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Ask HN: Have you built a house?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#211

Post by bachbach »

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.

One of those neglected sub-bullets is initial cleaning - the last stage.

I'm an initial cleaner, a type of cleaning that takes place for new buildings.

We use a host of specialized tools and techniques, here is one tip on glass. Typically removing concrete, paint, plastic, plaster, caulk from it.

Most cleaners and builders use Stanley blades and score lovely scratches all over your expensive windows - today can be 15% of materials costs. When the sun rises you'll want to cry. The more modern or expensive your window the more surely it shall be damaged.

There are three options. 1.2 mostly works on older glass types, usually not to be used on toughened glass or low e-glass and never interior door glass or veluxes.

1.1 Protect the glass using plastic and tape. 1.2 Use this with a water soaked applicator https://www.homedepot.com/p/Unger-14-in-Window-Scrubber-with... https://www.ungerglobal.com/en/trim-10-1 1.2.1 Use plastic blades 1.3 Use applicator then red pad (special grit of buffing pad that won't harm glass) and a cream abrasive.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/3M-...

http://www.cifclean.co.uk/product/category/971337/creams

The construction trades are filled with a zoo of techniques that individually seem obvious - which must be why few doing DIY do it the right way ever. I subscribe to Fine Homebuilding and read their articles because I know I can't wing it on everything when I self-build - even caulking is a specialization, and few professionals seem to know how to airseal or fully flash a building.

Engineers should be aware that building has one of the lowest rates of automation. The main difference between builders today and builders half a century ago is pneumatic tools. When you think of it - all house are built by hand, and the factory built housing paradigm has tried to get off the ground and failed dozens of times, prefabs aren't much more common than they were centuries ago.

You won't automate the construction of your house and profit (the important bit - or it means you invented a kind of toy) without a giant breakthrough in AI. The nearest you'd get to automating a process and profiting from it will be gang cutting studs with a circular saw.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#212

Post by Jedd »

patagonia wrote: post #164
Jedd wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yup, I noted in a separate comment that re-work (or any kind of maintenance, let alone mind-changing) with concrete is a significant con, at least beyond the slab.

I'm likely to use in-fill, as load-bearing just seems too much effort, too time-constrained in terms of dealing with random weather events, and too difficult to effect subsequent design changes.

I'm assuming the gunite mixture allows some breathing? I thought concrete mixes were typically avoided for this reason -- most people I've heard of that do these (I'm in AU) use a natural mix, mostly clay-based, IIRC.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#213

Post by bachbach »

koliber wrote: post #198
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 :)

For near mythological geek cred you should use a Babylonian water level :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_level_%28device%29

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#214

Post by cx42net »

I've bought a house from 1950, removed everything inside except the main walls and the roof, and redo everything, including heat, water, electricity, and insulation.

It took me around two years, mostly working on the weeks and I learned a ton of stuff, mostly that if you persevere, you can succeed (this applies to projects too ;) ).

The main point I'll raise is that you always need to check the work made by professional. We hired a few for some of the work, and almost everytime, it was sloppy, badly made or wrongly installed. It's unbelievable how the word "professional" doesn't rime with quality!

It will take a lot of your time - still does - and will drag you down sometimes, but once you'll be living in, you'll be pretty happy. And friends will be impressed by what you accomplished.

I don't have a background in brick and mortar, so a lot of stuff was new to me, but I do have a close friend who is a mason, and have a very good knowledge in the main fields of building a house. Is help was tremendous, and I'm not sure I would have finished without him.

I'm now working on adding a patio by increasing the ground floor and having the patio on the top. I'm doing it with my friend so it takes time, finding when we both are available, but it's less costly that way, and make me sweat a bit (swear too ;) ).

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#215

Post by jaclaz »

nextos wrote: post #83

I've lived in 7 different brand new houses within a relatively short time period. Brand new meaning I was the first person living there. Even different countries, contractors, etc. The whole experience has made me quite strong-minded about a few things. And I've also converted to hardcore minimalism. First, I've seen so many crazy bad construction jobs that whenever I buy a new house I'll try to buy something modular…

>Second, for me the most important feature is that the house should be a healthy space. Few houses have continuous filtered air ventilation systems, and it makes a huge difference to avoid mould, CO and VOCs. It doesn't have to be something centralized and superfancy. You can have them per room.

+1 for that, it is one of the most overlooked parts in modern building, in practice you cannot have a house Class C or higher (B ot A, let alone A+) without a valid air ventilation/renew system.

Particularly if you (and wife/partner/family) work full-time.

Once upon a time (and in tradditional houses that were thermal inefficient but much more permeable to vapour and had this or that form of natural ventilation) the wife (that stayed at home) would open all windows in the morning, undo the beds and put the linen to the air, once a week or so also pput matresses on windows sills, etc.

Nowadays the house (which is airtight in order to be energy efficient) is kept with all foors and windows closed at all times and this creates an amount of humidity (and conversely dew/mould) that is NOT healthy.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#217

Post by vijaybritto »

foota wrote: post #148
vijaybritto wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assembled my bed before two days and the panel covering the hydraulics is bit off angle because of my mistake. It still bothers me every 5 minutes @-@

Your... bed has hydraulics?

Yes, this is the exact model. https://www.pepperfry.com/taro-queen-bed-with-hydraulic-stor...

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#218

Post by bsvalley »

Built a house in the Bay here. Not sure you can build a fully concrete house in the Bay because of earthquake requirements. There are specific materials and engineering required, etc. I’m assuming you’re browsing lots at the moment? Make sure to check that the lot is buildable 1st, then look at the building envelop, is it big enough? How’s the soil? etc. I would hire a civil engineer to check a lot prior to signing a deal. It costs somewhere around $5k to run a survey on a lot.

Then when everything is fine and you bought the lot, start working with an architect. That is the expensive part (at least $50k and the sky is the limit). Ater your architect validates your floorplan with the city, you’re now able to start the process of building your house. You need to interview a bunch of contractors/builders, some have their own project managers (which I’d recommend using), some require a lot more coordination and work from your side. In California in general, especially around the Bay, the city will be your biggest enemy. They are a pain in the butt when it comes to new regulations, green stuff and all the non-sense. They will utimately bump up your original estimation by forcing your builder to comply to their random rules. I mean... we could talk for days on the subject. Good luck! Feel free to ask if you have more specific questions.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#219

Post by cascom »

wlesieutre wrote: post #158
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.

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

A friend of a friend runs a pipeline construction company (think the people that would actually build Keystone XL or the likes) and he has a team of estimators that run all the numbers on a given project and come up with a budget. He then double checks their numbers by chartering a helicopter and flying the route with an an old construction foreman, who basically eyeballs the thing and and does some mental math. Apparently it was uncanny how often the two estimates were within 10% of each other, but that the old guy eyeballing the thing had saved him on a number of occasions by recognizing issues/costs that the estimators had missed...

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#220

Post by chuckcode »

tcbawo wrote: post #210
koliber wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Are the software tools used to build a buildprint smart enough to take into account the local code, comfortable spacing/clearances, etc.? Is there a blueprint equivalent of lint?

Almost certainly not for local code. My experience is that building codes make the IRS tax codes look clear and concise. Often multiple conflicting rules apply and you're trying to hammer out some reasonable common sense with 2-3 different people in planning office one of which is almost certain to go on vacation while you're in permitting process. You'd be luck to get city plan reviewer, architect and contractor all in the same room for an extended discussion.

There are architectural programs that will render a 3d space to help with visualizations. Or any 3d drawing program like autocad can help as well.

Generally the linting is done manually when you ask for bids on your plans from contractors. If your plans are really poor they won't bid or they will come back with suggestions or prices that incentivize you to rethink things.

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