Building you own house?

[rockdog2112]

Not to concered about how to build the house, got that covered.


Some Tools I would need,,,,,going to need them sometime anyway.

I was more interested on how you drew up your plans, and figured out your house would cost.

I used Autocad 2000. I took a few weeks to learn the program and then started designing. Tip- You can never have to many closets. Coat closets, vacuum closets, dressing closets, and a walk in pantry. Yout wife will love you for them. lol Also, don't skimp on hallway width. Mine are 4' and it's nice. Same with my staircase.
Figuring cost is all leg work for accuracy. I used the 3 bid rule. I didn't have time to get 10 different bids on the work I contracted out, which wasn't alot but some. Some folks use a Sq. footage number but that will vary from area to area and it will vary by how much work you do yourself. Some things will have to be subbed out. You simply won'y have time. The bank won't give you forever. Probably a year tops.

 

[Blu Du]

I used Autocad 2000. I took a few weeks to learn the program and then started designing. Tip- You can never have to many closets. Coat closets, vacuum closets, dressing closets, and a walk in pantry. Yout wife will love you for them. lol Also, don't skimp on hallway width. Mine are 4' and it's nice. Same with my staircase.Figuring cost is all leg work for accuracy. I used the 3 bid rule. I didn't have time to get 10 different bids on the work I contracted out, which wasn't alot but some. Some folks use a Sq. footage number but that will vary from area to area and it will vary by how much work you do yourself. Some things will have to be subbed out. You simply won'y have time. The bank won't give you forever. Probably a year tops.

that is exactly what i did on my home

 

[Cyle]

Your probably better off to buy plans to get a templete of what you want, then make small changes. For the house i'm building with my dad right now, they were about $2,000, and you get 5 blueprints. The truss company should design the roof and floor themselves based on what you want. The advantages are, it is easier to get estimates for stuff, and saves a lot of time. There is a lot of trades to deal with if you aren't doing it yourself, but if you manage it right it shouldn't be bad. A well designed house should have extremly limited hallway, on our main floor, there is only about 5' of it, in 2300 SQ FT.

Building a house isn't really that bad. Doing one with my dad right now, got the roof on and windows in, and the only thing we haven't done since hitting dirt was dig the basement. We did the basement, weeping tile, framing, shingling, windows and doors. Only trades you really cannot do yourself is plumbing, heating, electrical, cabinants. Other then that it's pretty simple. Granted my dad build our current house over 20 years ago himself so he knows what's going on. I am learning what to do, and it's really not that much.

As far as trades screwing up, very simple saying, do it right or don't get payed. There is no reason you should have problems with any part of it. No different then hiring someone to do a job in your house. Inspections and code are a joke here.

I plan to do one myself in the next couple years, no point paying a GC. It's like 6 months of work, and save yourself a lot.

I would never touch a house a builder did, seen a lot of shady stuff. Around here they are a joke, I would rather have a 10 year old build my house. Probably get a better job anyways

 

[powpow]

I built my house 4 years ago on 2.5 acres. It is a 3600 sq ft modified two story with numerous extras.

Plans- Find something relative to what you are looking for, the less time you spend making chages to the architects plans, the less you spend. I spent 1000.00 on plans on a house we found on teh parade of homes and modified the plan to suite us, we also had an engineer look at them to add a reccomendations

GC- My advice here is, be your own GC, why pay someone to make calls and handle paperwork. The order in which a house is built is pretty basic and a GC isnt needed for that.

Hire out some things- I reccomend hiring out some of the things that are time consuming, but labor is cheaper, for instance, roofing, siding, drywall, insulation, all of these you want done right the first time

I did the following on my house

all dirt work
electrical
HVAC
trim
flooring, tile,hardwood
stone work
installed the windows/doors
some siding
driveway
painting
staining of wood work/doors
I hired out

framing
roof
insulation
custom cabinets and tops
carpet insall
plumbing
half the siding
block/flat work
septic system

Estimating- drop your palns off at a couple lumber yards, they will get you close
get three estimates on the things you are going to hire out

be prepared for about a year of work!!!!

I saved about $200,000.00, no BS, I still have over 150 k in equity even though that market went to crap

One other thing,,,,think things thru, light placem,ent, switch placement, living areas, etc,,,,,,,,lastly, dont put vinyl siding on your house, I am in teh precess of having mine cement boarded this year, the vinyl is coming off.
drywall

 

[Supplicate]

Only trades you really cannot do yourself is plumbing, heating, electrical, cabinants.

Thats not entirely true IMO. I have wired, plumbed, and ducted several different buildings. They all passed inspection. So long as you aren't a complete idiot and know how to read a book you should be able to wire it up yourself. Granted, some states/areas have it in the code that it needs to be done by a licensed Electrician, some don't.

I would rather wire it myself and have it done -right- rather then just have Romex stretched violin tight in my walls and just jammed into the back of the recepticles rather then having some extra and put onto the terminals "correctly." Most contractors we've ever worked with skimped on everything trying to get profit margin higher. Granted, both ways pass code (usually )....

 

[xrated]

First fire in the "Dog House".

Floors starting to go down.

is that blue stained spruce?

 

[rockdog2112]

is that blue stained spruce?

Sure is. Beetle kill. The log I picked for the mantle just also happened to be. It worked out well I think. Pulled it out of the snowies a few years back. Two coats of laquer. Semi gloss.

 

[CANNONMAN]

This post is amazing, Let's say this home cost $150 a sq. ft., thats $540,000 and you were able to save $200,000 doing it yourself. That amounts to 38% of total cost. No frigggen way, I call bull***t. GC's don't make this kind of money on a home. This is a case of someone not keeping track of true costs of the construction and if people use this as an example and think this is what they are going to save building themselves they will have a severe shortage of funds at the end.

I built my house 4 years ago on 2.5 acres. It is a 3600 sq ft modified two story with numerous extras.

Plans- Find something relative to what you are looking for, the less time you spend making chages to the architects plans, the less you spend. I spent 1000.00 on plans on a house we found on teh parade of homes and modified the plan to suite us, we also had an engineer look at them to add a reccomendations

GC- My advice here is, be your own GC, why pay someone to make calls and handle paperwork. The order in which a house is built is pretty basic and a GC isnt needed for that.

Hire out some things- I reccomend hiring out some of the things that are time consuming, but labor is cheaper, for instance, roofing, siding, drywall, insulation, all of these you want done right the first time

I did the following on my house

all dirt work
electrical
HVAC
trim
flooring, tile,hardwood
stone work
installed the windows/doors
some siding
driveway
painting
staining of wood work/doors
I hired out

framing
roof
insulation
custom cabinets and tops
carpet insall
plumbing
half the siding
block/flat work
septic system

Estimating- drop your palns off at a couple lumber yards, they will get you close
get three estimates on the things you are going to hire out

be prepared for about a year of work!!!!

I saved about $200,000.00, no BS, I still have over 150 k in equity even though that market went to crap

One other thing,,,,think things thru, light placem,ent, switch placement, living areas, etc,,,,,,,,lastly, dont put vinyl siding on your house, I am in teh precess of having mine cement boarded this year, the vinyl is coming off.
drywall

 

[CANNONMAN]

Oh, a couple more things, like who is going to pay for the replaced vinyl siding? Is that figured in on your total costs? There is nothing wrong with vinyl (not my prefernce but it is for a lot of people) as long as it is installed correctly. I also noticed after rereading powpow's post that it looks like he subbed out all the heavy work so he saved all that money ($200,000) just on the finish aspect of the home. That is just absurd as the amount saved is more than what the finish items would normally cost as a whole. I think someone needs a new calculator!!!!!!!!!!

 

[zach477]

Interesting conversation here, I am in the process of finishing my basement after it is all said and done I think I will be the GC and primary builder for my next home. Our home was built in 08 and finished in 09 when we signed the purchase agreement. The first home I have ever owned 1100 sqft main and 980 lower level. The basement was unfinished and had one load bearing wall framed and also a toilet and bath drains roughed in as well as the wet wall pipes (drain and exhaust) routed. When I closed the builder gave me the quotes to finish the basement, and I also was contacted from other contractors with quotes. I live in a development with 6 primary floorplans so they can come in and knock them out quick. The lowest quote was $25k to finish lower level, the highest quote was $30k and neither included carpet. After closing I had $15k to work with to finish the basement and do landscaping. I will spend all $15k plus maybe another $1000. However I now have a fully finished lawn with sod, sprinkler, landscaping, a back block patio with fire pit, a 6 foot wood fence around my whole backyard, a custom finished basement to my liking, a bar in my basement, a custom shower in the basement with drop in Jacuzzi tub, rain drop shower, and steam generator. The basement will also have wired in surround sound that also we extended into the master bed/bath, basement bath, and deck for the patio. I did all the work myself. My neighbor has over $50k invested into the same work minus the fancy bath and little extras down stairs, he also has a few trees that are maybe $100 a piece, and a poured back patio vs block with a door out of his third stall garage. I bought the house for $156k and expect I could put it on the market for $200k.

 

[Nate]

hey b*tch I resent that

I don't see how anyone in my town could afford an electrical contractor Just a truck and me is $142/hr and most of the time I have a mini x and I got no idea what my main man charges for that glorious piece of equipment when it hits location. Buut....we don't do many houses, and the ones we do get involved with, are 4000+sq/ft.

Gotta watch some contractors, it doesn't take a genious to wire a typical house. It only starts gettin a bit tricky when you have lighting zones and have to run a maple display or small PLC or you try to synchronize electrical circuits. Which is getting more common

Thats not entirely true IMO. I have wired, plumbed, and ducted several different buildings. They all passed inspection. So long as you aren't a complete idiot and know how to read a book you should be able to wire it up yourself. Granted, some states/areas have it in the code that it needs to be done by a licensed Electrician, some don't.

I would rather wire it myself and have it done -right- rather then just have Romex stretched violin tight in my walls and just jammed into the back of the recepticles rather then having some extra and put onto the terminals "correctly." Most contractors we've ever worked with skimped on everything trying to get profit margin higher. Granted, both ways pass code (usually )....

 

[Cyle]

Thats not entirely true IMO. I have wired, plumbed, and ducted several different buildings. They all passed inspection. So long as you aren't a complete idiot and know how to read a book you should be able to wire it up yourself. Granted, some states/areas have it in the code that it needs to be done by a licensed Electrician, some don't.

I would rather wire it myself and have it done -right- rather then just have Romex stretched violin tight in my walls and just jammed into the back of the recepticles rather then having some extra and put onto the terminals "correctly." Most contractors we've ever worked with skimped on everything trying to get profit margin higher. Granted, both ways pass code (usually )....

Wiring isn't that tough, but most people cannot do it. Yes they can run basic wires, but 5 way switches get complicated. And you have to ask yourself, if your house burns down and electrical problem was the cause, how many questions will your insurance be asking? If you get the electrician to pull his own permit he must have a masters, and insurance would never be an issue. Something very important to think about. Sure you could do it all but a couple things like a furance, but IMO much better off doing other things yourself.

Say a garage, i'd wire that myself, but over 5000 SQ FT of house and garage, not a chance.

Driveway not important? I'm going to assume it's stone or gravel? Because if it's concrete and you think it's not important, that's pretty scary being a concrete guy myself.

Nothing wrong with vinyl siding but i'm not a fan, it looks cheap. It's ok on lower end homes, but I don't think a 800k+ house should have siding.

And as far as inspections, we got our framing today, what a joke. We ran out of time and didn't get it all done yet it passed, but as far as the inspector knew we were done. Some window openings aren't done, missing sheeting, missing straping, blocking, etc. It is downright scary that it passed. We are still going to finish everything like normal, but no way it should of passed.

The thing your calculating wrong i'm sure. Our house will be worth like 850k once it's done, probably only cost about 500k max to put it up, including the lot. But you have to remember all your time put in, like for example if you worked 1 year strait, your time has to be worth like 80-90k, and all the wear and tear and/or buying of tools.

 

[powpow]

This post is amazing, Let's say this home cost $150 a sq. ft., thats $540,000 and you were able to save $200,000 doing it yourself. That amounts to 38% of total cost. No frigggen way, I call bull***t. GC's don't make this kind of money on a home. This is a case of someone not keeping track of true costs of the construction and if people use this as an example and think this is what they are going to save building themselves they will have a severe shortage of funds at the end.

Cannonman,

You must be a contractor!!!!

Interesting

I had 2 quotes to build my house, one from the builder I visited when I walked thru a model home we used as a base for our house, he quoted 400k on my land with the extras I added. I built it for 200k because the construction loan I had and the mortgage i have IS FOR THE HOUSE ONLY. Typical post by someone that is either in the business, or has never done it themself.


I paid cash for the land, septic, well, electrical to house and driveway.

My cost to build this house was 56.00 per sq ft, bulider wanted 112 per sq ft

Take a look at the amount of work I DID and you will see why I saved 200k. Builders 4 years ago were out of line, hence the reason quite a few went bankrupt.

 

[powpow]

Oh, a couple more things, like who is going to pay for the replaced vinyl siding? Is that figured in on your total costs? There is nothing wrong with vinyl (not my prefernce but it is for a lot of people) as long as it is installed correctly. I also noticed after rereading powpow's post that it looks like he subbed out all the heavy work so he saved all that money ($200,000) just on the finish aspect of the home. That is just absurd as the amount saved is more than what the finish items would normally cost as a whole. I think someone needs a new calculator!!!!!!!!!!

Lets see

The hired out costs were

Foundation/flatwork = 18k
Framing costs - 13,500- thru a friend and I was on the crew for one week of the three weeks they were here
Insulation was 6500
roof labor = 2300
siding - since I did half the work, labor cost was 2200, family member was in the business so it was a deal.
drywall - hang/tape/mud = 10k
plumbing - 8500.00
custom cabs - 17000.00 installed
Septic was paid for cash, not on mortgage - 10k

I have all the receipts from the construction loan that I did and all of the costs associated with this house

As for the vinyl, why the hell would I include the replacement in the cost of the home, when I built it I was happy with the vinyl, the stuff cost me a quite a bit because it was a premium color with a 3/4 profile, not happy with it at all. I am hiring out the cement board install, I have 43 square worth of siding to have done, cost is 375 per square labor/material for primed cement board. Vinyl has no sound barrier value, no weather barrier value.

The bottom line is this, a person can save alot of money both not having a GC as well as doing as much as a person knows how to do.
for example;
I had a bid on the HVAC from a contractor, it was 24k, I used all york diamond with a york heat pump, duct work, etc, and put it all in myself since my family members have do it for a living. total cost was 5500.00 including 2 gas fireplaces and a air exchange unit.

I wouldnt recommend listening to the BS advise Cannonman is throwing out.

 

[powpow]

here are pics of the house

 

[powpow]

more

 

[elf]

I took on the project of building our vacation home a couple of years ago. I figured I could build it myself and save a bundle. We ended up with a 1300 sq ft cabin, 3 beds, 2 baths that I have about $85000 into, not counting land costs. I cleared the lot but subbed out the cement work and driveway, subbed out the septic and well, taping the drywall and putting on the siding. My brother, dad, and I framed it in a week and got it watertight. Then it was every weekend driving 4 hrs each way to work on it. I did the infloor heat, all the plumbing (pex tubing is the bomb for plumbing) all the interrior framing, hung the rock, did the interrior woodwork, electrical, flooring, etc... All told, I have about $130,000 into the cabin which I know I could sell tomorrow for $225000.
As far as plans, we looked online, found something close and then went to a draftsman who modified it for us. Took drawing to Menards and they quoted all the lumber for me. Wife worked for Anderson Windows so we got god deals there but also bought a lot of stuff at building liquidators. As far as a loan, we just took a home equity loan on our regalar house. The advantage to that was I could pay the guys I did sub work to in cash. Always got a better quote that way.
So it's possible and I would do it again. Sure, there were a lot of trips to the site to work and answer questions. And yes, I just finished the trim finally over the 4th of July weekend. But I learned so much and know everything I would do differently the next time.

 

[jscanga]

Definitely GC the project yourself. We broke ground in August and had it wrapped up by Easter the following year. Did an ICF house, hired the excavator, built the envelope, hired the framing, trades and sheet rock and finished the project from there. Built a totally custom home with lots of upgrades (hardwood, tile, granite counters throughout, etc. etc) and did it for ~$100/sq ft. Easily a $150-$175/sq ft GC bid house. We also used a company called U-build-It as a consultant (fees in the 100/sq ft), but if I were to do it again, I would go at it alone. Spend some time at the local building supply company (not Home Depot!), get some names of some subs that do a lot of work (i.e. the good ones that get hired more than once!), use the internet and shop everything. The consultant was helpful, but really only in those moments when you were so P!ssed that someone was going to die. Also, when it comes time to sheet rock, follow those @ZZholes around with a tape, a level and a sledgehammer. Nothing worse than doing finish work behind bad sheet rock! GOOD LUCK!

 

[CANNONMAN]

Wow, you are making money everyday on this post. Today you are up to 50% of total cost. You are right I am a contractor and damn proud of it. I have been involved in the trades for over 40 years and a contractor for nearly 30. I have beeen involved in just about every aspect in building from buying the poorest condition rehabber you have ever seen with a woodchuck living in the corner to the high end executive homes we currently build, with my own hands so I do have a pretty good idea what it takes. We do approx. 15 homes a year in the $1,000,000.00 and up range so I do know what I am talking about. Most of our new homes now are repeat customers who are very happy with our quality and method of figuring costs. There are some major flaws in your figuring, where is the excavation, flooring, materials, windows, trim, plumbing fixtures, elec. fixtures, insurance, (very important as most policies don't cover workers on your home if they are working for you) etc. etc. I don't mean to piss on your parade but anyone that thinks they are going to save that kind of money building their own home is headed for trouble. Just the materials alone will add up to more than 50% of the total costs! I was just trying to point out there is not that much profit for the GC on project of that size. So if that erroneous info is posted out there as gospel as you claim it does no one any good. It appears you built a nice home and I am glad for you, but most people can't do what work you did and it will only get them in trouble in the end when they fail to get accurate costs up front and then end up with a home they can't afford to finish or worse not built correctly. There are people that can but 95% out there can't. A typical savings would more accurately be in the neighborhood of 8 to 12% for the GC portion, and believe me we earn every cent. Also remember to figure what your time is worth for that year of work! I stand by my comments earlier. All things being equal you will not save 50% by building your own home, if you think you will good luck, you are going to need it!

Lets see

The hired out costs were

Foundation/flatwork = 18k
Framing costs - 13,500- thru a friend and I was on the crew for one week of the three weeks they were here
Insulation was 6500
roof labor = 2300
siding - since I did half the work, labor cost was 2200, family member was in the business so it was a deal.
drywall - hang/tape/mud = 10k
plumbing - 8500.00
custom cabs - 17000.00 installed
Septic was paid for cash, not on mortgage - 10k

I have all the receipts from the construction loan that I did and all of the costs associated with this house

As for the vinyl, why the hell would I include the replacement in the cost of the home, when I built it I was happy with the vinyl, the stuff cost me a quite a bit because it was a premium color with a 3/4 profile, not happy with it at all. I am hiring out the cement board install, I have 43 square worth of siding to have done, cost is 375 per square labor/material for primed cement board. Vinyl has no sound barrier value, no weather barrier value.

The bottom line is this, a person can save alot of money both not having a GC as well as doing as much as a person knows how to do.
for example;
I had a bid on the HVAC from a contractor, it was 24k, I used all york diamond with a york heat pump, duct work, etc, and put it all in myself since my family members have do it for a living. total cost was 5500.00 including 2 gas fireplaces and a air exchange unit.

I wouldnt recommend listening to the BS advise Cannonman is throwing out.

 

[X-it]

And you also forgot to factor in the cost of the divorce lawyers bill cannonman, i am so glad to be retired.