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Ask HN: Have you built a house?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#21

Post by jakamau »

sonaltr wrote: post #16
perilunar wrote: post #10

> I am thinking about a massive, concrete house. Great. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concre...

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-points can definitely be raised:

- Tree farms use a good deal of water and fertilizer

    - The same argument can be raised against most industrial farming
- Natural environments have been destroyed to create and expand tree farms

We can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Traditional building materials end up being better for the environment than concrete and many non-traditional materials.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#22

Post by tonyedgecombe »

dirktheman wrote: post #17

If 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.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#23

Post by caw »

wallflower wrote: post #2

No, I have not built a house. However, I highly recommend you take a look at two books before you move earth. The first is "House" by Tracy Kidder. https://www.amazon.com/House-Tracy-Kidder/dp/0618001913 The second is "Renovation" by Michael Litchfield. https://www.amazon.com/Renovation-4th-Completely-Revised-Upd... The first book is a detailed, engrossing narrative about building an actual house (it exists). The sec…

If you prefer the video format over a book, Grand Designs (BBC, select seasons available on Netflix) is a series covering the build from nothing to completion of complex or unconventional building designs. Most of the time the episode covers how the build goes wrong.

There are certain themes across the variety of site locations and designs and backgrounds of the individuals building:

1) It costs more than expected

2) It takes longer than expected

3) Project managing it yourself is extremely difficult

4) Building it yourself is even more difficult

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#24

Post by mywittyname »

I've had a custom house built by a very well-respected GC in my region. Despite not doing any of the actual labor, I'm doing an incredible amount of work. Since it's a totally custom house, I spent all weekend for five or so months going to supplier offices to pick out materials, designing tile work & shelving, tweaking layouts, etc. Since the project has taken so long, I've had to deal with suppliers running out of materials and having to redesign a significant portion of the house. I even hired a professional designer to help with ordering and negotiating.

I'm at the house after every trade leaves to ensure things are done correctly. I've had to ask for dozens of things to be redone because it was just wrong. Doors were the wrong size (and installed anyway, despite having written on the door the correct size), the wrong color, outlets were missed, the stairs had to be moved (!!!), the tub was backwards, etc.

Additionally, even though it's a custom house, I already regret some design decisions, but it's impossible to fix them now.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#25

Post by gmiller123456 »

While 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 idea about where everything else will go, then filling in the details when you get to that point. But each stage might require a new permit, since it wasn't mentioned in the previous one. And this can add a lot of time and delays into the project.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#27

Post by tucaz »

openfuture wrote: post #7
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…

Could you recommend resources for the topics you mention as good to learn?

If you look for the desired task on YouTube you will find a LOT of REALLY USEFUL resources ranging from 2 [1] minutes video to 30-minutes [2] long video with all necessary details.

In addition to the parent's advice, I would say for you to prototype/test the technique/task you are trying to accomplish before doing it in the actual part.

You will screw it up even the simpler tasks so make sure you screw up something that you don't care about before trying it in "production".

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McH3Cha7dnk - 1 minute video on priming a wall

[2] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETRU3AxYq0w - 15 minute video on the same topic

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#28

Post by mothsonasloth »

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 existing structure is there e.g. (concrete weaknesses, old cladding, planning permissions).

I tried to tackle it pragmatically like a piece of software, I didn't want to get too far ahead of myself in case I ran out of money or something catastrophic happened.

It is interesting how building problems are similar to software problems. For example connecting two types of waste pipe from a sink and washing machine to an older specification of waste pipe, was just like solving an API integration issue (minus the tape and coupling I had to hack together)

Now that the place is wind and watertight, I can now focus on planning the internals over the winter period and then come back to the property next summer with energy.

Since my place was in a remote location, I had to factor in costs of transportation. Which looking back, ate about 10% of my total budget.

Tradesmen unreliability is another thing to factor in, which caused about 2 months total in delays.

In summary, my experience is no different to any other engineering project. I have been tempted to write up about it, however I am more focused about getting back to work as I am near enough broke now :)

Here's a photo of the end result - bearing in mind it didn't have a roof and all the windows were broken / smashed

https://pasteboard.co/HBisuqe.jpg

Feel free to ask any questions, I am from the UK so it might not be relevant in some cases.

Also check for "free" money; as in grants for insulation, solar panels etc.

Re: Ask HN: Have you built a house?

#29

Post by minhazm423 »

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…

Was this for your own house? Or for someone elses? If the latter, how did you get into that business?
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