Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with building

What should we know about homebuilding before we start?

Aleen — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:28:14 -0800

We've never built a home before. Help us not look or act like n00bs! My guy and I are thinking about building a home through Shea Homes using an FHA loan. We're both in our mid-to-late 20s and live in the suburbs of the Phoenix, Arizona, USA area.

Using a price sheet for options sent to us by a Shea sales representative, it looks as though we would be spending less than $200,000 to get exactly what we want in a home (we qualify for a loan of over $300,000). The base price for the home is about $157,000. We're estimating that we want approximately $55,000 in additional features like laminate flooring throughout the home, upgraded countertops, and the like. Shea is offering $25,000 for upgrades as an incentive, bringing our cost down to the $180's.

Neither of us are considering this a "starter house." We both agree that, unless something big and unforeseeable happens, this will be our "forever home." We haven't decided whether or not children are in the cards for us, but this house would allow for familial expansion should we elect to have any.

What do we need to know about the building and design processes? Is there anything we need to know about FHA loans that isn't readily available online? What questions should we be asking? What can we negotiate (base price, upgrade costs, etc.), if anything?

We welcome any and all advice on the topic of building in a preplanned community with a large builder such as Shea. Thanks for your insight!

How do I build a brick building?

aqueousdan — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:35:37 -0800

How do I go about turning an old broken down brick shed into a brand spanking new (small around 5m x 15m at a rough guess) workshop? I'm mainly looking for a guide on how to put the roof on top of a brick box but anything would be handy! I have built a couple of brick walls and a pond before so I feel I could adequately tackle the bricklaying part in a real amateur way* but when it comes to the roof I dont really have a clue. Ideally it would have a pitched roof of some kind but anything I seem to look up online brings me to people wanting to sell their services. I relish the idea of doing it myself!

* - Obviously over confident and possibly foolish but I love getting stuck in :D

In the round.

fearfulsymmetry — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:58:10 -0800

What's the story behind this strange circular building in the middle of nowhere in Scotland This was passed on from a friend who was intrigued and it got me scratching my head too. I've got an idea that I've seen something similar on television that was basically a work of art, but I'm not sure in this case. Google fails me. Anyone know?

How to fix a house's foundations?

moorooka — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:52:21 -0800

After noticing some small cracks on the interior walls of one room, I went outside and saw several HUGE zig-zag cracks have appeared between the bricks at the back corner of my house. All the indications of a bad case of subsidence. Time to panic; the house is now worthless! What are my options? From my googling, it seems that a structural engineer will have to come in and fix the foundations. How much does this cost in general - all I know is that it will be an absolute fortune, and insurance (in Australia) does not generally cover it. I'm f*cked!

Help me plan to build a boat

Fiasco da Gama — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:29:40 -0800

Help me think about and plan boat building. For many years I've been troubled by the odd and inexplicable ambition to build, launch, and sail my own wooden trailable yacht. A smallish one, one that could be lifted out of the water by a few people and stored in a backyard, yet big enough to carry one or two people and dinner and sleeping bags.

I'd like to do it for the satisfaction of building almost as much as for the concrete object.

I have joined a Club on Sydney Harbour a bus ride away from where I live and I am taking beginner's sailing classes. They're excellent, and I think I'm learning—but I'm almost entirely ignorant about how one would go about budgeting for, planning out, buying materials for, constructing, testing and sailing one's own boat.

My wood- and metalworking experience is that of faffing about with my high school's clapped out drills in year 9 of high school (although I did get high marks in it). I am a 29 year old white-collar university-educated bureaucrat, though for various reasons my job security is at best marginal. I live in a rented two bedroom flat without even a verandah let alone a garage or shed for constructing things. I have in the past taken on very long-term projects and completed them, but they've been mainly intellectual not concrete in nature, and I'm stumped as to where even to start. I'm happy to read lots of books. I just don't know what they are.

I'm in no hurry, and the timeframe I have in mind is "before I die". Help this cut-price Noah: what would be the first step towards boatbuilding?

Roaches in buildings

emilyd22222 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:35:42 -0800

Are there roaches in every U.S. building? I distinctly remember hearing from a credible source (may have been the New Yorker) that every building in the U.S. has roaches in it. This was probably a qualified statement, like "every large building" or "every building over 10 years old" or something. Now I'm trying to settle an argument with a friend, who claims that there aren't roaches in the 8-floor, 30 year old university building in which we work. Help me, Hive Mind! Is there any data about the extent of roach infestation?

Bought a piece of land, about the build a house. Have some questions.

willy_dilly — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:53:56 -0800

Bought a piece of land, about the design a house. Have some questions regarding materials. I just bought a piece of land and is looking into doing a rough design of my own house with simple 3D software (probably Google Sketchup) and then handing it to an actual architect to plan out the more technical stuff. I always see in magazines of cabinets, wall panels, beams, and various parts of the interior/exterior with very unique wood finishing. What is a good place to source affordable, high quality wood to use as building materials? Same thing with metal and concrete. I want my home to have a mix of metal, concrete, and wood. What is a good place to source affordable and high quality building materials? Also, weather here is pretty hot and humid, anything I should watch out for in terms of choosing materials?

What can you see in satellite photos?

k. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:33:01 -0800

Satellite photos: what interesting features can be seen or measured in them (or other aerial photos), and where can I get a supply of images? Examples I have already seen, from some crude Google-searching:
Roads
Buildings
Degree of development (urban/suburban/rural)
Oil spills (apparently these are usually hard to see)
Blooms of algae (cyanobacteria) in the Baltic Sea
Damage to buildings from earthquakes

More would be appreciated--the more specific, the better. These will be used in a computer vision system, so I'd especially like to know where I can find a supply of images containing whatever feature I'm looking for (including the above)--easy for buildings or roads, but hard for rare events like oil spills. Natural disasters seem interesting, if there are pictures available.

I would also consider some other kind of non-photographic data as well, if it could be combined with maps or photos. Don't worry whether you think it's suitable; any idea you have will help!

Model Building

pulled_levers — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:00:00 -0800

First time building a landscape model on taskboard. Tips and advice? I have to build a landscape model for a class of mine using taskboard and other small objects that can pass as monochromatic miniatures of real life structures/nature such as water, stones, etc.

We have free range on what we want to use (toothpicks, cardboard, etc.) and I would like to lean towards the cheaper, yet still durable and presentable side of things. My design includes a mosaic fountain, planters, trees, a stage, and a lawn.

Do you have any tips/warnings (as in, you shouldn't do so-and-so) about model building? Thanks in advance!

(Also, I am planning to use a glue gun to stick everything together).

What is the Purpose of this Structure?

Effigy2000 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:16:17 -0800

Does anyone have any idea what this structure is, or what its purpose might be? More pics and information past the break. My fiancee and I have driven past this this thing on our way into work for the last couple of years and we've often wondered what this structure's purpose in life is. I'm hoping Metafilter might finally be able to provide us with an answer.

Some info I can give you is that this structure, which looks sort of like the words most painful waterslide, is situated in the suburb of Oxley in Queensland, Australia. It's located next to a Harvey Norman store (a white goods and furniture store) but as this view on Google Maps shows, the store is only new whereas this structure has been there far longer than that, so I'm certain it has nothing to do with the store. A couple of salespeople I asked at the store had no idea what it was either and wanted to know what it was themselves! And if that wasn't enough evidence, these pictures show that it's fenced off from the store on a whole other property, which I think must be a farm because this picture shows some cows standing near the structure. That last picture also shows some rubble which may or may not be related to the structure's purpose.

Our theories are that it could be some kind of artistic structure, but it's in a semi-industrial area so that seems unlikely. It might have something to do with aviation (there's a small airport nearby) but if so, I don't know how it relates.

Here's one last picture and a street view for your further consideration. Any idea what this thing might be? Or what its purpose might be? Please help put our enquiring minds at ease!

How should I decorate my secret hidey hole?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:20:18 -0800

We're renovating an old building, what supercool thing can I do (what would you do) with a 6 foot deep space we've just discovered under my office? I have recently bought an old building and am in the process of renovating it. Underneath the floor of the room that is going to be my office we have found that there is a space about 6 feet deep, as wide as the office (approx. 4 metres) and about 4 metres long.

I think this is very cool but haven't actually been able to think of anything especially fantastic to do with it. I could just use it to keep my safe and archive files etc but that seems like a waste.

I could make a trapdoor so that I can push a button and people will fall... 5 feet onto a mattress or something, but that is, well, frankly, silly and likely to lead to litigation.

What would you do?

(For the record: this space serves no purpose at the moment, it's only there because the building is on slope. Please do not worry about building regulations or any of that nonsense either.)

Lets go fly a cheap, homemade kite

Brodiggitty — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:57:54 -0800

I need a basic, cheap kite plan that can be easily built by kids. My work is putting on a kite building workshop/ kite flying afternoon. I'm not opposed to buying cheap materials (under $10 per kite) in bulk for about 25 people, but I'd rather use household materials, (especially newspaper if possible). I've found lots of kite blueprints but they're geared towards hobbyists. I want simplicity. The flat, diamond shape will be fine as long as it'll fly, is easy to build, and is cheap.

If only I could bike at my desk...

Inspector.Gadget — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:52:59 -0800

Where can I pick up strenuous physical labor in DC on an occasional, volunteer, or (extremely) part-time basis? The academic year is about to pick up again and I know by the second week of class I'm going to feel like a slug. The last two weeks or so I've been hobbling around on several broken toes and unable to run or bike seriously, so the cabin fever is starting even earlier than usual. I'm looking for something I can do a few hours a week on an inconsistent schedule, with emphasis on weekends: if it's paid, great, but I'd also be interested in work for a suitable nonprofit. I don't think I can commit enough time to do Habitat for Humanity. Here's the sort of stuff I'm looking for, and it'd be even better if this was stuff I was doing by myself:

Splitting wood
Stacking/moving heavy things
Load truck with heavy stuff, drive 15 mins to place, unload truck
Break down pallets or similar wood frames
Help a bricklayer
Warehouse work
etc.

Thanks in advance. N.B.: I am not interested in anything that has me within 50 feet of stuffing envelopes or any other sort of office work.

Help me repair a few jimmied EXIT signs!

JaiMahodara — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:30:01 -0800

Do 2 or 4 bulbs in a regulation exit sign light up automatically? Ie, are the two outer small bulbs automatic and the two inner 120V/4W jobs there as backup? I'm not an electrician and retailers don't have much (anything) in the way of repair guides..only product order forms. These are exit signs in a theater that have been disabled for art's sake, but which by law need to at least be able to remain lit. It also looks like the button on the bottom of the box used to have a plastic mechanism that let the light click and stay on--now the two outer lights only remains lit if you hold the button in.

My extended questions are:

Is my diagnosis of the disabled plastic accurate -> Do they normally click on and off using the button on the bottom?

Should I be gunning for all four lights turning on, or are the inner two routed to the battery for when the outer lights fail? (I could unscrew and replace the inner 120V's but the outer 2 look like they come as part of the system.)

Given a blank slate, how would you network your house?

hydrophobic — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 03:55:03 -0800

How would you network your home if you had a blank slate? Wired or wireless? Our house is about to be almost entirely demolished and we have the opportunity to 'future-proof' our home. Given that the walls are down, should we take the chance to fill them full of wires? If so, what sort? The requirements:

1. Reliable. The #1 concern.
2. Secure.
2. High-capacity. HD media-streaming ready.
3. Affordable. This isn't a 'money is no object' question.
4. Low-maintenance. With no in-house tech. support, it needs to be easy to maintain. Any suggestions for really simple, user-friendly, network gear would be appreciated.
5. Future proof. If we go with wiring, it's going to be a long time before we can get in there and upgrade!

Bonus points: B+B guests should be able to gain access to the internet, without joining the intranet. Perhaps a wireless gateway isolated from the intranet?

Currently we're running on Ethernet-over-power sockets, but the new house will have 3 different mains circuits, so this will no longer be an option.

trashcan sinatra

Potomac Avenue — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:29:25 -0800

What crazy looking instruments can i build with a minimum of skill + resources and a maximum of WTF. i'm in a band playing keyboards, and sometimes i have nothing to do. tambourine and shakers are fine but sometimes i would like to make percussion noises like this:
BONG BANG BOMG BOOM

or sometimes I would like to make noises like this:

crashhhhh PING clang ttttttttcccchhhhhhhhhh AxAxAckAx riiiiiiiiitttchhhhhhhh
pppppsssssssss!

or sometimes maybe a little bit of eeeeeeeeeeeeexxxxxxxxxxCCVVVVViiiiiiiiiiiREOW! like a dying robot

Have you made strange percussion instruments? What did you do? Have you made traditional folk instruments in bizarre artistic shapes, or re-purposed regular household things to make amazing noises when you hit them together? Example: I used to play a big cardboard box with fly swatters-- it was beautiful.

Electronic suggestions are great too but i really dont know how to sauder or wire anything--but if you think of a toy or piece of electrical equipment that makes a crazy sound I'll take it.

Even if you haven't actually made them before please help me think of some new cheap but wild ideas out of your brain instead!

finally it'd be ideal if they are easy to transport and repair on the road.
anything i build i will obviously post pictures of them herein.

i thanks you and my adoring public thanks you in advance.

if you must know, yes i totally stole this idea from Drink Up Buttercup

Real life hobby for someone who enjoys building structures in computer games?

wastelands — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:10:18 -0800

Real life hobby for someone who enjoys building structures in computer games? Recently I enjoyed creating awesome defensive lines in Plants versus Zombies and playing the engineer class in Team Fortress 2. I loved Legos as a kid. Whenever I play a board game with friends, I'm always building little towers out of the pieces.

My question: What's a good non-software based hobby that would be good for someone who likes building structures? Bonus points for something that's not super nerdy. I don't really see myself painting Warhammer 40K miniatures or anything.

Thanks!

How do I obtain measurements of exterior corporate signage at the top of skyscrapers...from the ground?

muirne81 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:59:01 -0800

How do I obtain measurements of exterior corporate signage at the top of skyscrapers...from the ground? I'm a graphic artist who has been asked to obtain/determine the exact dimensions (height + width + depth) of two dozen+ specific skyscraper's worth of corporate signage (usually mounted towards the top of the building). These buildings/signs look similar to those I'm researching:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

My first inclination was to determine each building's height and number of stories, then use this information to guesstimate the respective sign's dimensions. I also thought about doing a pixel grid overlay and setting up a pixel to feet ratio. Unfortunately I was told that guesstimates aren't acceptable.

I really want to avoid contacting two dozen companies and/or building maintenance departments and inquiring about their signage--it seems unlikely that they would have the information I'm seeking, plus in this day and age such a request would probably be considered suspicious at best.

Short of hiring a survey company with fancy scopes and lasers (not an option) how on earth can I measure these signs from the ground? Or, alternatively, how can I creatively obtain the dimensions without measuring or rapelling?

Replacement porch steps for older home

bonobothegreat — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:56:11 -0800

Where can I find vintage photos of, or designs for simple turn of the century porch steps? Our 96 year old house requires new front porch steps because the old 60's pre-cast concrete ones are falling apart. It's not a grand home, just your typical middle class, west end Toronto house. The thing is, Toronto seems like it's got the FUGLIEST collection of replacement front steps on the continent. While most homes still have the original porch in one form or another, the front steps have sat out in the rain and none seem to have survived from the old days. The newer ones are often badly sized, of concrete, terrazzo or brick with wrought iron rails or more lately, these weird, folded aluminum rails even.

I've had no luck googling for old photos or plans for houses built around 1910 that would fall into the arts & crafts category without being high examples of that style. I'm hoping there's a catalogue or flicker stream that I could look peruse.

I'm planning four steps with a railing on each side and I don't want it to look like it was thrown together with pressure treated 2x4s.

Thanks, I hope this doesn't sound too obsessive/compulsive.

Why do I need building permits?

Death by Ugabooga — Sat, 23 May 2009 19:54:06 -0800

From what source does the authority to require building permits and inspections derive? I've dealt with this whole process before, but every time I have to, I think, "But hey - it's _my_ property! I paid for it, I pay taxes on it, and I pay for the upkeep. As long as I don't build something that could potentially damage or destroy the property of another, why do I need 'permission' from the government?" I know there are lots of issues involved, but when did we, as a nation, give up the right to do what you want on your own property, and is there a way of getting that right back?

help me build a market booth

diode — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:25:37 -0800

I want to help my wife build a small market booth for selling her art. It needs to be about 4x4 feet in size. It also needs to be portable so that she can set it up on her own and fit it into the back of a station wagon. The booth is for keeping the rain and sun off so it needs rainproof tarp overhead, plus it's got to be stable enough not to tip over from occasional gusts. An umbrella is okay but most of them seem to go over when the wind kicks up. She's got a station wagon so any structure has to be broken down into pieces no longer than about 65" long. Bonus points if it is light and looks cool. Stable and keep the rain off are the main priorities plus fitting into the back of the car.

Ok, so you have hot rocks. Now what?

bitter-girl.com — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:56:42 -0800

This weekend, I saw a green renovation show that used a large amount of gravel in the basement to hold heat gathered from a solar-collecting area in the roof. My dad, a builder, says this method doesn't work well. Help me understand if someone has devised a "better mousetrap" or if this is just something that has never worked and is being done for greenwashing on TV... The premise: attic space with solar glass panels in the roof (which are exceptionally clear and transmit the most UV rays through) also features double-insulated windows on the inside wall to let light in. Space heats up, presumably like a big solar cooker, and using a 12" PVC tube + small fan, the heat is transmitted to a large, concrete-block-walled room in the basement filled with a few tons of gravel.

Show host says the heat from the attic space warms the rocks, whose thermal mass then distributes the heat for up to 48 hrs. But HOW?

My dad's a carpenter, and worked for a gravel company in the 70s. He said he's seen this done before but it's not very effective.

Effective/efficient are two different things... presuming the heat makes it down and warms up the rocks, sure, they'll stay warm for a while, but what's making my head hurt is HOW can this heat be used to warm up the rest of the house? Even as an adjunct heat source, it just seems as if you'd have a nice warm roomful of rocks in the basement and not any real effect elsewhere, no?

I'm interested in building a straw bale house with an insulated foundation someday and am wondering if putting a system like this would help warm the area under the first floor, but can't quite wrap my head around how this works, or would work best... thanks!

Help Me Build a Freestanding Wall

swilkerson — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:01:40 -0800

I want to build a freestanding (but not necessarily portable) wall in my outdoor/natural light photography "studio." Ideas? Backdrop stands won't work for these purposes, because on a breezy day, my roll of seamless paper acts like a sail, and everything comes tumbling down (stands are weighted down, but the paper really billows with a decent breeze). I thought about building a makeshift climbing wall, but I can't really afford to lose 6-8 feet of space in the back for the braces (plus I'm not sure that I have that much carpenter in me!). My other thought was a commercial room divider (like they would use in offices/schools/churches), but that's getting into the $500+ range, and I'm not sure how well it would work anyway (I really need the wall to be flush with the floor. I'd like the wall to be about 7 feet high and 9 feet wide. I'll be clamping seamless paper, fabric, wallpaper, etc to it to make interchangeable backgrounds. I'm willing to throw a couple hundred dollars at this if I can come up with a good solution.

Can we break the lease if our neighbors blocked our view?

rafter — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:32:18 -0800

My roommate just signed a 12-month lease on our place in January. When she did that, our bedrooms had this view. As of this week, they have this view. Grounds to break the lease? I went downstairs to knock on the neighbors' door. They were half-assedly apologetic ("Sorry, we just really wanted solar; we thought about telling you guys, but the city didn't require it, so we decided to just do it and face the consequences.") -- so our landlord may not have known about it either until construction started earlier this week.

In any case. The apartment we live in is small and kind of dark except for the two previously gorgeous, sunny windows looking South over San Francisco (they were sort of the only thing going for it). Now it's just small and dark. Obviously we never would have moved in if this was the case.

We don't want to leave the landlord holding the bag here, but this is not the apartment my roommate signed up for for the next 10 months. Is this enough to break the lease without big penalties or legal hassles?

The good life can be wherever you decide to make it

Sassyfras — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:48:47 -0800

I would like to build a house . . . just for fun . . . on paper or online. I can't make my dreams a reality, so I thought I'd at least have some fun with the ideas bouncing around in my head. Is there a website or program (free!) that I could use to create my dream house?