Building Your Own Home With Books
Most of us only dream of building your own home and
living in it for the rest of our lives, well maybe not for the rest of
our lives. My grandfather built his home when my father was nine years
old and lived in it until he died. As a Carpenter and general
contractor, I have always wanted to build my own home but never got the
chance.
For anyone interested in building the home of your dreams, I found a few
books on home building that seemed to be
pretty helpful. I have been remodeling, building room additions, worked
on track house framing for years and have done more home repairs than
you could possibly imagine. I have found some of these books to be very
resourceful and helpful, when it comes to solving some of the problems I
run into.
When it comes to
building
the foundation, it's not just about pouring a concrete slab or
footings. You need to run electrical conduit, plumbing supply and waste
pipes, make sure the building foundation is square and level, and if you
forget one thing, just one thing, you could find yourself in a world of
hurt. I have worked on homes where the builder forgot to install
electrical conduit and plumbing for a kitchen island. The contractor
needed to saw cut the foundation and repair at it, during the home
construction. This cost the building contractor around $4600.
Sometimes a checklist makes sense but where you get a checklist for
building homes. Well maybe one day, I will try to make one. These
home building
books have been valuable resources to me for many years and have
saved me grief and agony over simple things that often get overlooked.
It's a little overwhelming to even think about building your own home,
if you don't have some construction skills. Construction knowledge can
be gained through on-the-job training and by reading construction
manuals. The best of both worlds would be to have both of these skills.
Construction knowledge can be gained or improved, over time with
experience, combined with a couple of great books.