Good luck with building codes and dealing with your local government.
Ask HN: Have you built a house?
81–90 of 229 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#82I can speak for myself. I live in Germany and building something new is very expensive here. I have some friends who tried this path and most of them have absolutely bad experience. If you don't have enough time and expertise, it is very very expensive. You will overpay for every single service. In fact, Germany has enourmosely inflated prices, you may spend x10 less if you decide to build in any other near country (like Hungary). Don't know if it's similar in regard to US.
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#83I'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 that has been premade in a factory. Here quality is much better thanks to construction (actually manufacturing) taking part in a controlled and standardized environment. Unless I have a lot of time, money and energy to devote to a custom project, and construction technology hasn't evolved much. Premade houses evoke park homes and cheap quality. However, things are moving forward very quickly and there are some concrete and steel designs around that seem the opposite of cheap quality to me. E.g. http://www.kodasema.com/
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. I'd also try to avoid living too close to major traffic routes, and unhealthy materials that will release tons of VOCs during the first months. Also room arrangement is key. Bedrooms that face E or SE and homeoffices that face SW definitely improve your mood, especially in you live in high latitudes. Having your kitchen and toilets a bit isolated is also important to avoid smells and noise if space is sufficient to do so.
Finally, I hate embedded junk. Like cheap veneer embedded kitchen furniture. It's expensive, and it deteriorates quickly. Furthermore, I have had problems with stuff hiding inside. Like insect pests and even trash left behind by contractors. I very much prefer to avoid embedded furniture unless you can afford very good quality. High-end kitchen stuff is actually fitted but not necessarily embedded. E.g. http://www.kochkoekken.dk
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#84Depending on the reason, I recommend no basement if you can get around it. They leak, mold, dark, humid etc. more economical to get another story up. of course if land is sparse or your in a major city you may need one and it may be worth the hassle regardless. hire out a reputable builder for the structure. and perhaps polish the floors. get a proper rough in for electrical and plumbing. order cabinets and such for…
This is really going to depend on the region you're building in. In much of the North Eastern/Mid-Atlantic USA, assuming a plot with good drainage/grading, basements are awesome. They're a perfect place to put the house mechanical equipment (HVAC/water heater) and run necessary pipes/wires/ducts. Good luck running new wiring/plumbing around the first floor with slab-on-grade.
Basements are also generally preferable to crawlspaces, because they're (semi)conditioned and can be dehumidified/sealed as necessary to prevent mold/water issues to the framing. Crawlspaces are not typically sealed, and issues (mold/rot/leaks) can often go unnoticed, because nobody wants to crawl around to inspect. If you use your basement for storage, you'll likely be down there frequently enough to notice any growing issues.
On top of all that, many people finish their basements to add additional living space. This is typically very easy to do (DIY), because tapping into a few ducts and power is all right there.
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#85I'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.
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 hours I estimated up front. It turned out really nice though.
If you're thinking about building a house, I would definitely recommend doing a playhouse or a shed first.
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#86Hi, I build two homes in WA state in a rural area (more on this later) while I was working as a webmaster and all around sysadmin for a small wood distributor co.
First house: 2600sq ft, Full size basement with 2 stories on top of a traditional timber frame structure, wrapped in S.I.Ps (structural insulated panels). We had plans drawn by architects and we went BIG. I ended up acting as the general contractor as the guy we hired ended up screwing up and bailing on us. I did a lot labor along the subs and learned a good deal of many of the trades and what were m,y limitations, what could I do. I also interacted with the building department as a owner-builder, it seems to me that unless you are in a rural area (they helped me and coached me thru a lot), you will have to have some help navigating this aspect too. Learnings from the first house: - a project management approach would have saved me time and money.Ask this for your GC, or make sure you look at time-cost-quality on every touchpoint. - make sure you have contracts with everyone that will be subbing for you. We had a contract with the GC and even then we had to go to court (long side story, headaches) - Basement concrete walls & foundation were slow to build, expensive and you need to know what you are doing, not something I would recommend for an owner-builder. - try to design the smallest space you think you need, then cut again on space. If you design with the possibility to expand later on and still be statically pleasing, you will end up ahead on many fronts. We got carried away and built twice as much what we needed with very expensive materials and techniques (timber frame). Cue in 2006-2008 financial crisis. Imagine the rest.
Second house: 1100 sq ft Rastra blocks crawl space Foundation. (Insulated Concrete forms) and S.I.P.s panel walls and roof. I acted as the GC. I subbed the excavation (minimal as I did a crawl space that was barely deep to let me in), and the rough plumbing, as the guy did it in 8 hrs. I did all the finish plumbing. I learned to do the electrical work and wired the whole house, had an electrician friend come connect the main panel to the street tri-phasic high-voltage. SIP panels for the walls of this one story house we raised by hand with my ex-wife. Roof panels we flew in on a single day with 4 friends, had to rend a crane for 6 hrs. With SIP panels you have a closed structure, with all openings framed and ready to be covered in 8 days. Took me 9 months to finish, working evenings and weekends and 1 month summer vacation.
Learnings from second house: - build small, smallest you need. - your local hardware store is your training, mentor and partner in this. Most folks are happy to teach you what to use, how to use it. You will end up paying a little more than $BigBox, but you also can ask to get a GC account and discount (around 10-15%). Win-win. - Labor savings with modular construction techniques such as SIPs and CIFs are huge if you are a DIY builder. Heck here in Sweden even big projects are built modular!
This is a bit stream of consciousness post, apologies as it is late here and also there are so many emotions linked to those two projects... Message me if you need a sounding board to discuss more.
Happy building!
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#87I just built a "normal" wood house. I have no experience with building concrete houses. Are they normal for your area, or are you trying to follow unusual construction techniques? Something to keep in mind: If you're doing anything slightly unusual, you need to be very careful about who you work with. There are people who will ignore your request to do something a certain way and just do it the same way that it's bee…
If a construction technique is unusual in a particular area, it's usually unusual for a good reason - cost or impracticality or both. For example, in Minneapolis where I live, every house has a basement; they're required by code. The reason is deep frost cycles in the winter. But in Houston, nobody has a basement. It'd just be flooded all the time, and there's no freeze cycle to worry about. Standard house constructi…
> If a construction technique is unusual in a particular area, it's usually unusual for a good reason - cost or impracticality or both
Or it's new technology. Concrete has a lot of heat mass, which means that it can be a way to build a lower-energy home.
In my case, heat pumps are new technology where I live. Also, some contractors just don't get it when you ask them to put a switch somewhere or an outlet at a particular location.
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#88If you're in a warm climate this might not be for you, but I live in a moderate climate and I've always been interested in a Rocket Mass Heater as the centerpiece of my house: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_mass_heater Unfortunately I live in a cookie-cutter suburb so it's not feasable right now, but someday...
They seem very popular in the permaculture community, I wonder how effective they really are.
About as effective as any reasonably efficiently designed wood stove. Usually 60%-80% transfer efficiency at best, depending on the exact design and way it's operated. They're a fad because they look cool, not because they're order of magnitude more efficient. You can run them more efficient, but then you have to deal with corrosive condensate, which makes the operational characteristics questionable.
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#89While I haven't built a house, I have built a few smaller structures (3 astronomical observatories, several sheds and gazebos, decks). My main advice would be to give the permitting process a lot of attention before starting. You might be required (or better off) to design the whole thing before starting. To me, it seems easier to build and design in stages, like building the whole outer structure with only a rough i…
For someone interested in building a shed (or many sheds) would you recommend something smaller than 25'x20'. Is post and beam construction a poor choice too?
Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> - Things seem simple from the outside, before you do them for the first time. They are in actuality quite complicated. Even something as straightforward as painting a wall will be hard when you are doing it for the first time. You will make mistakes if you do it yourself. Try to do it yourself only in areas where you can tolerate such mistakes. I'm not a home-builder but I am a home-owner. Let me add that any work…
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.