Building a house, how small is too small?

[Fermion]

Also I don’t know about eastern WA but in my area labor has been thru the roof cost wise for years. I expect that cost to come down later this year as current jobs finish up and reduced job pipeline

I expect labor is about to get real cheap real soon.

 

[mountainsoft]

I expect labor is about to get real cheap real soon.

We built our house ourselves. I work for free.

 

[Fermion]

We built our house ourselves. I work for free.

We are doing the work ourselves except the foundation I am having done professionally. They have all the forms and know the rebar schedule and such. We will put on the mud sill boards ourselves, they will have the j-bolts installed.

 

[harley]

Just as one last point regarding large vs. small house, make sure you have enough storage space for the cases of toilet paper and canned and frozen foods. Like in Zombieland where the fatties were the first to go, in Covidland the tiny house people will be the first to go.

 

[mlnk]

1. Build the garage first. This will provide work space to efficiently build your house. -Where I live 21 x 21 is minimum size to call it a 2 car garage, but I suggest 24 x 24 ft or larger.
2. Build a one story house. More efficient to heat and cool. Easier to build and maintain.
3. Use 2x6 studs for exterior walls.
4. Use raised heel trusses for the roof for better insulation.
5. Have a large slope facing south for future solar panels. Research the optimum slope for solar roof in your latitude.
6. 36" doors and coat closet are both good ideas.
7. I recommend zoned heat pump heating/cooling.

 

[Music Lover]

1. Build the garage first. This will provide work space to efficiently build your house. -Where I live 21 x 21 is minimum size to call it a 2 car garage, but I suggest 24 x 24 ft or larger.
2. Build a one story house. More efficient to heat and cool. Easier to build and maintain.
3. Use 2x6 studs for exterior walls.
4. Use raised heel trusses for the roof for better insulation.
5. Have a large slope facing south for future solar panels. Research the optimum slope for solar roof in your latitude.
6. 36" doors and coat closet are both good ideas.
7. I recommend zoned heat pump heating/cooling.

I agree with all of the above except #7. A small to average size bungalow doesn't need zone heating/cooling.

 

[mlnk]

Re; #7.. I meant to say a heat pump ductless split system. It is also called a zone system, for a small house there is just one zone.
Then there is the debate over slab vs. crawl space and how to insulate each way.

 

[LarryL]

I would hold off on any move. Way to soon to jump back in market. I think the recovery will take years. To buy now is to catch a falling knife. Many small contractors will be forced into bankruptcy.

 

[Fermion]

I would hold off on any move. Way to soon to jump back in market. I think the recovery will take years. To buy now is to catch a falling knife. Many small contractors will be forced into bankruptcy.

Well, we are building ourselves so the only contractor we plan on using is the foundation (we are having that done and will do the rest from the mud sills to the roof.

One side of me says to wait and the other side says build this while you can still lift a 2x10 x 16. Wife wants to go ahead with build so the question is moot.

 

[LarryL]

It's never easy to figure out but since your doing it mostly yourself I would keep the wife happy and proceed.

 

[mountainsoft]

we are building ourselves so the only contractor we plan on using is the foundation (we are having that done and will do the rest from the mud sills to the roof.

When we built our garage in 2001 I originally intended to hire out the foundation work. I wasted three months calling every contractor in the book (phone book back in the day). The vast majority didn't answer their phone or never returned my call. A few said they would come bid on it and never showed. Only two companies actually showed up and neither of them gave me much confidence ("my guys won't even lift a shovel"), or couldn't get to it till winter.

Rather than keep waiting we decided to build our own forms and pour the foundation ourselves. We actually saved money, learned a new skill, and had the satisfaction of doing it ourselves. We ended up reusing the forms in 2003 to pour the foundation for our house.

We did have the actual garage floor poured by professionals. Thankfully the flat work was easier to schedule and they did a great job. That would have been nearly impossible to pull off by ourselves. They had six guys and were still running like crazy.

 

[Fermion]

I am just not as interested in learning the concrete side of things and we are having no issue at all finding builders who are willing to just do the excavation and foundation. I think they see the writing on the wall with the state of the economy and are happy to have any work at all scheduled.

 

[Fermion]

We were not able to find a builder to do the foundation (called twelve and only 2 even returned our calls..business must be booming).

I used our excavator to dig out the area for the footings and we set up the forms and rebar ourselves. Finally I got a local concrete guy who said he will take over for the pour and he has forms for the stem walls.

I do think we did a fairly nice job on the footings (the concrete guy was pretty impressed as well)

 

[mountainsoft]

We were not able to find a builder to do the foundation (called twelve and only 2 even returned our calls..business must be booming).

I used our excavator to dig out the area for the footings and we set up the forms and rebar ourselves. Finally I got a local concrete guy who said he will take over for the pour and he has forms for the stem walls.

I do think we did a fairly nice job on the footings (the concrete guy was pretty impressed as well)

We had the same issue, none of the concrete contractors we called even bothered returning our calls. From that point on I never even bothered calling the "pros". That seemed very unprofessional to me. At least call back and say your schedule is too busy. What a joke.

Looks like you did great on the footing forms. I like those spacers/rebar supports. I've never seen those before. They certainly weren't widely available when we poured our foundation in 2003. We just used 2x2's screwed across the tops of the form boards, and used wire to hang the rebar from. Simple, but it did the job.

We also didn't have any fancy transits or laser levels. I just set up an old wine bottle in the middle and used a plastic tube as a water level. Very old school but it worked great.

 

[DAYDREAMER]

We were not able to find a builder to do the foundation (called twelve and only 2 even returned our calls..business must be booming).

I used our excavator to dig out the area for the footings and we set up the forms and rebar ourselves. Finally I got a local concrete guy who said he will take over for the pour and he has forms for the stem walls.

I do think we did a fairly nice job on the footings (the concrete guy was pretty impressed as well)

I like your rebar holders too. Wouldn't they create a crack propagation plane though?

 

[Fermion]

I like your rebar holders too. Wouldn't they create a crack propagation plane though?

I was thinking that too but evidently they don't? My wife says they wouldn't and she is the boss. They are called Accufooting rebar holders...I sure hope they are ok because they made the install so easy and clean.

 

[street]

Those footers and rebar holders will be fine. Shouldn't be any issues with cracking etc...

I'm helping a concrete man do a few jobs this summer. He is close to 70 and still does a few jobs to stay in shape and he has asked me the last two years if I would help on a few jobs.

Concrete work is a very demanding physical labor for the body. It is hard work but enjoy the great work out involved with the jobs I have helped him with.

 

[eytonxav]

We downsized 7 years ago from 4300 ft2 to 2400, and both DW and I are missing at least some aspects of the bigger house and yard. Wish I could tack on another 600 ft2 and double the current lot size.

 

[Fermion]

Concrete crane pumper arrived this morning along with the crew and dang if they didn't have all the concrete pumped in the forms in under 30 minutes. Two hours after arriving they were done wet setting the vertical rebar and eating the donuts I brought.

I heard the guy tell his son (one of the crew) that he should still abide by the rule that they don't pour on homeowner setup forms, this one is an exception because it was done so well.

 

[aja8888]

Concrete crane pumper arrived this morning along with the crew and dang if they didn't have all the concrete pumped in the forms in under 30 minutes. Two hours after arriving they were done wet setting the vertical rebar and eating the donuts I brought.

I heard the guy tell his son (one of the crew) that he should still abide by the rule that they don't pour on homeowner setup forms, this one is an exception because it was done so well.

Looks like a great start! Keep us posted with your progress!

 

[street]

Nice! Keep us informed on the build and progress.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Congrats to you! Thanks for keeping us updated.

 

[Out of Steam]

We moved from 2300 sf on two floors to 1900 sf on one, expecting to have two of us living in it. We looked at city houses in the 1400 sf range, but weren't comfortable with the small rooms. A gut renovation into a 2 bedroom house and a single living space would have been OK for the two of us at that size, but we wanted a house in move-in condition.

Our adult daughter (grad student) is with us unexpectedly because of COVID-19, making it just a little crowded.

 

[Sunset]

Concrete crane pumper arrived this morning along with the crew and dang if they didn't have all the concrete pumped in the forms in under 30 minutes. Two hours after arriving they were done wet setting the vertical rebar and eating the donuts I brought.

I heard the guy tell his son (one of the crew) that he should still abide by the rule that they don't pour on homeowner setup forms, this one is an exception because it was done so well.

Looks very neat, and it's interesting to see the progress.
In one of the pic's I see a house, is that a neighbor house, or is this building an additional house ?

I was surprised that the footing didn't have more vertical rebars, or a keyway. I've never done a footing so just wondering.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We live in 1400 sq ft and due to the virus my adult son moved in. Definitely enough space for all of us.