Realistically how much of a house construction could a single man do on his own? (obviously talking about a regular brick house)
Realistically how much of a house construction could a single man do on his own?
Realistically how much of a house construction could a single man do on his own? (obviously talking about a regular brick house)
All of it
yes, the whole damn thing
check out the 99projects and stud pack youtube channels one is rehabing an old house and the other is erecting a new one.
granted, the second channel is going mainsteam the first one has been doing everything with little assistance
If you do a concrete footing by yourself, it would probably have to be pretty small or done in section. I think this would be the hardest part.
If grandpa built a home with a dull saw and a hammer then why couldn't I
he probably used wood
not saying you couldn't, just physically doing the concrete footing by yourself would probably be the hardest part of a solo house build.
No biggie, you can hire a concrete truck from local cement factory and pour it by yourself. That counts as diy.
The question isn't how much he could do, the real question is how much SHOULD he do? And for most men, the answer is decidedly not all of it.
Do you think stuff like the electricity system?
It depends. It's not just going with your skillset and code/safety issues but also with your time. There's a ton of things that will wear you down. Getting permits and blueprints, getting utility service run out there, inspections, etc. all require dealing with irritating municipal departments and they can be unfathomably large dicks. I guess if you're say a retired tradesman who's bored, you can get into it but as someone who works full time, is not a tradesman, and got into a few large rehab projects to hopefully set myself up for later, even just overseeing it all is burning me out, quite frankly. If you've got land, you may just want to buy a prefab home to place on there and save yourself the headache (if the city lets you).
But, what's your situation and skill level? As I said, I'm not a pro in any sense, but AMA if you want.
I guess you're right.
I'm in the "daydreaming" stage right now, I'm just wondering if the concept of making it (mostly) alone is even realistic. I'll pay off my apartment in the city next month and buying some land and building a small house is something I want to do.
You can probably get further than you think but acclimatization and testing your mental limits gradually is going to be important, especially since this would be a very finance-intensive project. I'd strongly advise you to get some practical experience before taking on a larger project like that. Take on a small project then gradually ramp up to bigger ones to see how your skills and energy levels are. You can start for free by maybe doing some volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity or maybe other housing-related charities. Then perhaps look for weekend/part-time work with a rehab crew and see what that's like plus if you can possibly swing it, get a feel for material and labor prices for various types of jobs. Real estate is so much about money and the better you are at that aspect of it the better. As an additional baby step after that, you could even put some of your own money into a group rehab project and contribute labor as well, maybe taking care of hiring / managing some of the subs. At that point, I'd say you'd be ready as you're going to be to do your own place.
A few years ago, my experience was limited to small around-the-home fixups and simple renos like painting, replacing switches/plugs/faucets, simple flooring projects, etc. And when I started frequenting some RE meetups, I got in with a lender that had a bunch of rehab projects going on which I learned from. After that I found a contractor, connected them with the lender and helped out with my own money on some jobs of their choosing. And now here I am. But even with that, it just takes so much time and money, it's possible that somewhere during that journey you'll tap out and that's ok since you did something that most people don't.
As before, HTH and keep taking action, that's the key to this whole thing.
Electrical is easy.
It's also illegal without a degree where I live
everything is illegal. thats how a police state works.
Did you ever consider it's your souls karma attracting you to inhabit a place where someone else tells you how to wipe your ass?
You need to grab a b*tch from out east if you're white. North american females are garbage.
Well, that doesn't mean you can't do it.
If you're scared, run the wires and let electrician connect it for 1/5 of the work.
Judging by the filename and that house in the image you are a Pole so you can do 95% of it if it's gonna be a single floor. Good fricking luck pouring concrete alone. In my c**t you need RC columns to not get crushed when the earth beneath does a little dance every other year.
110% you should do electrical, bathrooms, painting, maybe plumbing, none of it needs particularly special tools and chances are if you don't already know a good guy to do it, for the first time you're gonna do it probably as well as a random frickwit would, only you won't be paying a random frickwit to do it. Electrical is especially easy though rather boring.
Personally I can do electrical on anything
I'm OK with burger timber framing, built a 2 story shed and a deck one time, it was kinda fun
HVAC and plumbing, yeah I can open valves and sweat a joint, but really don't like doing this
Euro brick houses, I built a brick garage, it was alright, you get dirty as shit and grit up your bathroom to clean yourself up
finish work of any kind, please kill me now, especially stucco
This.
I've always contracted out drywall & mud, a good crew will knock out a whole house in two days, that would weeks of nights and weekends. And the last few I've had crews handle pouring the foundation. I still did the forms and the rebar, but big pours of concrete are just a savage b***h by yourself.
all of it, just move to a place where they don't care about regulations and licenses
this is the most prudent advice
I don't know about that. It's the "AirBnB problem" just in a different form. Nothing is stopping the local govt from just suddenly getting hard-ass on code compliance and then you'll have instant trouble
Doesn't apply to historical mods
Most likely but not always. I saw one crazy case where a city approved a structure and then in a couple of years "unapproved" it. Obvious BS but the owner had to take them to court to address the decision. Again, it's always best to have a paper trail, these city departments can be unreasonably powerful and potentially petulant in my experience
If all you've owned is an apartment, maybe walk before you run eh. Trade the inner-city apartment for a house on it's own title. Advance on the property ladder. Sure, you're back paying off a mortgage again, but you will hold a valuable asset which you can sell to turn back into funds at any time. Owning a proper home will give you a proper experience of what it takes to maintain one and, if you have the interest, make DIY improvements to.
After a few years of that, you'll have a much better perspective on what it would take to build your own dwelling. Without that experience, you are almost certainly vastly underestimating and misunderstanding the work involved.
None of this is to put you off from doing it, but jumping from 'i own an apartment' to 'build my own house from scratch' is most likely to end poorly. Own, maintain, and improve an independent dwelling with its own title, land, and utility hookups, and then see if you really have the appetite, knack, and knowledge to go further.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTL8J7hEX/
done.
Very nice, though 20-something-thousand seems cheap. The ones I was looking at were about 100k but were bigger with more amenities and I think the duplexes were about 150k+
It's me again. Those types of houses that ship as a container and fold-out are $15k+. Why anyone would build a conventional house themselves with nothing to go inhabit while on the land, is beyond me. It's a tool: you need basic housing even if you are going to build something else.
I would look at what Nate Petrowski did. He started with a trailer and built from there. He bootstrapped with as little as possible.
I'm on the central west virginia territories, and have a well of natural gas, spring water, good views, and no building Codes. That means I don't have to be tied into services, which is good. They poison the water at the treatment facility, and that's why the IQ can be so damn low out here. Whereas other people with a well, can be quite smart. Pay for poisoning yourself and your livestock; what an idea!
You want to poke around at the county clerk and see what they have w unpaid property taxes. Take over the property you like; don't wait to look at listed properties. It may already have a house on it. Otherwise, get one of these container things that fold out (the videos are all over tiktok). Stick it inna woods, and then from there get a shed, and start building.
What people seem to overlook in the kind of fantasy you describe, is they have to live and provide for themselves while also building a home. Say you have some income stream. Say you have to spend several hours a day on it. You also have to have animals, an LGD, and basic infrastructure. Building a second building when you already have basic housing and a shed is one thing; having nothing at all is not doable. There's not enough time in the day.
Don't beat yourself up. Don't go from being a rentcuck to building a house on a piece of land overnight. Instead, have something there which is mold-free -it rains a lot here, and an older structure may be beyond habitability- that you can comfortably sleep, shower, and prepare meals in, relax and do small tasks.
second this
>buy land
>park caravan on land and live in it
>build shed
>live in shed
>build house
illegal in the US
> live in shed
Get a shed to store your tools in and have a dry shop area outside of the weather. Use that space for work, not for sleeping.
There is a 'shed' that's two levels with windows etc, you can get at the homeless despot. It's more of a small barn with a loft. But I wouldn't use that for living quarters. You really should consider just a trailer for that, or an older motorhome.
> i'm only familiar with metrosexualcucked cities
Believe it, or not, the north american territory is vast. There are several counties where there is no code compliance for private buildings, and you can put anything you want on the land.
Hell yeah there is. My plan, if I can ever afford it, would be to buy some acreage and build a shop on it. That shop would not only be a trial run at building a house but would also contain an "office" that would temporarily function as a studio apartment while I save to build the house. Once the house is built it can be turned into whatever I need. Office? Sure. Electronics/3d printing? Sure. Mother-in-law suite? Who am I kidding I'll be foreveralone.
The problem with being inexperienced and doing it yourself is that mistakes can be huge headaches when you catch them 6 months later
But yea you can do basically all of it yourself
The footing and the slab you might want to let pros work on. Also the layout/drawings. If it has to be inspected, you will most likely need people to help you respect code. Also you will need one helper, sometimes two. Machinery like a boom (fork)lift will help tremendously. If you are serious about it, a bank can loan you money to buy one, and once you are done with the project you sell it and pay the loan back. Talk with your financial advisor.
Ive built and a living in a 16x32 stick frame house I made out of materials I reclaimed from another building.
No borrowing
Its possible
Its not for everyone, you dont get to blame anyone else. Ever.
It is nice having things how I want them.
Most of it except plumbing/electrical, because if you frick up those things you might be in shits creek without a paddle. That said if you're not jacked as frick 2 things will happen:
A) Things will take forever. You will have to act as both the ~$20 an hour DONKEY hauling heavy shit around and the ~$50 an hour foreman yelling and fixing things when they go sideways.
B) You'll get things done quickly but end up with back pain for the rest of your life.
That's why the smart thing to do is find a Mexican that speaks English. Half of his life has probably consisted of farming things by hand so it's pretty common to see them capable of working non-stop like fricking robots on nothing but a hot dog and a can of red bull for the entire day.
Hell I'm convinced they'll still outperform humanoid robots in the next decade or so. It's a shame many of them are dumb as rocks from eating nothing but beans and will never be able to learn english. Otherwise we would probably get along better.
BTW don't be a pussy about $100/hour rates. Some of the most high end professional mexicans get shit done so fast they end up being cheaper than having a mediocre mexican take just as long as you to get shit done at $20/hour.
In most places of the world you can do illegal construction and then just deal with the government, whom often will give you a fine but wont order the building to be torn down.
Third worlders will take this to an extreme level and do illegal electrical connections to nearby electrical substations and just siphon power for their slum.
They do this in places like Brazil or India. Never try it in Israel.
All that copper to steal!
you can do a lot, but it's a lot easier if you got some friends with different skills