Looking for most efficent way to build home.

[briant97]

Hey guys I am looking for the best overall way to build my next home.  Here are the details I have a wife and 3 kids.  Right now the kids are 8,4,3.  What I am wanting to accomplish is making life a little less complicated and not have to worry so much.  Things are looking bad in the world and I want to be prepaired.  I want to grow my own food, harvest my own water, and produce my own power.  I want to be less dependent on the system.  I am looking to get 1 acre or 2 to do this on.  I am looking for information on the most efficient way to build my home in Ohio.  I am wanting to build it for us to live comfortable enough and live happily.  It doesn't have to be a huge home just enough to keep us content.  I would like to power it on my own and heat and cool it the most effective way possible.  I have looked at solar, wind and geo thermal.  I have also looked as passive solar.

What I am looking from the forum members are a few things.  I would like some home plans that would provide the most efficent building materials as well as use of space.  I would also like plans that would allow the home to be easily added onto if needed.  For instance we could get away with having one huge bedroom for everyone to sleep in but could later turn that into a family room or something when money permitted.  I would like to avoid taking out a loan as much as possible and/or keeping cost to a minimum.  As I get the loan paid and as money is free I will continue to add on to the property.  Should we just build in the ground like a basement and then add on later.  I know there are many ways to go but I would like to do this right from the start.  Any links with ideas or solutions you guys could give would be greatly appreciated.

[glenn kangiser]

Johns designs are made to be efficient, Brian. 

In the interest of low cost, the basement may not be the cheapest way to go.  Post and pier could get you by pretty cheaply.  Not aure on what you think you need to get started - the 20x30  in 1 or 1 1/2 or 2 story are good but if you need something smaller then I think the Enchilada plans Kit may be the way to go.

All are relatively easy to build on to.  Add a header where you think you may expand and you'll be ready.

http://www.countryplans.com/plans.html  Check them out.  Low cost too.

[tesa]

hi! i'd like to add that when this adventure first began for us, we were given, as a gift
the entire book collection of michael reynolds the earthship dude

we were so excited, many of his ideas were so new to us, we thought it was the
perfect plan

but, upon some resreach i realized that earthships wouldn't be the best idea for our location, or
for our desire to pound 1000 tires full of dirt (uber hard labor)

so then we started looking at other ideas, we looked at dry stacked concrete block, thinking
that would be the best way (low skill level, hard in many ohter ways)

so i was feeling really down, thinking "what are we gonna do? two basically unskilled middle
aged hippies

i wanted the best house for our skill level, our budget and our future, as we plan to leave the homestead
to the girls

so then i stumbled upon some "pole building" type books at the library, and the pictures showed
a bunch of hippies building cool houses

hey, this is for me!

but that didn't work out either

in the end, its this site that really allowed me to realize, building a "conventional" type structure vs
say the earthship, or dry stacked concrete, or earthbags, or other unconventional structures
was the way for two middle aged hippies to go

right now, we've got alot of irons in the fire, and as soon as we get some of our current projects completed
i plan to purchase the 1 1/2 story plans

i feel its the most efficient plan for our needs, and i gotta tell ya, i've been made to feel so welcomed here

with all my silly woman questions, and such

tesa

[NM_Shooter]

You have found a home among folks with similar thoughts.  More acreage is better, and remote might be better too if you want to build a windfarm. 

Irrigation or water rights would be nice, but fertile soil better!  Post and pier, good insulation, and an expandable plan are all good thoughts. 

Got room for pigs?  They eat anything, grow fast, and are pretty tasty :-)  We even have a member or two here who are experts on that....

Welcome!

[Jens]

Don't rule out alternative building methods either.  Cob, cordwood, strawbale, and such are viable for many who have the proper land and motivation to support it.  Especially if building a temporary structure, and where codes don't apply.  If we were in that position, I would totally stack up some bales on top of a foundation of old sidewalk cement, plaster, and put a roof on top of the sucker.  Doesn't have to be pretty (although they are by nature), or huge, just functional enough to get you through square one of buying and paying off your land.  Also leaves money to be able to spend on the alternative energy and such...they are not cheap.  IMO, a basic house that could be added onto, for a family of 5, would be 1 1/2 stories, 25x25.  Think garage with second (or 1/2)floor above.  Square, steep roof, couple of shed dormers, bathroom goes underneath the stairs.  Floor grates allow the heat to get upstairs when you want, so you can heat with a woodstove.  Mom and Dad sleep in a corner of the living room if desired, maybe even on a pullout couch.  We have 4 kids, and this is the method we have considered time and time again.  The cabinets and stuff could even be moved to the permanent house, and temp turned into a garage. 

[Curtis]

I've been reading a lot about alternative construction, as its normally extremely cheap when compared to conventional building and its earth friendly.

You should look into Earthbag construction. Its, in my opinion, probably one of the most effecient ways of building. A house that is cool in the summer, warm in the winter. The house is nearly indestructable. Naturally fireproof walls. Walls thats are bullet proof, naturally. If you live in an area that receives earthquaks, then this is the way to build.

Google it for more information. When you do, you'll see a lot of earthbag dome and circular houses, although there are many many normal vertical wall homes.

Basically the walls are constructed of burlap like sacks, which are filled with a reject sand (like $1.50 a ton from gravel yards), dirt that is on your site, or a special mix to better suit your climate (some people put porous rocks in the mix to help aid in installation in extreme climates) and these indvidiual sacks are laid in rows and tamped and compacted with cheap handmade tools. You lay them in a normal masonry style, like you would bricks, with two rows of barbed wire between each layer to provide tensile strenght (I belive thats it).

The material in the bags cure and harden like giant adobe blocks which are 6+ inches tall, and the width of the bag wide (around 18inches or so). This can also be done with a special made continuous tube bag to lay the walls more quickly and to ease the process. Then its just plastering/stuccoing or whatever the outside and inside. Simple and cheap.

If you're interested in learning more let me know. I've been doing a lot of reading about it because i'm like you, minus the family.

I plan on building an earthbag home that is partially underground with a living green roof.


Good luck.

[MountainDon]

FWIW, yes there are many alternate methods of construction, compared to modern stick building. The problem a lot of folks have with them is they are more labor intensive. For a lot of builders, like myself, who do not have their own machinery or a readily available pool of free labor, the alternate building process gets to consume a greater amount of time. It's sometimes a trade off, and different folks trade off in different directions. It sounds like tesa and family have done a lot of thinking on the subject, IMO.

[tesa]

indeed, we researched each idea very carefully

we stuck with the dry stacked concrete block for quite awhile, but the sheer
weight of that building, and our soggy crapy soil lead me to realize
did i really want such a heavy building??

also the cost of the foundation alone was staggering

we get someting like 36 inches of rain a year around these parts, so strawbale was out, not that
it can't be done, but i hear you've gotta be careful with all the rain, i hear they do much
better in areas with a bit less rain, like say austin?

i can safley say i've been researching for almost a solid 3 years now,

tesa

[Ernest T. Bass]

I think that earthbag is a great foundation alternative, even if you're not going to make the whole house out of them. We're thinking about possibly building a small addition on our house and would probably go that route for the foundation...

http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/articles/slc.htm

[Squirl]

I have looked into many alternative building designs.  I would prefer many of them.  But what most people don't mention are building codes.  95% of all home in America are built the same, in part, because of these.  Alternative building designs can be lower cost the way they are presented in books, but many of these do not even slightly pass code.  The codes I see violated most by these books are the fire code or the energy code sections.  If you do plan to go that route and you have building inspectors in your area, expect to add months, years, or mega bucks to your project to satisfy them.  If you don't have to spend the extra time and money, that is great, but I would at least expect it. Remember a lot of building inspecters come from the building trade were they learned a certain way and the laws are written for that way.  People that have been doing something for 25-30 years don't like change.

I would first check to see what has been done in the area you are trying to build.

Also with many local laws it may be difficult to put a tall wind turbine up on 1 acre.  Many codes require that the tower have a certain fall zone.  So if it falls, it can not end up on your neighbors property or on a building.  So if you do need a fall zone and you have a 60 ft tower (3.14*60*60), you would need 11,304 square feet of fall area.  Which is about .25 acres.  It can be done, but it takes planning and the layout of the land is important before hand.  I would check your local laws first.  Also you said you have children, and if you are the cautious type, it may be a good idea anyway.

[glenn kangiser]

Good points, Squirl.

Alternative building to code generally costs 30 to 300% more than stick building.  Usually it has to go inside of an engineered post and beam structure - In other words a building that will stand without any of the alternative building support. 

Codes are written to sell corporate produced materials that have had extreme amounts of money extorted from them by the government and testing agencies - after the payoff of the proper entities, then the American citizens are all free game.