Hi i am new to homebuilding and was wondering what books you guys suggest buying. For right now i am looking for books geared twards the process of building a home and design ideas. I have found some books about design but have been unable to find a book showing the steps involved in building a home. Thanks, steve.
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imho, the best single book about building your own home is long out of print. Your Dream Home; How To Build It For Less Than $3500 by Hubbard H. Cobb, published by William H. Wise 1950. Check Amazon's used books; I've seen it listed. Though some of the info is outdated (certainly the prices), it will give you a good overview of the process of building a house.
Small world...
When I was outlining the process of building my own home a few years ago, my dad pulled Your Dream Home; How To Build It For Less Than $3500 off the bookshelf and handed it to me.
Two other books he gave me were So You Want To Build a House by Peter Hotton and Do-It-Yourself Housebuilding Step-by-Step by Charles Neal. Both books are dated. Although the steps pretty much remain the same, materials and some details have changed.
Nash's book is a good one.
Another source for used books? http://www.half.com A lots of good deals to be had. I buy and sell there often.
Thanks for the link. Your Dream Home, How to Build It For Less Than $3500 belongs to my Dad, too. I'm surprised no one has done an updated version.
Actually, something that is kinda useful regarding steps to follow is your City's inspectioin sequence; from there you can research each stage. Regarding design though, that's a whole other arena, probably something you will be wrestling with even after construction starts. I tended to look at a lot of those books of plans. Although mine was a custome design, there are certain sizes to things that are helpful.
I also picked up that Residential Architecture Book (forget the exact name as it is at home) that someone mentioned here. A bit pricey, $100, and I got it used off of Amazon. I only picked it up last month, but it would have been much more helpful during the design stage of my project a couple/few years ago; there is a good section where it list appliances, furniture, et al sizes which can be instrumental when considering spaces and sizes of various rooms.
Another book that provides a good overview of the building process is Building Construction Illustrated by Francis D. K. Ching. I think Wiley was talking about Architectural Graphic Standards For Residential Construction. It will prove useful for just the reasons he mentioned. Last but not least, don't overlook the Taunton Store. I can't think of any phase of the building process that isn't covered by a book they sell.
jc, that's it, the latter one you mentioned.
And although I haven't delved into it too much yet, I popped for the FHB CD. Was going to use it more for finish stuff; still not there yet.
I have both the Ching book and the Arch Graphic Stds book, and they are both very good. However, I don't think they will do what the original poster wanted, which seemed to be a book on the process of building a home. These two books will be very valuable for details and assemblies.
Do it right, or do it twice.
Might want to take a look at Do-It-Yourself Housebuilding by George Nash or The Real Goods Independent Builder by Sam Clark. Anyone else have an opinion on those?
I agree that Ching's book and Arch. Graphic Standards only provide parts of the big picture. I haven't seen George Nash's book (I'll have to head to the library) but there doesn't seem to be that many books that provide a really good start to finish overview the way Your Dream Home, How to Build It For Less Than $3500 does.
Hey Jeepdude, are you getting into the trades as a proffesional or just wanting to learn how to build your own house? I've got a few recommendations for both but it's a whole different library depending on which direction you are headed.
Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
Good point on the PoV...DIY or Pro. I took him as DIY and recommended DIY-friendly reads.
Getting more specific, I'll second Thallon's Graphic Guide to Frame Construction for framing guidance for the DIYer and Pro.
Framer friendly...lots of pics.<g>
Hi,
Very broad question.
Here's part my "library" in no particular order;
Renovation-Litchfeild
Carpentry-Leonard-Koel
Finish Carpentry-Katz
Advanced Framing-JLC
Graphic Guide To Frame Construction-Thallon
Very Efficient Carpenter-Haun
Wiring A House-Caudwell
Framing-Floors Walls-Ceilings Best of FHB
Any of the For Pros By Pros by Taunton are great. Carefull with some directed towards home owners they tend to not be as practicle and be written by desk jockies.
For Design don't pass up; A Pattern Language
I gotta million of 'em!
N
Haun and his brother have a couple of excellent videos out too. They are like a two man framing machine - fun to watch. Our local Library has several of the Taunton videos as well as their books. Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
Most of my picks are already mentioned. I think for a newbee, DeChristoforo's Housebuilding, a Do it Yourself guide, is a pretty decent read.
"The child is grown / The dream is gone / And I have become / Comfortably numb " lyrics by Roger Waters
I'd suggest you buy mine, but I got busy and it's not finished yet.
Seriously, read a lot of FHB tech/how-to articles; this will give you enough base to decide which aspects you want to go further into and which ones you will probably sub. Stay away from anything that has READER'S DIGEST or TIME-LIFE BOOKS in the title; both these series are produced by 'packagers' and are written to formula. They tend to be simplistic and skip a lot of theory which, if you learn it, can help you solve problems that no author could have forseen. They are strong on uniform graphics and white-bread writing, sort of the Budweiser or Shaeffer of how-to books.
Check out the Taunton line of how-to books, they tend to be much more professionally oriented and have higher production values, at least from an aesthetic point of view (that's a personal opinion). Also check out the books at http://www.leevalley.com , the owner / publisher / brains behind this company has got his head screwed on very very well, and is going a long way toward proving that you don't have to crapola-ize everything to make lots of money.
Last recommendation: before you buy a single 2x, you've got to design it. Read everything you can get your hands on by Sarah Susanka--she's another one who uses the material between her ears to go against the grain and get things right.
Dinosaur
'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?
Go to the library. Also check with any colleges or technical schools as they often have open libraries. Read everything, within reason, that they have. If you get any other titles have your local library get them on inter-library loan. All this is free. It also puts you on a footing where you will have a good idea what few books you really need for reference. This saves you spending money on books that only seem important. It would be easy to spend hundreds, thousands?, of dollars buying good books that you will never open again. Save your cash for the real reference materials.
Using my experience as an electrician as an example I can say that 80% of the questions I commonly run into can be answered quickly by referring to Ugly's, a tool box handbook filled with the tables and charts most commonly needed. This small book would be of only limited use to someone without training or education as there are few or no explanations to tell you what sections refer to what problems and any exceptions or special situations that apply .
If Ugly's doesn't get it I have a copy of the latest NEC in the truck and a copy of "The American Electricians' Handbook at home. Both are great references but without training they can be confusing and possibly misleading. They don't lie but sections can easily be taken out of context.
I have another shelf of books I have studied during my training but these are seldom referred to. If I had been training myself I would have saved quite a bit of money by getting these at the library and returning them. That is not to say that having them on a shelf isn't nice.
My point is that you might be better off learning all you can on someone else's dime. Then once you know what the best and most condensed references are you can spend your money where it will do the most good. Don't forget to give the price of one of the books you would have bought in error, and regretted in a month, to the local library to keep it going.
Another resource can be to get friendly with older contractors or builders. Local builders associations can be a good resource. Many have large personal libraries filled with books on the subject. Most of these very expensive books go unopened. If a local builder dies or moves you can sometimes buy these books at a substantial discount.