I have some experience in building homes, garages, and sheds. Any valuable building advise and suggesting into building and setting a new home. I will sub- contracting the plumping, electrical, installing installation, cabinets, and heating of home project.

At this moment, Here are some questions of interest and some other question will arise as the discussion get going. What are the Pros and Cons of each part of home building?

1. What size of home? Pros and Cons of size of home?
2. Was it contracted out? or was it built by homeowner builder? Pros and Cons.
3. What type of Slab, Concrete or Floor Joist? Pros and Cons?
4. What type of Heating, Forced Air or Radiant Heat? Pros and Cons?
5. What is the time period of building a home?
6. Process of setting up footer?
7. Process of setting up stem walls?
8. Tips on setting up walls?
9. Tips on setting up roof?

 

I designed and general contracted my house 27yrs ago but most of your questions still apply.

1. About 2400 sq ft plus an 850 sq ft garage. Size depends on your needs and budget. I would be more concerned that the floor plan works for you regardless of the size.

2. I sub-ed a lot of the work but did some of the rough and all of the finish carpentry, insulation, painting etc. Two words about subs -- its not always a good idea to have an old friend as a sub and you are a one time customer for the sub. The subs bread and butter comes from the regular building contractors. You will be on the bottom of their list to get things done especially when there is a building boom going on. Have time constraints written into your contracts.

3. Full basement with poured walls. This kind of depends on your location.
Poured walls are the strongest / most expensive. If you have sandy soil you will be fine with block walls. Some areas only use slabs. Whatever you do, BUILD ON HIGH GROUND! Don't be in the low spot of a subdivision or ANY flood plain.

4. Forced air HVAC. I like zoned hot-water heat but then you still have to have forced air for A/C.

5. That all depends on how much work you do yourself and what obstacles you run into. It took me over a year and once I moved in, I was exhausted.

6. - 9. If your asking these questions I would recommend subbing it out and working with the sub for free as a learning experience.

 

Is this for yourself or you are going into the custom built home business ?

I have been involved in building 7 houses and helped design and build one 3800+sq ft house.

 

Up until 1991, I was involved with the building of several thousand homes. Then I retired and a few years ago totally changed vocations. Since I am in Texas and from the sound of the questions, you are apparently building something up North, my knowledge will have few benefits for you. Building in the South, we only fight the heat, folks up North fight the cold and the wet- that's not the same ballgame. All of the homes I was involved with were slab on grade,no basement- we don't need them as the utilities are only 24" under the soil generally and we don't know what a frost line is except in the old refrigerators. The size would be from 800 sq ft to 12000+ sq ft. The biggest had an Olympic size swimming pool that had a plexiglass liner that run across it for indoor/outdoor fun. Half of the pool was inside and half outside with a plexiglas door that dropped from the third story roof. The outside had a screen enclosure over it with a built in b-b-q, open air bar, etc. Most of the homes here use the standard HVAC gas system as it is the most efficient. Builders will try to get past a few code issues by installing a heat pump but for here they are energy burners. If you aready have your basic design, I would suggest researching at www.buildingscience.com and find the area that you are building in. What works for us southern folks won't work for the nothern folks- toally different environments, different issues. The website has suggestions for all locations and environments. Frankly, if you decide to build yourself, you will be surprised how easy it really is. I would suggest an engineers inspection when the framing is complete,HVAC is roughed in, the rough plumbing in place, and the electrical is in place. You might want to call around and see what they charge in your area for the inspection. Around here it's about $300.00. But it's cheap insurance to know that everything is like it should be.

 

Radiant heat in the floor will severly limit your use of hardwood flooring.

I'd put a basement in

 

This home will be a single story. The home will need to pass state inspections for each phase of building, for foundation, plumbing, electrical and etc.

xlt4me & jake00, this home will have no basement.
xlt4me, #1, I was planning on including a 30'x40' garage.
#3 location is sugar like sandy soil, which will make pouring footer and stem walls challanging. When I laid down the septic the walls would cave in. Any hints on setting up a foundation on sandy soil?
#4, include both radiant and forced air ? priced out both and each cost $15,000.
#5, I'm thinking about the same time period for construction, one year.
#6, I have laid out and constructed walls, and roofs. I know I can help do this type of work, might sub contract out portions.

Mil1ion, The home is for my family.

Flash, will check out the building science link. I have designed my house plans and it has meet approved by the state construction division. I took into consideration the orientation of Solar south and roof overhangs. I have been researching for this project for about 7 years. The building requirements here in the north are different for roof loads and insulation requirements.The building codes are common and will meet the UBC codes and IBC codes.

 

Finished our 4200' house with 1600' garage about 1 1/2 years ago. Took 10 months after slab was poured, 2 1/2 years from start to finish..........living in a 40' travel trailer the whole time!!

Aren't foundations based on the area??? EVERYTHING in Vegas seems to be slab where other parts of the country ( sandy soil??) are raised.

I personally like slab for the perceived solidness of the flooring but fear the day of a water leak!!

Go 2X6 construction..........I have R-21+ in the walls and R-38 in the attic....waay above code here in Las Vegas. My Furnaces have only been fired up 5-6 times during 2 winters!!!

Insulate all interior walls.......makes for a very quiet house.

I used the blown in medium instead of Batts........EVERY nook and cranny is covered.

Went with Freus water cooled 18 seer air conditioning units. 3 units totalling 13 tons.
Check with your power company....got a HEALTHY rebate going with the 18 seer.

Furnances are 100k BTU 90%..........as stated, don't get used much.


Synthetic stucco............GREAT finish!!!

Stamped concrete in some areas.......cool because the flooring was instantly done.

MINIMAL carpeting.....nasty bug/dirt hiding stuff. Used tons of marble/travertine for the floors.

600 amp service with lots of empty conduit for future runs.

Lots of sweat equity, but of course subbed out stuff also.

Good luck....It's like child birth; while doing it you swear you'll never do it again, when you're done, it wasn't that bad.






The red stuff under the stone is a rubber like barrier we rolled on to prevent cracking of the stone if the slab cracks.......so far, so good!!

 

DOHC you show off... just kidding. beautiful home. here in upstate ny, we have to heat alot. 30 yrs in the trade i prefer oil fired hot h2o. with the new pex tubing and absorbing concrete, hard wood floors tolerate radiant heat well. tile floors as well. hot air furnaces are ok and make central air easier, but the efficiancy<sp sucks. a heat pump and air handler for ac works alot better, if you can spend 3-5 grand extra for the ac. cellars are always a + not only for you, but for resale. a few extra grand pays you back. here, as far as drainage... i can't address that where you are. here it can be 5-6 grand to keep the cellar dry, but it adds alot of value to the home not to mention lower insurance bills. just my 2 cents

 

Thank you..........You're the person I need to ask;

I do have the recirculating hot water pump with 4 bathrooms around the perimeter and of course the kitchen and powder room more toward the center of the house.

House is 90% stone floors..

Realize that even though we are in the desert that sub-freezing temps during winter nights are not un-common..

So my question is; do think that reirc. hot water acts as a radiant heat source?

I'm still amazed (and happy)how my house retains heat in the winter.....

 

recirc does generate a few degrees. not worth trying to capture for any btu out put.if you have hot h2o heat, and a crawl space or cellar, i'd look into some type of radiant heating. the floors become heaters even after the water stops moving. you'll throw stones at any other type heat once you feel how warm your feet are and how even the temp is in the rooms you have the radiant. good luck, and great house you've shown us.
carl

 

DOHCmarauder, I thought of the same thing with the concrete slab (future water leaks). What is stamped concrete?

I planning carpet in the bedrooms with tile everywhere.

My electrician mentioned using a 200 amp meter service with 200 amp panel box for the house and another 200 amp panel (2 phase) for the garage.

lenny1carl, recirc is the pump for the hot water. Is their a particular brand to use and what setup process?

 

taco 007's are about bullet proof for most applications. bell & gossett are my recomended pumps. huge body and a few more parts, but they can suck a golf ball through a garden hose. not to mention they are thougher than wood-pecker lips. yeah my redneck is showing, but either circulator is good. if you are on a slab, you are restricted by the building you have. in order to retro-fit a slab your going to be into big $$$$.. i wish i had seen your plans before walls went up, and concrete was poured. you'd be kicking *** now with the difference in heating the Taj Maraduer. but your cooling should be a little easier with the stamped "cret floor and tiles

 

LOL.........heating has not been a problem!! I did think of the in-floor heating grid but I don't think I'm missing it!!

 

Stamped concrete is a concrete guys best friend..........he'll try to charge you $4+ extra a foot to basically take a plastic form and beat it into you semi-setup pour.

I rented the the forms, bought the colored powder I wanted and did it myself.

Here's the back patio;




This is the game room;

 

DOHC thats just mean..my pool table is only 6' and takes quaters. ok, so it's in my local gin joint and i can't go anymore w/ nan being sick. but i paid for that SOB several times. damn thats a good looking table. it's a brunswick i'm sure. about 7 grand.??