Home > Plumbing Tools Information > Plumbing Tools Questions > What is the best type of low-cost home construction for someone to undertake when doing the labor alone?

What is the best type of low-cost home construction for someone to undertake when doing the labor alone?

I'm a female with two a teen son and pre-teen daughter, and considering building my own small home on a lot I own. It's in the city limits in central North Carolina, and my great-grandparents homestead once stood there, and was razed a decade ago. So I am at least starting out with a level, cleared lot that has utilities in place to hook up to. I want to build something that will be energy efficient, and that will require very little maintenance. It will be tiny, under 1,000 sq. ft., and I will be paying in cash as I go. I will contract out the HVAC, plumbing and electrical work, but would like to tackle as much of the rest as possible on my own, with the kids assisting, of course. I am pretty strong and handy with tools, and I don't have a time constraint. I just want to ensure I end up with a well built home without jeopardizing my family's safety in the process.

Public Comments

  1. Your best bet would be wood frame construction (2x4). Don't forget to take your plans down to the city hall's construction inspectors office to have the plans reviewed and approved. Typically they give you one year (you can get extensions) to finish the project. The longer it take you to build it the more it will cost because of inflation of the cost of materials, use of more utilities and potential theft of materials. Good luck
  2. Here's what I did - I dug the hole for the foundation, framed, insulated, drywalled, put up siding, put on the roof, shingled, painted, tiled, installed the bathroom fixtures after I paid a neighbor with food and beer to do the roughin - (THANKS KEV!!) had by dad do the electric work. I also TRICKED lots of friends into coming over to help on the weekends! Good food and good friends worked for me. I felt comfortable doing that work, and did have prior knowledge as I grew up in the construction industry (family businesses) So - do ONLY what you feel comfortable with. And do keep cold beer on hand! Good luck!
  3. In anything I've done, I always weigh the difference in what I can do and what it would cost to have it done. This is a pretty ambitious project and my hat's off to you for doing it. There are books that detail to construction process and it would be good to read one (or two) thoroughly. The process is to dig a hole, put in the foundation (concrete), do the rough framing, put on the sheeting outside, all the while keeping in consideration the plumbing and electrical. Then the roof beams and the roof, window and doors. Once you're enclosed, you can start the finish work..... Floors, sheetrock, finish electric, plumbing, tile, cabinets.... etc. The main thing is to HAVE A PLAN and stick to it. I would have an architect draw them up for you and hire a contractor to do the big stuff. Pick you battles !! I would think that if you haven't built a house before that the concrete and framing would be a hard thing to do but tackling the finish jobs once you're enclosed could be learned. There might even be classes you can take at a Jr. college or even Home Depot that would help. I'm taking a couple classes myself at http://www.sbcc.com GOOD luck
  4. If you are interested in taking a look at all the various stages of building a house, you can look at this site that I put together when I was building my house: http://www.hallsnet.com/david/house I outlined each step of the construction process, made comments about what I learned, and included photos of the progress. While I tackled a number of things myself, the majority of the work was done by contractors. However, I think the information I put together will help you to see all the different steps & options involved in building a house, and allow you to determine which of the trades you would be comfortable doing yourself and which ones you would rather hire out. Doing a lot of the work yourself can be enjoyable and rewarding, provided that you aren't working against any hard deadlines. If you have trememdous pressure to get things done based on deadlines, it will certainly add a lot of stress to the project and take a lot of the enjoyment out of it. On the other hand, if you have plenty of time and flexibility, you can save yourself a lot of money and do a lot of the little details exactly according to your own ideas. Teaching the kids how to work is also a nice side benefit! Good luck on your project.
  5. Whatever you do, make sure you take week to week photos, your family will talk about it forever. We have an old 1900 2-story and have been DYI ing it for over 15 yrs. Energy efficient means good insulation everywhere, even floors. And good windows. I would do all hardwood flooring-stain and seal and leave for the day. I am a huge believer in hand rubbing. A rag and some stain that's all you need. Read instructions for that. This keeps unnecessary clean ups, too much stain in one place and runs. I do not like drywall but it is a good base-if you plan on covering it with pretty flowered paneling it won't need finished- and a lower portion out of a product that looks like old house ceilings-like small tongue and groove but not. Stain that or just varnish it. Then put in wainscoting-if the house is square you'll have no problem with the mitre. Hopefully you'll get a bunch of good info, but, the photos really help you see how far you have gotten for those rainy days. Good luck!!!