House Building - Save money

[rgood]

Guys, we still have our ICF house on the drawing board. I can think of lots of ideas to make the house safer and energy efficient etc. Most of the ideas cost lots of money.

My question for you is where can you save money and not compromise the house?

Example, I know I could buy cheaper windows, but that would be foolish because windows are difficult to replace later and my heat would go out them.

I think I could buy cheaper doors for the rooms in the basement and if I wanted to upgrade them later, no big deal.

What ideas do you have?

 

[jonyyuma]

I recommend the best windows, you can afford, I just had e-rated one's put in last year. Mine had lost the gas between the panes years ago.Plus the best insulation you can afford, might look into the barrier for the attic.Solid Foam for the basement walls?..Advanced heating system..Please don't say fireplace..

 

[Egon]

Concentrate on the Shell making it energy efficient but also not going to extremes.

Also try for fire resistant materials, especially on the outside.

 

[dmccarty]

The expense in a house is the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, trim, siding, windows, and doors. I am sure you could search the Inet and find the average percentage cost of the items in a house.

There is a program called RESFEN that uses parameters from your house design, such as square footage, window sizes, various Windows performance values, etc, and calculates the energy usage and cost of the house design. The program is free and I think created by the US Government.

LBNL Window & Daylighting Software -- RESFEN

I used RESFEN to pick the windows we used in our house. I plugged in the performance numbers for various window brands to see how they would effect our energy usage. Then compared those results to how much the various window brands cost and choose accordingly.

Designing passive heating and cooling into a house is not hard. For little to no cost you can get free heat gain in the winter. We have done this and it works well. I think passive cooling might cost more depending on the design and does nothing for HUMIDITY but it is worth investigation. To help with the heat we put in 10 foot tall ceilings to keep the heat away from us which does help. 10 feet is pretty short compared to older buildings.

We have 100 year old buildings in town and they look like they have 16' ceilings. If you look at old deep south/Florida houses they have very tall ceilings and often wrap around porches to shade the windows and trap breezes. Often the house is built quite a bit off the ground as well. None of which really deals with humidity.

We looked at an energy efficient house design when we were researching the house. The house was designed to use passive cooling and heating. The problem was that the designed required two or three stories. One of our requirements was that the master bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc. be on one level. To do this with the company's floor plan, you had to have a very large house. Over 6,000 sf large. Not happening. :laughing:

I did talk with and read about people who had bought these houses. The passive solar worked just fine. The passive cooling was so so. The design just could not deal with humidity and the owners eventually put in central AC to handle the NC humidity in the summer.

On nights with low summer temps we open our windows to cool off the house and then run the AC as needed during the day. This works quite often. Last night was an exception because it was 82 degrees at 10:00pm. The day temp was 96 so that is an exception.

We also have a whole house fan that we use from time to time to dump heat out of the house and to create a "breeze". We do not use the fan much. Good quality, quiet ceiling fans are a must.

Later,
Dan

 

[YesDeere]

A friend just did geothermal. Already noticing lower utilities. Solar is getting more reasonable. I'd like to put up a windmill.

 

[jdfire]

I agree with the others. Concentrate on the shell and mechanicals then save money on the interior finishes. Think functional. It seems everyone wants granite counters these days, but laminate still works just fine. Design the kitchen and bathrooms to use standard size cabinets rather than custom sizes. Lower cost lights fixtures from big-box stores will still provide light in the room even if they're not as fancy. You can even save a couple hundred dollars using plain switch and receptacle covers rather than decorative ones.

 

[BillBeyer]

I am building one now also. Installed very good windows, spray foam insulation on all exterior walls, trying something new to me, spray foamed the underside of roof. Attic area is supposed to stay within 5 to 10 degrees of house temp. Hope it works like they say. Should be in it approx. 45 days.

 

[EddieWalker]

House costs can vary all over the place. Build yourself for materials and minimal labor for under $40 a foot is real easy to do. Hiring a crew in my part of the country puts you in the $55 a foot range for entry level and $100 a foot is a mini mansion.

ICF's are very expensive and in my opinion, not worth the money. Those who love them, really LOVE them, but you pay for that love. Stick frame is still the most cost effective way to build a house. Start out with a rectangle for the very cheapest design to build. Every angle, bump and shape that you add to it, jumps the price considerably. Think mobile homes and their shape and you have the most cost effective design.

One story is cheaper then two stories for the same square footage. Some have disagreed with me on this, but figure stairs into it, lost square footage and greater expense to build the second story.

Windows have an R rating on them. Most are around R4 give or take. To jack up the price, they make them prettier and add silly features that they tell you will increase their energy effency. If the R value isn't any higher then the cheaper window, then you are just buying icing and not getting any gains for it. More windows mean more loss of energy. That low R value in the window really kills anything you have going on in the walls. It's like building a ship of the very best materials, but leaving a dozen holes in it and wondering why whater is getting into the hull. The only thing worse then windows for energy efficincy is a sky light. I hate them, and absolutely refuse to have one or install one for a client.

Hardi is your best, most cost effective exterior siding. Sheetrock is the most cost effective interior.

Buy premade cabinets. The finish is better then anything that can be done by a cabinet shop, and overall, you will save thousands. Counter tops and flooring are big dollar items that you can do yourself and safe a bunch of money. Carpet is still the cheapest thing to put down for flooring, but the snap together wood floors are very nice and very easy to do yourself if you have patience and dont rush it.

Painting is easy to do, but time consuming. Get a few bids on what it will cost and then consider doing it yourself. If you don't have any flooring down, it's pretty easy to get a lot done real fast.

Avoid trends and whatever the latest fashion is.

2,000 square feet is about the perfect size for function. After that you are either adding bedrooms or wasted space. Make sure the floor plan is functional and what you really want. Do you need two living areas? two eating areas? wide open area in your bedroom? Lots of things sound nice, but once done, really have little benifit. Grand entry ways are good for entertaining, but if you use the back door all the time, why put money into an area that isn't even used? Things like that go into every home. Identifying them and using the space differently, or the money on something else can result in huge savings.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[Gizmo2]

EddieWalker,
That my friend was a good posting. I would also say probably 100% correct.

 

[YesDeere]

I'll second that!! My wife and I are just starting to look into building. She was thinking prefab but as you said. I may be better off stick built. One thing we agree on is nothing fancy. No one wants to be house poor