thinking of building a house, need help.

[mjoppie]

i am thinking of building a house and was looking for some help on the subject. theres a modular (the stick built, nice ones, not the steel frame) that were looking at for about $40,000 and i already have the land free and clear. what else is involved in putting one up? i am going to perk test the land this weekend. what would i be looking at for cost on the rest of the stuff? i work for a construction company so any machinry work will be done by me for free. i guess what im looking for is stuff like electricity, permits, septic system, well, drainfeild, ect... . anybody ever done this thierselves before?





thanks guys





matt

 

[HoleshotHolset]

If resale value is important, you might want to consider building a traditional stick-built place.



I've researched SIPs (structural insulated panels), ALL steel construction, modular, etc. They all have their advantages/disadvantages, but building/buying/maintaining/selling a traditional stick-built place seems to cause the least number of headaches.



In the end... I bought a pre-existing house in an established neighborhood. Appreciation and resale value is important to me. If I had the land free and clear like you... I would be exploring other options.



Good luck with it...



Matt

 

[fkovalski]

I have worked with Prebuilt Housing Technologies for a project proposal that our company was not awarded, but it did open my eyes to the possibilities of other than stick frame.

 

[RonaldLarson]

Holeshot's right

Regardless of the recent improvements in modular housing, the facts remain. Stick built has much higher resale, higher appreciation and more marketability.

You'll also find that loan rates on modulars are significantly higher. It all adds up to building a stick built. Housing is the single most valuable investment you will ever make, and to compromise would be unwise.

Ron

 

[MFalkinham]

i work for a construction company so any machinry work will be done by me for free. i guess what im looking for is stuff like electricity, permits, septic system, well, drainfeild, ect... . anybody ever done this thierselves before?

I built my first house myself and acted as the GC. The things that I subcontracted were the excavation, concrete work, and plumbing/septic. If I had to do it over again I'd also subcontract the electrical and the sheetrock & plastering. We had a ton of sweat equity, which really paid off when we sold the house ten years later, but I would still never do it again due to the toll it took on my personal life.



- Mike

 

[tractorface]

I have built myself two house in the last 5 years. The first was a modular from Foremost Homes in PA. This was a real nice house, not your traditional modular. Much better home than anyone would built piece by piece. I sold it for over $400K. Got top dollar for it, No one cared it was modular believe me. I understand when they look cheesey but some do not. My current home was custom built piece by piece. It is as nice as any other custom home but falls short of the modular. I swear the modular was so quiet you had to look out the window to see that thier was a raging Thunderstorm cause you could not hear it. I miss that place but when the $$ are right I move on.

 

[smartineau]

In addition to the things you mentioned in the last line or two, the driveway, depending on the length that can be spendy, trust me. Permits for most everything (septic, well, driveway, road access from the driveway, the structure itself, electric, on and on) if it is like Washington. You may or may not have to pay for the phone line to be ran. Will you need a transformer for your electric?



Foundation and all the prep work.



good luck, steve

 

[tractorface]

Not sure about your area but just what Smartineau said. The utilities usually charge you a set fee plus so much per foot over a certain distance. Call the local utilities and ask the. I got hammered for electric because they had to dig over 700' thru rock. I was expecting the standard fee and got charged a considerably higher rate due to the difficulty. Around here we only pay for the electric as they put in everyone elses lines for them. It does change fast so stay on top of it. Building a house can be very hard on a marriage. You can get way stressed out waiting for certain people to show up. Also unforseen expenses can cause you a lot of heartache. We were all but done on my first house. Had lots of rock and added $$ and then the septic system hit. My buddies company did all the dirt work. Thank god for close friends. He hit some type of underground aquafir and it was flooding the septic area. He had a large track excavator in for one week to dig a trench 300' long by 10' deep by 3'wide. The trench was filled with stone and kept the water going around my septic area. Man was that expensive Also had a lot of trouble getting the well chlorinated. Had to back a swimming pool truck up to it and dump a tanker of chlorine in it. Seems the flow rate was so great that anything we put in got swept away ASAP. The county said they have only seen one other well like that. Plan on spending more than you think cause when it rains it pours. Both my houses had extra unforseen problems in the dirt. You are in for a ride. Have fun. All said I'd do it again as I am finally getting good at it :-laf

 

[smartineau]

tractorforce,



700' of rock!!! ouch that was exspensive. . I complained about 1200' of dirt trench that had a 90' wetland to cross.



steve

 

[Bertram65]

My buddy just put up a frefab. Real nice house, 2500 square feet of living space, nice open floor plan, but the best is the 28' X 52' garage with no support colums and 15' ceiling, huge steel I beams. The quality of the place is impressive, it is rock solid, just the house was close to $200K. I have read that all the cuts are exact and being built indoors without any moisture really helps, they have to be built stronger to be able to survive traveling over the road, and the best ones are built in Canada though his came from northern NH.

 

[IC Smoke]

House?



How about a 60x80 pole barn with a loft? 12' doors and heated crete floor with a 10,000lb hoist???



do your own drain field with the backhoe. Im not 100% its been 4+ months since out last drain field/septic tank install. just have fall to the tank then from the tank out schedual 40 pipe to a T then run 4-6 perferated pipe off the "T" If you test dig your land and there isnt a good base (sand/gravel) just put in about 1' of pea stone under and ontop of the pipe then cover it back up.



Ian

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

If I had a piece of property and wanted an affordable stick built home I would check around and see if there are developments taking place with the size and floorplan of a home you would like. If you deal with the GC (and not the development planner or realtor involved) you could maybe get the same thing built for quite a bit less than a comparable "custom" home. It would sort of be like getting design, materials and labor in bulk, and a home they are familiar with building. If things are slowing down and they want the work, then all the better.



When I was looking at different scenarios for getting a new home this was one of the ones I looked at, and they were generally willing to talk. I also looked into being my own GC, but didn't take me long to figure out that wasn't for me.



Vaughn

 

[tractorface]

Smartineau,

Pretty expensive as I remember but around here it would take an act of congress to dig through a wetland... ... . unless your Home Depot, in that case they let you fill in protected salt marsh areas and built whatever you want

 

[Hohn]

If it's an option for you, I'd consider a house built using Insulated Concrete Forms.



This the most solid house you will ever find. Quiet as a bank vault, and not much more expensive than a stick built. Insurance will be way less (they are very strong), and resale should equal or surpass stick built.



www.concretehomes.com



jlh

 

[mjoppie]

i like the idea of a foam/crete block wall, i lived in one once and it was nice.



a bit more info about my idea, its land i got from the family so i will neveer sell it, outside the family, so resale isnt a issue, and its on some pretty wet ground, some better than other. total is 40 acres. the problem is i am a dirt worker (i build roads) and am not much for house building, although i will build a pole barn, hopefully with the money savings of not paying 140k+ for a house. and this would be a nice new house for me and my family. wife to be wants a little girl soon, with our little boy. where do i go to get the builing codes for a county? oh and heres the other tricky part, i might have to move it what does it cost to move a 2 story 3000+ sq ft house? prolly lots.



what kind of a loan would i have if i did this route? hopefully i can get a rain day in and get some prices for this stuff soon.



and ian, it will be a 40x40 with floor heat and a hoist in the near future. probably be my winter home when im layed off.



thanks for all the help guys, its much needed.

 

[HoleshotHolset]

How well do wireless devices using RF (radio frequency) operate in a concrete house? Cordless phones, cell phones, 802. 11x networking, etc.



What kind of provisions are there for adding to or modifying a 'crete structure? What if you have to access or add some plumbing/wiring?



Other than a few stumbling blocks, I totally dig the idea of a 'crete house.



Seems like a 'crete house would be well suited for relocating as well. Weight issues aside, one would think that they'd take to moving pretty well.



Matt