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I have a design in mind and a few builders to pick from. What are some key items I should look out for, in terms of the types of materials builders are using these days? For instance I read about wooden I beams that use glue that will melt during fires or floods and cause floors to collapse. There are probably dozens of little things that go into a house that are supposedly "new" and "better" but are probably worse. I'm wondering from those in the know on the latest building trends what should I look out for?
I have a design in mind and a few builders to pick from. What are some key items I should look out for, in terms of the types of materials builders are using these days? For instance I read about wooden I beams that use glue that will melt during fires or floods and cause floors to collapse. There are probably dozens of little things that go into a house that are supposedly "new" and "better" but are probably worse. I'm wondering from those in the know on the latest building trends what should I look out for?
The glue will melt after the wood has burned. We have used I Joist, paralam type beams which are glue laminated beams, for many years and many homes.
These are actually stronger than the wood that they hold together. Where are you located? You might want to check the builders as to which material is more available and less expensive to build with. We use a lot of concrete here in AZ. Have fun building and enjoy your new home.
You probably are talking about those lammi beams. It is a manufacturered beam using a sort of plywood web, sort of looks like an I-Beam. They have the advantage of being able to span very long spans. The down sides seem to be you can not have them carry the load of the structure itself. Most of those designs set in a box / shelf fashion and carry only the floor itself. The walls above do not sit on them like your typical joist construction.
Been a lot of reports of those beams failing in a fire and floors just collasping.
Lots of variations on glu-beams, tons of names used. Some of them are made using very small diameter trees and other typically unuseable lumber by making them into a form of plywood.
Personally if I want big spans without supporting columns, I will always go with a steel main carrying beam for the basement. Even more than one carrying beam with proper pilasters, then you can use conventional lumber joists. Basement I would always prefer poured / formed concrete with 16" walls. If the foundation is suspect, the game is over before it starts.
I like that post and beam idea used a lot where the external walls are hefty posts with long spans up to 8 foot between them and then heavy sistered beams, bolted to those to form the main building frame. You get a super hefty structure / internal volume without outrageous material costs. Same idea is used for floor joists, something like 4 x 10 as joists, you can make it in a sort of I-beam configuration yourself and have large spans between joists up to like 30" o-c or even more. The floor decking is very heavy but probably comes out about the same money total for the overall shell.
The main framing is not as cluttered up with main members, there is more very light bracing members like 2 x 4's in the walls. Lots of room to run stuff, good insulation depths. Tough to gage on the labor but it might actually turn out to require less labor. Probably any general style, shape of house can be built using those methods.
Somewhere I got some pixs of this type construction in a large garage. Same techniques can be used for a house.
I am not a big fan of that chipboard for sheathing. I would go with at least 5/8" exterior grade plywood. Some things are worth the money. Same with roof deck, might go 3/4 plywood there. Tho you can get some panels designed for that post and beam type construction that can do those functions, some of it already prefoamed insulated.
I would ensure the basement walls are at least nine foot high, 10 foot might be better. Having a super amount of overhead in the basement is always nice. Plus you can do a hanger build down to put in a ceiling, giving again a ton of room to run all the utilities any direction desired. You do need some of that height to hide the main carrying steel beams if you want a huge open area with no box outs anyway.
I just would not use junk materials, especially any of those plastic type interior trim, just ain't worth it. Quality is the name of the game, can control the price by shopping surplus or using a good amount of time to procure materials yourself. Sort of do need a place to store stuff. Building a large shed or small barn or free standing garage on the property first is one way of getthing that function. Some places might also allow you to hook up temp electrical power in them, a super plus to building any house is have system power on site. Can do it in most of my local counties.
Never allow the builder to select cheap junk windows, doors, heating / cooling plant, roofing, etc. The more you can provide, the better. You get quality / price control. Sure want USA made drywall. I probably could get most of the stuff like excellent quality windows, doors, etc surplus with enough time / looking might be like 25% of the going price. All how you approach the project and how much time / effort you want to be involved with. Having you the owner supply a bunch of material is one novel to control costs, if the builder can't hack that approach, you might want to find one that can.
In general you definitely want to understand the house at the drawing production stage long before the first shovel of dirt is turned. Then what goes into each piece of the house.
Start to get serious once you have the land, decide on a type / style of house, general size and description and then get some prelim floor plans, bills of materials and drawings.
My approach to the World is totally different that the way most builders would do it. Why I never would even remotely consider having somebody else build me a house. At some point, I would be kicking them out of the way for some lame thing they were trying to do. Same thing as always, do it right, on time and within budget. Lots of examples around of houses done right, lot depends on the attitude of the folks involved.
One thing I definitely do not like about way too many modern houses is the biggest nail in that sucker is 3.5 inches long. If it didn't come out a nail gun, you did not get it. The smallest details matter so much. Big hefty frame and bolting is a good option to making it quality for small money.
So to paraphrase your awesome post (as always) here's what we got to look out for:
1) American dry wall only (none from China right? why is that again?)
2) Nails must be longer than 3.5", otherwise they ain't holding anything together that well, right?
3) Sheathing's gotta be 5/8" exterior grade plywood.
4) Roof deck should be 3/4" exterior grade plywood.
5) Basement walls gotta be 9 feet high *once finished* with drop floor.
6) Foundation's gotta be poured/formed concrete with 16" walls.
7) Prefer at least one if not two steel carrying beams that run the length in the basement.
Did I miss anything?
I don't have time to procure, that would involve not just time but exposure to credit risk in the global markets. I can try my best to grill my builder on their procurement system and see if I can provide cheaper materials will they be willing to use them and just make their $$ off the labor? The other way to tackle it is to try to get the land for as little as possible, which is hard when you're 10 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
Keep these items coming, when I go to interview my builders, I will have this list ready and will be in the know.
Right now you have to be worried about the financial strength of the builder, the subcontractors and the suppliers - in the local area, some of the best builders (who build maybe 5-10 custom/semi-custom houses a year, under pretty strict supervision) are close to going under because of cash flow problems. That leaves the big builders, who can undercut bids for the cash flow it gives them, the only ones in reasonable shape. Except that when they start working on the jobs they underbid on, they are going to be cutting every single cost they can.
I would insist on using 12 gauge wire to wire the "regular" 15-amp recepticles in the house, 14 gauge meets the code in most places but I'd go with the 12 so you *can* use 20-amp recepticles if you want. Reduces voltage loss, it's safer, it does not cost that much more.
I'd think about using 2X6 or even 2X8 instead of 2X4 for the walls, to get more strength and more insulation.
Me, I'd go with some sort of premium window that you can unlatch and rotate so you can clean the outside surface from inside the house.
I'd vote for increasing the number of bays in the garage by at least one from whatever you are thinking about. If you are thinking 3, I say think 4. No one ever had too big a garage.
If you can afford it, use steel studs. It iwll be harder to find an expereinced contractors, but if you can find one, the cost is often not that different and the strength difference is 1000 fold. Modern lumber has really poor strucutral strength. It also seems like every time they calim to have come up with some great solution (trusses for example) it turns out to create problems like collasping quickly in a fire. If you go with steel studs, find a contractor who does that. Do not hire a carpenter who says "Sure I can do steel studs, why not?"
We went with mostly 20 amp outlets in our house. We tend ot plug a whole bunch of junk onto one location because our whole family will sit together and do different things all at once. So we may have a couple of computer chargers, a hairdryer, a TV and DVD player and a curling iron all plugged into the same outlet.
I seconf the 12 ga wire suggestion. It does not coost that much more and if you load your circuits up, it could prevent a fire 9or at elast a lot of tripped breakers and hassle). We used all 12 ga wire for outlets and 14 ga only for the overhead lights. (unless it was a big fixture).
Agree with Mitch oin the garage. I would also include some extra space inthe garage. Our old carriage house is 18x36 witha lean to that is 14x30 and it is great to have all the storage space at the back.
Look online for secret doors. There is a place in Texas that makes really nice secret doors, that are not insanely prices (about $1500 to $300 for a nice one). There are othe companies that make much neater ones, (on of them is triggered by placement of chessmen on a chess board), but they are insanely expensive. Even the cheaper secret doors are expensive, but put one in and you will have a house that you will love and love to show people. We custom built a secret door in our house and planned for two more from the company in Texas, but ran out of money. Eventually we will put them in. It really adds to the coolness factor of your house.
While you are dreaming. add a nice big front porch with room for a swing.
Use 5/8" commcercial drywall. It is worth the slightly higher cost.
Do not allow the use of flakeboard. They will tell you that it is OSb and it is stronger than plywood. Usually neither of those claims is true. Actual OSB is stronger than playwood in some types of tests, but most of what is sold as OSB is just flakeboard. true OSB means that all of the strands of wood fiber are oriented in the same direction and a meshed togther in the glue. Flakeboard in simple terms is chips of wood held together with glue. I do not know how they get away with labeling flakeboard as OSB, but they do. I see it all the time.
We were told that a block masement is just as good as poured in place. It isnt. However keep in mind the poured in place concrete will crack and may need grout in places. Youmight want to look into those new poly somethingor other structural foam panels to build your basement out of. How those things hold up a house, I do nto know. I do not know how they hold up in fire either, but they are great for insulation we have a neighbor who has them.
I would go with tankless water heaters. I would also put on on each floor if you ahve a big family. We were going to do that and the plumber talked us out of it. I wish that we had not.
Do nto scrimp on design. Spend the moeny up front for really good (and unique) plans. Make sure that your plans are complete and very detailed. Do not allow any lazy sketchy plans. ASLo see if you can find an architect who truely knows how to design, not jsut cut other designs out of catalogues. Double your design budget. Good design will save you moeny in the long run.
Doubel your permit budget, Otherwise you will get surprises.
Double your budget for contingencies and changes.
Consider getting a standby generator. They are not needed often, but when they are, you wil be incredibly glad to have them.
Do not spend the moeny on Copper piping. USe PEX. Just be sure that oyu have a good plumber.
Do nto scrimp on the roofing materials.
If you need to, downsize and cut features in exchange for quality. That is only if you are going to keep the house. If you are going to sell it. Forget quality. No one will pay for qulaity these days.
Finish your basement. It is actually pretty easy to do yourself and it is one of the least expensive ways to add living space. remember, if you are going to have bedrooms down there, then you need to plan escape windows from the beginning. It is impractical to add them later.
We love having lots of outside doors. We have 8. It is nice to be able to go outside from almost any location. You insurance comapny will nto love it and if you are realyl worried about security, then forget it and just have one metal door.
It id sifficult to put in too many outlest and light switches. Some people thought that we were being ridiculous when we doubled the outles in the kitchen. We used lots of 3 and 4 way switches, and ended up wishing that we had more. (do they make 5 way switches?).
Consider picture rail. It was a really good idea. Then you do nto have to put holes all over your walls to hang pictures.
Hardwood floors are healthier than carpeting.
Hydronic heat (hot water) is more comfortable and more thealthy than forced air, but you will need seperate ducting if you are going to have airconditioning.
Vinyl windows are junk.
It is hard to have too many ot too big closets.
Tha tis my house wisdom for today.
Good luck. Get some sleep and grow some extra hair. You will be losing sleep and tearing your hair out soon enough. But when you will be done - what an accomplishment.
You can get a bond from the builder. It iwll cost you about 1.5% of the cost of the preojct for the bond premium. If the builder cannot get a bond, then they are not financially sound. It is a big expense, but if you are worried about the builder disappearing or walking away during the project a bond from an A rated surety can protect you.
So to paraphrase your awesome post (as always) here's what we got to look out for:
1) American dry wall only (none from China right? why is that again?)
2) Nails must be longer than 3.5", otherwise they ain't holding anything together that well, right?
3) Sheathing's gotta be 5/8" exterior grade plywood.
4) Roof deck should be 3/4" exterior grade plywood.
5) Basement walls gotta be 9 feet high *once finished* with drop floor.
6) Foundation's gotta be poured/formed concrete with 16" walls.
7) Prefer at least one if not two steel carrying beams that run the length in the basement.
Did I miss anything?
I don't have time to procure, that would involve not just time but exposure to credit risk in the global markets. I can try my best to grill my builder on their procurement system and see if I can provide cheaper materials will they be willing to use them and just make their $$ off the labor? The other way to tackle it is to try to get the land for as little as possible, which is hard when you're 10 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.
Keep these items coming, when I go to interview my builders, I will have this list ready and will be in the know.
Thx!
go with what the soils engineers call for foundation type and depth, 16" thick foundation walls are WAY overkill. The foundation depth you may have some say in, unless the water table is high on the lot you are building on. Structural engineers are going to call out what they want the builder to use on exterior sheathing, it may change depending on the shear walls required in the home. The framing, again will be called out by the structural engineer. I would not second guess the structural design unless it just appears way out of whack, in which case you would complain not only to the engineer, but to the state in which he is licensed. Most engineers over engineer homes these days due to the risk of a lawsuit if something fails. There is nothing wrong with I-joists, or Micro-lam, or Glu-lam beams, they hold up very well, and are used in about 99% of the homes designed here in Colorado with very little problem. Remember too many specializations in terms of building materials is going to cause the price of the home to skyrocket.
the basement walls may not be possible with the water tables that may exist in your area. Carefully review the soils report, and make sure your designer is getting that report to the structural engineer.
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