Building A House/Doing It Yourself/ICFs

[MReeter]

Dan,My wife and I have lived in six different homes in the 14 years we've been married.The first 4 were houses we bought,fixed up,sold,taking profits and reinvesting right back into another place.The 5th was a new stick-built,sold,and finally building the house we now call home.We served as our own G.C. on the two new homes,but had to hire almost all the work done,except for a lot of finish work.I'm telling you,after 14 years of putting in a 9-10 hour day at work,then running home and working on a house into the wee hours of the morning,all weekends and all vacation time,I'm without a doubt, DONE.If you plan plan on building yourself,be prepaired for a great strain on any personal relationship you have.Building a home with a contractor is almost too much at times,let alone trying to do some things yourself.A fair rule of thumb for labor costs,get bids on all materials,excluding concrete,finish flooring,finish plumbing,and finish electrical.Your labor costs will be within a few hundred bucks of that total.At least in our part of the country.Good luck to you on what ever you decide.

 

[dmccarty]

We have thought of trying your approach or a similar one but it just won't work for us. We have two dogs and a 8.5 month old. Just no way we could live in a smaller place. We do have a Homeowners Association that prevents us moving out in a trailer. Now we own most of the lots so we have the votes so I think we could change the coventants but I really don't want to tick off my two neighbors. And the reality is that the trailer is just to small anyway.

So we went down the Modular Road to Home Building. We are at a fork on that trip and have to decide which way to go.

A few years ago, I toyed with the idea of bulding a garage studio but the Credit Union nixed that idea. I'm using a different bank now which is much more flexible on things. Maybe that is the route to take again.... Hmmmmm

Later....
Dan

 

[LarryT]

Dan, this is a little off the main topic but right on with your discussion about designs, especially software. Have you read "The Inmates Are Running The Asylum"? It is by Alan Cooper who is regarded the Father of Visual Basic. He makes a case that very few software programs are "designed" prior to writing code. Based on your comments about design, you'll love this book if you haven't already read it.

Larry...

 

[LarryT]

I too am preparing land to build a home on starting in the next couple of years (shop/barn next year, house later; priorities you know!). Like Dan, one of my main drivers is quality. The rather large, fairly new, and supposedly upscale house I live in now doesn't have a single square or plumb wall in it. Every door swings by itself. Every room is out of square by several inches. I bought it from the builder (who lived in it 9 years) reasoning that he would do a better job of his own house. WRONG! I can see why banks don't like to loan on amature projects (this guy was a plumbing contractor, not a carpenter). Having said that, I plan to build a lot of my own house and be the GC on the rest. How much I do will depend a lot on my status at the time, e.g. retired or not. I've done it before so I know how much work I'm getting in to. Haven't thought much about ICF until now but I certainly will going forward. What I have thought a lot about is various energy efficient aspects such as grey water recycling (for irrigation), geothermal and solar heating, radiant floor heating, local hot water heating, zone heating/cooling, point of use hot water heating, solar and wind power generation, natural (wind) well pumping to storage tanks, construction techniques that maximize efficiency, and so on. There is a magazine called Home Power that has lots of good ideas in it. I also get good ideas from Fine Homebuilding. And most importantly, right here at the Tractorbynet! Since I'll be building the house to spend the rest of my life in, I want it done my way and I'll plan for changes and upgrades from the get go. Any suggestions from the Tractorbynet clan will be most appreciated!

Ok, that's my soapbox! I'm very supportive of what you're doing Dan and we can compare notes along the way.

Larry...

 

[jfakerj]

I'm also in the very begining of the planing stage of building a new home. I think I'm going to go with propane(no gas line here). If I do that I will rent a tank from cenex. I have a heat pump in the house I'm in now which also gives me air conditioning. For air conditioning with gas heat I was thinking of going about 4' under ground with a very large pipe run out from the cold air return and back to the summer fan for distribution troughout the house via the heating ducts. This pipe would be at grade with a drain pipe at the lowest point to allow the drainage of any condensation in the pipe. I read something about this several years ago but can't remember the #s on this. It goes something like this. The ground temp. at xx' under ground is a constant 50 or 60 degrees. The warm air from the house is forced though the pipe and is cooled by the ground and return to the house to be used for cooling in the summer months. I need to run this by a heating specialist in this area to get the size of pipe needed for the volume.

My question is, has anyone heard of a system like this and also does anyone know where I might look to find out more about cooling using the ground temp.

Just trying to find cheap air conditioning for that 2 1/2 month summer here in Western WA.

What-ta-ya-think


Jerry

 

[LarryT]

Jerry, I mentioned that I'm considering geothermal heating/cooling in my last post. A recent issue of Fine Homebuilding did an article on such a system using burried pipe and a heat pump. Unfortunately I accidentally left the magazine in a hotel room. It was probably either Sept or Oct issue, last year (2000). As I recall, they trenched about 6 ft deep and laid a few hundred feet of PVC to get the maximum temp exchange. I'll continue to look for the article but you might try their website or the library.

Larry...

 

[jfakerj]

LarryT

So that's what geothermal cooling is. I didn't know what that kind of system was called. I'll try to find some more info on it.

Thanks for the help

Jerry

 

[LarryT]

Jerry, I looked at the Fine Homebuilding web site and found it. go to site http://www.taunton.com/fh/admin/backissue.htm and look at number 133 topics (Aug/Sep 2000). You can order the back issue. I'm going to order it myself.

Larry...

 

[MarkV]

Jerry,

I was always interested in the system you are thinking of. Seems like a simple way to help with cooling. As a passive system it would have its limits and you would not be lowering the humidity, as you would with an AC unit. Might be enough in your area, but not here in Georgia.

The geothermal unit Larry mentioned is a differnt beast. The coils of buried PVC are filled with liquid to transfer heat and then run through a heat pump. Geothermal will also work by pulling water out of one well and pumping back into another. Many electric utility companys will offer rebates for geotermal systems. The down side is $$$.

MarkV

 

[bpence]

Just a few comments and/or suggestions.

You're not insane for trying to build your own house, just a little crazy! We built our first house in the late 70's from clearing the trees to finishing the interior trim, with the only sub-contracted work being the foundation & cement work, electrical, heat, well, and septic. I did all of the rough and finish construction and did the plumbing. It took about 18 months to "basically finish" the house. Carpets were installed about 3-4 months after we got the occupancy permit. The last piece of interior trim was installed 1 day before the house went up for sale (3 years after we moved in).

Would I do it again? Never in a million years. Am I glad I did it? You bet and I'd never give the experience back. Kind of like the year Uncle Sam let me camp in the back country of SE Asia. It was an incredible learning experience for both my wife and I and it is true that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger. For 18 months my entire life was focused on building that house. After 8-10 hours a day at work, I'd head to the site, fire up the generator, and work 'til midnite or 1:00 AM 5 days a week. On weekends, I stayed at the site from Friday night until Sunday night, usually sleeping in the truck until the shell was closed up. The days I had subs on the site I usually took vacation days from work to make sure they did things the way I wanted them done and I didn't get short-changed on the work. I found I often had to be a real jerk to get the subs to finish jobs and even had to withhold payment to get work compelted. I didn't get a construction loan until the shell was weather tight (about 4-5 months into the build).

If you decide to build your own house, plan on not doing much else until the house is done. The rough construction was easy and lots of friends and relatives were helpful in pounding nails. When it came to the finish work, help was a lot harder to come by. If we were to ever build another new home, my wife and I have decided that we'd use a reputable builder and check the construction progress on a real regular basis (say every couple of days). Having seen everything from short-nailing studs to trying to save solder on pipe joints, you have to watch like a hawk.

If you decide you build yourself, good luck. It will be an experience you'll remember for the rest of your life.

Bob Pence