Home construction forum

March 8, 2006 8:31 PM

I'm building a small DIY house. Where's my online community?

I enjoy what I'm doing and am making great progress, but I find that I'm overwhelmingly turning to my carpentry books and obscure manufacturing pages for simple advice. In a pinch I can sometimes turn to Usenet but it seems that the Internet is kind of an industrial wasteland for the DIYer who's tackling anything more than a deck. I feel very much that I'm on my own. Are there any resources I'm missing?

posted by zek to home & garden (8 comments total)

Interesting question. I'm also building a house. I'm acting as my own General Contractor but have a guy who's basically managing the day-to-day construction details. If you can't find a forum I could see myself setting one up as I have free server space.
posted by unSane at 8:34 PM on March 8, 2006

DIY Network; This Old House (applicable to old and new projects).
posted by ericb at 9:41 PM on March 8, 2006

Journal of Light Construction
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 10:27 PM on March 8, 2006

...but it's more suited for the professional. Note, though, that except for the occasional elitism, the more professional-oriented boards are what you want, anyway.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 10:29 PM on March 8, 2006

I really should think before I post. Although I hold in my hands a stunning counterexample[1], for the most part Taunton Press has excellent information, generally in dead tree form. You probably already knew that, though. They do have an online forum for Fine Homebuilding (obviously what you're interested in), but it's a bit nasty to navigate IIRC.


[1] Taunton Home "Bathroom Makeovers". It's slightly better than the normal consumer-oriented books out there, but it's still a member of a fairly content-free genre. Probably worth it if you're really new at this stuff, but not useful for the more experienced. Thankfully, it's a library book.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 10:39 PM on March 8, 2006

Not exactly a community but Ask The Builder is about as useful as it gets.
posted by wackybrit at 12:13 AM on March 9, 2006

I'm about a week away from my final inspection. E-mail me if I can help you out with anything.
posted by Alt F4 at 5:29 AM on March 9, 2006

Try the Dwell Forums, you'll have to weed through, but I find a lot of good discussion on materials.
posted by Heatwole at 8:09 AM on March 9, 2006