How to build a house alone [video]

It's this one: https://imgur.com/a/afZgOZ2

Naturally it has been maintained over the years, new roofing, new paint, but all in all it's the same house.

He does as much work as possible himself, or when I was living at home, by getting me to do it for free (well, I get inheritance one day).

The amount of money he's managed to save by doing his own work is staggering. We saved at least $10,000 by building a retaining wall ourselves. We mixed up over 6 tonnes of concrete in a 200 L concrete mixer.

Every fence on his properties he's put up himself, I've helped out with about 5. You're probably saving $5000 per fence (for a timber fence, 6 foot high). He does a lot of his own painting and drywall work as well. He does a lot of his own electrical work as well since he's qualified to do it, which saves boatloads of money.

We even installed the pool at the family house on our own, saving 5 figures (he did pay for a earthmoving company to dig the hole though).

He's probably managed to save several hundred thousand dollars by doing his own work. He basically spends any time that he's not working at his day job working on his properties.

Building your own house from scratch isn't really worth it these days though. It's cheaper to get a frame preassembled, then trucked in and erected. Doing your own concreting isn't really worth it either, same for bricklaying.

He also joked that he had a hard time getting a loan. They wanted to see plans, etc. “Why the hell do you need plans for a house?”. He built aircraft; those you needed plans for.

i spent 9 months building homes with habitat for humanity and found the regulations largely reasonable (like steel strapping for earthquake resistance). the lackadaisicalness of the inspectors on the other hand was frustrating. most of the build could have been done by a single person who possessed determination, ingenuity and loads of time.

What I find less acceptable, is placing them in the hands of and behind the paywall of commercial interests.

In some cases, that does make them quite expensive for the individual.

It also places consumers of building and trade services at a disadvantage. Is your job being done correctly? Well, the building and other code defining a good bit of this, may not be readily accessible to you.

Creating it is and should be a public effort. The public should pay for that, up front. And then we should all have access to it.

Transparency is also essential for good and effective government. And regulation is a part of that.

Yet one is possible to do literally by yourself without another human being alive as long as you possess the knowledge.

It is a real difference.

Good luck with learning Portuguese. Just like French, you'll need some perseverance in the beginning. ;)

Also consider the renewable + cost + timber supply factor, when it comes to population. Germany's population has barely increased since 1970. The US population has increased by ~55% in that time, adding over 100 million people. Rarely building new structures for a stagnate population base is a very different consideration vs building for a population that has been quite expansive for over a century. Just on the environmental concerns alone, I don't think you want the US to rebuild all of its housing with concrete.

The median US house is between 50% and 100% larger than the median house in developed Europe, at half the price or less per sq metre. The median US house is generally the first or second largest in the world.

Maintenance is not dramatic for wood structures, assuming they're properly built. Once they're enclosed, if properly maintained, you should have to do relatively little work to the core structure of the building over many decades. As it pertains to heating & cooling, high quality insulation today means there's little concern for external weather, whether you're in New Hampshire or Arizona.

My house is 1880s vintage, and it's sorta post-and-beam, with 10x10 beams making up the frame, and double layers of 12" to 30" wide pine floorboards. You can't even begin to find lumber like that today, unless you've got a stand of high quality timber that's been saved out and not cut already, and a sawmill to do custom sawing.

This house seems to be employing OSB everywhere anything wider than a 2x4 is needed. I assume most of the criticism being voiced is in response to the OSB, not of the wood frame.

Something as common as a burst water pipe (there's snow on the ground in the video) is likely to cause severe structural damage to this home due to the liberal use of OSB, particularly in the joists.

OSB is a relatively modern invention, none of the history you mention is relevant to its application.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stave_church#Norway_2

OSB is usually used in the sheathing alone, which can easily be replaced when needed (OSB can't get wet). On higher quality builds, plywood is used for the sheathing.

I've never seen a home with OSB joists, but most of the homes I've seen under the skirt of were built between the 1950s-80s.

Over time the average build quality has certainly diminished. OSB usage continues to increase despite its obvious problems. It's another casualty of population growth. Consumer goods are made of plastic, and your homes are increasingly made from glued together woodchips.

Not the joists. The flat panels he's making the floors and walls from - they're chipboard, or OSB https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-chipboard.

There doesn't seem to be anything solid in the house at all - no brick or stone.

Legalization in our case is still a hot topic. There is a local party for people with illegal houses.

The town had plenty of land available. Data here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiclana_de_la_Frontera

But unless you owned 1 ha, regulations required an urbanization project. There weren't enough of them to cover a population that doubled in fifty years.

You can't get shit done when you can't remember how to work.

It's rare to see a community come together to help out like that, at least for hands-on contractor related work.

I don't know if concrete it's generally more expensive than wood, but anyway, it's incredible how expensive were homes before the crisis and how 'cheap' they look.

At least that's the situation in Australia and New Zealand.

Most professional home builders are really organizations with checks and balances against making bizarre decisions that may go unchecked when a single dude has ultimate control over the construction, floor plan, and whatever other minor details may drive me nuts after living there 12 months.