BUILDING YOUR OWN HOUSE TIPS

[BIG FAT HOOR]

this is a forum for those who hope to build a house or assist someone else to build .
PLAN A .
buy some of the new industrial portal frame shed kits for sale like on euro auctions for 3-4000 euros .
some of these are even fully galvanised ----- cut them to size to fit the plan which you have drawn up by paying a friendly structural engineer to print you a copy of a plan which you submit the height and width and length and floor connections for the cross pieces and 10 seconds after you input these figures the software will spit out a plan which will specify the thickness of the h columns and even space the cleats in the roof for the purloins .
you then have your steel cut to size and welded and you pay a structural contractor to erect the portal frame house after you pour the pad and let him set the bolts in their foundation as that is his job .
you erect the frame which includes the cross members for the poured concrete floors on the first and attic level and he bolts his concrete shuts to your upright steel and pours concrete between his shuts and you use coarse old timber as framing inside the shuts where you have doors and windows to fit and when the concrete is poured and your walls which have mesh in them hardens you simply knock out the wooden frames and you are left with the doorways and windows .
you hire blocklayers and supply them with the drawing and the lintels for over the doors and windows and they erect the block walls around your house .
you have wavin pipe lengths left in the poured walls and block walls to fit your electricals and plumbing and data and power .
you get your shed builders to put shuts up for the floors and you pour your floors with mesh or buy flooring with mesh already made and you simply lift them into place .
they then fit insulated panels to your roof as per an industrial building and your house is finished .
the electrician comes the plumber comes and the window and door man and last is your plasterer who finishes the concrete walls and windows and makes everything look smooth and nice .
turn on the heat and paint the house yourselves .
there are a large amount of used solid wood kitchens going for a song buy 2--- sand and re lacquer them and make them fit and use the leftover cabinets in your utility .
upstairs in the attic make a sound insulated room with plywood and face it in flooring lengths ,
and i have bought pallets of new flooring in auctions some weighing a ton or more for 100 euros per pallet some flooring has been damaged at the end by a forklift -- simply use the damaged ones where you have to cut and trim one anyway.
much of it was left over after a job and is not enough to do another and you can use all of this to panel the attic roof with wood effect and to clad the plywood room which holds all your tanks for your plumbing --at least 3 tanks required and the remainder is your giant office and gym and store of files and family items and floor the bedrooms and other rooms with the stuff some of it has a10 year or more warranty.
buy at least 4 tons of the stuff you will use it all.
plan to have a balcony either end of the attic with a large double opening patio door and now you can use a forklift to lift up the gym equipment -tanks furniture etc to the attic level and you can sit out on one balcony in the morning and sit at the other one in the evening in order to work in the sun if you wish .
you would build this house in no time --it would be bullet proof and quiet and warm and you would have 3 floors .
it should not cost you 240,000 for 3000sq ft home .
the field is another matter .
i have built 2 houses in my time and done a lot of learning on both.
today so called engineers /architects are charging 20,000 for their involvement as one of them told me recently.
this is wholesale robbery .
some other tips .
put a heavy 63 amp relay on your electrical board and a blue plug on the wall for welding as you will at some stage fit your own stairs made of wrought iron steel .
put a cheap round aluminum ducting from the outside wall vent under your floor to the liscannor stone hearth stone which you drill with 8 holes wine bottle cork size -now you can simply put corks in the holes and meter the air required --now you have an fresh oxygen supply for your fire or stove and you can close the windows and keep the heat in .
put three times the cat 6 cable you need in each room as you can give each child fiber and a desktop if required and also fiber to their tv and also access to the gate system and cctv on their screen and cctv in their room and other rooms and if they are worried scan all the cameras outside and at the gate and also the calving cameras in the shed all without getting out of bed as they maybe be alone in the house at times .
the house should have foundations at least 2 ft more in width and 2 ft more in depth with plenty of mesh as this is the cheapest thing you can do and raise your house completely off ground level by at least 3 blocks to keep it dry and it suits a house to be elevated from the ground .
put more than one earth in the ground and put generous sand around the chimney flues to stop cracks in the walls .
use heavy large diam pipes for the plumbing and insulate the house as well as you can afford -use foil backed insulation for the north side at least and then pour the granules around the insulated panels before the floor and roof go on .
as it will cut 1 third off your heating bills .
make sure all the concrete is to spec as flooring is different from foundation spec and when he is digging the foundation dig a trench in the middle of your house and put serrated drainage pipe in there surrounded with pea gravel and pipe the pipe to a lower level this costs buttons and will drain away water under you house and keep the damp out for all time .
your sewerage needs large wavin pipes from the last chamber at least 3 used and you get the large brown pipes and slit them every foot all around the pipe with an angle grinder for at least 30 ft from the last box in your system and set them in small stone and you will never have a problem.
in the corner inside the h of the upright steel put a 4 inch wavin pipe on each corner up to the attic from ground level now your house is future proof and you can add cables or plumbing as you wish to any part of the house in its future .
see what you make of this and let me know if you have any tips yourselves .

 

[Mad as Fish]

this is a forum for those who hope to build a house or assist someone else to build .
PLAN A .
buy some of the new industrial portal frame shed kits for sale like on euro auctions for 3-4000 euros .
some of these are even fully galvanised ----- cut them to size to fit the plan which you have drawn up by paying a friendly structural engineer to print you a copy of a plan which you submit the height and width and length and floor connections for the cross pieces and 10 seconds after you input these figures the software will spit out a plan which will specify the thickness of the h columns and even space the cleats in the roof for the purloins .
you then have your steel cut to size and welded and you pay a structural contractor to erect the portal frame house after you pour the pad and let him set the bolts in their foundation as that is his job .
you erect the frame which includes the cross members for the poured concrete floors on the first and attic level and he bolts his concrete shuts to your upright steel and pours concrete between his shuts and you use coarse old timber as framing inside the shuts where you have doors and windows to fit and when the concrete is poured and your walls which have mesh in them hardens you simply knock out the wooden frames and you are left with the doorways and windows .
you hire blocklayers and supply them with the drawing and the lintels for over the doors and windows and they erect the block walls around your house .
you have wavin pipe lengths left in the poured walls and block walls to fit your electricals and plumbing and data and power .
you get your shed builders to put shuts up for the floors and you pour your floors with mesh or buy flooring with mesh already made and you simply lift them into place .
they then fit insulated panels to your roof as per an industrial building and your house is finished .
the electrician comes the plumber comes and the window and door man and last is your plasterer who finishes the concrete walls and windows and makes everything look smooth and nice .
turn on the heat and paint the house yourselves .
there are a large amount of used solid wood kitchens going for a song buy 2--- sand and re lacquer them and make them fit and use the leftover cabinets in your utility .
upstairs in the attic make a sound insulated room with plywood and face it in flooring lengths ,
and i have bought pallets of new flooring in auctions some weighing a ton or more for 100 euros per pallet some flooring has been damaged at the end by a forklift -- simply use the damaged ones where you have to cut and trim one anyway.
much of it was left over after a job and is not enough to do another and you can use all of this to panel the attic roof with wood effect and to clad the plywood room which holds all your tanks for your plumbing --at least 3 tanks required and the remainder is your giant office and gym and store of files and family items and floor the bedrooms and other rooms with the stuff some of it has a10 year or more warranty.
buy at least 4 tons of the stuff you will use it all.
plan to have a balcony either end of the attic with a large double opening patio door and now you can use a forklift to lift up the gym equipment -tanks furniture etc to the attic level and you can sit out on one balcony in the morning and sit at the other one in the evening in order to work in the sun if you wish .
you would build this house in no time --it would be bullet proof and quiet and warm and you would have 3 floors .
it should not cost you 240,000 for 3000sq ft home .
the field is another matter .
i have built 2 houses in my time and done a lot of learning on both.
today so called engineers /architects are charging 20,000 for their involvement as one of them told me recently.
this is wholesale robbery .
some other tips .
put a heavy 63 amp relay on your electrical board and a blue plug on the wall for welding as you will at some stage fit your own stairs made of wrought iron steel .
put a cheap round aluminum ducting from the outside wall vent under your floor to the liscannor stone hearth stone which you drill with 8 holes wine bottle cork size -now you can simply put corks in the holes and meter the air required --now you have an fresh oxygen supply for your fire or stove and you can close the windows and keep the heat in .
put three times the cat 6 cable you need in each room as you can give each child fiber and a desktop if required and also fiber to their tv and also access to the gate system and cctv on their screen and cctv in their room and other rooms and if they are worried scan all the cameras outside and at the gate and also the calving cameras in the shed all without getting out of bed as they maybe be alone in the house at times .
the house should have foundations at least 2 ft more in width and 2 ft more in depth with plenty of mesh as this is the cheapest thing you can do and raise your house completely off ground level by at least 3 blocks to keep it dry and it suits a house to be elevated from the ground .
put more than one earth in the ground and put generous sand around the chimney flues to stop cracks in the walls .
use heavy large diam pipes for the plumbing and insulate the house as well as you can afford -use foil backed insulation for the north side at least and then pour the granules around the insulated panels before the floor and roof go on .
as it will cut 1 third off your heating bills .
make sure all the concrete is to spec as flooring is different from foundation spec and when he is digging the foundation dig a trench in the middle of your house and put serrated drainage pipe in there surrounded with pea gravel and pipe the pipe to a lower level this costs buttons and will drain away water under you house and keep the damp out for all time .
your sewerage needs large wavin pipes from the last chamber at least 3 used and you get the large brown pipes and slit them every foot all around the pipe with an angle grinder for at least 30 ft from the last box in your system and set them in small stone and you will never have a problem.
in the corner inside the h of the upright steel put a 4 inch wavin pipe on each corner up to the attic from ground level now your house is future proof and you can add cables or plumbing as you wish to any part of the house in its future .
see what you make of this and let me know if you have any tips yourselves .

My one piece of advice is don't even think about it unless you are are confident in the skills required, There are natural builders who have the inate ability to do the job right, and there are cack handed cobblers like me who shouldn't be trusted with a lego set let alone building a house!

 

[Diarmuid]

Great post BFH!

I would quibble slightly on some detail - don't bother with steel stairs - build your own wooden stairs. And while perfect plastering is a skill, adequate plastering can be picked up quick enough. Compost toilet is by far the best option.

The drunken German who was the engineer and foreman on my self build advised me:

1.Have no fears of the materials
2.Steal with your eyes.
He was right. It worked.

And you leave out one tiny, tiny, tiny detail: What about the satanic vultures in the County Council planning department who will relish destroyng your house? (There is an actual pagan/devil worshipping Bearloir guy working in planning in Meath CoCo, Sean Somebody. They had him on RTE a while back. I presume he really enjoyed knocking down that family's house)

Can we build that structure on wheels? How much does it cost these days to bribe a planner?


Pull yourself together, MAF!

Us human males are evolved to build shelter, hunt, fish, etc. Your grandfather or great grandfather could do it.

If you are unconfident, build a dog kennel first. Then a garden shed. Then you will be ready to start on your house.

 

[Mad as Fish]

Great post BFH!

I would quibble slightly on some detail - don't bother with steel stairs - build your own wooden stairs. And while perfect plastering is a skill, adequate plastering can be picked up quick enough. Compost toilet is by far the best option.

The drunken German who was the engineer and foreman on my self build advised me:

1.Have no fears of the materials
2.Steal with your eyes.
He was right. It worked.

And you leave out one tiny, tiny, tiny detail: What about the satanic vultures in the County Council planning department who will relish destroyng your house? (There is an actual pagan/devil worshipping Bearloir guy working in planning in Meath CoCo, Sean Somebody. They had him on RTE a while back. I presume he really enjoyed knocking down that family's house)

Can we build that structure on wheels? How much does it cost these days to bribe a planner?


Pull yourself together, MAF!

Us human males are evolved to build shelter, hunt, fish, etc. Your grandfather or great grandfather could do it.

If you are unconfident, build a dog kennel first. Then a garden shed. Then you will be ready to start on your house.

Undergoing a conversion from a shop to a cottage here and I know my limits!

I was sweating over putting the windows in for ages then got a quote from a local window company who did a smart job in a few days whereas I would have been at it for months and still got it wrong, well worth the money. Roof was the same, but don't talk to me about the set of cowboys who quaintly referred to themselves as plumbers! Grrrr.....

 

[SeekTheFairLand]

any pics of the projects mentioned?

 

[clarke-connolly]

Definitely start at the bottom i.e foundations / slab-base ( some call it a raft )

 

[Declan]

Woodlawn, New Inn, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway is for sale on Daft.ie

Woodlawn, New Inn, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway a 4 Bed Detached is now for sale by Mike Glynn on Daft.ie with an asking price of €205,000

www.daft.ie

 

[Declan]

A derelict castle and a derelict house. We should renovate it for @Myles O'Reilly

 

[Declan]

His mother is from near there, about 15km

 

[Mad as Fish]

any pics of the projects mentioned?

Dox central that would be. This property was on and off Daft for years and I got a right bollocking from my solicitor for buying it at auction, but thankfully it hasn't turned out too bad, so far, just the usual costing twice as much as I innocently thought it would.

 

[Declan]

Too bad.

But can we take it that it cost twice as much as someone told you it would cost and maybe 3 times as long because of red tape

 

[Mad as Fish]

Too bad.

But can we take it that it cost twice as much as someone told you it would cost and maybe 3 times as long because of red tape

I had a spreadsheet devoted to its costings, but there were two problems, the first was that I didn't know what actually needed doing and secondly I couldn't get reliable estimates for the work that I did know needed to be done.

My personal circumstances at the time were such that I needed to move, and fairly quickly, so I went into it eyes wide shut and fingers crossed! Planning is an interesting one, I have informed the council of what I am doing and sought its opinion, but had no reply! Is it going to turn around in a year or two and insist that I have somehow fallen foul of the regulations? They can't insist on its demolition (I think) because the building has been here a good fifty years and I haven't altered the structure, but extra windows, fire escapes, partitions etc may be things that they could get uppity about.

 

[BIG FAT HOOR]

any pics of the projects mentioned?

I made the stairs myself cheaply using wrought iron from artistic iron works terenure .
i made the balcony myself and the chandelier from the same wrought iron as i could not buy a light fitting big enough to light the room -
the light /chandelier -it cost me 162 pounds for the steel and i had some lengths of chain and its simply welded together from the catalogue bits , the light fittings were extra .
i was offered 2 grand to make one for someone but i was unsure of them and its very heavy you could be stung if it fell .
the floor and the table and skirting boards and all the furniture are made from an elm tree i bought and had cut up and dried in brett sawmills in kilkenny who have a kiln .
the dresser is the same height as the table and curved to allow everyone to get up from the table without hassle ,
all the wooden floor skirting and panelling are from the same tree and used to be black but the sun has bleached it .
the chimney is waste liscannor stone as i could not afford cut stone and i gathered up 6 pallets of waste offcuts from a farmer in liscannor who sold flagstones for 20 punts each .
he was directly across the road from the liscannor stone co and had a wet saw in a cowshed and had the flags on his own land .
this is a heat bank and the sun gets it warm during the day and the fire at night and it radiates heat all night .
if you look under the stove you will see the holes drilled in the flag to allow oxygen to the fire with consuming the oxygen in the room .
i made the poles for the curtains out of scrap stainless from a scrapped avonmore truck and the rings for the curtains cost me 1 punt each ,
i got 100 of them made by walls engineering carlow who have a ring making machine .
i welded large ends of a railing fittings to the pole ends using a chromard rod .
the fittings were the same diameter as the poles and i got them from artistic ironworks as i spotted them rusting in a bag and asked him would he take a tenner for them --he grabbed them and said go on you can have them .
i did not put the floor down but i did sand it and level it and spread 4 coats of bus 2 pack lacquer on it .
a stone mason put up the chimney for me and charged me 600 punts and a fireplace was 1200 punts at the time so i got my heat bank up for less than the cost of a fireplace .
i gave 400 punts for the stone and it cost me 300 punts to transport it to kilkenny .
if you have the time and you are determined you can have a go and get a result --but you need a very patient wife who believes you will pull off something you have never done before .
i am a bus mechanic and you are required to do diagnostics one minute and weld the next and recondition your own alternator and spraypaint the next day,
every day is different -i also split and re seal/refurbish the leaking double glazing units in the buses .
you can do most things today using tutorials from yu tube and if you have the correct manual for each vehicle you have the specs and job explained for you as i have a 30 gigs of discs for one vehicle alone and a further 50 gig of workshop manual on the diagnostic computer .
you get used to doing things by the use of a manual/computer .

 

[BIG FAT HOOR]

I had a spreadsheet devoted to its costings, but there were two problems, the first was that I didn't know what actually needed doing and secondly I couldn't get reliable estimates for the work that I did know needed to be done.

My personal circumstances at the time were such that I needed to move, and fairly quickly, so I went into it eyes wide shut and fingers crossed! Planning is an interesting one, I have informed the council of what I am doing and sought its opinion, but had no reply! Is it going to turn around in a year or two and insist that I have somehow fallen foul of the regulations? They can't insist on its demolition (I think) because the building has been here a good fifty years and I haven't altered the structure, but extra windows, fire escapes, partitions etc may be things that they could get uppity about.

there is a man here who worked in the planning office and he knows the story from the inside .
he now acts as a consultant for planning and he has been doing this for a many years .
private message me and i will give you his number .

 

[Declan]

Spectacular work a chara.

 

[Diarmuid]

Planning is an interesting one, I have informed the council of what I am doing and sought its opinion, but had no reply! Is it going to turn around in a year or two and insist that I have somehow fallen foul of the regulations?

Good tactic! Because you have told them and they haven't objected, it will be difficult for them to do anything later on.

But technically you are breaching the rules by not getting permission before making modifications. If they want to fuck you over they will just claim that they never got your letter and get a smirking freemason judge to order the removal of all improvements. It happens every day of the week.

Top tip - don't upset the masons or local politicos.

 

[SeekTheFairLand]

I made the stairs myself cheaply using wrought iron from artistic iron works terenure .
i made the balcony myself and the chandelier from the same wrought iron as i could not buy a light fitting big enough to light the room -
the light /chandelier -it cost me 162 pounds for the steel and i had some lengths of chain and its simply welded together from the catalogue bits , the light fittings were extra .
i was offered 2 grand to make one for someone but i was unsure of them and its very heavy you could be stung if it fell .
the floor and the table and skirting boards and all the furniture are made from an elm tree i bought and had cut up and dried in brett sawmills in kilkenny who have a kiln .
the dresser is the same height as the table and curved to allow everyone to get up from the table without hassle ,
all the wooden floor skirting and panelling are from the same tree and used to be black but the sun has bleached it .
the chimney is waste liscannor stone as i could not afford cut stone and i gathered up 6 pallets of waste offcuts from a farmer in liscannor who sold flagstones for 20 punts each .
he was directly across the road from the liscannor stone co and had a wet saw in a cowshed and had the flags on his own land .
this is a heat bank and the sun gets it warm during the day and the fire at night and it radiates heat all night .
if you look under the stove you will see the holes drilled in the flag to allow oxygen to the fire with consuming the oxygen in the room .
i made the poles for the curtains out of scrap stainless from a scrapped avonmore truck and the rings for the curtains cost me 1 punt each ,
i got 100 of them made by walls engineering carlow who have a ring making machine .
i welded large ends of a railing fittings to the pole ends using a chromard rod .
the fittings were the same diameter as the poles and i got them from artistic ironworks as i spotted them rusting in a bag and asked him would he take a tenner for them --he grabbed them and said go on you can have them .
i did not put the floor down but i did sand it and level it and spread 4 coats of bus 2 pack lacquer on it .
a stone mason put up the chimney for me and charged me 600 punts and a fireplace was 1200 punts at the time so i got my heat bank up for less than the cost of a fireplace .
i gave 400 punts for the stone and it cost me 300 punts to transport it to kilkenny .
if you have the time and you are determined you can have a go and get a result --but you need a very patient wife who believes you will pull off something you have never done before .
i am a bus mechanic and you are required to do diagnostics one minute and weld the next and recondition your own alternator and spraypaint the next day,
every day is different -i also split and re seal/refurbish the leaking double glazing units in the buses .
you can do most things today using tutorials from yu tube and if you have the correct manual for each vehicle you have the specs and job explained for you as i have a 30 gigs of discs for one vehicle alone and a further 50 gig of workshop manual on the diagnostic computer .
you get used to doing things by the use of a manual/computer .

Great work BFH!
so class that you put all this together yourself. I love that chimney breast, the double height makes it spectacular. Presumably it acts as a heat storage sink when that woodburner is going in colder weather?

 

[BIG FAT HOOR]

Great work BFH!
so class that you put all this together yourself. I love that chimney breast, the double height makes it spectacular. Presumably it acts as a heat storage sink when that woodburner is going in colder weather?

YES but we underestimated the effect the large windows have on heating the room and we now have to modify the heating and remove the rads from under the windows as the plumber said that where they have to go but the curtians effect things and the roof also .
we need big panel rads for the walls and i am looking for a job lot of solar panels to heat the house -i am going to put them on the bus shed and put a lot of them and use storage heaters to gobble the current 24/7.
we have to change things as we are getting older and colder -i bought my wife an electric blanket for watching the telly and it ok but not the solution.

 

[The Equalizer]

I made the stairs myself cheaply using wrought iron from artistic iron works terenure .
i made the balcony myself and the chandelier from the same wrought iron as i could not buy a light fitting big enough to light the room -
the light /chandelier -it cost me 162 pounds for the steel and i had some lengths of chain and its simply welded together from the catalogue bits , the light fittings were extra .
i was offered 2 grand to make one for someone but i was unsure of them and its very heavy you could be stung if it fell .
the floor and the table and skirting boards and all the furniture are made from an elm tree i bought and had cut up and dried in brett sawmills in kilkenny who have a kiln .
the dresser is the same height as the table and curved to allow everyone to get up from the table without hassle ,
all the wooden floor skirting and panelling are from the same tree and used to be black but the sun has bleached it .
the chimney is waste liscannor stone as i could not afford cut stone and i gathered up 6 pallets of waste offcuts from a farmer in liscannor who sold flagstones for 20 punts each .
he was directly across the road from the liscannor stone co and had a wet saw in a cowshed and had the flags on his own land .
this is a heat bank and the sun gets it warm during the day and the fire at night and it radiates heat all night .
if you look under the stove you will see the holes drilled in the flag to allow oxygen to the fire with consuming the oxygen in the room .
i made the poles for the curtains out of scrap stainless from a scrapped avonmore truck and the rings for the curtains cost me 1 punt each ,
i got 100 of them made by walls engineering carlow who have a ring making machine .
i welded large ends of a railing fittings to the pole ends using a chromard rod .
the fittings were the same diameter as the poles and i got them from artistic ironworks as i spotted them rusting in a bag and asked him would he take a tenner for them --he grabbed them and said go on you can have them .
i did not put the floor down but i did sand it and level it and spread 4 coats of bus 2 pack lacquer on it .
a stone mason put up the chimney for me and charged me 600 punts and a fireplace was 1200 punts at the time so i got my heat bank up for less than the cost of a fireplace .
i gave 400 punts for the stone and it cost me 300 punts to transport it to kilkenny .
if you have the time and you are determined you can have a go and get a result --but you need a very patient wife who believes you will pull off something you have never done before .
i am a bus mechanic and you are required to do diagnostics one minute and weld the next and recondition your own alternator and spraypaint the next day,
every day is different -i also split and re seal/refurbish the leaking double glazing units in the buses .
you can do most things today using tutorials from yu tube and if you have the correct manual for each vehicle you have the specs and job explained for you as i have a 30 gigs of discs for one vehicle alone and a further 50 gig of workshop manual on the diagnostic computer .
you get used to doing things by the use of a manual/computer .

Beautiful