One Building Manual

[Gladey]

To celebrate our land purchase, my parents have offered to buy us a book on building. We just got our big enchilada plans today and we are ready and raring to go. So my question for you guys, if you could have only one beginner's building manual, what would it be? I saw in the plans a specific recommendation for a framing guide, and we might go with that, but I'd like to hear from you guys first.

[n74tg]

I think Taunton Press has a Framing Book.  It's part of their "For Pros by Pros" series.  All of the books in that series are great.  That would be my recommendation.

[youngins]

We are new to building

"Ultimate Guide to House Framing" by John D. Wagner has been very helpfull.

Lots of diagrams and examples.

Chris

[glenn-k]

Here is a link to John's Reviews and recommendations and a link to Amazon that you can order through if it suits you.  Books ordered through this link help to support this site without costing us any extra.

http://www.countryplans.com/books.html

[MountainDon]

Wagner's "House Framing" is good. It's the first on John's list. I found a virtually new copy on amazon.com for about $10, shippimg included.

[Erin]

Do-It-Yourself Housebuilding (#2 on the list) is *really* comprehensive.  A great place for a novice to start.  
Another one I really like is Sam Clark's Independant Builder, for the same reasons as DIY.  

[Amanda_931]

I'm biased.    My mother was a partner in a bookstore.  I had money in another one for a while.

But the times I've had to look things up I've generally ended up with searching through two or three books to find an answer.  That no one book tells me everything.

(does the budget run to everything on John's list?   Including some of the design ideas books like the--really expensive--Pattern Language--friend who found that lifechanging found it for $5 at a garage sale, but I'd guess that doesn't happen too often)

[glenn-k]

Gladey- don't forget to get the free stuff too - nice framing manual posted in our free stuff.  Many print it out - about 50 pages and fairly comprehensive.

http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1134666978

[Erin]

nice framing manual posted in our free stuff

how neat!  Thanks, glenn.  
This is just what my lesser half needs to be able to picture things---like how joists can span a distance longer than the joist is.  
I mean books are great, and they often offer more details, but those pics are just perfect for visualizing how it all goes together.

[glenn-k]

No problem, Erin.  I repost some of this stuff because new people many times haven't seen it.  A quick browse through the free stuff may net you more goodies.

That manual in particular was a real good one.