In misc.consumers.house Subba Rao wrote:
Hello,

My girlfriend and I are planning to buy some land and build a house
ourselves. I really don't have the skills of a handyman but am willing
to learn. If I went that route, will I be saving money as opposed to
buying a built house? How big are the savings (apporximate % number)?

If someone here built a house all by themselves, how long did that take?
Are there any FAQs for people like me to learn and build a house?

Any information, help and advice is appreciated.

Thank you in advance.
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SR

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As a somewhat self-taught veteran of the remodeling wars, I would
suggest gently that your posting here quite underestimates the skills
required, those skills being primarily cognitive rather than physical.
Even with a fair background of experience in construction from my
youth, I find that house construction is quite challenging. Trying
to "booklearn" these skills, something I heartily applaud, is
not going to be easy or quick or especially effective without
some applied experience. And, starting on a whole house project
is setting the bar awfully high. Finally, let me gently chastise
you: You are naively presumptious to think that reading a few
FAQs would make any significant dent in ignorance about house
construction. True, it's not rocket science, but believe me,
carpenters, plumbers, etc. really do "know stuff."

Some suggestions: 1) There are some "build your own house" classes
I have heard of. My recollection is that these were something like
one or two week full-time classes. 2) Hire someone to work with you
on the project, such as an experienced carpenter/builder/etc., who
will be the brains of the outfit. Unless you have a pre-existing
friendship with such a person, though, it may be hard to find
someone willing to take on supervision of someone completely
new.

How much would you save? Well, one place to start would be to imagine
that your inexperienced labor would be worth $25/hr., which I think
is generous. Suppose that you could afford to put in 4 months at
40 hour/wk. over the course of the year. This would be $16,000.

Rather than think in terms of doing a whole house, I would suggest
you might be better off thinking in terms of particular aspects
of the whole project you might do. For example, I have known
people who did their own electrical work on a new house, which
is quite legal in many places. (The advantage to this is that
residential electric is more amenable to booklearning, in my
experience, than some other skills, and it is a high-value
($50/hr. in my locale) contribution to the project.)
On the other hand, things that require considerable hand
skill, such as drywall finishing, are things that a neophyte
can do, but the efficiency is likely to be so low that you
will end up making $5/hr. Choosing what to do and what not
to do is a skill I am still learning.
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Mike Lacy, Ft Collins CO 80523
Clean out the 'junk' to email me.