Building a house - Or atleast understanding how houses are built

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sedoL

sedoL

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Feb 4, 2018
Not somesort of off grid thing, but just a regular standard house. Either brick, wood, timber and any other good materials. My question today would be - how to build a good, long lasting concrete/mortar foundation?
Anyone have good videos, articles or books on this?
 
well, step 1 is don't do it yourself.
but if you really want to do it, the process is not difficult, it's the design that is hard to get right. most the time the process is digging dirt, filling dirt, and compacting dirt, and gravel and sand. Laying rebar, and pouring concrete. anyone can do that.
The hard part is knowing where to take shit, where to put shit when to install special shit, etc. Biggest concrete pour I've done is pitifully tiny, just a 1500 lb 5'x5' flat, but it cracked in 2 years bc I was dumb and didn't pack any gravel underneath for drainage, and a sink hole formed.

Practical engineering will get you the principles: https://www.youtube.com/@PracticalEngineeringChannel/videos

Could not tell you much more sadly. DIYers on youtube will tell you a lot, but it's not useful for new construction.
 
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It's worth contracting out concrete and roofing unless you have experience in the industry. There is a lot that can go wrong and fucked up roofing and fucked up foundation can really wreak havoc, especially a fucked up foundation.
 
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Be sure to hire someone unless you are really sure and I mean really sure to know what you are doing. I don't know anyone who built their own houses, but I knew someone who tried fixing the roof on his own and wound up wrecking it more.
 
The main point about building your own house is that labor costs are extremely high, and this is for what's basically retard labor, not somesort of professional who will probably not be available due to the fact he already has work booked for the next several years or will jack up his price by a lot.
Additionally, retards steal shit, they bring in some of their own faggy materials and steal the new ones you've bought. These are huge headaches and by this point i find it would be easier to start learning how to do some things by myself. Work with concrete, brick laying seems like it might be simpler than electric installations, plumbing and roofs but i don't know of course. Building a small wooden house on metal poles might be a decent alternative as well, due to not needing a complex foundation, but i don't like plywood and timber seems better used with proper concrete foundations.

Edit- yeah, i realize i won't really be able to do this myself.
 
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The main issue you'll come across is bureaucratic bullshit like permits and licenses. Needing your shit stamped by an architect/engineer. Land surveys done, ect... Planning for septic, well and power lines.

Building a basic foundation is digging hip deep trenches, compacting rocks and gravel. Laying some rebar and forms to pour concrete pads that will support short cement block walls and footings for floor support beams. (Cabin style home, single floor and no basement)
 
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I've done some DIY stuff and repair most things on my car, but I can't wrap my head around framing. How the hell do they get a strong attachment and perfect 90° angles through an entire house of framework? And do they attach the frame to the foundation somehow, or are they just relying on the weight of the house to hold it in place?
 
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Troonos said:
How the hell do they get a strong attachment and perfect 90° angles through an entire house of framework?
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They don't but it's close enough and the average person has no idea how to check it anyway.
Troonos said:
And do they attach the frame to the foundation somehow, or are they just relying on the weight of the house to hold it in place?
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Yes, the wood that contacts the foundation is called a sill plate, it's usually treated more than the other wood used and anchor bolts connect it to the concrete.

wood-frame-anchor-bolts.webp
 
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David Brown said:
It's worth contracting out concrete and roofing unless you have experience in the industry. There is a lot that can go wrong and fucked up roofing and fucked up foundation can really wreak havoc, especially a fucked up foundation.
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Anyone can do a simple snap-lock metal gable roof. Complex mcmansion roofs, yes, contract that.

I would say that most people even considering DIYing a house could do a proper stem wall/crawlspace foundation if they spent a couple months going hard on it and doing it very meticulously, but the foundation is the one thing you dont want to fuck up so if you arent certain, pay a mudslinger to do it right. You'll still save oodles if you frame and roof it yourself.
 
I bought a place recently, inspector missed some things unfortunately. This weekend I’m hoping to reinforce my ceiling trusses if I get some free time. They’ve been fine so far of course, but some of the connector plates look like they were done by a blind man. I figure adding some 2x4s and deck screws now might help if there’s ever an earthquake or something. If I really have time maybe I’ll be able to replace the missing gutters too.

For a house not listed as a fixer upper a lot of this place is broken. Make sure if you buy a house owned by a DIY guy that he actually knew what he was doing before he worked on it.
 
Ideally this summer I’ll be able to redo some of the siding that has dry rot.

On an unrelated note any of you know how the hell I might be able to put a concrete foundation under an add on that is sitting on posts? I’m thinking lifting it slightly with jacks, removing the posts, digging a very big hole next to where I want it, then going under the add on, and finally laying out a wall and pouring concrete. But that’s way beyond my wheelhouse.
 
We had a few customers at my last job that built the majority of their homes apart from some of the mechanical stuff. They ranged heavily in quality and time spent building. There was this one guy that had been building for four years. He did all the framing, the roofing and I think the plumbing and electrical himself. His house was kind of shoddy. Everything he did just looked kind of janky compared to the professionally built houses we worked in. There was this other guy who didn't do a lot of the structural or mechanical stuff himself but he built a bunch of decorative shit and furniture and his house was cool as fuck. He was this old Russian dude that left the Soviet Union in the 80's. He was a crazy audiophile with a huge collection of all this vintage audio gear and records and shit. The music room he built for himself was just wild. All the trims and woodwork and shit he did around the house looked really good.
 
If I ever get enough to have my own house built I'm definitely working on it to reduce labor cost. But if i had that type of money anyway it might be more cost efficient to keep working my job. I hope everyone here gets rich
 
My dad taught me how to do some basic plumbing, but it was all stuff he learned from having to unfuck boats at sea, so I know how to do the basics, but don't know what anything is called. What the fuck is the thing coming out of the wall that you screw a showerhead to called? The house I'm renting has one that comes out about an inch and then turns ninety degrees straight fucking down because the shower was designed for a crippled midget. I know those are usually threaded or screwed into something in the wall, and I could probably remove it, but it's a rental, and I'd rather not disassemble more than I need to just to install a reasonable showerhead.
 
sedoL said:
how to build a good, long lasting concrete/mortar foundation?
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Why use concrete? Stumps are far more forgiving. Stumps/bearers/joists are easy to get level, you don't have to worry about soil preparation, and you can install sub-floor insulation.
 
Frostnipped Todger said:
Why use concrete? Stumps are far more forgiving. Stumps/bearers/joists are easy to get level, you don't have to worry about soil preparation, and you can install sub-floor insulation.
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It's just not the same... I do guess stumps are cheaper tho. But flooring would be different as well and the underneath of the house exposed to elements, fungi and insects. I know wood gets cured and all but it still manages to catch those problems, where as with concrete main problem would be it being set improperly.
 
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