Anybody here build their own house?

[Zero102]

A member of my family is looking to tear down an inner-city house, and build 2 in-fills in it's place. The catch is, construction companies are FAR too expensive. I am somewhat proficient in a couple trades (electrical, plumbing, carpentry), but have never built a house from scratch. The plan is (if it goes through) for a couple friends and I to take the entire summer off, knock down the rotted-out piece of garbage that is on the land, and build 2 houses in it's place. I know that things like the foundation can not be done by myself, and that I cannot install the electrical panel (since I'm not a J-man), but other than that I feel pretty confident taking this project on.
Who here has built their own house? If you don't mind me asking, were there any big unexpected surprises, anything that once you had done it, you wish you had hired somebody to do, or anything else worth mentioning about doing it yourself?

I have been in construction for years, and have worked on houses at various stages of completion, but never have I worked on one house right from the start to the finish.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

[ca2p3r]

prepare to spend lots on tradesmen...

[sputnik]

The reason that construction companies are expensive is because trades people are expensive. However if you have experience being your own general contractor you might be able to save about 10%. However be prepared to work your ass off chasing down workers and making sure the work is done properly.

[Zero102]

I did mean do most of the work myself. Like I mentioned, skilled electician, plumber, carpenter, and I have some friends who are good with drywall, who work for beer :) 2 of those friends used to be framers, so I think we have most of the construction trades covered.

For example, I know that the bill for the electrical in most mid-sized homes is ~$15,000, and I know that materials are between $3000 and $4000. So, that is roughly $11.5k saved there. Drywall is similar, so is plumbing, and carpentry is worse (almost 80% of cost is labor).
I honestly believe I can cut the construction costs better than in half by doing most of the work myself, but I am also smart enough to know that the pre-foundation rough-in and the foundation have to be done for me, as the electrical panel (part of the rough-in) must be installed by a journeyman, and the connection is done by enmax (or whoever does it now), and I am not a skilled cribber.

I've been the site foreman several times, even though I'm only a 3rd year electrician, and managing people isn't a big difficulty, so organizing the few trades that we need should be a pretty minimal effort.

However, when it comes to things like inspections, has anybody ever done the work themselves, then learned that it has to be signed off on by a journeyman (or master), or had unexpected things come up, like failed inspections, etc?
I am hoping to be able to nip a lot of these problems in the bud by coming on here and asking for advice. We are about 75% sure that this is the plan right now, and it seems like a great idea so far.

[5hift]

I'm not trying to offend you, but more bring you back to reality, having seen my Dad do it and see all the stress that comes with it.

Despite how good of friends they may be, I have a hard time believing they will commit to building a house and accept payment in beer. Call me crazy, even if it was a friend, I wouldnt spend the whole summer helping building a house that someone else is going to profit off of when all i got was free beer.

Another thing, you and your friends might be very capable and know what your doing, but when someone is going to buy it, the first thing they will ask is who built it. Believe it or not, a ragtag group of friends who put a house together (even if you guys know what you are doing) will not be more impressive to a buyer than a reconizable (SP?) builder.

[Weapon_R]

Would you really want someone who works for scraps to construct a home that your family member expects to live in?

Hire a professional. It's not cheap, but at least the job is done right.

[sputnik]

Originally posted by 5hift
Despite how good of friends they may be, I have a hard time believing they will commit to building a house and accept payment in beer. Call me crazy, even if it was a friend, I wouldnt spend the whole summer helping building a house that someone else is going to profit off of when all i got was free beer.


:werd:

I feel sorry for his friends. Skilled framers are making GOOD bank right now and anyone dumb enough to work for beer is probably incapable of doing a good job. As a rule I dont help friends with construction projects unless they know what they are doing themselves and are putting in more than half of the work.

[FiveFreshFish]

The other thing about free labour is that you are at the mercy of their schedules. If something comes up, it's usually the volunteer stuff that's put aside first.

[snowboard]

Just put my roof on this weekend on a 3 story walk out on chestermere lake.

Its not that hard, it is stressful when you take it on just before winter though, because your trying to seal it before it snows right.

It wasnt hard, We had a crew of, me my grand father my dad, 4 uncles and 3 family freinds. me and my grandpa worked 7 days week since the start of september and everyone else worked 3 or 4. we did everything. except Cribbing, but what had a former neighbour/freind do that for us.

But see my family is one of those do it yourself hick type. we have every tool imaginable and know anyone we could ever need for help. we got plumbers and electricians in the family. the only thing were getting done professionally is the tin bashing.

Personally id say do it yourself, it was fun, even though my dad took out every ounce of stress he had on me, i just ook it and kept working cause i knew he didnt mean to, so just prepare for that!

PS im only 18 and have no trade skills whatsoever, other than what ive learned from my family.



PM me if you want any info or wanna talk about what was hard and shit mannn

[ringmaster]

props to this guy ^^
I wish I had the resources and knowledge to build a house.

[Kobe]

Originally posted by snowboard
Just put my roof on this weekend on a 3 story walk out on chestermere lake.

Its not that hard, it is stressful when you take it on just before winter though, because your trying to seal it before it snows right.

It wasnt hard, We had a crew of, me my grand father my dad, 4 uncles and 3 family freinds. me and my grandpa worked 7 days week since the start of september and everyone else worked 3 or 4. we did everything. except Cribbing, but what had a former neighbour/freind do that for us.

But see my family is one of those do it yourself hick type. we have every tool imaginable and know anyone we could ever need for help. we got plumbers and electricians in the family. the only thing were getting done professionally is the tin bashing.

Personally id say do it yourself, it was fun, even though my dad took out every ounce of stress he had on me, i just ook it and kept working cause i knew he didnt mean to, so just prepare for that!

PS im only 18 and have no trade skills whatsoever, other than what ive learned from my family.



PM me if you want any info or wanna talk about what was hard and shit mannn

Hey, were bulding a house right now aswell, but we can't do the copper ourselves...

Do you know anyone that could give us a quote?

[mrbojangles]

Yes, you can save a ton of money and think of the accomplishment you will have done! Plus, refining your skills and learning a few more along the way is bonus.

I think your time frame is tight. Do you have a dedicated crew and crews that can overlap each other during the construction to keep progress going?

Some other things to keep in mind which you probably have already have taken in account: :)

-Coordinating with the City for services (water, sewage, gas) (closing off the street for trenches, etc)

-Permits, blueprints, passed by the city - making sure they fall in with the guidelines of the neighborhood, especially inner city neighborhoods that may have stricter rules.

-understanding the blueprints and have a resource available for any questions regarding the blueprints.

-Time period of acceptance from the community of your building plans - if someone files against the proposed plans, prepare for a delay in breaking ground.

-Dealing with neighbors.

-Dealing with neighbors.

-Dealing with neighbors.

-Will you be able to provide a builders warranty that is comparable to similiar priced new properties?

-Removal of old house....hire a demo that can take down and haul away in a few hrs. It's great fun manually taking down a house, but man, loading it all up or putting into dumpsters is a killer.

- Dealing with neighbors.

-Insurance and liabililty.

-Get very familiar with the code.

-Plan for possible re-work after inspections.

Based on just you and a few friends, building two Infills in a summer is tight. Completing the interior work will take many, many more months after that. A few days or week(s) of bad weather really screws things up. If you are delayed in getting that second story framed, then ya gotta re- book the crane or conveyor belt for the shingles, etc, etc.

People working for beer. For a weekend project sure, but boarding, taping and mudding two infills (Two storys I assume) will be a long process - most of the summer. That's a long time for volunteer work. Beer buddies will burn out long before completion. Plus it's summer=distractions. You need to put a value on that type of finishing work ...if not, it will be reflected in the final outcome which spells disaster for market value.

There are a ton of little things that will eat your time away and also nickle and dime the budget away.

Acting as the General - Sounds easy to say coordinating people and the project and for some it is. But you will most likely find yourself not spending alot of time on the tools, but most of your day just organizing and keeping on top of things. As the General, you will have to be constantly thinking about the next few steps or phases and have it all researched, planned, materials delivered and in place, etc while answering questions constantly from your help. For the trades that you will need to hire, this is part of the process where things can grind to a halt. If one is delayed, everyone is delayed. Then you have to get trade schedules to work....will they be *all* available to start when you need them? Things will always come up which need decissions. Decissions take time and before you know it, you are behind schedule.


Not trying to be an a-hole, but these are the things that unfortunately can happen during a build process - by knowing this you will be well prepared to take on anything.

Sounds like a great way to spend the summer, but again, carefully check that timeline you have in mind. Estimate your time frame and then triple it.

edit: I forgot to mention that what I mentioned can all be dealt with of course, the biggest headache with these projects is always the *Time*. One just seems to always run out of it!

[Zero102]

Funny, with this comment, you spawned about 3 posts of people essentially telling me to get real....


Despite how good of friends they may be, I have a hard time believing they will commit to building a house and accept payment in beer. Call me crazy, even if it was a friend, I wouldnt spend the whole summer helping building a house that someone else is going to profit off of when all i got was free beer.

And yet it's not even right!
I said I had a couple drywaller friends who work for beer. The rest of the people are actually very skilled, and getting proper compensation for their time, if anything, they will be getting overpaid.

As for the drywall, I have done these guys a lot of favors, and they pretty much told me that if I do this, they will come over, they figure it will take less than 2 weeks to do, the catch is I supply food and drinks at the end of the day. Pretty good deal if you ask me, besides at the end of this, we would be even.



People working for beer. For a weekend project sure, but boarding, taping and mudding two infills (Two storys I assume) will be a long process - most of the summer. That's a long time for volunteer work. Beer buddies will burn out long before completion. Plus it's summer=distractions. You need to put a value on that type of finishing work ...if not, it will be reflected in the final outcome which spells disaster for market value.

I don't see how it could possibly take the summer. When my dad and I drywalled our basement, it took about 8 hours to board it, and 2 days to mud, tape and sand. It was a 1400sq ft basement, with a LOT of walls (it's a pretty crazy basement)
But, once the outside is finished, the furnace goes in, and the board is up, there is heat inside, and working into the fall/early winter isn't so bad.

When I said over the summer, perhaps I mis-explained. We would be scheduling to break ground in march or april, once it thaws out. From there, trying to get everything roughed in by the end of april, so we can all start on it full time near the end of april (when we are all available again). Hopefully the outside and board will be up by the beginning/middle of august (which I think is pretty reasonable), with the finishing being finished (haha, bad pun...) by perhaps the end of september. Painting, carpet, etc, only takes a couple weeks.

After talking with my friends, I have 4 people, plus 3 family members willing to devote a summer to this for the right price. I think this is possible. (not counting my drywall friends)

[Zero102]

snowboard, mrbojangles,

I have a couple quick questions for you guys, since it sounds like you have both BTDT.
Blue prints, did you guys hire architectural companies? An engineering firm? Did you draw up your own prints, buy a set?... etc.
I know you have to submit prints to the city for a building permit, were there any problems in that department?

Co-ordination of utility providers,
Just how much work had to be done by journeyman/utility companies, that is, what work is there that as a (future) homeowner you are not allowed to do?


I think I mis-explained in my last post, when I siad everything roughed in by the end of april, I meant everything pre-foundation.

[snowboard]

Utilities are the bitch to coordinate with. not as bad in calgary as in chesteremere though haha.

but yah who ever said it would take a summer to drywall a house must be incompatent. shit, is not hard? haha.

as for blue prints we got a copy from a company that my dads freind works at, and since we both draft, re-drew them at work to how we wanted them to look! on AutoCAD

[Zero102]

You don't need an engineer to sign off or anything?
Does the city have engineers who will be looking over the drawings for any big problems? I'd hate to make up my own prints, then have somebody tell me that the beams for my main floor are too small, or I have violated building code in some other way.
I know there are places you can buy sets of blueprints for houses, and we're considering going that route to save some trouble (since they modify them to your request), but they aren't cheap, so we're not sure.

Drywalling should only take a few days, 2 weeks tops. Honestly, I've been watching a few houses go up in our neighborhood, and 2 of them are doing what we're planning on doing. They started at similar times, and are being done by a development company (maybe the same one, they don't have signs up). Anyhoo, long story short, they started demolishing the old houses around the end of august, and they are putting the roofs on right now. They have had people there working on it maybe 5-6 hours a day, 3-4 days a week. It's been a pretty slow schedule, and even when there are people on site, there is usually only one truck or van there, so there can't be more than a couple people. I am feeling a little more optimistic about this now.

[sputnik]

I believe you need the blueprints stamped by an engineer in order to get a building permit from the city.