Barndominium/Shop or "real" House?

[garc]

I would have to think about the second window in the bedroom, would require moving and adding another post. I don't sleep with windows open, I sleep with AC cranked.

No posts were harmed in the drawing of the previous post, LoL.
You could use a smaller window ??? I get head colds with AC so I sleep on top of the covers when it's really hot.

 

[garc]

Trying to cool the floor to cool the building will result in wet floors.

Hmmm, never thought of that and if it's anything like Toronto's high humidity you could be swimming as shown by any decently cold beer

 

[garc]

I had Warmboard in my ICF house design, it was one of the things that made the estimate explode. So now I'm thinking for the living space I would just go the more traditional route and put the tubing on the underside of the sub-floor with heat reflectors & insulation etc.

This falls under the category of You can pay me now or pay me later!
I guess I shouldn't be surprised the Warmboard is expensive but on the other hand I believe the underside of the sub-floor is the least efficient and will increase your operating cost. You are still thinking long term ???
From personal experience I went with PEX and nailed clips to the sub floor to which was added 1½" of fiber filled concrete with dull red coloring. We had to add a 2x4 floorplan to the sub floor to raise the house 1½" for the concrete. 15 years later I added 1250 square feet (less walls) of ceramic tile flooring for a better finished look and $15K less in my bank account!
The beauty of Warmboard I would imagine would be easy and accurate installation plus more even and faster heat transfer. The slots for the PEX and the aluminum making it work that much better.

 

[ratflinger]

Can you contract on your own property in NY? ICF is not that hard. Get the foundation properly engineered and poured and then stack the ICF yourself. Bet the ICF sales engineer will come out a few times during stacking and at the pour. You'll have to buy the scaffolding/supports but I've seen those on Craigslist and you could then resell. Watched them build mine, they just used a table saw to cut the blocks. It's like stacking Legos. The ICF sales guy will know the right slump and mix for the pour. Cost should be maybe 10% more than stick.

 

[ETD66SS]

This falls under the category of You can pay me now or pay me later!
I guess I shouldn't be surprised the Warmboard is expensive but on the other hand I believe the underside of the sub-floor is the least efficient and will increase your operating cost. You are still thinking long term ???
From personal experience I went with PEX and nailed clips to the sub floor to which was added 1½" of fiber filled concrete with dull red coloring. We had to add a 2x4 floorplan to the sub floor to raise the house 1½" for the concrete. 15 years later I added 1250 square feet (less walls) of ceramic tile flooring for a better finished look and $15K less in my bank account!
The beauty of Warmboard I would imagine would be easy and accurate installation plus more even and faster heat transfer. The slots for the PEX and the aluminum making it work that much better.

Believe me, I'd really like Warmboard. I've incorporated it in many of my designs. But when structures are already $100k more than I can afford to build, it's just not possible...

 

[ETD66SS]

Can you contract on your own property in NY? ICF is not that hard. Get the foundation properly engineered and poured and then stack the ICF yourself. Bet the ICF sales engineer will come out a few times during stacking and at the pour. You'll have to buy the scaffolding/supports but I've seen those on Craigslist and you could then resell. Watched them build mine, they just used a table saw to cut the blocks. It's like stacking Legos. The ICF sales guy will know the right slump and mix for the pour. Cost should be maybe 10% more than stick.

Yes, I can contract on my own property, but I am not a builder and would likely lose a lot of money on mistakes as it would be the first time I'm building a home.

Laying ICF block certainly does look easy enough, but I imagine it's harder than it looks on pour days keeping walls level, true, plumb, no blowouts etc. I can imagine it can go bad real fast. And what makes an ICF build so expensive where I am is it seems most contractors are allergic to them and double their labor rates for Electrical/Plumbing/HVAC etc.

Yeah, I really want ICF & Warmboard and all those great efficient products. But unless I 100% take on the build myself I can't afford what contractors are asking to build with said products. I'm finding going with traditional stick framing is still 50-75% more expensive than it was pre-covid. So unless something radically, economically changes in the building market, I'm probably stuck building the bardo so I have a place to live and a shop for my hobbies and get on with life.

 

[ovrszd]

I would like to do geothermal someday. And if the ban on NG and LP goes thru, starting in 2030 we can no longer buy gas appliances. Stupid government... I still plan to put in NG anyways, as I have it on my street.

You can use NG to fire your heaters. Definetly hook up to it. Cheaper than Propane.

I use Propane to fire 3 tankless heaters and my HVAC.

 

[5030]

The floor heat in my 40 x 40 shop (Pex in concrete) is heated with a propane fired water heater. Great and very controllable heat plus I have 2 liquid to air heat exchangers mounted higher up that I can energize for additional heat if needed. Best investment I ever made.

On the subject of a barndominium. I would never, ever have one. Simple reason is, if any equipment or cars or whatever catches fire, you not only loose your shop, you loose your dwelling too. Guy down the road built a huge one for his farm operation and lost almost everything in a fire in it. Insurance covered most of it but it was motel time for a long time. Not something I'd ever consider. Want my living space separate from my shop or parking / storage space, always.

 

[garc]

One good reason NOT to try to be your own GC is that it will probably cost you more. I tried it with an excellent builder 20 years ago who was willing to give me advice along the way and also recommend some of the subs. It all worked out in the end and I even caught a couple of his mistakes in the nick of time which he fixed immediately and no fuss either.
What's wrong with that you say? Well, the trades will give a pro GC a better price than with a one time relationship homeowner. I wasn't trying to save money, I just wanted more control and I didn't realise when I started just how good, fair and helpful my builder would turn out to be.
Years later a friend also designed his own home and wanted to be the GC as well. I convinced him to to use my builder and to let that builder be the GC. The build went very smoothly and within budget.
The moral of the story is that with rare exception no matter how good your builder is you'll most likely be better off if you let him do his job and hire his own trades.
I have since hired the same builder to build the cottage foundation and in 2015 do $50K CDN worth of improvements to the main house.
As a bonus I was lucky enough to gain a friend.

 

[5030]

The other issue is... If you have a loss by fire or natural disaster, your insurance carrier will replace your dwelling part but the one thing most people forget is..

You equipment is only covered to ACV which means you get to eat the difference.

I'd never do that and all those CAD drawings and the actual product will vary.

Drawings and dreaming are nice. Reality is another animal.