Habitat for humanity building book

[sancraft]

Has anyone ever read this book. It's supposed to be a step by step book on building a house. My girls and I need to get read up and ready to go on building this house.

[timmcentire]

I've taken a look at it. The title is "How to Build a House". It has a lot of pictures and seems to cover each step of the building process from a not-too-technical standpoint. And it shows you how to build a standard house without a lot of waste while saving money. I'd recommend it.

[mtman]

what i would do is build a box with a roof and 2 doors insulate it worry about the windows latter a least you would have a dry place that is warm after as money comes in frame the windows 1 at a time install them then finish the walls

[mtman]

Originally Posted by mtman

what i would do is build a box with a roof and 2 doors insulate it worry about the windows latter a least you would have a dry place that is warm after as money comes in frame the windows 1 at a time install them then finish the walls

what size house do you want to build how many feet by how many what kind of footing if any tell and i can give you about how much it would cost

[Windy in Kansas]

Since you will be in an area that doesn't get a lot of cold, would a house built of cement block work for you?

There is a product available to use when building with blocks that you simply trowel onto stacked block to bond them together. You and your girls can stack blocks can't you? Of course you can. When tested, the material actually produced stronger bonding than conventional mortar joints.

I expect blocks would cost about $1 to $1.25 per square foot of sidewall surface plus the cost of the bonding material. It comes in 5 gallon buckets or in powder form to mix up--from what I have read.

Anyway, that gives you an option to think about.

[edjewcollins]

Go here: http://www.nahn.com/

These people have designed alot of habitats homes and offer low cost plans. The plans they offer are for inexpensive, material efficient and VERY energy efficient homes. Good luck on the house building and God Bless.

Ed

[Cyngbaeld]

Monte Burch's Pole Building Projects: Over 25 Low-Cost Plans

Low-Cost Pole Building Construction
by Doug. Merrilees

Practical Pole Building Construction: With Plans for Barns, Cabins, & Outbuildings
by Leigh Seddon


These are three excellent books on building. You may be able to get them from the library, but they are well worth owning.

[FolioMark]

Sancraft: We have a Habitat group and a store here in Champaign and they sell the book. I could get you a copy and sent it if you really want one but all the books listed in this thread are just as good in my opinion.

[sbeerman]

Originally Posted by sancraft

Has anyone ever read this book. It's supposed to be a step by step book on building a house. My girls and I need to get read up and ready to go on building this house.

Sancraft They have a excerpt from the book at

http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuild...ndamentals.pdf

"Firm, Flat, Level, and Square: Foundations and Floors"
It say it takes 2 min. to down load but if you have a slow connection like me it will take longer.............. Anyway if you don't have a way to download it I have printed off a copy and if you wish me to I can mail it to you, just PM me.

I just an old Granmother but it looks do-able to me. The Crawl-Space Wall Built With Concrete Blocks looks easest to me. Any way I'm going to buy the book Thanks for the heads up.
Good Luck and Happy House Building!
Sandie OR

[MikeD]

Unfortunately, I have a bad taste in my mouth from Habitat For Humanity. It may only be a portion of their funding but they accept funding and assistance from The PMI Group. The PMI Group, in turn, owns 57% of a mortgage servicing company formerly known as Fairbanks Capital Corp. As of 07-01-04 Fairbanks changed their name to Select Portfolio Servicing. This was due to the fact that they had settled a national class action suit (USA/Curry v. Fairbanks) against them which alleged various charges. These charges amounted pretty much to quite literally stealing a victim's house from them by illegally foreclosing on them after fabricating bogus fees. I was one of the 750,000 victims certified by the Federal Trade Commission as a class member for that suit. I opted out of that suit because it did not provide any protection or restitution for the victims whatsoever. Fairbanks was allowed to put up $40 million in exchange for not having to admit any wrongdoing. That's roughly $53 apiece for each victim if split evenly, which it wasn't.

My point, here, is simply that The PMI Group makes itself look wonderful in the eyes of John Q. Public by supporting programs like Habitat For Humanity and building homes with the right hand while the left hand, in the form of Fairbanks/SPS, is stealing homes back from hard working Americans that really have no idea what is being done to them. It may be narrow minded on my part but I do not like the politics that Habitat appears to play. They do not appear, to me at least, to have any concern as to where their money or assistance comes from. Of course, I'm still fighting for my house and have been for more than two years now....