Ideas Anyone - About ready to give up!

There are several types of styrofoam forms that make doing a poured wall easier. This takes care of the insulation part. The walls have strips built in to nail up drywall on the inside and siding on the outside or clips to secure a brick exterior.

The forms stack together like big legos, then the concrete is poured inside.

There are other long lasting methods of construction, too.

Michael Kawalek,

There is a new breed of termite..supertermites that is and apparently can eat concrete in Louisiana so a guarantee of no termites isn't a guarantee anymore. Not kidding.

__________________
Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

if you can't get a plan for a house..as the contractor for an estimate for a walk out basement with some windows..then add the other things to your plan later from other contractors..like the roof, plumbing, wiring..etc.

nearly everything will be the same as the walk out basement plan as an above ground plan only you won't have any concerns about backfilling it.

I only read the OP, so for what it's worth, let me give my two cents......

Why do you need a "home design" anyway? Simply scratch out a rough draft on a piece of notebook paper and take it to a contractor and say, "how much for this?"

I've been around quite a lot of residential construction in my day and I've noticed that other than the plumbers need to get stool drains and the rest of the plumbing roughed in to the correct place, not too many contractors stick to the letter on the blueprints. The overall dimensions of the house and rooms are needed and the electrician needs to know where you'd like 3-way light switches. Other than that, the HVAC has to go where it has to go.

BTW, I love the idea of a solid concrete home. I was in Cuba a few years ago and noticed some homes that were 75+ years old still standing strong with no exterior deteriation despite the closeness to the ocean and hurricane weather.

__________________
Francismilker

"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16

Hey Christy.

The lumber market is depressed since new home building is way down. Some of the mills have shut down. The big box stores aren't passing the savings along. You need to find a local sawmill that does quality sawing and talk to them.

RF

__________________
It's not good enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required. - Winston Churchill

Hey Christy
This may be helpfull it is what we use in the construction ind. it's like a phone book for construction. Just put in the area you are in and you can get all kinds of listings for anything construction related.

http://www.thebluebook.com/


Tom

The material your house is built from is just one choice to make when building a house. Before designing your house, a book you may want to read is "The Not So Small House by Sarah Susanka. You can use her designs and build them out of less expensive materials such as your concrete.

I've built a house on a poured concrete slab (Hawaii houses rarely have basements). It was sheer murder on the feet just because the floor was so hard. Even carpeted, it was hard on the feet and joints. We now live in an old house with a wooden floor and my feet are much happier. You could put in a concrete basement and concrete/brick/block upper floor and then the floors inside could be wood. Much happier feet that way.

If you look around Clinton there are several houses made with concrete blocks and some of them are really nice. Also there are some rock houses and they are nice. I would like to have one made like the one that is all rock going north of the city. It is a small one but nice and the rock is smooth instead of the rough ones. You can get the smooth rocks near Lesley. The only thing with the smooth ones you will have to have a real mason to put it up for you. If you want I know several block masons and a couple of good rock masons. Rock will cost you around $7 per square foot to lay and block will cost you about 20 cents per block. All of this is if you have the rock or block. This includes the mortar. A poured concrete house is nice but you will have to look at commercial builders to have the forums and machinery need to pour it. Most anybody can pour the pad but when going up a wall you need machinery to do that. If I can help PM me and I will do anything I can.

__________________
God must have loved stupid people because he made so many of them.

Many subdivisions have strict by-laws as to the style and type of home you are allowed to have. Many have limitations as to builder contractors who only build a certain few models. It may be you are getting a run around because the local contractors know they are locked out from building in your subdivision but are too polite to tell you something they think you ought to know.

I lived in two concrete block houses. The first was small and bitter cold in winter. The second was two-story with insulation and wood floors. It was very comfortable. I felt safe and snug. Now I live in a singlewide and worry about fire since I was told you have three minutes to get out and seven minutes till everything is gone.

I wish I had a concrete or stone fireproof home. They should be insulated on the outside, as my two-story was, as was pointed out in an earlier post.