Image Credit: David Pill
More Q&A Spotlight
John Hess built a small house 20 years ago, and he may have the chance to build again in the coming year. But he realizes a lot has changed in residential construction since 1990.
He’d like to incorporate more green-building features this time around while making fewer mistakes than he did with his first house.
“Can anyone recommend a downloadable checklist or spreadsheet which covers the many and varied aspects of building a house?” he asks in this Q&A post.
Given the massive amount of information available in print and online, as well as the long list of building materials that have been developed in the last two decades, Hess’s request seems entirely reasonable: an appeal for greater simplicity in an age of data overload.
No doubt many builders and owner-builders face this same dilemma. Isn’t there some way of boiling down what we’ve learned?
Sorry, but the answer is no
“You’ve got to be kidding,” writes Robert Riversong. “Building a house is, for a human being, like building a Universe must have been for God. What we demand from human shelter today is so extraordinarily complex, it is like building a space station with intricately interacting life-support systems. It IS rocket science.”
Riversong is a believer in simplicity over unnecessary complexity (his own home is a 300 sq. ft. converted hunting camp with no running water in the kitchen and a two-burner Coleman for a kitchen range). And while he once encouraged people to build their own homes, in the tradition of Charlie Wing’s seminal book From the Ground Up, he no longer thinks that’s possible.
And Allan Edwards would have to agree. Building is too complex these days for a simple checklist, he says.
Edwards started his construction company more than 35…
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12 Comments
Carl Seville has a checklist too
A while back I bought Carl's checklist from his curmudgeon website (he made me pay full price too, but was nice about it)
I haven't really brought it into my daily business but shared it with my team as a way to show how another builder approached the whole systematization of not forgetting the important details. http://www.sevilleconsulting.com/store.asp
Strategies are not checklists
The GBA Strategy guide is not a checklist. For one thing, it begins with "Use a certified irrigation professional". I am pretty sure that is not the first item in building a home. And the Tauton Code Checks would not be a great help either. I think he is looking for a list that will tell him in which sequence the events will occur.
I too would like to find a checklist. One that I could modify and add/reorganize construction details as necessary but not starting from scratch, having to build a list from strategies, certifying programs, and assorted building code lists. It would be too easy to make a mistake and miss something.
simplified checklist
In my Zone 5 climate I've boiled it down to building the walls with SIPs, spraying at least 12" of open-celled urethane foam directly on the roof deck down to the tops of walls, and at least 2" closed-cell foam inside the furred walls in the basement. Under the basement floor is 2" rigid XPS, with appropriate moisture breaks at floor-wall joints. I also start the whole process centered around an ERV. Fine tuning is before the drywall with depressurization.
Houses turn out to have very good air quality, durability and low utility bills. Energy Star estimates last house I completed this summer should heat and cool for under $150/year (with geothermal HVAC) and reduce carbon emissions by over half.
One might doubt using open-cell foam in the attic, but I've collected data on moisture content and it accumulates up to about 30% for a few hours on nights that get well below zero.
I'd love to hear comments.
Checklists for building a house
In the spirit of "How hard could it be?" I spent 30 years in product development and project management in the communications and semiconductor industries where every project required checklists and de vision trees. In my naïveté I have to believe that a sophisticated decision tree starting with "Single family house" and ending with paint color in the powder room that points to construction details foundation, wall and roof decision sub branches, etc. Could be developed and sold profitably to the professional or owner/builder
Checklists are a good thing for other industries...
If very specific or consistent results are what is desired checklists are an indispensible tool.
It's what pilots have used forever to ensure they don't forget to lower the landing gear before they touch down.
It's what astronauts use to make sure they didn't leave a hatch open before re-entry.
In Canada there has even been talk of requiring surgeons :-O to run over a checklist before closing up a patient.
Makes sense to me.
architect
Maybe the point would be to spend the money up font for professional help so you spend less money overall?
The Perfect Checklist
Item One - Hire architect with green credentials
Item Two - Hire contractor with green credentials
Both these people do the more detailed "checklists" for a living, assuring much better results than any layman with a published checklist. Every single project is different and in many cases don't follow a set flow of decision processes. The reality is that experience is so valuable it is worth paying for.
the checklist
There is no doubt a checklist would be beneficial to many, especially those who are not familiar with the entire house building process. enjoyed the info woodtickcam.com
Quality and experience ...
I have to agree with the last two posts on this one ... your money will go much further if you have the knowledge of a qualified builder and architect on your side. We build 5 star + green homes in Austin, TX and have done nothing but 5 star projects for the past few years; you wouldn't believe how quickly things change! We are able to guide our clients on where they will get the most bang for their buck, as well as pushing for the highest quality of construction; an incredibly important part of green building is that it is sustainable construction that stands the test of time; e.g. a Kohler faucet may cost more than something you purchase at the Home Depot, but when it's all metal construction outlasts the plastic fittings in other products, the Kohler faucet pays for itself.
If nothing else, find a builder or architect that would be willing to do some green building consultation services for your construction project. http://www.redbudaustin.com
Profeesionals too.
Professionals can benefit from checklists too - including architects and builders.
As I said before, checklists are a fact of life in some professions where it is critical to uphold a high standard of performance.
Details are important in "green building" and there is no better way to make sure details are taken care of than running through a checklist before moving from one phase to another.
The Cheecklist Manifesto
Just finished reading this book. Well, I listened to it on my ipod. I highly recommend READING it -- the narrator was terrible, but the subject matter was excellent.
When I was a remodeler I had a checklist for many, many things. For me, it was a way to overcome my pre-old age memory loss, but it wound up saving me money on every job.
Aaron, The strategy library has a 'stage of construction' filter (left column), so that you can go from digging a hole to painting the walls.
Another handy checklist is Energy Star's Thermal Bypass Checklist, for which, GBA has a set of construction details.
building checklist
Go to my blog in the Q and A on this subject and download. This is a good start. Can be altered to fit needs and costs can be inserted. Can also be used as a starting point for scheduling the project.
gene, Licensed Michigan GC.
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