Areas in the U.S. With No Building Codes (convert, best, inexpensive)
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Bishop's Castle in CO was reputed to be built without building codes. Not sure if its true. An electrical fire happened two years go. Its a great day trip from Denver and then have dinner at the Bucksnort Saloon in Pine CO on the way back.
Bishop's Castle in CO was reputed to be built without building codes. Not sure if its true. An electrical fire happened two years go. Its a great day trip from Denver and then have dinner at the Bucksnort Saloon in Pine CO on the way back.
In most of Florida Zoning and Building codes are seriously enforced
Likely because Hurricanes and demands for real Estate but zoning and building codes is serious business in Florida. Not uncommon to find land with fines and leins from building violations.
I found a small piece of land in the center of the state (2 hours from each coast) that was zoned residential but outside city limits. A failed development that was abandoned during a market crash in the 70s in a small town that just never really happened . I was able to steal the land for nothing... I then tried to get the county to maintain the roads and they just lowered my taxes instead.
No neighbors and the roads are so soft you have to really want to risk getting to my property. It gets no mail or trash service and there is no power or water lines for about 3 winding miles. Some would say this is bad news, but i saw it as a crazy good opportunity for an idea i had since after splitting the land up and selling parcels I was able to make 300% profit.. but profit was not the goal.
I talked to the county about building permits but then realized I really don't want to build anything permanent there.. it would be a terrible investment and only serve to raise my taxes. I am a nomadic van-lifer and I just want to store some tools and supplies and sleep and work on the land maybe 10 days a month and no more than 100 days a year.
I was able to drill a shallow well by hand to very clear water at about 12' that i use to wash, shower and irrigate .. all for less than $20 in materials. My drinking water is from a Walmart 20 minutes away. Yeah, I have a walmart and home depot just 20 minutes away!
Solar is amazing on the lot.
But the biggest surprises 1. Great and stable cellular reception.. four bars. It's a challenge but i've been living with 30gb of hotspot.. looking to upgrade to 100gb soon 2. How cool it gets at night even in July and August I'm at about 72F after 11pm which i sleep great with a fan in. 3. That because the lot is so sandy, water does not puddle and so there are No mosquitos even on summer nights! For Florida these are huge. I've lived 2 away hours on both coasts in the suburbs and will tell you i've seen it 10F hotter and mosquito would eat you alive on the same summer nights. Many people will tell you they could never live in Florida without AC.. well I just tested the worst two months of the year on this land and it's not so bad there.
The only two issues /concerns I've had is that I've had people break into the lot looking for stuff.. nothing taken or broken anything, but apparently were looking for something else.. maybe a meth lab IDK.. In the city, having nosy neighbors can suck until you realize they can help deter some crime (unless they themselves are criminals LOL). IMO Crime is more a numbers game than an opportunity game as most criminals are not all that smart or calculating.. because really, crime does not pay if you figure all the energy and stress crime must require. Another issues is that Google maps has my address and directions all wrong and so nobody (including 911 likely) would ever be able to find my body if something bad should happen. A few weeks ago there were fires at a distance and i had to make the tough decision of staying instead of leaving and getting stuck on soft roads in pitch black darkness where I've seen Coyotes, Panthers and wild dogs. I carry bear spray and a tactical knife, but have been considering packing a gun. I've also considered a wireless solar self contained security camera.. but the camera would be the most valuable item on the lot. My van does have an always on front facing dash cam that stores about week of movement when parked there.
For those who wonder why buy land if you live in a van? only somebody who lives in a van and has tried to build something in a park or home depot parking lot can answer that question. A home base no matter how rustic in the right spot can be huge. Space in my van is huge premium. I am a minimalist who is often conflicted over throwing stuff away.. especially when you realize you needed that a few weeks later. Beyond storage the land is very peaceful, all i hear is nature.. the wind, the trees.. so much better than a crowded RV park.
I'm in no hurry, but my plan is to grow a dense canopy forest of Sea Grape trees and use bob-wire and defensive thorn bushes to secure a thick, hidden and gated perimeter. I've started growing those trees and have been composting to help provide nutrients to them since the soil there is basically white sand as far as you can dig. And on the subject of digging, the water under the land is much cooler than the surface air.. so I see an opportunity for geothermal cooling and have an idea i would like to eventually test.
Is what I am doing 100% legal? perhaps not completely clear or easy to enforce, but the chances the county will ever bother with me are slim to none. I'm not even sure what they would fine me for, but first they would need to find me and catch me in the act. I'd like to think my carbon footprint is positive and that I am not hurting anything or anybody.
Last edited by cyberpine2; 09-24-2020 at 02:55 PM..
I've been a designer-builder in CO for decades. I like experimental building and have lots of experience getting alternatives approved, albeit with serious brain damage I would not chose to repeat. In the right area I am all for building without permits, but generally you have to put up with less educated, less civilized folks, so chose your neighbors carefully unless you don't mind hearing a banshee screaming or gun shots fired in the middle of the night... Most CO areas are full-on code enforcement, generally those nearest populations. Some areas are still without inspections other than for a well, electrical, and plumbing. IF you want to build without a foundation you can in these rare counties, but good luck selling it later too, caveat emptor. Owner can do all the work on a CO residence, not on commercial. IF you want to build without the "benefit" of building codes, consider building a home on wheels, but not a mobile home designed to set down and is not easily transportable in a hurry. There are still big trailers, campers, 5th wheels, etc. to use as a base unit. I've contemplated doing a big one like a semi rig with a 52 ft trailer with all the gear, parked aside a barn or other secondary use building for doing a lot of living in; for me a workshop is my 2nd home anyway. We often used big straw bales to make temporary camps on a remote building site, with tarps and bungee cords and some lumber there for building the custom home. As long as you can live in a camper completely undisturbed this idea works, but some areas are restricted to x time parking a camper and will issue fines or red tag you. Security while you are away is an issue for sure, cameras and likely wifi is a must for monitoring, which precludes a ton of sites in white zones. Some areas require a residence to be the first building, so this precludes living in a shed or shop first. Some shipping containers have also been buried with no trace, obviously off the grid, could work fine if sophisticated. For some it just makes more sense to buy an existing old house so you can get it with a down payment and pay a mortgage if you don't have all the cash to go mortgage-free yet, it can save a ton having infrastructure like a well and septic already in place, like buying in a forest fire burn area, as long as the services are still maintained. Then fix up the barn nice and rent out the house or just make a nice shop. Well-drilling is not cheap in the mountains, they can be 2000 ft deep. The Sunny John is a good "Moldering" toilet idea, that does not affect the ground or water underneath it. It composts the solids using red worms in a drum, and evaporates the liquid off with passive solar, very effective and clean, similar to a long-term compost toilet. I'd like to see more mobile home parks converted to tiny home villages, use the extra space from the longer mobile home site for a garden or greenhouse...
This is a great forum, and I think that the most care-free places that were mentioned still require septic, and for good reason: poop and drinking water simply don't mix. . . I know of a few homesteaders that take that principle one step further: poop and any water at all are not appropriate. These people use a dry-latrine system, they will often have a bathroom (some of them very nice, just like it were a ”normal” home) with a drop-floor 4 to 8 feet underneath where is kept sawdust, hay, topsoil, or a mix of all these and more. The urine is kept out of the dry latrine with a urine separator (just goes in the front of toilet, works for guys and gals) and is disposed of downstream or mixed with water to a low dilution to water downstream decorative or herbal plantings. It is airtight from above so no smell gets into the home, if there even was smell. They throw sawdust or wood shavings down in with their used toilet paper and that covers it, and it breaks down to the point that when they go to empty the dry latrine (every 6 to 8 months b/c its a real big space to fill up), there's no poop smell at all.
It has become compost (just like the chicken or steer compost you buy from lowes/home depot. It honestly isn't much different).
This always is the case when the latrine is big enough to give enough time for things to break down. Again, this becomes nourishment for trees and decorative plants. I guess this is most sensible for homesteaders who want to grow things and there you have wonderful healthy compost on-site to place on your trees/bushes/other perennials.
I think if this were normalized, septic would become simply one option among many, not the end-all-be-all. And it might actually get us a little less fecal-phobic in society ha . Nothing barbarous about it at all, its just like hay and straw used in barns for animals, except its done way better and with wayyyy less odor. Apparently its all about the ratio of poop (rich in Nitrogen) to sawdust / wood shavings (rich in Carbon).
"If you use a composting toilet, the 'black soil' is very useful in your garden".........
Worked well in that Mars movie w/ Matt Damon too (!)
Only if you and your family are strict vegetarians, or you are talking about a flower garden. Meat-eater compost is good for shrubbery and non fruit/nut bearing-trees. You dont want it near your veggie garden, berry patch or orchard though. You also dont want to place it where it can leech into those areas with rainfall or other runoffs.
If you do not have intestinal parasites then your feces will not have parasites.
People have been using black soil in their gardens for many generations.
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In most of Florida Zoning and Building codes are seriously enforced
. Nothing barbarous about it at all, its just like hay and straw used in barns for animals, except its done way better and with wayyyy less odor. Apparently its all about the ratio of poop (rich in Nitrogen) to sawdust / wood shavings (rich in Carbon).
