Building Home Questions

[Ferd]

one word of caution on the basement, Esther lives in South Texas, if you think of going that direction, be sure to check feasability. water table may be too high.

[BoredOutOfMyMind]

Originally Posted by Esther

I found 2 acres that is near a bayou. I am trying to find out if it floods in that area.

you can view this yourself.

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/flood/index.shtm

[True Believer]

All I can say is watch the builders. We had room added and told the guy what we wanted, even had him right it down. But we had to keep telling him to take it apart and do it over.

Here in Georgia, they like to skip when they build houses. We are having some built behind us and my husband went to see how they were being built. For the roof they were using the thinnest plywood. We have seen homes that are about 5 years old and if you look at the roof you can see where the rafters are, they are beginning to sag.

Here's a question--In your parts of the country when they build a house--do they put plywood all the way around it? They don't here. They don't even use plywood. They use pressboard and only at the corners and by windows and doors.

[Esther]

Originally Posted by Ferd

one word of caution on the basement, Esther lives in South Texas, if you think of going that direction, be sure to check feasability. water table may be too high.

Your right. I would love to have a basement for all the tornadoes that come through this area, but it isn't very feasable here.

[Esther]

Originally Posted by True Believer

All I can say is watch the builders. We had room added and told the guy what we wanted, even had him right it down. But we had to keep telling him to take it apart and do it over.

Here in Georgia, they like to skip when they build houses. We are having some built behind us and my husband went to see how they were being built. For the roof they were using the thinnest plywood. We have seen homes that are about 5 years old and if you look at the roof you can see where the rafters are, they are beginning to sag.

Here's a question--In your parts of the country when they build a house--do they put plywood all the way around it? They don't here. They don't even use plywood. They use pressboard and only at the corners and by windows and doors.

Yes, I had a bad experience from hiring a friend of mine's relative and he is in the church as well. Still having problems with the room he added.

It looked beautiful, but he didn't seal it properly.

[Esther]

Do you know anyone that has done the modular homes?

[Esther]

bump for Tbpew

[Esther]

Anyone know anything about "panel" homes. I'm not talking about modulars.

Esther,

As you already know, I built my house two years ago. Since then, the building material has gone way up because of the demand for all commodites in China...and of course the war in Iraq and Afganistan has put pressure on construction material too. Also, the declining dollar against every major world currency has contributed to higher prices too.

Two years ago I built my own house with a little help in the labor, for $45.00 per square foot. It would have cost much more than that if I would have it custom built by a contractor. It would have been in the neighborhood of $150.00 per square foot. So, for cash money of about $100,000.00, I finished my 2200 + square foot home.

Since that time, I've been in a number of building material places. I have been astonished to find that some of the material that I bought two years ago have almost doubled. In some cases, they have. I'm sure glad that I finished my house when I did.

At this stage, I might would suggest that you not even attempt to do that or even hire a contractor because he is going to charge you at least 2 or 3 hundred dollars per square. But rather, look around for a nicely built home that you can buy at a discount per square foot.

[tbpew]

Originally Posted by Esther

Anyone know anything about "panel" homes. I'm not talking about modulars.

sorry I have not visited this thread.
Modular builders and their field assembly contractor networks are extremely local. I have rarely ever heard of anyone shipping a modular over 120 miles. If you are in the south, please be sure to differentiate from Mobile home construction --these are NOT the same.

If you can find panelized construction it is certainly a good half-way approach between stick-built and modular. We had one in the middle atlantic area and it no longer is in business (Cardinal Homes). Panelized may be able and willing to ship further since the sub-assemblies are "flattened. The on-site construction skill sets are increased and I am pretty confident you will have to deal with the manufacturer's approved site contractors.

With all the building 'plan' packages out there, don't give up on shopping these kind of drawing sets. Then with these available, shopping 3-4 framing contractors would be much easier and normally a building supply house will do the take-offs for a material cost estimate. If you could find a framing contractor that is a kind of "general contractor lite", he may be happy to coordinate the foundation, work with you on site utilities, and get you framed in. You would need to coordinate your utility services (electric, sewer, water, heating fuel) with your site planning but you may find a very workable range of costs. If you are able to UNBUNDLE the effort (pay him t&m for his non-framing work) the upgrades involving your house's sub-systems, windows or other material items, may not even be a part of your contract with the "general contractor lite --framing contractor".

Enjoy.
You may want to consider putting together a spreadsheet.
AIA (Amer Inst. of Archetects) specs typically acknowledge 16 areas, these would be a readily available outline of work categories that a residential project may only involve a subset of. By example, my world is mechanical and electrical systems which are sections 15000 and 16000...just a thought to help you start to get your cost centers lined up. (a google search may bring you to the category listings...."AIA section listings"