I've been browsing some websites on home improvements, construction, etc., and I found this great website:

http://www.hometips.com/housework/

Basically, it explains how houses work. Sounds dumb, but for folks like me who have never had first-hand experience constructing a house or doing plumbing/electrical work, it answers a LOT of questions. It's great reading if you are planning on building a shed, garage, barn, or other small (or large!) outdoor structure out of wood. Plenty of good info on walls, flooring, roofing, and windows. There's also some good stuff on plumbing and the like. I also found this link:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2006-06-01/Build-this-Cozy-Cabin.aspx

Which is on building a very nice cabin for under $4,000. This is looking like a pretty cool option for life after college (and after paying off college debt!). I alluded to this in another thread, but I believe that, for approximately $8,000-10,000, you can build your own (small) house on land that you own. Of course, location is key! I've been looking at some property in the southwestern US, and there is a LOT of VERY cheap land! We're talking ~$6,000 for over an acre of land! And that's with electrical and water hookups, too! Of course, there's no sewer. But thanks to the idiots who've been buying, developing, and selling land like crazy, the housing bubble has burst (as I'm sure you're aware), so in the next few years, land is going to be CHEAP. I bet small tracts of land in any rural area will be just as cheap, if not better! Out west is probably a good bet, as there's a lot of land there that just doesn't BELONG to anyone.

So, I thought I'd share these links with you guys, and also ask if anyone has info on any of this stuff. Mainly I'm concerned with the actual construction aspect of small cabins and sheds. I know some of you guys have worked construction or built your own sheds. I think I've got a pretty good hold on how the foundation and flooring works, and I'm reading up on walls and ceilings, but I haven't really looked up much on plumbing or electricity. In particular, does anyone know how actually "hooking up" to utilities works? Is there just a big ol' valve that you attach to your home plumbing lines?

Sorry if I'm clueless about some of this stuff. My parents have never been ones for DIY home repair. I think I'm going to drive around and look at homes under construction to see how it all "works." I'm just realizing that I've been mostly ignorant for most of my life as to how the house I live in actually was built!

Awesome sites dude! I've helped my dad build, remodel & add onto several houses and I've done pretty much every job involved in home construction and that site is useful to me. It's great for a quick reference. Definitely going at the top of my bookmark folder.

That cabin is badass too. I'd like to build something exactly like that. $4000 isn't too much to come up with, and that's a cool place to have.

Building houses & stuff really isn't all that hard. Start reading books/sites and watching HGTV & TLC if you can stand it. Or try to get you a part time job working some kind of construction or something. It's easy to learn, hell they teach dumb dopeheads & niggers how to do it all the time so I'm sure you'll pick it up fairly easily.

Excellent thread 5 stars!

Ill take it you were one of those dumb dopeheads working for your dad? building a house isn't so hard if you are working with an experienced tradesman.

An average house has over 28000 seperate parts however.

Ever cut a roof? Laid a perfect floor? can you hang a door? Can you build a 2 1/2 tonne column on a fifteen degree angle 6 stories off the ground, held only in place by plywood and counterweights.

I'm sure you are skilled as a handyman. But actually building a house from start to finish requires knowledge and skill not to mention a keen business sense. Time is money and you can't afford to be sitting around. Everything from start to finish has to adhere to, to the letter, the system of standards. (We have the Builders Code of Australia, and the Australian Standards) Everything right down to section size of the timber, and the span (depending what it has to support) through to how many nails you must have in your floorboards (depending on the visible cover of the boards) right up to how close you can mount lights near battens.

The list is exhaustive and if you fail to comply, construction gets set back and you lose money.

People regulary talk down on the trades, Most apprenticeships last for 4 years fulltime. Thats 4 years of working 45-55 hours per week, with 4 weeks off a year. That's a hell of alot more time then you spend at uni when doing a 4 year degree. Many people enter the trades because they are less intellectually inclined and skilled at working with their hands but it doesn't change the fact that they spend four years, or at the bare minimum 7680 hours on the job training before they are considered qualified. (less holidays and weekends, standard 40 hour week)

Any peasant can build a shed, hell my younger sister could build a single room cabin. Although that guide missed alot of little things that only experience will teach you, it is still a fairly good, comprehensive guide.

Emag, can you tell me out of a pack of timbers I plan on using as floor joists, which timber do I need to use on my outside edge?

There are a number of tradesman on totse, but none will give you serious replies if people come into this thread with the attitude that tradies are morons. OP good post though.

I was talking about general labor in building a house. Not designing the architecture & stuff. And I'm not talking about building big extravagant houses either. I'm talking about basic houses & construction, like that little cabin OP posted. Yea, there are lots of little rules & stuff that you need to know, but it's not hard to find what they are & learn them. But I guess I did forget that there has to be at least one person who knows what they're doing. I didn't mean to offend anyone.

But it's not that complicated to design and build a basic single-story house, as long as you know the general rules of thumb. I've only worked in construction a little bit, 95% of my experience came from building houses that I or my family lived in. Most all of my family built their own houses and none of them ever had official training or did apprenticeships & all of that. It's just something you learned from your dad & grandpa growing up. No one has died in an electrical fire or had their houses collapse in either.

Regarding the question about the timber for the floor joists; Do you mean like how the grain is or what? I'd assume that you'd want to use ones that are from the center of the tree and that don't have much of a crown(?) Am I even close?

I wasn't really offended, I was just pointing out the complexity of house construction. The more you learn, and the mor experience you gain, the easier it becomes (bit of a no brainer lol)

indeed my father is a pilot, yet he is as competent at construction and technical drawing as most of the builders I have worked with.

There are two ways of building a cabin like that. one way is building it your way, and you know its structually sound, and the other way is building it so 'teh authorities' approve.

If you plan on doing it legally then you will need the code of standards for your country, and you will need to follow them to the letter.

As for the floor joists, I wouldnt worry so much about that. When you open a pack of timber, you will notice that not every timber is true. some are warped and bent out of shape. sometimes the whole fucking pack is out of line. You need to have straight timbers for your outside edges. You can bend internal joists to the right line thats not important but you gotta use true timber on the outside. but good guess.

It is little things like that, you will rarely find them in DIY guides or textbooks, they come with experience.

If you dont have that experience, and want it, the next best thing is to talk to a tafe/trade institute instructor. Pick the guy thats in his 60's or 70's, with the shiny new work ute/car and the fuel card. He is the most valuable employee there and chances are he knows his shit. Talking to those guys opens up a wealth of experience and knowledge, shit you won't find anywhere else. Most are happy to talk if you are interested.

The Carpenter I learnt the most off, and am still learning from is a man in his eighties. Has his builders diploma and his builders license, but he trained probably 1/3 or even 1/2 of the builders and carpenters in my city. If you can find someone like that, learn absolutely everything you can from him.

Thanks for the advice guys. I actually guessed that you'd try to use the straightest lengths of lumber from the pack. +1 for me. Good point on building code, though. I think building code is a bit lax in rural areas (correct me if I'm wrong...I know that the code varies from state to state, and I *think* cities/counties can add/modify things), so I'm hoping to use that to my advantage. However, I think it'd be very smart to buy/borrow a book detailing the building code. Does anyone know of a book that details and also explains it? Sorta like "building codes for dummies" or something. Also, and good suggestions for DIY books or guides on construction like this? I've been browsing on amazon, and I think I'll get much better information from the books designed for professional home-builders than the average joe.

I have actually read about some people getting around building code requirements by construction structures under the minimum square footage (120 sq. ft. most places). I thought about going that route, but a 10'x12' cabin isn't too appealing!

I'm drawing up some detailed plans, mostly based on the "cozy cabin" link I provided, but with some modifications. This is a stupid question, but how long can you get boards of lumber? I should just go over to my local lumber yard and ask, but meh. As of right now, my plans call for 16' long sections of 2x6s; will I be able to get those?

16 foot is 5.3 something metres. So yes you can get lengths that long, you will have to go up to 5.4 but it's all good.

This is how it works in australia.

you can get timber in lengths of .3

2.1
2.4
2.7
3.0
3.3
3.6
3.9
4.2
4.5
4.8
5.1
5.4
5.7
6.0

6 metres is generally the longest length available from a stockist. If you're ordering it from a timber mill you can get whatever the fuck you want.

Someone from the US can probably help you out with your sizing. .3 is pretty much a foot so maybe thats what your system goes in?

I'm not sure about any builders code for dummies, but it isnt so hard.

Opening it up looks daunting but, find what you need and bookmark it. Most of it will be irrelevant to what you want.

You will need to look at first and foremost, timber framing. I dont have mine handy (Its called the 'timber framing code, standard as1684' here)

For what you want to build your section size (50x150mm) (Im assuming you are laying the bearers and joists?) should be sufficient though. You will need to check what span can support the weight of the structure though. I'll chuck a guess out there that it's 1500 or 1800 mm max. but that's just a guess.

I'll have a look at my standards and explain more in detail later.

I think some building codes can be statewide like structural & electrical and some codes might be just county or citywide like septic/sewerage, kinda like you said. I'm pretty sure you can go up to your local courthouse and get all the information you need.
There might also be codes that the developer set, such as minimum sq. footage for dwellings & such, and that can be anywhere, even in the middle of nowhere in Texas.

I think you should be able to find 16' boards pretty easily. Yards usually carry most boards from 6' up to 16' in 2' lengths (2', 10', 12', & 14') You can get bigger stuff from 2x6's to 2x12's up to18 & 20' but not everywhere carries them and they start getting expensive. The longer they get the more they cost per foot so keep that in mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4rXqlmexps
Framing and Floor Joists

I just found this and am watching it now; it looks pretty good. Later I'll see if there's more videos from the same series. It explains a lot of the jargon too. Reading some guides is hard if you don't already know what a sill, joist, header, etc. is.

EDIT:

Finished watching it. It's a great resource! I think a few things are out-of date, though. I've read that wind-bracing is no longer needed because in modern homes, Oriented Strand Board (this stuff (http://www.wolman.de/imagepool/OSB_Platte_frontal_1.jpg)) is nailed to the outside of wall framing instead. I think the same is true for floor bridging. Correct me if I'm wrong!

Also, many modern homes simply use plywood for subflooring, not individual boards.

yes. they are called platform floors.

personally I love proper floorboards. they are beautiful, if made from nice timber and they show off the skill of the craftsman who laid the floor

(laying floorboards isn't as easy as it seems)

yeah it actually looks really hard! Sawing off the ends well must be a pain.

Mr. Smith, what all kind of construction do you do? What kind of homes/buildings (like upper class houses, middle class, commercial, etc) do you work on?

Just going on what you've said about construction, it seems like you Aussies do really quality work. Here, in the New Orleans area, houses are built so cheaply. I've worked on houses on $200k lots (seriously, $200k just for the 100'x100' piece of land) that were held together with nothing but staples. No-one uses hammers and nails anymore, the common attitude seems to be "ah, just shoot enough brads or staples in it and it'll be good."

Yeah, aussie standards for construction are normally very high. To get a builders license requires multiple references, alot of experience and high level qualifications.

You get some shifty fuckers, but the vast majority of the time you get good tradesman. Any tradesman that wants cash up front and/or isn't happy to explain how the job will work is not someone you want to hire. Professionals will be fine with pay as you go, or upon completion and should be more then happy to answer any and all questions.

The work I do is commercial formworking. I have been working on a lift shaft this week actually. I have worked on multi million dollar houses and on standard middle class houses and units. The money is better in commercial here ($30-$45 p/h) but the work is physically harder.

Im still young but I'd like to either be a construction manager (big dollar salary) or become a residential builder.