How to build a house
Sometimes we forget that we have hands, it’s as simple as that. And, our ancestors; with effort, a little art and craft, had the ability to know how to build a house. To know those construction techniques to be able to build their own house.
We can rent a house, a room or go to our parents’ house to live, but there is also the possibility of learning how to build a house with our own hands. The result: a cheap ecological house!
Building your own house is not crazy!
Moreover, self-building is cheap and brings sustainable benefits to the building, that is, we can practice sustainable architecture with materials and techniques that respect the environment, biodiversity and the health of its occupants.
Let’s remember, it’s not so far-fetched, many of our grandfathers were part of those men who participated fully in the construction of their own house, well then, if we now have access to more information, better materials and tools … Why don’t we build a house? Why not start building cheap ecological houses with our own hands?
For a sustainable house; there are materials everywhere and they are cheap if we want to enter the world of sustainable housing, where the land we walk on can be the best friend of our future construction, of our future self-sustainable house.
Although later we will explain how to build a house step by step, first, let’s see the real case…
How to build a cheap house
This example of how to build your own house with little money (later we explain steps, there are manuals, guides and a free course), we have to go a little far away, to Thailand where in a few weeks he already had his “perfect” home.
This is the story of Steve Aren, being a handyman or not so much, he decided to build his own house trying to use cheap materials, reusing others and applying a sustainable and bioclimatic architecture.
So let’s see how to make a house step by step according to this curious project of a sustainable and economical housing:
With only 7,000 Euros in his pocket he decided to build a sustainable house, his dream home, and all he had to do was find the perfect place to do it.
The basic structure only cost him around 6,000 Euros to build the house, considering that in Thailand materials are very cheap. According to his website he had a friend from Thailand to guide him through the construction process.
Cement blocks and clay bricks were used to build the house. What could be better than using the land from the field where we started the project? It couldn’t be cheaper.
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For the remaining details and furnishings he had to pay around the remaining 2,000 Euros. To be able to give an answer to what a sustainable house is and to be able to understand it from the foundation is a quality that many of us should experience.
As we could see, the construction ended up quite well. From Steve Areen’s website (It takes a while to load the web) we can find more images to understand the process of building sustainable and really cheap houses based on good ideas.
From HERE we can see the process of building the house based on photographs to learn a little of how to build a cheap house. And in the following video we can see a little more of the finished house.
We remember that we can find different self-sufficient houses that vary in shape and qualities. From the article how to build a dome that tells the execution and construction of a geodesic dome for a house in Spain. Very interesting
Advantages of building sustainable houses and its disadvantages.
We want to provide two schemes that recognize the disadvantages or problems and how to act in the self-sufficient houses that normally by its typology will be an isolated house.
Generalized problems:
Once the common problems when building a home are recognized, we must understand how they can be solved or what actions can be implemented:
Now that we know more about the advantages of self-construction, it is time to review the essential steps to build our own house…
10 Steps to build your own cheap house:
Do you want to build your own house? Do you know exactly what you need to do it? If not, you will be interested in reading the following:
It seems incredible but it is possible to get to make yourself your own home, although it is not easy, especially ignoring basic knowledge to avoid making false steps. We propose an orderly way to start studying this goal, with different tips to build your house:
1.- Buy the ground
Acquisition of the land either solar or surface for remonte on existing housing. The acquisition can be considered through sale, inheritance or assignment.
It is necessary to take into account the orientation that we will need in the house with reference to the land at the time of building. We do not want to buy a land in which we have shade in winter, for example. Look at the following orientations for housing (Orientations for Spain)
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2.- The feasibility study
Feasibility study and budget of all the costs that are going to produce our new house, namely: Basic and Execution Project, Construction Management of Architect and Technical Architect, Health and Safety Coordination, Major Works License, Deeds of New Construction or Horizontal Division, Deeds of Sale and Purchase of land, Notary and Registry Fees, Taxes, Appraisal, Management Expenses, Cost of the Construction of the Work, and so on and so forth.
When a house is built, there are many expenses, but the main cost is centered on materials and labor. To find out how much a conventional building costs, we can consult databases.
The IVE (Instituto Valenciano de la Edificación – Spain) has a tool to see the cost of a conventional house in residential that we can consult from HERE We only have to enter the data! And we will have an approximation.
3.- The financial study and costs
Financing study of all the costs to be borne mentioned above. At this point we must not confuse terms such as real cost of the construction, market value or appraisal of the house once it is finished and the amount of the mortgage loan granted.
This last amount is the one that we must calculate very well so that it absorbs the maximum amount of the total costs. From the article how to calculate the price of a house, we can learn a little more!
Nor should we forget the terms and the provisions that the financial entities propose to us because there are occasions in which a real drama occurs when we are paying installments of amortization and interests before having the total amount of the credit and this supposes that we could not pay our debt mainly with the builder. Be careful with the small print of special conditions, interests, opening commissions and life or home insurances.
4.- The housing project
The Project. It is the time to think about your future. The number of rooms, the bathrooms, the patio or garden, the kitchen, the television, the tiles, the doors, the facade and even where I want the light switches. Good resources:
- We can see different house plans from here.
- If we want we can also find and download free autocad drawings where we can see ideas.
- And find free online architecture and interior design magazines to get ideas.
Everything must be clear and well thought out, because of these decisions will depend on the final cost of the building and the whole process itself. Besides you can not forget that you are going to live at home for a long time and you will want it to be the most comfortable place on the planet.
Architects can help you a lot and will advise you at all times, watching over your comfort and your money. Once everything is defined, our architectural firm will translate it into the Basic and Execution Project with its corresponding measurements and Health and Safety Study. After the approval of the projects, the legal process begins.
5.- The paperwork
The paperwork is a decisive step. This is what people like to call the legal formalities that seem so convoluted but that, if well analyzed, are controllable. It is true that getting lost in just one of the formalities can cause a significant delay in the whole procedure and the word delay in these cases is synonymous with money. The sequence of steps is as follows:
- Obtaining the Building Permit.
- Appraisal.
- Deeds of sale or transfer, Deeds of New Construction, Deeds of constitution of mortgage credit, Registration, Taxes, Cadastre.
- Report and request of connections in supplying companies.
- Works contract with construction company.
- Previous notice before the work inspection.
- Act of staking out of work.
- Certifications and releases of mortgage credit.
- Minutes and final certificates of work.
- Request of license of 1st occupation.
- Cadastral registration of the new work.
- Application for water and electricity connection.
Now it is time to go into the pure construction process and better understand how to build an economic house with different techniques:
6.- The construction
This is the most important step because it is the biggest expense that we are going to bear and we must decide which of the offers requested is the one that offers the best guarantee in terms of economic offer and technical solvency.
For it, the architectural studies facilitates the accomplishment of a comparative between the companies that have offered us. We must not forget to agree on the methods of payment, the qualities offered, the execution period and the penalties for delays, all of which must be subscribed in a private contract.
7.- The completion of the work
Now the time has come to give the approval of what has been built and it is not an easy task because the use, comfort and durability of what has been delivered will depend on it. We advise you to make a list of all the defects detected so that they can be corrected as soon as possible.
The Quantity Surveyor or Technical Architect will play a fundamental role in this task because he understands the finishes better than anyone else. We cannot forget that in this phase the liquidation of the work will take place and if we do not want to take surprises we must be advised from the beginning. To make the approval official, both the Architect and the Technical Architect will sign the final certificates of work and the final minutes of reception as well as the settlement of the work.
8.- The connections
Difficult but essential task to be able to turn on the light or to open the faucet. We will request the approval of the supplying companies accompanying the installers’ bulletins. We will liquidate the rates of rights of connections and we will contract their services.
9.- Guarantees
Fundamental to protect against unforeseen events, flaws or hidden defects. There are legal guarantees that defend us against claims to the builders. The term of legal guarantees will depend on when we have received and liquidated the work.
10.- Decoration and enjoyment
And now it is time to furnish. If we have done things right, we will not cover the sockets with furniture, and the lighting will recreate the desired environments. Our house can have multiple options of decoration, but the most advisable thing is to be advised by the Architects, because, they can show you a wide range of fashions, trends and designs from the most traditional and classic to the current and avant-garde. This process is the most fun, so relax and let your imagination and creativity fly.
Courses how to make a house
The network offers us unique opportunities to learn how to make a self-built home. It is a supportive training that can surely help us in a forceful way. You can take a look:
- A complete and free course of self-building from the Carlos Slim Foundation that we can consult from HERE. and that can be a good way to begin to understand the ecological and cheap houses that we can do.
- Also from the University of Mexico, UNAM we have some proposals in Coursera as the following free course on how to self-build your home.
Guides to build a house plus free course
At the time we already made several articles to learn the basics of bioclimatic architecture where different documents of interest such as. How to learn to build a house, with different manuals and guides in addition to answering the question of what is a sustainable housing can be seen in the following links:
- The essential principles of bioclimatic architecture (A jewel of drawings for the sustainable house).
- Documents on biosustainable architecture (22 Guides to learn how to build your own house)
- Architecture and its relationship with wind and sun
- Bioclimatic facade design
- How to calculate an eave for a sustainable house
Apart from the information we have provided we are interested in recognizing what are the construction techniques that will best strengthen our home and how to implement them. From the following article HERE we will find the constructive details of how to make houses more sustainable and bioclimatic. Highly recommended. An example of the detailed construction scheme of cheap houses would be…
Example of a cheap house
We want to show a small example of eco-sustainable habitat that does not leave aside the modern design, the comfort of a home and a relatively cheap price. Undoubtedly, building cheap houses does not have to be at odds with a good design or the finest materials.
We must remember that in recent years, society has been becoming aware of the need to change our way of interacting with the environment and start a project of an eco-sustainable house can bring us many benefits.
We have an interesting article of guide to find the ideal house with interesting tips to buy a house with coherence.
In the construction sector this translates into a commitment to sustainable architecture and self-sustainable houses, which represents not only a trend towards energy efficiency or the use of environmentally friendly materials, but also a philosophy and a conception of a different home architecture in our time.
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