Building a Home Yourself

[Ralph G]

Are there any restrictions on doing part of the construction work for your own home yourself?

I would like to design my own house and am starting to educate myself on the home building process. I realize that I can save a good amount of money by doing some of the labor myself. For example, I would be able to do the electrical wiring, and the plumbing also. I can do painting, and might even tackle the drywall installation. Now when I say "on my own" I mean just me, or me and a helper where necessary.

To me building my own home means designing it and acting as the GC. I feel that I have the ability of being some of the subs also, so why not? It would be a tremendous amount of work and would make the timeline for construction much, much longer than the timeline of a professional builder.

I would exclude from personal labor any site work, excavation, and roofing. The logistics of working on the second floor I haven't yet thought of and would probably not do myself if it requires too much extra equipment (though I'm not sure how willing a contractor would be to work on half of a framing job... this part still needs some thinking through). I can't think of a more worthwhile project than building a home and would like to as much of it as I can.

I would like hear of any restrictions, code issues, or any personal opinions in general.

[Don_P]

In most areas it is allowed but check with your building department, some areas do not allow trade work done by homeowneras and along the gulf coast I don't believe you can pull the permit without a license.

I've worked with many owner builders and have generally really enjoyed it but no I'm not going to work off of your framing, been there a couple of times. The last one wanted to save some bucks and frame the floor. He was within an inch and had used the wrong fasteners in the hangers, that sure isn't the way I want to start.

[Richard A Hetzel]

Don't delude yourself about how much money you will actually save. If you're lucky, it might be 15% or 10%, and if you're unlucky, you could end up spending more. Example: Insulation installers can supply and install insulation cheaper than what you can buy it for. That is true of many trades. You may get caught in disputes between trades, with two trades refusing to install something and claiming it is work of the other trade. You may wait ages for subcontractors who must give top priority to the general contractors who hire them on a regular basis. There are many possible pitfalls, and you won't navigate between all of them without a few grabbing you. You are right, it will take much longer to build, and time is money.

With all that being said, I wish you luck, There are lots of good brains here to pick if you need to.

[Ralph G]

Thanks, Don, and Richard for the honest responses. I'll focus on designing it and see what the forecast is for time and energy.

Richard, your point about how much will be saved is a good one. I have read what appear to be exaggerated figures from "build it yourself" sites that don't give any breakdowns, and honestly are hard to believe. I did a very rough estimate on exterior walls using CMU and realized that the difference was not as astounding as I expected, and the time difference would be huge (so for this case the money would be worth it - it's a tradeoff). Thanks for pointing out that subcontractors must give top priority to the general contractors they regularly work for. I hadn't thought of this, though I suppose with good coordination and scheduling this can be overcome.

We'll see. I'm learning more and more, and that's why I am here. Thanks again!