 wrote: post #48

I built room on the side of the house, I worked with a journey man and everything he taught me as he gave orders, wrote blueprints I could confirm with sources online. It's a wonderful idea to build something using modern techniques. There is a joke in engineering about the architect that doesn't know how to use a hammer. I would be happy to generate a plethora of links to resources if you like? What is the climate f…

Architects dream ... builder's nightmare !

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#197

Post by koliber »

chuckcode wrote: post #185
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…

+1 to this post by koliber. Only thing I would add is to plan as detailed as you can everything beforehand. Draw it up, visualize it. What sort of hinges on doors, how will the cabinets swing, etc. etc. Before you even start building a wall you have to decide how wide you want the trim around the doorway as you'll want the light switch just that far from the door and you'll want a 2x4 there with electrical. So there…

Absolutely.

First, try to understand a process. Draw it. Imagine going through the process of building it. Draw it again. Look at your friend's house to see how it is different. Try to imagine how that one was built.

I have an interesting tale of how the patio door installer almost caused my kitchen countertops to be installed 2 inches lower. The story is a bit convoluted because many things are tied together in the house. You have levels for your foundations, sills, door bottoms, door tops, window tops, subfloors, and floors. Different layers have different widths. Wood flooring ends up being a certain width, and tile flooring another. If you want things to be flush when you're done, you need to plan everything meticulously, backwards, across months of time and different crews.

Moral of the story: pay attention to the levels of everything, across the house, all the time, in one place. Double-check this and verify all the time.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#198

Post by koliber »

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…

Also, for the first time in a really long time, I actually had to use the pythagorean theorem! So brush up on trig as well :)

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#199

Post by vborovikov »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #85
libria wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you spout that last paragraph off the top of your head? That is a staggering bullet list that I suspect has several layers of unwritten sub-bullets. I have a whole new respect for home builders.

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…

that's is way I started with a dog house before even building a shed.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#200

Post by NumberCruncher »

My father and our relatives built the house I grew up. My father worked in the construction industry as a construction supervisor and made blue prints for family homes as a side gig. My uncle was a professional roofer. I can't remember them saying anything like "that was a nice thing, let us do it again". Finishing it took almost 10 years and some parts had to be rebuilt because of lack of proper isolation.
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