Why You Should NOT Build Your Own House

Beware of these pitfalls when building a house.
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[dlg]

I'd bet 95% of DIYers are doing it to save money and maybe 5% (if that) are doing it for the learning experience. Being cost conscious doesn't equate to lack of concern for quality. The fact is, hiring a quality builder is simply out of reach for the vast majority of working class people, so it's bizarre to assume that DIYers aren't primarily motivated by the astronomical cost of hiring a builder, as well as a thousand other factors. Your perspective simply doesn't reflect reality.

[arthurcooper]

I've met unreliable ex con drug addicts who will work for $20 an hour that do absolutely amazing work and fancy "professionals" who will happily gouge you and your abundance mindset all the way to the bank but build something of piss poor quality. Right now the skilled labor market is tight and residential contractors on small scale jobs are the leftovers of the construction industry. Finding good people is only simple in YouTube land where there seem to be an endless supply of available, quality tradesmen. But in real life? Quality work is very hard to find and cost vs quality is definitely not a sliding scale -- if only it were that simple. So do I DIY for money or quality? Unfortunately, I DIY for both.

[jackofalltradesmasterofnon]

The third DIY mindset is focused on specific attention detail that you just won’t get from a local contractor. This is especially true for high performance details that your local subs don’t have experience in.

[attilabodi]

I'm doing a fixer upper but I need help since I'm getting old. Most (90%) contractors I have talked to in the last 2 years straight up want to rip you off and lie to your face about whats needed, how difficult things will be, how much materials and labor costs - overcharging even if it means no business. I have had contractors give me insane prices like $15K to add a door to a house. One even went up to $30K he said "because that side of the house needs to have all the siding removed and new siding needs to be installed otherwise rain will get in". I have had contractors tell me elaborate lies as if I'm a 6 year old child (even though they saw that I had all my carpentry tools out right behind me, with my pants coverd in sawdust). There's this I'm special mentality going around with contractors. They all want to be millionaires without lifting a finger. Well guess what? Where theres a need, cheap labor and eventually AI will fill that need. Asking for unaffordable prices only make people want to replace them that much more. Theres no way in hell I will ever pay a carpenter more per hour than a high price lawyer.

[shadeaquaticbreeder]

I want to DIY bc I have worked with enough crews to know that I want it done myself so I know it's perfect. That and nobody will build in the way I want to do I kind of have to do most of it myself anyway. But also I'm the type that if I buy something for $1k it still doesn't mean as much to me as if I were to build it myself. I mean saving money bc I do it myself is nice but in the end what matters is the quality and if it works. But you still have to know your limits. One thing I can't do is design lol. Everything is practical and has a purpose and there's never any wasted space when I set it up.

[VoicesUnspokenMen]

Honestly I justified many diy hobbies with the excuse “we will save money” and frankly it was the only way I was able to build my woodshop without regret but I have learned IT IS NOT CHEAPER BY ANY MEANS however I will not trade my new founds and practice skills for anything. It’s priceless. I love the message you’re sharing here. You’re right about relationships. I’m in government consulting and I am often educating why the cheapest option isn’t the best option and what it will cost you

[kamwatkins]

We're building our own house to save money on the labor, which is half of the building price. We still have a super insulated, tight, high quality home. We have subbed out a few things, but honestly find that in our area people really want to do the least amount of work possible and barely pass code. Our concrete people thought we were crazy to put burlap over the concrete to slow down the curing process, even though it is highly recommended by concrete experts.

[bobbray]

I get what you're saying but... We built last year and my contractor had a tough time finding framers and then found one. When they were starting the sub floor, I bought foam subfloor adhesive with a long wand to save their backs from the use of caulk guns. They they had never used foam before and complained that it wasn't staying on the joists, so I came over to see. They put the foam down and dropped the 4x8 sheets onto the joists and the air from the dropping caused the foam to blow off. I told them to just lay the panels down. It worked but they seemed bothered.

They had never worked with Zip-R sheathing. That's fine, it's similar to regular sheathing but longer nails are required and I bought two big Bertha nailers and nails for them to use by following the prescribed nailing pattern. All they did is complain. All this was spelled out for them prior to bidding, if they read it.

The moral of the story is some contractors only like to do what they've always done and certainly don't want a home owner to teach them anything new. Not my first building rodeo. They eventually walked off the job saying that they were being poisoned by the foam! I think they just under bid. I was around taping the Zip joists and window openings as they progressed, now live in the home and there is no illnesses or smell to report. Even had a Huber rep come to the site and he said they sell millions of panels with zero reports of sickness.


I was nice and bought them lunch whenever I was around but only a couple guys would take my lunch offer. The young guys seemed to like trying new things but the older guys wanted nothing of that.

My contractor, his three brothers, my brother-in-law and I finished the framing. Lucky it was 80% framed. Be careful who you hire. No issues with any other contractors and everything turned out great!

[huckwild]

Some of the coolest most unique over built homes I’ve ever seen are people in the middle of nowhere that built everything themselves out of materials they gathered over the years. This is not a joke or stretch what so ever.

[SimbaCortez]

What’s caydens camera set up!
Camera and lens

[L.J.]

Usually your videos are excellent, and we appreciate them, but this one was kind of a slap in the face to the folks who have, or will, build their own houses. I haven't seen one person in any FB building group I'm in who is owner-building because they 'want to learn' . Maybe one in a thousand, or someone who wants to be, or is already in, the trades, but the rest are probably lying to you, lol!

In 1953 My father built the 2-story, 4bed/2 bath, +den, house where I was raised (two baths were unheard of back then.) He also wired phone jacks all over the house, (he was a line man for the Ma Bell) while typical houses usually had 1, maybe 2 lines if they were lucky.

He wasn't driven by wanting to learn, he would have loved to have been able to hire a GC. Self-built was the only way my parents could ever have afforded to own a house for a large family of 7, so he figured he might as well build it like he wanted it, including putting in a half-circle drive and some other creative touches. He did a magnificent job doing 90% of the work himself while commuting from the city every weekend to the then-rural suburbs where he slept, first in a tent, then on an army cot in the dried in house.

It's the only original house left on the block today and looks as good as it did when it was built. (The owners gave me a tour when I visited my childhood neighborhood a few years ago.) He had zero building experience, armed with only a set of McGraw Hill building books to guide him. He hired subs only for some of the electric and plumbing.

He had frustrations, like his full basement foundation cracked and caved in after heavy rains, so he had to fill it, making it a crawlspace. He learned how to drywall by starting in the closets, lol!

My point is, I don't think you really understand, or empathize with your student base who are mostly a lot of persevering, creative, smart folks doing their best to afford a house. And today's market has priced so many more families out of home ownership so this is a growing market. You need to cut them a break. Occasionally, a few of the contractors I've seen in the FB groups that I'm in see owner-build as ppl who are taking jobs away from them or objecting to prices simply because they're being cheap.

With that said, you offered some good advice for working with subs - - but discouraging folks from owner-build if it's financially-driven seems out of touch and lacks a little empathy, which is typically uncharacteristic of you. ❤

[whitehorse]

I was quoted 24-26 k for replacement of 2 windows if there is no problems with framing. Had it done in 3 days including ripping out wall and reframing it. Under 15 hundred for what probably would of been 30 k.

[Somewhere-In-AZ]

Aw man! I’ve always been so focused on your information and delivery that I never gave a thought to who was filming you. My bad. So glad you shared the spotlight. Your son has talent, that’s for certain.

That said, I’ve evaluated (often) whether my ideas can translate into actuality. Can’t do it by myself. I have noticed that I’m able to get others excited about what I’m trying to do and others (who have the skills I need) are super supportive. I live in a tight small community. It’s not a town, but many grew up here and most have known each other for a lifetime. Some are new here, from California or other places. They are tough to get past and that’s been the hardest part. My 2 neighbors are transplants, don’t understand conservation and don’t respect boundaries. They scraped their land of everything and then trespass to pick wild flowers because I left more areas wild. It’s been tough. My people skills are often lacking when it comes to this.

[faisal-ca]

Doing budgeting right now and will only bring in quality trades people. I had one built through a builder in the past and was disappointed to see the things they missed out and the overall workmanship. I mean the house didn't fall apart but they could have done better.

[twotonrhinottr]

Books and videos gave rise to DIY’ers who prove themselves of higher efficiency and skill over many, many contractors. Being meticulous is everything next to common sense.

Contractors and framers ruined their own industry with overpricing, putting jobs on hold in favor of higher paying jobs, and piss-poor attitude and quality.

[gieb]

It is easy to spend someone else's money and hard to spend your own money, it doesn't come back if something goes wrong.

[josephgallagher]

You have to learn before you DIY to save money.

If you dont
Failure.

Like knowing that trusses over 30' need a spreader bar. And the spreader bar needs to be half the length of truss. Numbers could be off a little off the top of head.

SBCA "i think" vids about truss design, propper bracing. Safely lifting. And understanding all info on truss documents.

[mistervacation]

I had mine almost built then my ex-wife came in and said here's a post that doesn't shouldnt be here, whacked it with a 2 by 4 and a whole shebang came down

[andykross]

What about the DIY’er who knows more than the experienced contractor? How can you respect someone who’s supposed to be the expert who doesn’t know the code or the building science?
Remember code is the bare minimum. It’s a C on a scale of A to F.

[lawrencepietrangeloiv]

There are also DIYers who want to save money BECAUSE they already know how to do everything involved in building a home