I think you are exactly right on the self build thing. Unless you have something to do with your time that pays a lot more, it makes perfect financial sense to pay yourself to do the job instead of paying someone else. Not to mention the knowledge, experience gained, and the peace of mind of knowing that the job was done the way you wanted.
I am in the industry and a lot of guys in construction are making good money now. The lowest paid guy pouring concrete who is just standing there holding a shovel is making $40/hr (no experience required). What you said about your skills and current income is right on. The equation is going to be different for every person.
I self built my first home when I was 28 in 78. I purchased a package that included framed walls, Exterior windows and doors and shingles. The walls were framed in sections but not sheathed. Overall, it was a reasonable deal. With help from family, we set and sheathed the walls, set the trusses and sheathed and shingled the roof and installed the siding and windows. Because the code at that time required cast iron below grade I subbed that portion of the plumbing, but did the rest I wired and installed the HVAC, making my own transitions and zones. The only things subbed after the rough plumbing were drywall finishing, counter installation, vinyl and carpet. We did everything else all while working full time and completed in 6 months. Today we live in a home that the exterior walls were framed, sheathed, insulated on the exterior with 1" of foam, siding and windows installed. I hired a crew to erect the floor, exterior walls and trusses. I'm 73 so more was subbed but still my wife and I did a considerable amount of the work. We are just now finishing a 500 SF family room on the lower walkout level. I agree that using ICF's would have been easier and faster. I set all the walls for this house which is quite complicated in a week and the rectangular 900 SF garage was set in one day.
Back in the early 60's my dad had a 'fallout shelter' built. It had 8" thick walls and 12" thick ceilings. There was a middle wall that was also 8" thick. There was a swale from the entrance door down to a much lower spot. There was one entry/escape door and one block filled opening. The theory was that if the main door got blocked you could break the block out and tunnel up. He built a 2-car garage on the top of it. The town had a NIKE site (you can Google that). Of course, we never used it for its original purpose, but it was a pretty neat place for a club. We did have hurricanes, but never used it for that. I wonder if he had a federal grant to put the shelter in. Two rooms 22' by 11' side by side.
I hired an Excavation contractor to dig the basement and frost walls for the garage. It took a CAT 320 Excavator with a ripper tooth to dig it as we are on rock. In the case of out septic tank it took a 6" hammer on the excavator to punch a hole in the rock for the tank. That took an entire day.
I have seen all your videos on prep and am missing a step. I am wondering about the initial gravel type for the pad and how you prepped it. Can you let us know what gravel you recommend for the 1st layer on your cleared dirt and how best to compact that? Thanks for amazing educational videos.
Our storm shelter has a door on the north end. Windows in yours are fine and I think maybe they are facing north. I'm not a weather man but if I'm not mistaken nearly every tornado runs from general south to north and never goes south. Is that correct? Either way I would rather have a block of concrete below grade to protect me than the most interior room on a slab.
Don't know what commercials yall are seeing but I'm tired of the Truewerk crap. Just saying and I probably viewer specific. Paul you guys do a good honest job on your channel though. Thank you.
Adjust your ad settings. Nobody has the ability to see the ads you being fed. Pay the subscription fee if you wanna whine about ads. RU-vid isn’t free…
