Copyright © 2006, Larry Angell

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
written permission from the author.

SWEAT EQUITY, Building a house at half cost,

is an ANGELL PRESS Publication.

Illustrations by Joshua Angell

Dedication

2
I dedicate this book with all my love and gratitude
to my parents, Aaron and Maurine Angell.

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 Contents

PART 1
Why you should build your own house

1. Who can benefit from this book

2. Do we really save that much doing it ourselves

3. Mortgage interest is nothing but nasty

4. What is so special about equity

5. Ways to free up money

6. Real reasons people have for not doing it themselves

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 PART 2

How to build your house

1. Getting your ideas and plans on paper

2. Those darn building codes and permits

3. Time to get dirty, starting the foundation

4. Framing and rough work, walls and floors

5. Sheathing the outside and roof

6. Stairways and Landings

7. Installing entry doors and windows

8. Plumbing

9. Electrical wiring

10. Exterior siding

11. The roof

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12. Heating, venting, and air conditioning

13. Installing Insulation

14. Walls and ceilings

15. Floor finishes

16. Bathrooms

17. Kitchens and cabinets

18. Finish work

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 Introduction

This is a book about building your own house personally. It doesn’t tell you how to find a
contractor to do the work for you. It gives you the step-by-step process how to do
everything by yourself and reveals all the amazing advantages that hardly anyone knows
about in this day and age. It’s my passion to teach everyone I can about what I’ve learned
in the area of house building and the high cost of hired labor. So, let’s get started!

We all want to live in nice homes, but not all of us can afford to.
Sometimes, our incomes don’t exactly match our ambitions for
fulfilling our hopes and dreams. My wife and I realized that very
thing a few years ago when we wanted to stop throwing away rent
money and become homeowners. We had very few options
because of our low income.

After a couple years of research and careful planning though, we

decided to build a house completely by ourselves. With very little
carpentry experience, the task was challenging yet unceasingly
rewarding. It was also a lot of fun. We learned some extremely important tricks on how
to save on labor costs which makes this whole thing possible. Even people with low
incomes can have nice homes. Once our home was finished, we had more than 50%
equity because of our own labor. That is typically a point that takes most homeowners
close to 20 years of mortgage payments to get to. Not only did we have a nice home, but
we also had a powerful financial tool to help us out. Let me explain.

In our modern day, it’s very common to borrow every penny to pay
somebody else to build a house. Anymore, with such easy financing,
usually even the down payment is borrowed money. Once the house is
finished, the owner moves in with hopes of being able to make every
payment each month for thirty years. Many sacrifices have to be made
to make those payments.
Soon the homeowner realizes that he or she is the property and the
house is the owner. I’ve seen many people working day and night just
to pay for a home they couldn’t afford.

7
 I don’t share that point of view. Life is fun and wonderful
and it needs to be enjoyed. A house needs to enhance our
lives and comply with our lifestyle.

My whole purpose for making a book on house building is

to pass on what I have learned about the cost of labor and
how we can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in the
long run by doing the work ourselves. Each time we add a
part to our house it’s building not only our house, but also,
its building equity in our own pockets. On the other hand,
when someone else builds that part for your house, they are
building debt for you.

If a person decides to build a house without help from

contractors, that person will own more than half the house
because of the labor costs saved, once the project is done. From
that point, if the owner needs to borrow against the equity, tens
of thousands of dollars will be available for anything that person
needs. A good idea anymore, is to open a revolving equity line of
credit. This is basically a second mortgage, but it has a credit
limit like a credit card, yet has low interest and a long pay-off
schedule. This is a good source of security if times get tough.
Once this equity line of credit is open, the funds can be used for
whatever purpose regardless of employment status or credit
worthiness. This is how you make your home enhance your lifestyle. This is a home that
is an excellent financial tool. That is how it should be, but most of the time, it’s not like
that at all.

I have always wondered why more people aren’t doing the same thing that we did. That
needs to change, but before we can change anything, we need to consider why people
allow themselves to be kept in the dark about so many things. We need to ask ourselves,
“Why do we believe it when others tell us we can’t succeed?” Here’s my two cents on
that matter.

It seems that the vast majority of human beings accept life for what
it is and try to live according to either the opportunities or
misfortunes placed before them. This is evident when you consider
that most of the inhabitants on this planet are living in poverty while
allowing a small number of more fortunate individuals to rule over
them. The rich and powerful would prefer to keep it that way and as
long as greed and selfishness exist in the world, the segregation
between rich and poor will continue to increase. As a matter of fact,
if the wealth of the world was distributed evenly among the seven
billion men, women, and children, all would be able to live a life of
comfort and prosperity that can’t even be imagined by many. There
is that much wealth in the world, plenty for everyone.

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The text written on these pages won’t solve world hunger, nor will it unite all mankind in
a spirit of brotherhood, but the counsel given can help some low and middle income
workers create a better standard of living in these difficult times.

So many of us find ourselves stuck in a rut we call daily

life. We spend all we earn and a little more. We put
ourselves in financial bondage with high mortgages and
hope to be able to keep up the payments. It seems as if we
are working all the time and not fully enjoying the things
we borrowed money to acquire. Creditors tell us what we
can and can’t do. The rich rule over us with a tight fist. Our
hard work maintains their exotic lifestyle.

Why are we struggling so hard only to get further behind?

Our parents struggled and their parents struggled yet they
were able to retire in comfort. Will we be able to stop
working when we get old? If things continue the way they
are, many of us will still be in the workforce in
our declining years. Social Security probably
won’t be enough to pay the bills.

I don’t know of a time in our great country’s history when the income-to-
expense ratio has been so far off kilter. This is what I’m talking about:

In the early 1970’s, before inflation hit us hard, a person

could buy a nice home for around $25,000. A new ¾ ton
pickup cost about $3,500. The medical costs for a new baby
delivery were right around $500. Minimum wage was
$2.00 per hour. Income to expenses was manageable with
one income.

Now, in the 2000’s, that same kind of home costs over $200,000. A new ¾
ton pickup costs over $30,000. A new baby delivery free of complications
costs around $8,000. The kicker is that minimum wage is only around $5.50
per hour.

So, the cost of homes since the 70’s has increased about 900%, the price of a
new pickup has increased by over 1,000%, medical costs for a new baby has increased by
a staggering 1,500%, but minimum wage has only increased by about 275%. If minimum
wage truly kept pace with inflation, it would be around $20.00 per hour. That would be
nice for many low-income families.

It’s no secret that to be able to make those monthly payments, we need one big income or
two or more smaller incomes. Those who were fortunate enough to have received a

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 family business or those who had enough foresight to get a college
education can make it on one income. All the others are those that
work hard to maintain a modest lifestyle.

On average, the biggest monthly expenses are the home mortgage or

rent, food, auto payments, and medical bills, usually in that order.
Both parents need to work to meet those obligations.

Children are raised in daycares and schools. In the evening when the
typical family is home, the parents are busy doing necessary chores or
are resting from a hard day. Children need attention and parents need to
be spending quality time with their loved ones, but there aren’t enough
hours in a day so they do the things that have to get done instead of
being with the family. The few hours each day spent with the kids are
usually nerve-racking and seem to drain the energy from the already
tired parent.

Life has a way of making us focus on unimportant and often trivial matters at the
expense of that, which is most important. I knew that I had made a few bad decisions that
brought me to the point of being a low-income wage earner. I realized that I was
depriving my family of a better life as a result of some of my bad choices. But I also
realized one very important thing and that was that I didn’t have to continue making bad
choices.

In 1991, I was a typical low-income wage earner. My wife and I were renting a small
home and with our first child, we were trying to live a good life. We wanted to own our
own home, but couldn’t afford it. We looked at Mobile Homes, but they were too pricey
and were of poor quality. Even to buy an old home, as a fixer-upper was too expensive. It
was then that I found out about building my own house from a friend who built his house.

He was a good carpenter and told me he would

give me any advice I needed. After looking into
the situation a lot deeper, I decided to do it. My
wife and I made a plan on how to save money so
we could get started as soon as possible. My
parents encouraged us to move into their
basement so we could save money. We
restructured our spending on food and fun and
decided to live beneath our means until the house
was finished.

It was a long, difficult process, but was undoubtedly the most rewarding thing we have
ever worked for.
It took over four years because of a permanent lay-off from work and vocational
retraining to help find another job. We did whatever we could do to keep the building
project going. Finally, in 1997, we finished our house and took out a home mortgage loan

10
to consolidate all the bills we had incurred for building materials. We moved in and got
on with our lives.

Since that time so many people have told me how great an achievement it is to build a
house. I hadn’t considered it to be anything great; it was just a project that was fun and
rewarding. I had gained a lot of knowledge in the process and learned a few things about
myself along the way.

The one thing that really stays in my mind however is the

amount of money we saved by doing it ourselves. It’s
unbelievable and it makes me wonder why more people don’t do
the same. The money people pay to contractors for labor is
almost 2/3 the cost of the home. The fact is: Your house is your
best financial tool or your worst financial burden. What
usually makes the difference between the two is the amount of
equity you have in your home or plainly the amount your house
is worth minus what you owe on it.

This book has two parts. The first part is the most important by far, because it is
something you will never forget. It will benefit you from this point on. It is about “why”
you should build your house. The second part will tell you “how” to build your house. At
the time I was building my house, there was no “how to” books that were complete. I
spent a fortune on books only to learn from inspectors that a lot of my information was
incorrect. I have tried to make a complete “how to build your house” book that is
accurate but not overwhelming. I like simplicity.

It is thorough as far as basic house building is

concerned. Because of the large amount of
information involved in the construction of a
house, each area is brief, yet sufficient to give the
reader a complete idea on each phase of the
building process. Local codes and ordinances
differ greatly from one building site to another,
so it is necessary to get localized information
from the local building, health, plumbing, and
electrical inspectors.

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Remember, building your own house either completely or partially by yourself, will be
one of the greatest, most beneficial choices you have made so far in your life. That’s my
promise.

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 ONE

Part 1

Who can benefit from this book?

Almost anybody can benefit from this book with the exception of those individuals who
have more money than time. I have seen wealthy people build their own houses before,
but it’s more out of a sense of accomplishment than to save money. Those who will truly
benefit are people that are usually in the lower and middle class income brackets.

The problem with our modern day financial structure

is that it limits our ability to dream realistically. We
can all fantasize about fancy cars and the castle we
want to live in when our ship comes in, but in the
back of our minds we know that our ship has sunk
and has taken down with it all of our hopes and
dreams. So, we realign our perspectives according to
what reality and the rest of the world tells us about
our potential. When in truth what most of us need is a
small boost in the right direction to get us thinking in
a positive manner and then, watch us take off!

I’m a man of very few talents. I haven’t found anything that I’m real good at yet. The
world beats us down everyday and reminds us of our failures.

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 Some days I come home from work feeling like a
worthless slug. But that feeling never stays around
very long and the world quickly loses power over
me. When I walk across my front deck and into
my beautiful home that I made with my own
hands, I’m reminded of my potential and how
much any person can accomplish with the correct
mindset. My beautiful wife and children meet me
at the door with smiles and kisses and that right
there reminds me once again, that a person
doesn’t have to make all the right choices in life,
just a few good, important ones.
Building your own house is a good choice and a very important one at that. The financial
benefits alone are very much worth the effort. We spent around $60,000 for our house. It
appraised for $140,000. Those are the numbers I use in all the examples because they are
numbers I know very well. The land, the well, and the septic system are included in that
$60,000. It’s much easier to make a monthly mortgage
payment on a $60,000 loan, than on a $140,000 loan.

That is what makes this all possible. Someone on low

income normally has no chance of getting a 2000+ square
foot, frame-built home. They usually have to opt for
something smaller or something that is such low quality that
it probably won’t even outlast its mortgage. That’s sad and it
didn’t used to be that way. A hard working individual with
low income used to be able to buy a home. Not anymore,
those days are gone and so we have to make a new plan to
succeed.

Have you ever noticed groups of wonderful people that donate their labor to build houses
for families that can’t afford to make high mortgage payments?
One of the most popular is “The Habitat for Humanity”. For
many of these kinds of groups the labor is donated so that once
the house is finished the cost of materials is the only thing left to
pay for. The mortgage is substantially less and one that a low-
income family can afford.

Let’s turn the focus back on those people who

are just getting by, yet have fairly good jobs.
Usually they live from paycheck to paycheck,
but aren’t getting anywhere in terms of saving
money and improving their lifestyle.

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 Here’s a true story about a person I know. I had
been living in my new home for about 3 months. I
was telling my friend how much my house cost to
build. He said he wished he could find the money
to build a new house. I told him about the plan my
wife and I made to be able to free up extra money
the whole time we was building our home. He
told me that he and his family lived in a fairly nice
singlewide mobile home. He had a pickup and a
car. His car was paid off, but his pickup was new
and very nice. His pickup payments were $600 a
month.

I saw this as an opportunity to help him with my expert

advice. I laid the whole plan out for him. If he would sell
his truck and buy a beatermobile pickup that was
dependable enough to get him to work but cheap enough to
have a low monthly payment or perhaps no payment at all,
he could save enough money every month to start buying
materials immediately to build his house. Plus, he would
have a perfect truck for hauling building materials.

I figured that after two years his house would be far enough along and would have such a
considerable amount of equity that loan brokers would be falling over themselves to give
this guy a construction loan, regardless of his credit rating, which wasn’t very good.
After a few months, his project would be completed and he could consolidate all his bills
into a Home Mortgage Loan with low interest. Plus, he could sell his Mobile Home and
take the equity (if there was any).

Well, that was a good plan and it would

have worked for him and he would have
only had to borrow such a small amount to
actually finish his home. It would have
been because of the monthly equity he was
putting into the house itself. It made a lot
more sense than throwing it away on
something that would be worthless by the
time its mortgage was paid off like his
shiny truck. But, I didn’t consider the
human factors of pride and reputation in
my calculations and estimates. He shot my idea down with no hesitation at all. I asked
him, “Would you sacrifice the next two years of pride if you knew that you could live
comfortably for the rest of your life?” He said, “I’ll find another way so I can always
have my nice trucks and a place to live.”

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 I remembered thinking, “This guy, like so many others, doesn’t get it.” I left it at that and
never talked to him about it again. But, you know, it’s been over five years since that
conversation took place. He still drives the same truck, and lives in the same singlewide.
Both have lost their luster, both have been refinanced, and neither are worth what they
still owe against them and the struggle goes on.

I don’t think that’s funny, it’s sad because his story is the same one I see everywhere.

I don’t want anyone to suppose that building your own house is

going to solve all your problems. It won’t, I mean, it hasn’t
solved all my problems. But, it sure has given me more positive
options to help face an unfair world. It sure seems as if this
world wants to stomp on our hopes and dash our dreams before
we even have a chance to get them started. One of the biggest
obstacles to overcome after you decide that you’re going to
build your own house is people telling you not to do it. When
you see all the hoops that the inspectors make you jump through,
you just might bag the whole idea. It’s that discouraging. But if
you can see the big picture, you won’t have any trouble sticking
with the plan.

Inspectors will tell you all sorts of discouraging things because they are used to doing
inspections for contractors. Contractors know what the inspectors are looking for. They
might tell you that you have to complete your project in a specified amount of time, but
the truth is you can keep filing for extensions. Inspectors have both the contractor and the
owner right where they want them, because inspectors can halt the funding if the home is
being financed, and I have heard that they can even stop the building progress of a home
that’s paid for, although I have never actually seen that happen. All these things can be
overwhelming to a first-time homebuilder. Just remember that inspectors care that the job
is done right and they will help you get it right. I’ve never met a mean inspector yet.

Not only are inspectors discouraging, but also friends

and family might try to talk you out of it because it
goes against the norm. A hundred years ago, the norm
was to build your own house. Only the rich could
afford a carpenter-built home.

With the discovery of electricity, homes have changed

and so hundreds of rules have been put in place to
protect us from ourselves. We are ignorant of these
rules and that’s why building a house all by ourselves
goes against the norms of society.

Typically, those individuals that go against the norms of society are either extreme
oddballs or modern day heroes. What we become is up to us.

16
 Just remember that whatever you have to do, no matter how difficult or discouraging, it’s
totally worth it and a hundred times over.

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 TWO

Do we really save that much by building

our own homes?
About two years before I first started any work on my house, I was talking to one of my
friends. This guy is the kind of person everybody wants to be around. He constantly has
an upbeat attitude and a sense of humor that never quits. He has amazing energy levels
and is always working on projects after work. I don’t think he ever rests. Anyway, he is a
good carpenter because he built his own house and liked it so much that he took carpentry
up on the side while working a full-time job with benefits.

We both worked at the same place and when our plant was
permanently shut down because of The North American Free
Trade Agreement, he never even skipped a step in his
financial stride. In fact, he did better as a contractor building
houses than he did working for a Fortune 500 company with
many benefits. He is in a great financial position and has been for
a long time. He built his house about 25 years ago and paid cash
for most of it. He didn’t have a Home Mortgage payment so he
was able to live on what he earned while still being able to tuck a
lot away into investments. Before I found out his secret, I had
wondered how he could have such a nice home and lots of fun
toys. His wife didn’t work and he made less at work than I did.
Man, I struggled on what I earned, why didn’t he?

18
 I asked him how he did it and he told me with as
much enthusiasm as I’ve ever seen anyone muster. He
told me his secret. Then he told me something that
seemed so unrealistic, it took a lot of thinking to
believe it or even understand it. The part about him
building his own house was nothing special. He was a
carpenter, that’s what they do. No problem. But then
he said, “Here’s something you need to think about to
fully understand. Every hour I spent working on my
house was worth between $200 and $300 an hour to
me.”

I couldn’t understand it completely and didn’t fully understand it until after my house
was finished. Here’s the deal: My house cost me $60,000 to build by doing all my own
work. Let’s say I had to borrow every penny of it from credit cards or relatives or
whatever. My new house appraised for $140,000. To finance both amounts at ten percent
interest over thirty years, you will pay for your house roughly three times. So, the house
that I put so much of my sweat and blood into will have cost me $180,000 after 30 years.

To have the exact same house built by a contractor, you will have
paid around $420,000 at the end of 30 years. The difference between
$420,000 and $180,000 is $240,000. That’s the cost of having
someone else build your house. Anyway, divide that by the amount
of hours it takes to build the house, which is about 1200 hours in
total. $240,000 divided by 1200 equals $200 an hour. Check out the
graph:

Your Frame Home

(2100 sq. ft)
Built by You Built by Contractor
Cost of
materials $60,000 $60,000
Cost of
Labor $0.00 $80,000
Total
cost $60,000 $140,000

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 Financed over 30 yrs at 10% interest

Built by You Built by

Contractor
Amount $60,000 $140,000
Financed
Total Interest
Paid
$120,000 $280,000
Total Paid for
your home
$180,000 $420,000

These figures are real because most people will pay longer than thirty years on a home
mortgage making the total interest paid even higher. Now, you are probably thinking,
“ten percent interest, wow, that’s way too high!” Ten percent is a good even number and
easy to calculate. It’s also a percentage people would have loved to lock in at during the
70’s and the 80’s when variable went higher than twenty percent for home mortgage
owners with good credit and good jobs. Many savings and loans became homeowners
and landlords during those two decades. Some became ghosts.

Now, we see how much we can save by doing our own work, but
let’s see what that means as far as a monthly mortgage payment is
concerned. Let’s also compare the two monthly mortgage
payments just to see what I’m talking about.

Monthly Mortgage Payment

Built by You Built by Contractor

$475.00 $1100.00
That interest factor is very interesting. But let’s go a step further and have some fun with
it. This is a real example and it has worked extremely well for a few people I know. Let’s
suppose that I have two neighbors. Each has the same house plans to the exact nail.
One has a low self esteem, but a pretty good job, so he decides to have a contractor build
his house. The other neighbor really believes in himself, unfortunately, he is the only one
who does, so he doesn’t have such a good job, but he decides to do all the work himself.

20
 Owner built Contractor built
After both houses are finished and financed, the neighbor with more money than self
esteem has a monthly payment of $1100.00, ouch!!!

The other neighbor that has more self-esteem than money has a monthly payment of
$475.00, not bad.

Suppose that the neighbor with the lower payment decided to pay as much per month as
his neighbor was paying. Both were paying $1100.00 a month until the loan was paid off.
By making extra payments, the principal is beat down so that the loan has less interest
being charged.

Both pay $1100.00 a month

Built by You Built by
Contractor
Payment
Amount
$1100.00 $1100.00
Years
to Pay
9 30
Years Years

It would be nice to have a home paid off in less than nine years. Many people escalate the
payoff date by paying extra each month. Anything extra goes toward principle and beats
down the amount incurring interest. That’s the skinny on that plan.

21
Some people might be wondering what the deal with contractors is.
Why do they charge so much in labor? Are they crooks? I suppose
some probably are crooks, but most are good people with a high
amount of overhead. Many have crews working for them and the
crews need steady paychecks. Some even offer benefits to their
workers. It’s a competitive occupation and contractors need to
remain competitive so they can get contracts. Some, on occasion,
will make mistakes and underbid a job. Then they have to eat it.
Contractors and their crews can do in a few weeks what takes one
person over a year. The total project hours work out about the same
except for the learning curve. First-time homebuilders will naturally
take more time to do the same job. The idea is to minimize waste
and mistakes as much as possible.

Now, after giving contractors the benefit of the doubt

concerning overcharging, I will say one other thing of
significant importance. Many contractors and sub-contractors
are members of unions. That’s why an electrician can show
up at a building site with a few hundred dollars worth of
materials; work for a day, then charge the owner a few
thousand dollars for work done. It’s the same with plumbers,
carpenters, cement workers and many others. Unions
typically strive to maintain a high quality work standard
among its members, but every member can’t be watched over
every second of the day. If you hire a union member to do the
job, you’re not necessarily guaranteed top quality work; you are however, guaranteed to
be charged for top quality work. Someone has to pay those union dues and keep the
lobbyists busy creating ways to benefit those that pay them the most money.

22
 THREE

Mortgage interest is nothing but nasty

This chapter is where I climb up on my soapbox and declare to the world
my quest for justice in an unfair world. The world is unfair in many ways
and all too often the humble are trodden down by the rich and greedy in the
unending pursuit of worldly gain. Let me first say that I know some
moderately wealthy individuals who would give all to help the poor. They
do give all they have and they are blessed with more wealth so they can
continue their good deeds. This isn’t about them. This is about the rich
who turn a deaf ear to the cries of the poor. The greedy that know of the
suffering of the very people they squeeze money from and only tighten
their grip to take more. The owners of shamefully lucrative businesses that
oppress hirelings in their wages to maintain control and satisfy their own
bloated egos.

I’ve seen poverty in one of its worst forms. I spent two years
of my life in a third world country where I saw that which
was unimaginable to me. Communities living in boxes along
muddy ditches where drinking water and wastewater was the
same. High death rates were common among all who dwelled
there, but more so in small children under the age of six
years. People would go for days without anything to eat. I
was nineteen years old at the time. I grew up real fast and
since then have never taken our abundance in this great
country for granted. That’s been over twenty years, but the
hopeless faces and the sounds of lamentation will forever be
etched deeply in my memory.

23
 Before I returned home from Central America, I looked
into the situation as to why our prosperous country wasn’t
giving aid to the suffering.
While talking with diplomats who knew the whole story,
yet were powerless as far as being able to influence their
government’s leaders, I discovered the truth. The thing
that was happening there was common throughout the
world. Our country was sending millions of dollars for
Humanitarian Aid as well as food, clothing and medicine.
It is extremely difficult to bypass corrupt government
officials so that the aid can go to the needy. The money is
taken, medicine, food, and clothes are sold or disposed of.
The greedy get richer and the poor are told that other countries refuse to offer help. This
propaganda is spread among the poor and the suffering by the very people that cause it.
In turn, the poor end up hating the people who are actually trying to help.

I can’t even remotely fathom this kind of selfishness. I have seen it time and time again
and it sickens me now as much as the first day I found out about it. The people that inflict
such suffering have their reward in this life, but someday they’ll have to explain their
actions to a higher judge. That still doesn’t offer much comfort to those of us who are
haunted by past images.

Ok, so you’re probably wondering what this has to do with mortgage

interest. Here’s the deal. Many contributors to our Savings and Loan
Banks are foreign investors. Many are domestic investors. Some of
the money comes from drugs, confiscated foreign aid, weapons, and
fraud, but a lot also comes from wealthy investors who have made
themselves rich by usury or other practices that are legal, yet morally
wrong. Basically, they have found a way to keep money out of the
hands of the poor and needy and into their own to better support
themselves in their extravagance.

As long as there are people hungry and suffering in the world, I see
any excess wealth as extravagant.

The money we borrow for just about everything we need

comes mostly from those individuals who would edify
themselves at the expense of others. If you have millions
to lend, you have millions to give to the poor.

In a nutshell, the low and middle-income earners work

very hard to pay back mortgage interest that goes back
into the pockets of the rich so they can smoke fatter
cigars, drive bigger cars, drink older champagne, and hire
more minimum wage help to treat badly.

24
If you haven’t noticed by now, I have a strong dislike for greed and selfishness. The
world would be free of strife if people didn’t nurture those negative character traits. I
really dislike the thought that most of my hard earned money goes back to people that
possess those tendencies. The very basis of this book is how to do one thing right in our
lives that will help us keep more of our hard earned money so we can be in a good
position to first help ourselves, then our families, and finally our communities.

If we could minimize our home mortgage

payment we would have money to do other things.
Instead, so many people spend an average of
about one third of their income on a house
payment. If you’re typical, you’ll work about
forty-five years of your life. That means that
fifteen years alone of hard work will go to nothing
but your house payment. It’s a shame that about
ten of those fifteen work years will needlessly go
to the kind of people that think it’s funny that
others work so hard for them. That’s where our
home mortgage interest money goes.

One might be prone to think that the rich are at least the ones
that pay all the taxes that keep our country going, so they can’t
be all that bad. The truth is the wealthy usually have ways of
showing losses so that profits are minimized on paper. High
paid accountants keep the rich from paying a lot of taxes.
Lawyers defend and advise them when they cross the line from
immoral to illegal. The middle class and some of the lower
class wage earners pay the taxes that keep our great country
going, not the rich.

25
 FOUR
What is so special about equity?

Equity is the determining factor in loans. It is the difference that makes a house your best
financial tool instead of your worst financial burden. By building your own house, it will
have over 50% of your equity in it. That’s a point that takes most homeowners around 20
years to reach.

That is why doing all the work yourself boosts you ahead of the other homeowners that
hired a contractor or contractors. It puts you ahead by many years because one problem
we have is to get through the “difficult years”. Usually, in our first years of starting a
family, getting a house, and finding a career, we have a lot of difficulty making our
paychecks stretch to meet all the demands. There never seems to
be enough money.

That’s a common struggle in the lower and middle class families.

Usually, by the time people have been working for about 20
years, things are going better. Their wages have increased,
medical bills have been beaten down, and they can refinance
their homes or take out a second mortgage for business ventures
or to create a smaller mortgage payment. Equity in their property
makes it easier for them to move around financially so they’re
not so restricted by high payments.

One other thing, equity really is power. It helps out a lot more than you think. Here is my
personal example of how equity helped my wife and I obtain our house. This is my own
example and it might give some ideas to help your project get started. I should caution
that I took a few chances by over extending myself by using credit cards to build my
house. I thought I had a secure job to make the payments, but nothing is secure anymore I
believe. My gamble worked out in the end, but it was really stressful!

26
 Here’s our story:
In 1992, my wife and I decided that we were going to build our house by ourselves. We
made the plans and restructured our budget to allow money for building materials. We
were able to free up a few hundred dollars each month. I did all the necessary homework
to find out just how to build a house. It was confusing and at times very discouraging. At
one point, we even went to look at Mobile Homes. But, we stuck to our plan in the end.

We started building in the fall of 1993. Things looked great at

work and I even got a big promotion that meant we could
pocket almost $1,000 a month for our house. I started the
foundation, built the floors, the walls and the roof. I did some
of my electrical systems and some plumbing. Life was good!
We were almost giddy every time we went to the house to do
work. My wife stayed home most of the time to take care of our
two young children while I was playing Mr. Carpenter. I even
felt like a real carpenter. By the spring of 1994, I had it pretty
much enclosed. It looked good. It seemed that we would be in
our house in less than a year.

I should have known something bad was on the way because we

were actually starting our house and paying cash for everything. I
kept thinking to myself, “We are having success and that has
never happened to us before”. Sure enough, The North American
Free Trade Agreement was passed. I never saw that one coming
although I should have. The U.S. lifted tariffs on foreign
products, and Canada flooded our markets with inexpensive
forest products. That made the big company where I was
working suddenly become uncompetitive and so several plants,
not just ours, were shut down. In only just a few months the
company stocks that I had planned to fall back on in difficult
times dropped to about one-fifth the value because of an
accounting scandal. Life can turn on you in a hurry. So, I had no
job and very little money left to support us. I cashed in what
stocks I had, bought metal for the roof, and had a well drilled.
Then we sealed up the door and window openings with plastic and waited to see what
was going to happen.

I did odd jobs trying to make a buck to support us. In 1995, I received a letter from the
company where I had worked. It said that I could receive funding to go back to school.
This is available to all workers displaced by NAFTA. I could only get funding and
unemployment for a year and a half, so I went to a Vo-Tech and learned about computers
and electronics. Anyway, I decided to take a chance at that point, because our house had
been sitting there for many months. We had a lot of credit cards that had available credit
on them. So we worked on the house while I was going to school. In the fall of 1996, I
decided to try to get a loan to completely finish the house. It looked finished from the
outside, but the inside needed a lot more work.

27
 I had all the electrical and plumbing pretty much finished. The walls had sheetrock. I had
put about $28,000 into materials so far. I estimated that we would need around $28,000
more to completely finish it.

Being that I was unemployed, no banks would lend us the money,

and they were even snotty about it. I could see the same look on
the faces every place I went to ask for a loan. It was like they
were saying “You unemployed, low-life, piece of filth, take a
hike and make way for those that have money.”

I stumbled onto a loan broker in my travels that said he could

help us find a loan providing my story was true about having a
house that was almost finished. Well, my story panned out and he
had us a construction loan. His attitude was great, before he
found us a loan he said, “It’s not a matter of “if” we get the loan,
it’s a matter of “when” we get the loan because there is always
somebody that will borrow you the money, we just have to find
the best interest.” He had to find us two different loans, first, a construction loan, and
then a Home Mortgage Loan to consolidate all of our bills as well as the construction
loan itself upon completion.

Our house appraised for $71,000 in its unfinished state. I was so surprised that my labor
was worth so much. I spent $28,000 and it was worth $71,000, not bad.

He found a construction loan that was offered from a private lender. I

kind of felt like it was one of those shady deals at first, but it was
actually a wealthy, elderly woman that had her sons managing her
estate. The loan was for $28,000 at sixteen percent interest for six
months. It sounded like high interest, but quite often construction loans
are like that because they are always short term. The loan went through
smoothly. The house was its own collateral. It took us only two months
to finish. The total amount of interest paid on the construction loan was
about $1300. It was a small price to pay for a loan of that type.

The broker had to use some clever tricks to get us the

mortgage loan though. We got a nonconforming loan because I
was unemployed. It was nine percent for two years and then
would go variable at which time I would be working and we
could lock in at a lower, fixed rate. Still, we had to show some
income. I couldn’t show unemployment as income, besides
lenders don’t think it’s very funny when people apply for a
loan with no way to pay it back. We got a loan on “stated”
income that determines ones income by how much money goes
through a checking or savings account for a certain time
period.

28
My wife had been doing kitchen shows for several months. She
would take orders and the money for those orders, then deposit the
money and write out a check to the kitchen products company
when she placed the order. She only got commissions on twenty
percent of everything she sold, but our checking account had
several thousands of dollars going through it each month. It had
the appearance of a good income. This type of loan is usually used
for businesses that have unusual forms of income and profits. We
consolidated the bills we had accumulated by building the house.
The credit cards were paid and the nasty phone calls from creditors
suddenly stopped.

We finished our house in the spring of 1997. The loan broker told us that the only reason
we was able to get a loan was because the equity in our home was so high. I had no job,
but I did have something of value, my house.

I knew a man that started building houses just for fun. He

was a teacher, but in his spare time, he was a house
builder. He would move into a house after he had finished
it then start another house. He would live in the house for
two years, then sell it and move on to build another house.
He did this several times, each time cashing in big on the
equity for his labor. He is now well off and will never
need to work again. There are many people that do this
and its big business to them. The one stipulation is if you
are not a contractor and you don’t have journeymen’s
licenses in plumbing, electrical, and other systems, you
have to live in the house for a specified amount of time
that varies from state to state before reselling.

29
 FIVE

Ways to free up money

It’s no secret that building a house costs a lot of money. Many people that have a home
built for them get a second job to raise enough money to pay the down payment. The
problem with that is the thing that’s all too familiar to us. We raise our spending levels so
we have to keep that second job just to get by. After awhile, the quality of life hits an all
time low. I mean, who wants to spend all their time working?

The idea here is to free up income so you don’t have to get that night job. Besides, if you
want to have time to work on your house, you need at least two hours a day for two years
or four hours a day for one year or eight hours a day for six months, you get the idea.

My wife and I had to make some sacrifices during our house

building years. At first, it was really hard, but once we could see our
house coming together, the goal to finish it became an all-consuming
desire. If the goal can be visualized, it becomes easier to obtain. So
after putting all the plans together, imagine walking through the
halls, the beautiful kitchen, and the comfy bathroom with a big,
jetted bath, the feel of carpet under your toes, the master bedroom,
and a family room that has all the extras. If you can imagine it in
your mind with excitement, your subconscious will have influence
over your appetite to waste money and you will reach your goal.

Our first step to save money was to stop paying rent. My

wife, one-year old son, and I, moved into my parents
basement and instead of paying rent, we paid their utility bill.
To most people, this is too big a sacrifice to make and so it’s
not really an option. I have great parents and we have always
gotten along good. It was my Dads idea as a way to help us
save money. Besides, it was fairly close to our land where we
were going to put our house. It’s quite embarrassing though,
when someone would ask where we lived, I’d just tell people,
“We live close to my parents.”

30
Our next plan of action to save money was in the area of food.
We decided to stop buying ready-made meals and started to cook
from scratch. My wife and I are good cooks and we know how to
budget well. We made things that were inexpensive to prepare
and I started taking sack lunches to work. Soda pop was
minimized and you wouldn’t believe how much that saved us
right there. We didn’t go out to restaurants the whole time. Pizza
and everything else that can be picked up and taken home got the
ax. We ate a lot of pasta, potatoes, tuna, ground beef, eggs, rice,
lentils, chicken, vegetables and fruits from our garden, and many
kinds of homemade soups. Bread and tortillas were easy to
make. We actually ate healthier meals while saving money at the
same time. Many people don’t know how to cook, but with a few
staple items, anybody can prepare inexpensive meals.

I never had any idea how much was spent on food every
month. We were able to save more than $500 a month
by not dining out, or by not buying ready-made meals,
and by packing my lunch to work. We wouldn’t go to
the convenience stores every moment either. One thing
we discovered was that we would spend more a month
running to the convenience stores to buy a pop and a
candy bar, than our entire grocery bill would cost. $500
a month buys a lot of building materials.

The next area to make cutbacks was fun and

entertainment. We didn’t go to movies or even rent movies. We found that working on
our house, as a family, was a total blast so it was good entertainment. We didn’t go on
vacations of any form. We didn’t buy new clothes. No new music cassettes. Christmas
was not too extravagant, but adequate. We did the same with birthdays.

There were a few other areas like changing life insurance so we had
only term insurance. That saved a lot. I thought I needed a pickup,
but we got by without one and its monthly payment just fine. We
burned firewood in the fireplace and turned the electric heat down
low. We lowered the coverage on our car and took glass coverage
completely off.

There are a lot of ways to lower monthly expenses. We have always

been taught to live within our means, but few of us actually do that because of easy
credit. The whole time we were building our home, we lived below our means and we
were happy with the results.

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 SIX

Reasons people have for not building

their own house
These reasons are very real and I have heard them all several times. Building a house is
definitely not for everybody though. There are a few good reasons not to do the work. If
you have a good reason not to build it yourself, I respect that. If everyone built their own
homes, contractors and subcontractors would be flipping burgers. I like contractors and I
have a lot of respect for them. They put up with a lot of garbage from clients, inspectors,
and quite often their own employees. Whenever I drive past some hard working
carpenters in the dead of winter all bundled up, or in the heat of summer sweating like a
horse, I realize that they’re tougher than I am.

But the biggest reason people opt to not do their own work is ignorance.
They don’t know that they are allowed to do it first of all, and secondly,
the very idea of attempting to do the complex and demanding work
doesn’t seem realistic to them. And finally, they have no idea how much
money they can save and how great life is with a much smaller home
mortgage payment.

Let’s bring a few other beliefs into the light of scrutiny here. These are
some reasons I have picked up on over the last few years:

32
 I don’t know how to build a house, that’s a professional’s job.

 I don’t have the money to build, and nobody will borrow me money for a
construction loan if I’m not a contractor.

 I think a person has to be a licensed contractor or journeyman to build his or

her own house.

 I don’t have any tools and it must be expensive to buy everything needed to
do the job.

 I’ll just rent it’s cheaper.

 My workmanship is so lousy, my house would probably fall down, even if it

didn’t fall down, it would look like a dump.

 I don’t have a pickup truck to haul all the materials.

 I don’t know anything about plumbing or electricity, I don’t want to sleep in

a house where I did the work, it might be a deathtrap.

 I don’t want the stress of doing all the work.

 I can buy a Mobile Home for about half the price it takes to build my own
house, I can have it right now and I don’t have to work for it.

 If building your own house is so great, why aren’t more people doing it?

 Dealing with inspectors is too much of a pain; I hate it when other people tell
me what I can or can’t do.

 You have to be smart to build a house.

 I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do all the lifting

 I don’t have anyone to help me.

33
Some of these are good reasons and some are pretty lame. At any rate, it’s a good way to
clear up some misconceptions about doing all the work. Let’s talk about each reason.

 I don’t know how to build a house, that’s a professional’s job.

That’s the most common reason I hear for a person not to do the work,
but not knowing how to do something is a poor reason for not doing it. If
it were a good reason, none of us would be able to walk, talk, drive a car,
or program a VCR. (I still have a hard time with the VCR thing) Building
a house is like everything else we learn. We have to take it one step at a
time. It’s good to have an image of the completed project in the back of
your mind, but if you look at everything all at once, you’ll get very
overwhelmed because it is a huge undertaking. When I got started, I knew
what every step of the project would entail because I had a good plan, but
at each phase of the project, I tried to only focus on the task at hand. It
helped to keep my overall perspective in balance.

First, I bought a book on how to do foundations and

cement work. I also asked people for advice. When that
step was completed, I bought books on framing and
called more friends for advice. Every step of the way, I
gave full effort to do the job right because it was costing
me a lot and I hate to waste money. There were many
times when I was caught with a hammer in one hand and
a book in the other as people drove by. Many times
though, I would be in a stupor while contemplating my
next step. There was a lot of head scratching going on
during my whole project. I think that friends and
neighbors doubted my abilities at the time. Hey, so did I.
But, all worked out very well in the end and now people
around here know that I finished my long project. If they
remember nothing else about me besides that, I’m happy.

 I don’t have the money to build, and nobody will

borrow me money for a construction loan if I’m not a
contractor.

The money part is usually the biggest hang up. I can only tell you
that there are many different ways to get the money. Times are
different than they used to be.

34
 There are now many financial institutions that make construction loans to
owner/builders. The high equity from the owner’s labor is very
attractive to lenders. Anymore, they are not as concerned about
unskilled contractors because of strict building codes that all
builders have to follow. They are very concerned however, that
the collateral has enough value. “Sweat equity”, is the term used
in this case. To a lender it means that every bit of work done on
the house is security. To the owner, it means value appreciation
without having to pay cash for it. Sweat equity is the dollar
amount that your time and labor is worth. Bankers drool at the
sound of it!

I decided to buy as many materials as possible without a

starting loan. I used credit cards and whatever cash I
could spare to get our project to the point of
borrowability (that’s my own made up word by the way).
I had my home finished to the point where I was starting
to tape and texture the walls. It was at the point of
borrowability way before that, but I wanted to be sure it
had enough value to satisfy the appraisers. The value of
the land is important, as well as the site improvements
like a well and septic system if you live in the country. If you live in
the city, the value of the property and the house value is what
determine borrowability. Finishing the home within the loan time
period is not a problem because if you determine how far along the
house is by a dollar amount, you will have your home almost
finished work wise, but financially, you’ll only be about half done.
The final fixtures and finish work is where the high expense comes
from. Cabinets, carpets, heating, lights, appliances, bathrooms, and a
bunch of other things will need to be done at the end. Those things
are all easy to install but they’re spendy. Fortunately, to start
construction on a home is quite cheap compared to finishing it.

 I think a person has to be a licensed contractor or

journeyman to build his or her own house.

That’s not true in most cases. There are a few cities and counties
that prohibit a non-licensed person from doing any type of
construction or systems. There are also ordinances of conformity
that state that every house has to have a certain type roof, special
siding, two-car garage, etc. But, cases like that are rare and
usually the neighborhoods are in the upper class. I wouldn’t want
to live there anyway. I wouldn’t like it if I was told what kind of
house I could build.

35
 If you choose to live in a “Homeowners Association” like that, you
are giving up many rights as a homeowner however; by living in
places like that, you probably won’t have the problem of someone
raising pigs or putting in a car salvage yard next door either.

The truth is that in most areas, the owner of a home can do whatever
he or she wants just as long as it
meets code. Before you start your
project, you should be familiar with the building codes in
your area, and you need to have a building permit. You
will need to show the Building Inspector your plans. He
can then help you make adjustments if necessary. When
your site is approved, you will get your permit to hang on
a wall when you put it up. You will also need to get
permits from the Health Inspector, Electrical Inspector,
and a Plumbing Inspector. They can be a wealth of
knowledge and they will gladly help you with compliance
issues because it’s their job.

The inspectors just want to be sure that your home is safe and that no mishaps
will happen later because it’s their name on the permit meaning they are
responsible. If you look at it that way from their point of view, you’ll be a lot
more cooperative. I don’t blame them for making sure everything is perfect. I
would too if my name was on the permit. They can still be a big pain though.
I’ve never met a mean inspector; they all seem very nice and extremely
helpful. I’ll cover the permit scene later.

 I don’t have any tools and it must be expensive to buy everything

needed to do the job.

You will need many different kinds of tools, but

they aren’t that expensive and you don’t need to get
them all at once. There are however some very
important tools that you will use in almost every
phase of construction. Your total price for tools
shouldn’t be much over $1,000. You’ll want to be
sure that the tools you use a lot be of good quality.
Among these are: tape measure, drill, circular saw,
hammer, square, level, and a tool belt. The other
tools you can get as you need them and you don’t
have to go for quality every time.

36
 You can also rent almost every more expensive tool
there is. Renting is a better way to go if you’ll just be
using the tool for a short time. I spent way too much on
tools. I bought a Radial arm saw for $400, an air
compressor for $300 and several other things that I
used for a little while, but then was just tools in my
way that cluttered the floors. So you really don’t need
to go out and get that much stuff. It’s always good
though, to have tools after your house is built because
once you get started building, you seem to get building
fever.

A person told me once that by the time you buy all the tools to build your own house
you’ll have shelled out enough money to hire a carpenter to do the work for you. I’m so
glad I didn’t believe that person.

 I’ll just rent it’s cheaper.

Renting is great as long as you’re the landlord and not the tenant. I
know very well that when a person is trying to get started after
leaving the nest, it’s almost impossible to build instead of rent.
That’s just fine. I think most of us have been there. You cut the
apron strings and you’re free to do what you want. You have
aspirations of what you’re going to become and visions of a great
life full of abundance occupy your mind. Renting is fine at this
point. There does come a time however; when renting is just
throwing your money away. While it’s true that renters don’t pay
property taxes, they do miss out on some good tax breaks and they
aren’t accumulating any equity in valuable property. If a person
rents, that person is accumulating equity for the owner of the
property or helping him to line his pockets.

Homeowners know that mortgage interest gives a

substantial break come tax time. While we’re on
that note, I’m reminded of something said to me
during one of my many conversations about doing
all my own carpentry work. This person has a
smaller home than I do, but his payments are
much higher because he bought a ready-made
home in a subdivision. He said, “I think it’s
stupid to build your own house because if your
payments are low, then you don’t get as good a
tax write-off.” This guy was serious.

37
You know, it’s not good to judge people, we do however; have to attempt
to assess everyone’s level of understanding that we talk with. That’s part
of communication. When I run across a person that says something so
absurd, I automatically knock about twenty-five points or more off what I
suppose his I.Q. must be.

Now, we’ve established the fact that paying mortgage interest is evil, but
most of us have to do it. Renting, in my opinion is worse because a renter
throws all his money away, a homeowner only throws the mortgage
interest away. Unfortunately, we know that the hard-earned money that is
paid in mortgage interest goes mostly to those who need it the least.

 My workmanship is so lousy, my house would probably fall down, even if it

didn’t fall down, it would look like a dump.

Well, I thought the same thing because

everything I had built up to that point did look
like a dump. I was raised in the country on a
farm. When something broke down, we could
usually fix it with bailing twine or duct tape.
My childhood was a wonderful time. I spent a
lot of my younger years building tree houses
and forts out of what wood and nails we could
scrounge. All my work looked bad, even for a
child my projects came out looking shoddy at
best. I won the ugly car contest at a scouting
pinewood derby when I was young. I even
tried my best to make a good car. It didn’t
even go down the track because the wheels
were so crooked. That’s tough on an eight year
old. I know I’ve got some deep emotional
scars somewhere from that night.

38
 But the work was always my own. I have always been independent. My work is my
character signature. It represents who I am. It tells my story. The design of my house
describes my personality. I always say, “Function over form”, which is a fancy way of
saying, “My projects might look bad, but they work just fine.” Check out the photo.

My first building project was this rustic log cabin where my brother and I cut down the trees for logs
and drug them to the site with a pickup. We notched them with a chainsaw and an ax, then nailed
them together with ring-shank spikes. Total cost was about $1100. It was a fun place for a couple of
Mountain Men. Not much to look at though.

The real beauty of building a house even though you’re an amateur is that you
start with the rough work. Rough work can be rough looking. A first time
homebuilder can get away with some imperfections. You’ll find out that it only
takes a short time to get your confidence, and some experience. The rough work
all gets covered up by finish work. By the time you get to the finish work, you’ll
have a lot of experience and your work will look good. Mine did.

Another thing is that right from the get-go; most homebuilders do their best
quality work because it’s a home. It’s going to be around for a long time so it
needs to be done right. Not only that, but when you’re spending so
much money on something, you want it to look the best it can. You
should keep in mind that you’re trying to make something
valuable, something attractive not only to friends and neighbors,
but also to appraisers and future prospective buyers.

I really surprised myself (and probably everyone else,) when I was

finished with the vinyl siding, how beautiful my house looked.
With all the wonderful sidings and trimmings to finish a home
with, your ugly duckling house will emerge a beautiful swan
almost overnight.

39
  I don’t have a pickup truck to haul all the materials.

Hey, I didn’t own a pickup truck the whole time I was

working on my house. I wanted one, but there just
wasn’t enough money for one. My brothers owned
pickups, but I hardly ever borrowed them because the
stores that sell building materials will deliver to your
site.

I live 16 miles from the store where I bought most of my products. They would usually
charge me $15 per delivery. That was a great deal because it usually cost that much for
gas to drive and pick up materials. Not only that, but you also don’t have to load and
unload all the stuff. The only problem is that you can’t hand select the materials and
some stores will try to pawn off all the leftovers that others have picked through. I was
very pleased the whole time with one particular store
and I bought almost my entire house there. They even
gave me a contractor’s discount of 15%. I didn’t even
ask for it. They just wanted me as a customer. The
prices were a lot lower at that store than the other. At
the other store, they treated me really crappy and I am a
nice person so I’m sure it wasn’t my fault. I never
darkened their doorway after that.

With a little planning, you can do the same thing I did and it will work out fine. Having a
pickup is a definite advantage, but quite often a pickup won’t even hold all the materials
you’re buying, so you’ll have to have them delivered anyway.

 I don’t know anything about plumbing or electricity, I don’t want to sleep in

a house where I did the work, it might be a deathtrap.

The fear of those things can be very real, yet I sleep

well at night because of two things: Inspectors and
local codes. Don’t get me wrong; they are a real pain,
that’s for certain. Especially when you need them to
approve some of your work so you can move on and
they end up giving you a list of corrections to do. It’s
depressing and very frustrating, so you thank them for
stopping by and watch them drive out of sight. Then
you give them all the sign language you know, throw
your fit, and then start working on the corrections they
gave you.

40
I know that my house is as safe as any house around because the
inspectors don’t let you slide. Some codes, in my opinion, are overkill,
but with most others, it’s obvious why it came to be a code requirement.
I know that I have done everything right because the inspectors took the
time to explain it all to me. They could tell my work was that of a first
time homebuilder. They were nice while telling me my work was
substandard.

The first electrical inspector that came was a jovial chap. He looked at
my work and just laughed. He almost hurt my feelings. It wasn’t my fault; I bought a
book about house wiring that was slightly out of date. It wasn’t even close. That cost me
a lot of time and money I didn’t have.

When we moved into our home, I was completely

confident that it was safe. I know the wiring is not
going to melt or cause a fire. I know we won’t be
poisoned by methane gas or drowned by bad
plumbing. I know my house won’t fall down.
Meeting code is not difficult if you know everything
you need to know before you start putting things
together. I don’t remember the exact details of each
inspection. All I know is it was a hassle, but I’d do
it all again to be able to feel safe like I do.

 I don’t want the stress of doing all the work.

Certain parts of the building process are somewhat stressful. I

understand how stress can be debilitating if not deadly. We all handle
stress in a different way. I was unemployed most of the time while
building my house. I was going to school to get vocational retraining
so that was my work. Living on unemployment and trying to pay my
bills was difficult. Also watching my half-finished house rotting away
because I couldn’t afford windows or doors was really stressful. The
rain and snow was warping my floors and I couldn’t do much about it.

It seems that the only stable thing in life anymore is instability. Constant instability is
something we can count on. That’s all the more reason why we need to create more
equity in our property. If you lose your job and you have no equity in your house, you’re
going to have a rocky time. If you lose your job and you have a lot of equity, you’ll have
a few more options like selling the house and using the equity to move and buy another
home where work is available. Or take out a second mortgage to live on and pay bills
while you look for work. Some might say that you can’t get a loan if you’re unemployed,
but if your property has high equity, you can get a loan somewhere and it will help you
survive through rough times.

41
 The codes and permits will be the most stressful of
all. Actually working on the house is very therapeutic.
Many, many times, I couldn’t wait to get over to my
house and start working so I could make the world go
away. The best emotional strength builder you’ll have
is creating something beautiful by hard work. Your
home will remain a symbol of your good character
traits for years. You’ll know it and others will know it
too.

 I can buy a Mobile Home for about half the price it takes to build my own
house, I can have it right now and I don’t have to work for it.

This seems to be the popular sentiment, given the amount of Mobile Homes everywhere.
I know a few Mobile Home dealership owners that brag on the quality of their factory-
made homes, but I don’t know even one of them that actually live in the kind of homes
they are so proud to sell to the public. They pull down big bucks so they can afford to live
in better homes.

Here’s one thing to remember: There’s nothing natural about

building a house and then moving it. By the time it arrives at its
destination, it has probably had structural frame twists and many of
the joints are no longer tight. That becomes evident a few years later
if not immediately. I have worked a lot on Campers, RV’s, Horse
Trailers, and Mobile Homes, and even the fancier Mobile Homes are
just a big Camper Trailer. They are built light so they can be
transported easily and built cheap so the dealers can make a buck.

They don’t age well so after making payments for 30 years, you have a not-so-mobile
home that needs a lot of work. Not only that, if you build your own home, you‘ll spend
much less than you would have spent and you’ll have made a great investment. Frame
homes that were built 30 years ago have appreciated by at least 300 percent and others
over 1000 percent. Not too bad! Mobile homes don’t have that kind of track record.

My wife and I were at one time considering a

Mobile Home. They are fairly easy to buy and
even people with low incomes can get one. I
suppose many people have no other choice but
to live in a Mobile Home. When we were
looking at Mobile Homes, we went to a lot of
places and the story was always the same.

42
 The homes had a fairly modest price, but
after all the hidden costs; the monthly
payment was a whole bunch more than the
advertised price. We have talked to a lot of
people and they always say the same thing.
They felt like they had been overcharged in
the end, especially after seeing the low
quality. The monthly payment was almost as
high as a normal house. Many really felt
cheated. The price was always higher than
they were told, and the quality was always
less than they were told.

One more point here is that Mobile homes are

equity thieves. That’s right; they are like cars
in that respect, only worse. We have all heard that to drive a new car off the lot will cause
it to depreciate substantially. Why is that? Because even if you own it for a short time and
you decide to sell it, it’s a used car. If it has 1 mile on the odometer, but has had a
previous owner that put that 1-mile on it, it’s still a used car. Now, let’s say you had a
piece of land with the well and septic system worth $15,000. You worked hard to buy
that chunk of land. You decide to buy a new doublewide Mobile home. The home costs
$60,000 originally but after tax and setup, it is around $75,000. (That is a very real
figure) Your property at that point with home and land might possibly be worth $80,000.
Suddenly, you owe more on your home than it is actually worth. If you sold everything at
that point, you would make enough to pay off your Mobile Home Mortgage and still have
$5,000 dollars left over. But wait a minute; didn’t you pay $15,000 for your land in the
first place and only got $5,000 for it? Man, you got robbed.

Now you know what Real Estate Agents as well

as Mobile Home Dealers already know so well.
Also, if you sell your Mobile Home, but choose
to keep the land, there will probably be a sizable
balance left to pay on the difference of what you
paid for the home and what you were able to sell
it for. In other words, you’ll be making
payments for years for an empty foundation.
Many people have made that mistake and are
still scratching their heads trying to figure out
where their hard-earned money went after they
sold their used Mobile Homes. They are equity
thieves!

43
  If building your own house is so great, why aren’t more people doing it?

That’s a good question. I’ve wondered that for about the last
ten years. I know when I was building my house I was very
apprehensive about the whole thing. I remember thinking,
“This can’t be as good a deal as it seems. Soon I’ll find out
why more people don’t do it.” But you know what? That day
never came. The project cost a little more than I had planned,
but not much more. It was a lot of hard work, but it felt good
to work hard on something I hoped would be a good thing.
Now, after counseling others to do the same and seeing their
success, the question is still unanswered.

I really don’t have a good answer for that. I suppose it has

something to do with people not knowing all the facts. People don’t care about the facts
because the thought of them putting on the tool belt and doing something so far beyond
them doesn’t even merit consideration in their minds. They are self-defeating
and certainly don’t consider themselves competent to undertake such a big
project.

To those of us who dare to dream and actually do something to reach our

dreams, the reward is there waiting for us. Rewards that are not only financial,
but emotional as well. It is so satisfying to see a project through to the end and
watch the appraisers actually put a dollar amount on your sweat equity. It was
so amazing to me how much my hard work was worth. That equity is valuable
to me as a homeowner.

A few years before I built my house, I remember reading somewhere that if a

person did all his or her own work instead of hiring it out, that person could
save as much as 30% on the cost of the house. I thought to myself, “Man,
that’s not worth busting my hump just to save 30%.” I asked my friend that had built his
own house, if that was correct. He said, “That’s hogwash, you’ll save almost 2/3 the cost
of the house if you do everything yourself.” So, I went on faith and did my own
construction and my numbers speak for themselves. It worked out that my savings came
in at a little over 60%. That’s really good equity.

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  Dealing with inspectors is too much of a pain; I hate it when other people tell
me what I can or can’t do.

It’s hard getting told what to do. I remember having a

particularly mean teacher in school when I was in the sixth
grade. Man, that teacher was pure evil. She had armor-
piercing eyes and a nasty disposition. In this day, a teacher
like that would be drawn and quartered by the parents or the
superintendent the first day of class, but in those days, strict
teachers that used a paddle were heroes to the parents. I think
it was right around that time in my life that I developed a big
dislike for authority. I’m cool with supervisors and foremen
as long as they are doing what’s right and are acting in the
best interest of the company and the employee. I just really
hate it when people tell me that I’ve screwed up and that’s
what inspectors get paid to do. They’re nice about it though.
One Electrical Inspector even told me, “I don’t really care
about rules and regulations; I just don’t want you and your
family to burn up.” How can you argue with that?

The subject of inspectors is one I’ve beat on too many times already.
You can’t argue with them because it won’t get you anywhere. It’s
their plump rump on the line if something goes wrong with a new
dwelling. We all hate being told what to do, but sometimes it’s for
our own good. I still think that teacher was evil though. No doubt
about it.

 You have to be smart to build a house.

I’m a man of average intelligence (and that’s a

stretch). I know a lot of carpenters and
tradesmen, but I don’t think any of them
design rockets for NASA or teach
Astrophysics in the evening. Building a
house doesn’t take a lot of intelligence but you
do have to have the ability to concentrate on
what you’re doing. Some of my biggest and
costliest mistakes were made because I was
thinking about other things. Making mistakes
is all right as long as they’re not mistakes that
injure you.

45
 When I’m doing work with a circular saw however; it gets my
complete, undivided attention. You know, I used to work around all
kinds of saws. Some were huge circular saws six feet in diameter.
Others were double-edged band saws forty feet long and spinning at
fourteen thousand RPM’s. But the saws that I have the most respect
for, is the circular saw or better known as the Skilsaw. Those bad boys
are notorious for kickbacks. It’s crucial that a carpenter concentrate on
the task at hand.

Other than concentration, anybody can be a carpenter or tradesman.

Even some of the more complicated electrical circuits can be figured
out with a little concentration and common sense. Besides, you’ll get a
little smarter every day throughout the entire building process. It’ll be
good for you and you’ll feel better about yourself too.

 I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do all the lifting

That is a very real concern. Through certain phases of the project, you will
need to have a fair amount of strength. The heaviest materials will be the
plywood or wafer board, the sheetrock, and the trusses will be heavy too. The
walls won’t be too heavy if built in eight-foot sections. If lifting is a problem,
you can cut the sheets in half, but that creates a lot more work for you. It’s
just better to give it the heave ho and lob those fellas up in one piece. One
note: if you’re lugging up twelve-foot lengths of sheetrock, find a buddy!

 I don’t have anyone to help me.

This problem has come up more times than you can imagine. I
think the reason why is because building a home takes a lot of time.
It’s not something you can ask someone to help you do all the time.
It’s a long process and takes a high level of commitment. I have
good friends, but I wouldn’t ask any of them to help me after hours
every day for the next year or so. That’s only a favor you can ask
family members to do. I was alone most of the time while building
my house. It wasn’t that my family or friends didn’t like me. My
father was there every day to help me.

46
 His help was a combination of moral
support and strength. But, I didn’t need help
all the time. The reason is because it was a
one-person job most of the time. The thing
is, most of the time I was doing things like
running electrical circuits or putting ABS
pipe together. One-person jobs. That will be
the bulk of the time spent, so find yourself a
good Walkman or MP3 player and some
nice tunes and crank out brew!

There will definitely be times when you

need a hand. If you’re creative, you might be
able to do it all by yourself, but for safety’s
sake, find some help doing the heavy stuff.

Well, that’s it for all the “why” reasons you should build your own
house. Now it’s up to you to find the strength and endurance to get it
done. Very few things in life that are worthwhile come easy or
cheap. This is just one of those things.

We have all heard the saying, “You will get out of it what you put
into it”. But that’s not even close to the truth as far as taking the time
to build your own house. The truth is you will get much, much more
out of it than you put into it and the small amount of hard work you
do for just a year or two, will benefit you for the rest of your life.

Down the road, you will have forgotten all the hard work you had to
do, but you will never forget how huge the advantages are of having
high equity in your home, and low monthly payments. You will be
reminded every month when you pay your mortgage payment and still have money left
over for more important things. When you’re able to retire early with a nice nest egg,
you’ll be glad you made the sacrifice earlier in life that enabled you to keep hundreds of
thousands of dollars of your hard-earned money. Most people will spend roughly ten
years of wages on mortgage interest alone. It doesn’t have to be that way at all.

It’s up to us to improve our situation in an unfair world. The world can sure beat us
down at times, but we don’t have to stay down.

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 PART 2

ONE

Getting your ideas and plans on paper

Before building your own house you need to make a good plan that involves important
information. You need to consider first of all, how big you want to make the house, and
second, how much money you can realistically spend. Most of the time, people are
limited on the size they want because of the lack of capital they have. I was faced with
the same thing. I decided to start out small and make the house expandable with future
considerations in mind.

If you are a low-income wage earner, you may want to start out with something around
1500 square feet. You can roughly estimate that the cost per foot will be around $35.
Thus, a 1500 sq. ft. home will average around $52,500. This depends on many different
things of course. If you live in the city or the country, if you want fancy fixtures, or if you
want expensive sidings and trimmings, then the cost can be substantially more. Suffice it
to say, the base price for materials, is right around $35 per square foot.
The idea here is to find a way to have a nice home, when you otherwise wouldn’t have a
chance to buy a home outright because of low income. That is what I faced ten years ago
and I still wouldn’t have a nice home today if I hadn’t taken a chance to improve my
lifestyle against the odds.

The best thing to do while the idea is fresh in your head, is to go and buy graph paper,
you know, the kind we used back in science. The paper has little grids that help keep
everything to scale. When we made our first plans, we drew a big rectangle on the paper
and every square was one foot. That helped us get an idea of how big we needed to make
our house. Take a tape and measure just how big the rooms are where you are staying
now so you have a comparison. Get it all down on paper to scale and even go to the
appliance store to get the right measurements on all the appliances so you can plan the
rooms. You’ll need measurements on beds and dressers, desks and tables and all the
things you will put in your house.

53
 It will help you get a good idea of what you “need” instead of what you “want”, because
sometimes our checkbook determines the difference between the two.

Our plans to begin with were relatively simple, but then we made several changes before
we did our official blueprints. After making several adjustments, we ended up with this
for our final design. It totaled right around 2100 square feet. See Figure 1.1.

Bottom Floor Top Floor

FIG. 1.1

We had a good plan because we did all the necessary research. The dimensions for all our
appliances and cabinets were known before we started construction. We didn’t want to
build a house that cost a lot more than we could afford. It was essential that we had the
basics covered. Each person in the house needed a private room. Two bathrooms is not
really a convenience anymore, it’s pretty much a necessity.

54
While bathrooms are somewhat expensive to build, there should be at least two regardless
of the size of the home. A cozy family room is very important because most of the family
time will be spent around the TV or computer. We didn’t opt for too many extras in our
house, yet we probably overspent to raise our comfort level a little. We put a large jetted
bath upstairs for $1500, a gas fireplace for $2000, a dishwasher for $300, and the
Redwood decks for $2500. Although we were on a modest budget, we did flip for these
extras. They raised the house value by about $12,000, so it was definitely a good move.

At the time you’re building, the last thing that’s probably on your mind is the resale value
of your house. This is one thing that should be considered before construction even
begins. Your house needs to be attractive to buyers because the future is always so
precarious. We don’t ever know where we’ll be a few years down the road. In other
words, try not to build your house too unique. Unique is a matter of taste and the majority
of homebuyers don’t have the same taste. Just try to build something that has value and a
few eye-catchers. If I was selling my house and some people came to look at it, I would
bet the things that would stick out in their minds helping them to make the decision to
buy, would be the jetted bath, the cozy looking fireplace, or the Redwood decks.

FIG. 1.2
The design of a Gambrel roof was the most economic because of the living space under
the roof on the second floor as shown in Figure 1.2. We went with that style even though
it wasn’t really that attractive. If a person will put dormers on the side of the roof in a
Gambrel (barn-shaped) house, it will make a world of difference in aesthetics. Also, it’s
nice having the windows to see out of. In the master bedroom, there is a window facing
toward the East so we have a great view of the Grande Tetons. The sunrises in the East
are spectacular. On the West and North windows we have a beautiful view of the Snake
River. Typically, a house like this would not be a big seller because it looks like a barn,
but our climate is quite cold and snowy, so people around here know that this type of
house is easy and inexpensive to heat as well as strong under heavy snow loads. You
definitely want to consider the climate when planning your home design.

55
There’s just three more points to touch on before we get into the nitty-gritty of house
building. Let’s say you have your plans already done and you want to step off the
measurements on your building site.

One thing that I have seen many times in my years of experience is when a homebuilder
measures and marks the property it always seems smaller than it actually is. I mention
this because this very thing has deceived a few aspiring builders. Here’s what happens.
The plans for a modest-sized home (say around 1500 sq. ft.), will seem depressingly
small and some people will say to themselves,”forget it, this is too small. Let’s just wait
until we can afford to build a bigger house.” This happens quite often and the dreams go
unrealized. Look, I know it seems small, but once the walls are up, the house seems
bigger. Once you get to the point where the walls are covered with sheetrock, you will get
giddy and nothing will stop your progress after that.

The second point is that if you don’t want to design your own house, you can buy ready
made plans. This can help out in a few ways. Plans can be bought for around $50, and
everything is professionally designed. They can be found in abundance on the Internet or
in several kinds of house designer magazines. We’re all different and some people might
be looking for some ideas and inspiration. Either way, If you do the building yourself,
you’re my hero.

The third point is that if you overspend on land, you may never be able to build your
house. I know a couple that did this very thing. Some riverfront property became
available to them, but it was out of their price range. It was beautiful land so they bought
it hoping to be able to build a house on it. The mortgage payments came each month and
there just wasn’t any money leftover to buy materials for a house. After a few years, their
dream of building a home on that beautiful lot had to be let go. The property was sold and
they pursued other options. It’s a well-known fact that location has a lot to do with
property value, but consider the goal we’re trying to reach. We want to have a nice home
with low monthly payments. If we were building mansions, then it would be different.
We are however, only building homes that we as modest income earners can afford. A
small or average-sized house is easy to resell if it comes to that. The buyer will probably
be someone much like ourselves in circumstance.

A small house on an expensive piece of land won’t sell very well. Maybe a rich person
would buy it just for the land and destroy the house, but that is rare. It is far better to buy
an affordable chunk of land and give it some tender loving care over the years. That will
raise its value.
I built my house on a lot of ground we was using for part of a hayfield. Farmers grow
hay when nothing else will grow. It has a lot of rocks, but we have done some great
things with our land. The land was worth about $1,500 per acre as hayfield. Now it’s
worth close to $8,000 per acre as property surrounding a residential dwelling. Remember,
buy it cheap and give it the TLC it needs. Your sweat equity will always reward you.

56
 TWO

Those darn building codes and permits

Well, here we are at my least favorite part of home construction. Inspectors seem to be
the necessary evils at the time of construction. I promise you as the years go by and your
house hasn’t fallen down, you’ll be ecstatic that you jumped through all the hoops held
up by the inspectors.

You will first have to take your plans to the building inspector. You can usually find the
inspectors at your county courthouse or city government buildings. If you don’t find
them, they’ll find you. It’s preferable to find them before they find you in most cases.
Anyway, you will be charged usually a percentage of the completed value of your home.
This really varies so be aware. On average, building permits will cost around 1% the
estimated value of the house. You’ll definitely want to find out the actual percentage
before you take your plans in. One way to look at it is regardless of who builds the house,
the owner will have to shell out hard-earned bucks to the inspector no matter what. Not
many ways out around that one.

The Building Inspector will need complete plans with elevation measurements and
property descriptions. Duplicate plans may be required. Once you get approved, you will
receive usually two copies of the permit, one copy to keep for your records and another to
put at your building site to last through the entire construction project.

The Building Inspector will help you find the other inspectors for the Electrical,
Plumbing, and Health codes. There may be other permits necessary depending on your
city and county governments and the amount of needless bureaucrats sponging off the
taxpayers. Don’t worry, the permit fees for everything other than the Building Permit, are
minimal.

I’ll briefly cover the individual permits so an idea of what to expect can be established. It
really helps knowing what you’re up against. I sure wished somebody would have sat me
down and prepped me on all the permits and codes, but I had to learn from experience.

It seemed like I had my knickers in a twist right from the get-go and it lasted the whole
three years until the house was finished.

57
After the building permit is established, and all plumbing and electrical systems have
been approved, a permit to begin plumbing and electrical will be issued. The Department
of Health will need a sample of the soil if a septic system is needed to determine the
length of a drain field. A description of the waterline, the septic line, and any irrigation
waterways need to be evaluated.

The Electrical Inspector can be a big help before the project gets started. Any Electrical
Codes such as the size of Service Panel or how many outlet receptacles are required on a
wall can be obtained from the inspector. Ideally, the Electrical inspector will do an
inspection just prior to the sheetrock, and then one after the home is completed. In a
perfect world, inspectors wouldn’t be very busy, but I really took a liking to my
inspectors and had them come back several times. Also, you probably will need a
temporary power hook-up from the local electric company. They will install a power pole
and transformer with a couple of outlets to get you by until your Service Panel is finished
and approved by the inspector. Then you’ll get some real power!

The plumbing Inspector will grace your humble abode a few times as well. After the
plumbing runs are finished, but before the fixtures are installed, you will be required to
do pressure tests on both water lines and waste lines. In many areas, the water supply
lines are tested simply by turning on the water and checking for leaks. In other areas the
water lines are tested with air. The air PSI is usually much higher than normal water PSI.
Water lines will have around 40-60 lbs PSI of water. The air test is usually double the PSI
of water.

The test for waste lines which includes drain, waste, and vent lines is a much lower air
PSI than water lines. You cap all the lines off at the fixture stub-outs with test caps or test
balloons, then with a test pump put 5 lbs of air in the lines. It needs to stay at that
pressure for about 20 minutes. You probably want to test the lines before the sheetrock
goes in. If you do have a leak, you will probably hear it, but if your hearing is like mine,
you can use a bottle of dish soap and a paintbrush or steal a bottle of bubbles from your
kids. If you goop it on the pipe joints sometimes you can see what you’re missing.

That’s pretty much it for the permits and inspectors. Just remember, it’s a hassle and it
can be frustrating, but persevere to the end, it’s worth it.

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 THREE

Time to get dirty, starting the foundation

You want to mark off the land and stake it out. You’ll need to have an idea where to start
digging. Make the measurements of the actual foundation and mark them. You can use
wooden stakes and plastic ribbon or even kite string. Then plan for a buffer area about 2
feet all the way around the foundation for convenience of setting up forms and for
backfill when the house is completed.

You can choose the method for which you want to dig out your foundation. I used a pick
and shovel. (Mostly a pick) That way can get really tiresome, so I suggest you rent or hire
a backhoe. This also depends on the type of soil you have and the depth you need to
reach to get below the frost line. If you live in tropical conditions with rich, not too rocky
soil, heck, use a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

Most likely though, you probably live in an area where the rocks grow faster than the
weeds do.

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Your Building Inspector will help you determine the depth of the frost line. That tells you
how deep to dig the footings and what dimensions they need to be. Usually, the footings
will need to be 12 inches below the frost line. Inside the footings, you’ll need to have
some rebar reinforcements. 5/8” rebar is plenty strong. You will use two or three rods
inside the footings and the rods need to be no closer than 3” from the outside of the
footings wall. Figure 3-2 shows size and thickness ratio examples.

This gives a good idea about the dimensions and how to put the rebar in so it gets
completely covered. You can also use “rebar chairs which is a little wire frame to hold
the rebar in place.

The forms for the footings will need to be in square. If you don’t get this part perfect or
really close, you’ll be cussing yourself throughout the entire project. There are a few
ways to make sure everything is square.

If you have a huge carpenters square, then that will do, but if you don’t, like the rest of
us, then a real good way is to do a diagonal measurement from corner to corner as shown
in Figure 3-3.

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Make sure the diagonal measurement is the same to the exact fraction of an inch.
Another way to ensure that the forms are in square is by using 90° angles as shown in
Figure 3-4. Learning to use 90° angles is a good idea anyway because it helps with other
areas of construction.

After you get a good square measurement on the outside of the footings form, start the
inside and measure the width of the footing.

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After you get the inside form complete, brace the outside and inside forms together with
strong, but removable braces as shown in Figure 3-5. Check once again, the diagonal
measurement to make sure it’s still in square. Then use wooden spikes to hold the forms
in place because the heavy cement can bow the forms out if not braced properly. Next
you can set up the rebar. The amount and size of rebar depends on your local building
code. Areas where there is a lot of earthquake activity will require more and probably
thicker rebar.

Here are a few examples how to join rebar and use it around corners. Check out Figure
3-6.

Any place you have rebar that crosses, be sure to tie it up with wire so the cement doesn’t
force it apart. See Figure 3-7.

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Also a very important part of the footings is the key or the rebar connector that holds the
foundation wall onto the footings itself. Pressing a beveled 2x4 into the freshly poured
cement while it’s being leveled can make the key. You can also run rebar that sticks up
about 4 inches out of the footings every 2 feet or so. See Figure 3-8.

You will have to pour the footings and the foundation wall separately to let the footings
cure. I would wait at least one week between the two. Besides, construction of the forms
for the foundation can start just a few days after the footings are poured.
Now, the foundation wall obviously goes on top of the footings. The building codes will
determine its height. The codes will also determine the thickness requirements of the
foundation wall. I went with an 8” thick foundation. There are several ways to set up the
forms.

Here are two ways with the first being supported with form studs and braces as in Figure
3-9.

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In Figure 3-10, we see how to use wire by drilling small holes in the boards or plywood,
running wires through and twisting them around wood pieces. Once the cement is hard,
you can cut the wires or even break them off with a hammer so you can release the forms.

Now the things that actually hold the house to the foundation are the anchor bolts as
shown in Figure 3-11.

Gravity does a pretty good job holding the house on its foundation, but in unusually high
winds, poorly fastened houses have been blown off their foundations. If you forget to put
the anchor bolts in the wet cement, you’ll hate yourself for a week. While the foundation
wall forms are in place and before the cement is poured, mark where the bolts will be

placed. Usually, they will need to be placed 4’ to 6’ on center.

You can fudge them an inch or two either way to avoid putting them where a joist will
be. Figure 3-12

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Also, it’s a good idea to hang the anchors using a piece of 2x4 because the board is the
same thickness that your sill plate will be as shown in Figure 3-13. Try to plan ahead
before laying out the spacing of the anchor bolts so you don’t put one where a joist will
be because the floor joists will rest upon the sill plate. Check out Figure 3-14.

By the way, making your own cement isn’t a very practical idea. Have it delivered and
poured by the local cement companies. Have a shovel to settle the cement into all the
forms so no air pockets remain. You can use a flat board as a screed to make a smooth
surface so the sill plate rests evenly on the foundation.

Once the foundation is poured and has cured for a couple of days, you can remove the
forms. Be sure that the cement doesn’t freeze while setting up. Clean up the forms.
Remember, you can save money by using the forms as part of the framing.

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After the foundation was finished we put the sill plate on all the way around and bolted it
down. We kept the old forms, which we used for the foundation cement work. We’ll use
them for the floor joists to save money. It’s kind of hard to see with all the snow. It slows
down the work progress at times, but at least you don’t get too sweaty!

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 FOUR

Framing and rough work

Now we’re cruising! The framing and rough work are a lot of fun and you will see the
house starting to take shape. It’s at this point where you will see great results with a small
amount of effort. This is also the point where you will start gaining valuable knowledge
and experience about carpentry.

Now that the foundation is complete, it’s time to put on the sill plate. Remember the sill
plate is what attaches the house to the foundation. It is a board that covers the top of the
foundation so you have something to nail the floor joists to. It’s also wise at this point to
consider using pressure-treated lumber treated with a chemical (usually arsenic), to
prevent termites from infesting your dwelling. This is typically a 2x6 for cement
foundations and a 2x8 for block foundations. The trick is to get a good fit over the anchor
bolts. You can make the anchor bolt holes larger than they need to be to get a good fit.
Once the holes are drilled and the sill plate is resting on the foundation with the anchor
bolts sticking through it, you will fasten them down with heavy washers and nuts.
Tighten them down really well while at the same time making sure that the plate is in
square with the foundation wall. Also, the plate needs to be level. See Figure 4-1.

Tighten down the anchor bolts evenly all the way around the foundation to prevent
binding which will make an uneven surface.

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Once the sill plate is on you can start to put on the rim joist. If you live in an area where
there are termites, you’ll probably want to use arsenic-treated lumber for the sill plate.

Now, you will make the Rim joist using 2x10’s. They will rest on the sill plate. See
Figure 4.2.

The rim joist is the outside perimeter that the floor joists are attached to. The floor joists
are easy to fasten down because you can nail them through the outside of the rim joist.
You can use either 2x10’s or I-joists for the floor joists.

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Because most foundations are wider than boards are long, you will probably have to run a
girder or girders up the middle to help support the joists. See Figure 4.4.

It helps to offset the joists over the girder. You also need to add bridging between the
joists for stability as well as fire blocking as seen in figure 4.5.

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The girders can be made by nailing 2x10’s together, just be sure to straddle the joints. See
Figure 4.6. The post holding the girder can be a 4x4 on a cement pier or even a deck
block. See Figure 4.7

The post or block needs to be on a footing though, so you will need to plan ahead when
doing the foundation work.

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Sometimes the 2X10’s look a little ratty after they’ve been used for forms, but they work
just fine.

While you have the floor open, now is a real good time to run some plumbing. The waste
lines are 2 and 3-inch ABS pipes and are really difficult to put in once the floor is
covered. You can put pipes through joists, but be careful not to weaken the joist. A
reinforcement block should be put in. See Figure 4.8

As a final touch, you might want to brace the joists for more stability. It also helps reduce
the chance of squeaky floors. See Figure 4.9

Now is also a good time to run water lines and even electrical wires under the floor along
the joists. Remember, it’s much easier to do it at this point than to be crawling around
dragging your tools along with you in the dark.

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Now the floor joists are ready for the sub-floor. This is where you find out why it’s so
important to have the foundation in square. You can use plywood or wafer-board (OSB)
for the sub-floor. Many Carpenters like to use tongue-in-groove sheets because it has a
better fit and the floor is less likely to squeak. The thickness of the plywood or wafer-
board needs to be at least 5/8” thick. Start at any corner and lay the sheet down so it fits
tightly into the corner. See figure 4.10. It will extend to the floor joists in even
measurements if you use 16” centers or 24” centers. You can use 8d nails to fasten the
sub-floor to the joists. Offset the plywood joints or straddle them for extra strength.

You will also need to cut a vent hole in the rim joist about every 15’ or so to increase
airflow and prevent the joists and floor from rotting. See figure 4.11

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Time to move on to the wall framing. At this point, your house starts to get its personality
and you will start enjoying the entire project a whole lot more.

Some people will start by putting a sill plate down on the outside perimeter of the floor,
and then mark it for studs and door openings. See figure 4.12

If you opt to put the sill plate down first, then you will attach the wall studs by toenailing.
See Figure 4.13 Otherwise, you can pre-build the walls in 8 ft sections and stand them up
and then nail them to the floor. You need to nail into a floor joist for strength. If you are
using 2x6’s for walls, then you will probably want to build in 8 ft sections because of the
weight when standing them up. Figure 4.14 shows a complete wall.

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When you build the walls, you will need to space the 2x4’s on 16” centers. With 2x6
walls, you can probably get away with 2’ centers. At the corners you will have to make a
corner post. See figure 4.15. Where interior walls will attach to exterior walls, there will
need to be a partition post. Corners need to be connected in a strong manner. Where there
is a doorway or a window, a special form of bracing needs to be done. The jack studs act
like regular wall studs. They help brace the trimmers and the headers. See figure 4.14.
The door and window openings are called rough openings. You need to know the rough
opening dimensions of doors and windows before you build the wall. See figure 4.16

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You can get all the rough opening measurements where you get the doors and windows.
The rough opening dimensions depend on the sizes of doors and windows you want
although some sizes are pretty much standard for entry doors.

After you get the walls up, you will need to run a double plate on top to hold the sections
together better. The same thing applies to the interior walls. See figure 4.17

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A top plate all the way around the exterior wall will be a 2x4 or a 2x6 depending on the
thickness of the wall. Most interiors are 2x4 studs so the top plate will be 2x4’s. Make
sure to offset the joints to maintain stability. See figure 4.18

Wherever you have a door or window, you will

want to put a header to distribute the weight from the upper level to the floor. See figure
4.19. A 2x6 works well for headers as long as you have adequate support with the cripple
studs.

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This is how you overlap the joints for extra strength. This is necessary on interior walls.
Interior walls and some outside walls will need to have pipes running through them. This
substantially weakens the strength of the board so reinforcements will need to be made.
Figure 4.20 shows one way to reinforce a vent or waste pipe.

The height of the walls is really up to the owner, but certain dimensions make for easier
work. Back in the 70’s, a ceiling height of 7’6” was quite common, but after that, trends
went into different directions. A good measurement is an 8’ ceiling. Whatever you
decide, you need to remember to adjust your wall height to include the top plate. See
figure 4.21. You can use builder studs that are already cut to the perfect height.

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When you put each piece of wall up, there is a danger that it could still fall down or even
get blown over by the wind. They are heavy and need to be braced until the outside
sheathing is applied. Figures 4.22 and 4.23 show how this is done.

Many contractors these days use framing anchors and hangers. These goodies help speed
up the building process while actually making the joints stronger. The only problem is
that they are very expensive if used consistently throughout the construction project.
There is no harm in toenailing boards in place to save on costs. There are certain areas in
your house where you’ll definitely want to use anchors for greater strength. Figure 4.24
shows some commonly used anchors and hangers.

Now that we have the walls up, it’s time to either build a second floor for an upstairs,
which is the same as building the first floor, or just put the roof trusses in place for a
single story home. Let’s work on the single story home by putting up the rafters.

Rafters and trusses can be made to save money so you don’t need to buy prefabricated
trusses at the high cost. They need to be strong and you should be generous with them
because of the strength they offer.

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 There are several kinds depending on how you want your roof to look. The most
common is the W-Type as in figure 4.25. It works very well and is easy to assemble.
Figure 4.26 shows different slopes for the trusses.

Roof pitch is measured by how much slope is in a 12” measurement. A carpenter’s square
helps to find the angle. If you measure 4” up on the square and 12” over, you have a 4 in
12 pitch, which is really quite flat. A more common pitch is 6 in 12. That will make a
stronger roof and it will shed water faster. Pitches higher than 8 in 12 are usually reserved
for special house designs or for areas with very heavy snow and ice loads.

When you build the trusses, you want to make them with only the best lumber. Make sure
it is free of knots and cross wood grain.

You can use mending plates, which are metal plates that can be hammered or pressed
over the joints, or plywood can also be used. See figure 4.28. The important thing is to
make a strong truss at any cost. Both sides of the truss need to have these plates.

The trusses can be attached to the walls by resting the cross part of the truss called the
collar beam onto the top plate of the wall. See figure 4.29.

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The dimensions you want to build your trusses depends on the slope of the roof that you
want, but the collar beam needs to be a perfect fit according to the measurement of your
walls. See figure 4.30.

There is a notched fit on top of the wall plate so the truss can extend beyond the wall
about 16” to create the eave. Some call this angle cut a bird’s mouth. It helps the truss fit
tightly into place before it is nailed. See figure 4.31. You can fasten the truss by either
toe nailing it in place or by using truss fasteners. See figure 4.32.

I will also briefly cover another type of roof that is much more economical because of the
increased living space it offers.

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Gambrel type roofs are making a come back because they make so much sense. It is a
barn shaped roof that has a lot of living space under it in the form of a loft or even an
upstairs. If you think about it, you need to have a roof no matter what. So a gambrel
house gives you a second floor and almost doubles your square footage, at about the same
cost as a single floor home. Remember, an important part of the appraisal process of a
home is how many square feet it has. It will usually be compared to similar homes in the
neighbor hood with the same amount of square footage. A single floor home with the
same amount of square footage as a Gambrel home, will be more expensive to build, yet
will have about the same value. When I built my home, the decision was easy to make.
I decided to go up, not out for extra square footage. See below.

Gambrel-roofed homes do have a few setbacks though. They are kind of ugly. They
really do look like a barn and a lot of people take offense to “being raised in a barn”. The
upstairs walls are also sloped and it is difficult to hang things on the walls. Dressers and
cabinets need to be put on interior walls. That’s something to think about.

I have always preferred function over form and it has rewarded me well every single
time. This style of house is just about as easy to build as a single floor house. The roof
trusses are obviously very different from W-type trusses. In a Gambrel house, the roof
pitch is a combination of two slopes at the pitch and at the knee. If a load-bearing wall
runs up the middle to support the roof, a steeper slope can be used to provide a little more
living space upstairs. If the upstairs is open with no partitions, then an angle of 90
between the two combined angles has to be made. This is a bit confusing but it is really
quite easy to do.

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As illustrated above, in figure 4.33, a 30/60 slope isn’t difficult. It can just about be
attained by guesswork alone. It is important to distribute the weight from the ridge to the
knee. Also a collar beam will be necessary and it will help relieve pressure from the sides
of the roof. Most gambrel houses have dormers to help improve the looks from the
outside and to provide a view and sunlight on the inside.

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 Dormers are really quite necessary for gambrel roofs, otherwise things get kind of dark
on the inside and it might seem rather cramped and stuffy. See figure 4.35.

Dormers can be attached to either the side or the top of the roof. The angles can get a
little tricky but with a carpenters square and maybe even an angle finder, the job goes
quickly and makes a big difference in the overall appearance of the house.

Here you have the inside view looking out at the dormer and the outside view looking in.
Next, you’ll need to do the gable end framing to enclose the roof and sides of the top
floor.

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Figure 4.37, gives a good idea of one way to frame gable ends.

In areas where heavy snow and ice form, a Gambrel roof is a good choice because of the
strength. If you have any doubts, you might want to reinforce the knee with support
braces. A simple 2x4 works just fine fastened with mending plates or plywood with small
nails. See figure 4.38.

On the left, you can see the knee without reinforcements. On the right, the knees have
been reinforced on each side with 2X6’s. The angle on these knees are not within code
because of the weak pitch; however this roof will have a dividing support wall to brace
the rafters up bringing it into code.

There are several ways to make the eaves on gambrel roofs. I just attached them to the
outside of the sheathing by using grabber screws from the inside. They are attached to
2X6’s on the inside so they are strong. The roof sheathing also helps to keep them in
place.

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Now, let’s get back to the normal type roofs that aren’t gambrels. They will need a
special kind of cornice to cover the ends of the trusses.

Next, let’s frame in the cornices by either making extensions from joists and trusses or by
building them separately and attaching them.

As shown in figure 4.39, the cornice is framed in after the wall sheathing is finished, but
before the roof sheathing is put on. A ledger is attached to the wall sheathing and runs the
distance of the wall. A 2x4 works well for this.

Be sure to give the ledger some stability by nailing into wall studs and not just the
sheathing. The lookout is a 2x4 cut to the measurement from the end of the truss to the
ledger, then nailed to the truss and to the ledger. The soffit and fascia sheathing can then
be applied. The soffit needs to have vents cut into it, which will be covered by a screen
when the soffit sheathing is covered by a metal soffit covering. The fascia sheathing is
the same as the soffit sheathing; it’s just a plywood strip to cover the end of the trusses.

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Figure 4.40 shows how to build the cornice as part of the framing before the walls get
covered with sheathing. This is a more stable way of making cornices. Either way is just
fine. Next, the gable end cornice has to be made. Extending lookouts from the gable end
can do this. See figure 4.41.

Once the gable end cornices are framed in, you can then cover everything in sheathing.
You can get a good idea from figure 4.42.

Just as a note of importance, if you choose to paint your house instead of using siding,
you will want a good exterior grade of plywood to prevent swelling. There are some
individuals in this day and age that still like to paint exterior surfaces. Painting involves
high maintenance and continuous expenses. With the low-cost, high-quality sidings
available these days, exterior painting is becoming a has been, but to each their own I
say.

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 FIVE

Sheathing the outside and roof

Now that we have the framework done, we want to cover it with sheathing. There are
several choices in sheathing. You can use plywood, wafer-board, or lumber siding. There
are many other kinds of sheathing that are sheathing and siding combined, but in the
interest of saving money, I suggest using plywood or wafer-board. Wafer-board is like
plywood in the fact that it has several layers glued together. The difference is that wafer-
board is made from chips and plywood is made from large timber. Wafer-board has a
better future than plywood with all the tree-huggers in the world, so now is a good time to
start using wafer-board. When I talk about wafer-board, I’m really referring to a product
called OSB or Oriented-Strand-Board. It costs less than plywood and is at least as strong.

You will want to use at least ½” wafer-board. I prefer using 5/8” sheathing on the walls.
The roof sheathing is the same provided the spacing of trusses is no more than 24” apart.
On the walls, you will need to start at a corner and include the rim joist and sill plate as
part of the wall being covered by sheathing. See figure 5.1.

You can offset the sheets for greater strength. The plywood needs to cover the rim joist
and sill plate and cover an inch or so of the foundation so water doesn’t get in. Figure 5.2
shows how to nail or screw on the sheets of plywood or wafer-board. The walls will
become much more stable once this is finished.

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I used a sheathing called T-111. Initially I wanted to save money by using a sheathing
that could be painted to save on vinyl siding costs. That was a dumb idea because I really
hate to paint. It was sort of an expensive lesson, but it worked out fine anyway.

When you get to the windows and doors, you can either piece together strips of
sheathing or just cover up everything and use a router to cut them out. I like to keep the
sheets big because it gives more strength. You can use a jigsaw or a saber saw to cut
things out either. If you are using plywood, you might consider running the sheets
sideways so that the wood grains give more strength.

88
Wafer-board doesn’t matter because the chips run in different directions each glued layer
for extra strength. The roof sheathing is applied the same as the walls and the floor. See
figure 5.3.

In the attic space, you will need to put a vent in so that there can be airflow to prevent
moisture and mold, also to regulate temperatures directly under the roof. The vent is
placed above the insulation, but below the truss ridge. It will need to be framed in before
the sheathing gets put up. Vent covers can be purchased where you get doors, windows,
or siding and retailers will have rough opening measurements. See figure 5.4.

If you choose to cover the doors and windows with sheathing and then cut them out with
a router or a saw, it will use more sheathing than if you piece it together around the
openings. Either way is fine though.

Well that’s it for sheathing. At this point, your house will be enclosed except for the
doors and windows. From here on, the work will be easier, but a little time consuming.
The inside work will take some extra thinking at times, but at least you won’t have the
rain on your head while working things out.

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 SIX

Stairways and landings

Building stairs can be a little tricky for first-time homebuilders. If a landing is added, the
project can even be more challenging. It’s not too difficult to figure out if you just think
for a second what it is you are trying to do. Most carpenters don’t install stairways until
the framing has been completed and some even consider it part of the finish work. It is
however; a good idea to know exactly how the stairs will be laid out while you’re doing
the rough work so the stairway install goes smoothly. You need to consider what type of
stairway is best. This depends mostly on what kind of space you are dealing with and
what your preferences are. Figure 6.1 shows a long stairway used mostly in cases where
there is plenty of space. Figure 6.2 shows a stairway with a landing used where space is
limited. Also, landings are becoming very popular even in homes with ample living space
because they make the stairs seem less intimidating and they add a touch of fun.

Basically, your stairs have to reach your second floor and you have just so much floor
space to do it with. If you look at it that way, it’s just a matter of deciding how wide to
make the treads, stepping off the number of treads, and then dividing the height of the
stairway by the number of treads. That gives you the riser height. There is a little more to
it than just that, but there are a few tricks to help with the calculations.

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The stairway consists of stringers, treads, and risers. See figure 6.3. The stringers can get
a little tricky to cut because everything is at a slope. The tread and riser measurements
will be in the stringer. The stringer can be made by using a carpenter’s square that will
keep the cutouts perfect, forming right triangles. See figure 6.4.

A strong type of lumber needs to be used for the stringers. Usually a knot-free 2x12 is the
board of choice. When you make the cut, be sure there is at least 3 1/2 inches of solid
material left. If you cut beyond that, the stringer will be weak.

A good way to know the exact riser height is by dividing the total rise by 7. Suppose the
distance from bottom floor to top floor including the thickness of the second floor is
about 9 feet or 108 inches. 108 divided by 7 equals 15.428. That tells you that 15 risers
will be needed. Next, divide 108 by 15 and you get right around 7 3/16 inches or the
exact height each riser needs to be. The treads need to be right around 10 inches. The
amount of treads will be one less than the amount of risers, so to find the total run or
length of the stairs, you just multiply 10 by 14 and that tells you your stairway will be
140 inches long.

With the proper formula at hand, you are ready to mark the 2x12 and cut out the steps.
This process usually involves cutting with a circular saw and a jigsaw or saber saw to get
to the center of the cutout.

You will need to consider the width of the stairs while doing your framing. Typically,
residential staircases are no less than 32 inches wide. Past experience has taught me to go
no less than 36 inches for ease in transporting furniture without the risk of scratching the
walls. Also remember that there is a minimum amount of head clearance that needs to be
observed. It’s important to know how the stairs are going to run while planning the rough
work, especially if you will be building a landing because the stairs turn at the bottom
and if you fail to plan the extra headspace, you’ll get headaches. The minimum headroom
requirement is 80”, but 88” is recommended.

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The stringers can be attached to the second floor by using joist hangers. They should also
be fastened at the bottom by toenailing or using brackets. See figure 6.5.

When you put the actual tread and riser plates on, you can use either hardwood or tread
material specially made for stairs. If the wood will be exposed, a quality hardwood is best
because of the durability. If the stairs will be carpeted, you can buy tread material with
the rounded nosing and it will hold up just fine. See figure 6.6. It’s easier to put the riser
plate on first, then the tread plate will lay flush against the riser plate without any gaps.
The plates need to be screwed into place. In this case, nails just won’t do the job. Also, if
the treads protrude any more than 1 ½ inch beyond the riser, it becomes a tripping hazard.

If your plans include a stairway with a landing, you can use the same formula as with the
long stairs, except it needs to be done as two separate stairways. The height of the landing
has to be measured using the height of the risers. For example, if you find out that each
riser is going to be 7 ½ inches, the landing needs to be a square box with the height of
either 22 ½ or 30 inches. (7 ½ x 3 = 22 ½, 7 ½ x 4 = 30) It depends on the number of
steps you want to climb before the landing. If you use this formula, the landing will fit
perfectly into place with the stairs. See figure 6.7.

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Handrails are an important part of the stairs and need to be fastened securely. Usually, the
entire handrail isn’t installed until the finish work is being done because of the possibility
of scratching or damaging the expensive materials during construction. It might be
necessary however; to secure the main support posts to the framework before the walls
and floors are sealed up. In that case, you can secure the newel post to the floor joists or
stringers as in figure 6.8. If you decide to put in the newel post, you may want to cover it
to protect it during the rough work. Lag screws help secure the newel post to the joists.

That should give you a good idea about how to make stairs and integrate them into your
house plans. Remember, an attractive stairway and handrail is a very strong selling point
that sticks out in buyers minds. Appraisers also see them as “goodies”, so the time and
money invested will be well spent.

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 SEVEN

Installing entry doors and windows

When I started my house, I was hell-bent on saving money on labor costs. More so now
than ever do I practice what my father has taught me over the years by his example to not
have someone else do a job for you that you can do yourself. That concept is what makes
this whole plan work. You will save literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long
run by doing your own labor work.

Now, having said that, there are a few instances where you can actually save money and
time by buying prefabricated components. When my brother and I built our rustic (ugly)
log cabin many years ago, we did everything from scratch. We even bought the glass for
our windows and made panes with wood and silicone. The windows are still there and in
good condition, but what a pain it was to cut the glass and to fit each piece into place. We
probably spent more money building our own windows than it cost to buy them.

There are many choices of pre-hung doors and boxed windows that are very reasonably
priced and are a dream to work with. You just slide them into place, adjust them slightly
with shims, and screw them down. It is my strong recommendation to take advantage of
the prefabricated doors and windows because it will save a lot of time and probably even
a little money. There are just a few important points to cover in terms of exterior doors
before we get into the nitty-gritty of installing them.

You will need to consider the width of entry door you want. If you go smaller than 30”,
you will have a bugger of a time getting a refrigerator and sofa through the door. A 36”
door seems really wide, but you’ll appreciate it when you’re lugging a heavy, oversized,
sofa/hide-a-bed through it. Also, most entry doors are metal or hardwood. Metal doors
are inexpensive and work just fine. You’ll pay out the nose for a hardwood entry door,
but it will be an eye-catcher for appraisers and future buyers.

It’s alright to splurge every now and then for the “good stuff”, but remember this, if you
go for expensive quality for every component in your house, you won’t be able to build it
inexpensively. I’m not saying to build a low-quality house with cheap materials, but
rather to build a house with quality and affordability in mind.

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 Also, if you choose to use expensive materials, you will reach the point of diminishing
returns. Here’s an example to clarify that statement. A 2,000 square foot home built using
quality yet affordable materials will cost around $60,000. A 2,000 square foot home built
using all expensive and very high quality materials will cost around $90,000. The resale
value of the practical home will be around $130,000, while the resale value of the
expensive home will only be around $145,000. Not too much difference between the two
because a home is usually valued using the comparative approach. In some cases, a home
will be appraised using the cost approach that actually takes into consideration the cost of
materials used in the construction. By and large however, a home will be valued by
comparing it to similar homes in the neighborhood that have sold recently. The appraisers
try to note all the “extras” which raises the value of the home, but the difference usually
isn’t dramatic.

I’m including this little tidbit of advice here at the windows and doors section because at
this point, you will have to decide whether to buy hardwood doors and window casings or
inexpensive metal doors and vinyl cased windows.

One more item of importance on entry doors is the use of sliders. A slider makes a poor
entry door. Sliders are great for backdoors though. You can also use French doors as a
back door. Regardless of which of the two you choose, make sure that they have
tempered glass. I can’t believe that there are still plenty of cheap glass doors without
tempered glass out there. When my wife and I went to buy our downstairs slider, and our
French doors upstairs, my wife made it clear that they would be made of tempered glass.
I never gave it much thought before that. The doors with tempered glass cost quite a bit
more than those without safety glass. We bought the doors with safety glass and I
installed them. About two years after moving into our house, my wife and I came home
one night to find someone had been in our house while we were gone. It must have been
a child or children because the secured glass door of our slider had been run into from the
inside. An indented hole about 4’ up the glass was the obvious center of contact. It was
about the size of a child’s head and it was hit hard. The entire door was cracked up, yet
not one piece of glass broke free. We never found out who was there that day and that’s
just fine. Kids will be kids. Get safety glass!

Now that we’ve gone over all that, it’s time to pick some doors and windows that will
make your home beautiful. Typically, inexpensive homes are built using vinyl siding with
vinyl windows and metal doors. Also they have either metal or asphalt roofs depending
on the climate. These things all matter because they will have to match and coordinate as
the exterior finish or siding is put up. Doors and windows come in many varieties and
colors. Metal doors can be painted to coordinate well with siding colors if you can’t find
a door that comes in the color you prefer. Vinyl windows can’t be painted, but white or
ivory vinyl will match about anything you can throw onto the walls. You can get solid
metal doors or doors with windows depending on your tastes.

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You can also get doors in just about any height you want, but the standard size is 6’8”.
Figure 7.1 shows a few types of entry doors. You have hardwood which is obviously
made of wood, you have the paneled door which can be either wood or metal with square
panels, and there’s the lighted door which can be either wood or metal, but has glass
windows in it. Figure 7.2 shows a slider and French doors.

Prefabricated doors come with the jambs, stops, and hinges already mounted so you only
have to put them into the rough opening and center them using tapered shims.

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Figure 7.3 shows a door rough opening and figure 7.4 shows a pre-hung door ready to
slide into the rough opening. After the door is in place, you should have a gap all the way
around between the jamb and the trimmer stud in the door opening. You will first need to
place shims under the doorjamb on the bottom. You need to raise the door to compensate
for the finish floor and the finish floor covering. If you will be using 5/8 inch
particleboard on the finish floor, you will have to raise it that much plus the thickness of
the floor covering whether it is carpet, tile, or hardwood. Next, insert the shims all the
way around the doorjamb making sure that the gap is even. Figure7.5 shows the best way
to use the wedged shims and figure 7.6 shows proper placement of the shims before
screwing the door in place.

After you get the door completely centered, then you can secure it in place with screws. I
use 2-inch brass wood screws. I use screws because you can adjust them if you need to.
That helps you keep the door centered. Also, because you are putting screws into the
doorjamb from the inside means that the screw heads will be visible. The holes can be
filled in with wood putty before painting. If you can’t sink the screws in far enough to
make a hole for filling, you might want to drill a hole first using a counter-sink bit.

Once the door is secured with screws, you can open the door to see if it is level. The door
should stay open at any angle. If the door isn’t level and flush with the wall, you will
need to make some adjustments. If you have done everything according to plan however,
there shouldn’t be any problems. The door should open and close with ease. Next, you
can knock off the shims that are protruding with a hammer. They break easily and the
shims that are stuck in the wall will be covered up by sheetrock and trim. Interior doors
are done exactly the same way.

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The door hardware is quite simple to install, especially if the prefabricated door has the
holes already drilled. Figure 7.7 shows the parts of a doorknob and how they fit together.
Figure 7.8 shows the striker plate assembly and how it attaches to the doorjamb.

If you’re installing a vinyl slider, or vinyl French doors, they might have a flange flashing
all the way around where you can just screw them directly to the trimmer stud on the
door opening without using shims. In this case, it’s still a good idea to use a few shims
and to get help installing the door because they are heavy and difficult to center. See
figure 7.9.

You can use much shorter screws on these kinds of doors. 1” brass screws work really
well. Sliders have to be perfectly level and square or the sliding mechanism binds and the
door will be hard to open. Even the heaviest of slider doors should be able to be opened
by a small child. The sliding door moves on a rail. This rail may need to be polished on
occasion with silicone spray. The door lock on a slider will be a small lever with a hook
that catches the striker latch when engaged.

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Now, let’s move on to the windows. The windows are easier to install than the doors.
There are only a few things to consider when buying windows. Mostly, the
considerations depend on your preferences and your budget. Shop around for the best
deal on windows and don’t let a salesman try to sell you something you don’t need. I say
that because windows can be very expensive or very reasonable depending on the
manufacturer and the type. Either will work just fine so don’t let someone sell you
handcrafted wood-framed windows when all you need is vinyl-framed windows. They
will probably give you the spill about condensation and UV rays that less expensive
windows don’t prevent. Most of it is hype, so just try to avoid salesmen when looking for
windows. Here are a few kinds of the more common windows. See figure 7.10 and 7.11.

The double-hung and sliding windows are the most popular. Casement windows are
usually more expensive. There are also a few of the fixed-frame varieties where the
window doesn’t open at all. They are mostly used for stairway illumination, skylights and
bathrooms. The easiest windows to install are those with a flange. See figures 7.12, 7.13.

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The windows attach directly to the rough opening from the outside. You will need to use
shims on the inside so that you can be sure the window is perfectly centered. The shims
can be broken off or removed once the window is fastened. The rough opening needs to
be perfectly square. If the window isn’t centered just right or if the rough opening isn’t
exactly square, the trim that goes on the inside of the window during the finish work
won’t fit well and the misalignment will be very obvious every time you look out the
window. Once the window is centered, fasten it with screws. See figure 7.14.

The siding will cover up the flange when the exterior work is done. Keep the windows
shut and locked until completely fastened and secure. The windows that don’t have a
nailing flange are usually a casement type that needs to be fastened from the inside like a
pre-hung door. See figure 7.15. Nail through the shims for stability. See figure 7.16.

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The windows will have about ¼ inch gap all the way around which will need to be filled
with insulation. The trim that goes on the inside of the window is either hardwood or
MDF. (Medium Density Fiberboard) The hardwood is expensive and used mostly for
wood-cased windows. MDF is a tough type of particleboard. It comes in different widths.
The wall thickness will determine the width to be used. It can be painted to match the
inside wall color. MDF is easy to work with and really inexpensive. I’ll cover trim a little
later.

After the windows and doors are in place, you can start the siding. The house looks quite
ugly until that happens.

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 EIGHT

Plumbing
Plumbing isn’t nearly as complicated as it looks. The plumbing codes might also be
confusing and even discouraging, but if you take a little time to figure it out, you’ll see
that it’s fairly easy and quite fun. Also, in the interest of saving money, you will want to
use plastic piping instead of metal wherever possible. I will give thorough procedures on
both plastic and metal pipes, but if your local codes allow the use of plastic pipes, (and
most do) then you can save a lot of money, time, and sweat.

The components of plumbing consist basically of three things: a fresh water system,
fixtures and appliances, and a drain system.

Fresh water systems- These are the pipes that come from either city water supplies or
wells. They enter the house through a mainline and usually make the first branch or tee at
the water heater. These lines are always under pressure and connect to the inlet on all
plumbing fixtures and appliances (sink faucets, baths, toilets, washers, spigots, etc.).
They can be plastic, copper, or galvanized iron. They are small in diameter, usually ½
inch to 1 inch. Water lines are joined together with watertight fittings. See figure 8.1.

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Fixtures and appliances- These are self-explanatory, but they each have a specified
amount of codes and regulations that will need to be followed before they are installed.
Waterlines going to each will have to be a minimum diameter, and waste lines from each
will have to be a certain size as well. These pipe sizes need to be planned out well before
the appliances are ready to be installed.

A drain system- This is everything going from the fixtures and appliances to the septic
system or city sewer. The common acronym for this system is the DWV (Drain-Waste-
Vent). The drains will carry away wastewater, but there are bigger pipes that are part of
the waste system that carry solids called soil pipes. Also part of drain waste lines is P-
traps, which create a water barrier so that sewer gases can’t get into the house. All
fixtures and appliances will need to have P-traps in the waste lines with the exception of
toilets. Toilets, by design, already have the U-shape water barrier that is essentially a P-
trap. Vent pipes that run from waste lines to the roof allow sewer gases to escape. Sewer
gases can build up and break through traps if venting is inadequate. Venting also helps
maintain atmospheric pressure, without even atmospheric pressure, water can be
siphoned out of P-traps and the water seal is lost. See figure 8.2.

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Let’s start off with the fresh water system. You need to have a waterline coming from a
well or a city water supply. Most mainlines will be made of 1-inch pipe, but some codes
allow ¾ inch. The main water shut-off needs to be installed somewhere easy to get at. It
needs to be between the main waterline and the water heater. From there a ¾ inch pipe
goes to a branch where one line is feeding into the water heater, the other line will service
all the cold lines in the house. There will be a line coming out of the water heater that will
run along side of the cold line to all the fixtures.

Figure 8.3 shows how the cold and hot lines are routed to the different fixtures. When
copper or galvanized pipes are used, this is usually the way it is run. Most often, ½ inch
pipe is used.

There is also another way to do this, which is becoming more and more popular. About
20 years ago, plastic tubing called polybutelyne or PB tubing was being introduced into
new residential construction. The idea was great, but the plastic wall in the tubing was
too thin and there were several mishaps after a few years of use and PB went away. Since
then, a few new plastic products have been introduced, but there are a few states that still
remember the PB incidents and won’t allow the use of poly tubing. The kind of tubing
mostly used is Qest or also called Pex.. It is a stiffer and thicker plastic material than the
older PB. It is a dream to work with because of the flexibility and it’s much cheaper than
copper and galvanized pipe.

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With Qest, everything is run directly off a manifold. Each fixture in the house will have a
separate line feeding it. The manifold acts like a hub and is located near the water heater.
It is basically a box with two sections, one section for cold water, and one for hot water.
A fresh waterline goes into the bottom and feeds all the cold-water fixtures. It also has a
cold line running to the water heater. The water heater then has a line for hot water that
runs back to the manifold and feeds the hot-water fixtures. See figure 8.4.

Each fixture has its own dedicated waterline. The red (hot) or blue (cold) tubing usually
runs side by side from the manifold to each fixture. The flexibility of the tubing makes it
a dream to work with. Figure 8.5 shows the different sizes of tubing. Figure 8.6 shows
how a typical Pex fresh water system is installed.

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The Pex tubing has many different fittings made of either brass or poly. These fittings
slide into the tubing and are crimped in place with crimp rings and a crimper. See figure
8.7.

In my opinion, Pex is a good alternative to expensive copper or galvanized pipe. It is very

inexpensive and is so easy to work with. The one thing however; that is uncertain about
Pex, is the long-term effect of chlorinated water on the vinyl walls in the tubing. There is
little reason to suppose that a chemical reaction between chlorine and the vinyl, could
cause the tubing to weaken over time, but nobody really knows for sure yet. The new
product does seem to be very dependable. It outperforms metal pipes in extreme cold
conditions because of its resiliency. Copper and galvanized pipes freeze and break if they
are left unprotected in the cold. Pex can usually freeze and thaw several times before it
breaks. Don’t confuse Pex with CPVC. CPVC is a type of stiff vinyl that is used mostly
in mobile homes. It is a poor product in cold weather. It shatters easily and is not that
easy to work with. I don’t like it because I have had to replace it with Pex many times in
campers and trailers that weren’t properly winterized.

Plastic tubing is a much simpler approach to fresh water systems than copper or
galvanized, but before you make any plans, you need to first find out if it is legal to use.
There are a few areas where no form of plastic pipes is allowed, not even ABS for waste
lines. Installing cast iron pipes is a whole lot of no fun and it’s spendy, but sometimes
there aren’t any other options.

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When you use plastic tubing for fresh water, each line is dedicated to its own fixture so
you don’t need to put a tee in the line anywhere. That way the pressure remains constant.
About the only place where a tee is acceptable is for a refrigerator waterline that runs the
icemaker and water through the door. It isn’t really even a tee though. Refrigerator lines
are just a small flexible tube that attaches by means of a puncture seal that you twist until
it forces a hole in the poly or copper waterline and makes a tight union.

So basically, you attach one end of the Pex tubing onto the manifold using a female hose
fitting, run the line to the fixture, and then attach it to the fixture using another female
hose fitting. You can secure the tubing to the floor joists and wall studs with plastic
holders made exclusively for Pex or Poly. Don’t use metal fasteners that are normally
used for copper or galvanized, because they could wear a hole in the tubing over time.
Flexible plastic lines are light and they vibrate more than metal lines do. Pex comes in a
few different sizes. The water mainline coming into the manifold will probably be a 1-
inch line of strong poly. You will want to have a main water shut-off valve before the
manifold. The cold waterline from the top of the manifold that goes to the water heater
will probably be a ¾ inch Pex line as well as the hot waterline coming from the water
heater back to the manifold. You can use 3/8-inch thick pex for the individual fixture
waterlines if you want, but ½ inch delivers a larger volume of water and is preferable.

Copper and galvanized lines are run in a straight line usually both hot and cold side by
side with tees or branches servicing each fixture. See figure 8.8.

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Metal lines are not complicated things by any means. They are more expensive than vinyl
tubing, but they are really kind of fun to put together and the value of the home will be a
little higher. There are many different fittings that make the job easier. You start out by
measuring the pipe to the length you need, then you cut it with a pipe cutter. See figure
8.9. After cutting the pipe you will need to clean out the inside with a burr remover. See
figure 8.10. Once the pipe is burred, shine the end with an emery cloth. See figure 8.11.

After the pipe is cut, burred, and polished, it is connected by a process called “sweating”.
First, you take the pipe and brush on some soldering paste or rosin flux. This also helps
clean the pipe while it’s being heated. Apply the paste to the outside of the pipe and the
inside of the fitting as shown in figure 8.12. After joining, take a propane torch and heat
the pipe and fitting thoroughly to the point where the paste starts to sizzle. See figure
8.13. At this point, you move the flame about an inch down the pipe away from the joint
and touch the joint with solder. If the pipe is hot enough, it will suck the solder into the
joint and make a complete circle around the joint, making a tight seal. See figure 8.14

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After you melt the solder into the joint, carefully wipe away any excess solder with a
heavy cloth. Don’t forget that the pipe is hot! Piece by piece, you will install the pipes in
this manner. You will probably have to bore a few holes in the joists and wall studs to run
the pipes through. You need to be extra careful while working close to the framing not to
catch things on fire. Just to be sure, you may want to have a garden hose ready to
extinguish any flames. Also, you need to make sure that you have adequate ventilation
while using a propane torch. Not all the gas that escapes the nozzle gets burned up and it
can build up in a confined place and ignite. That’s never good.

So to run a copper waterline we know that a main line runs to the water heater, then
branches off from the water heater and goes into a cold line and a hot line. The two lines
will run as far as the furthest fixture with branches or tees servicing all the fixtures
between. Remember, toilets or water closets only need a cold line. Here are a few
examples of some important fresh water fixtures. The diagrams are pretty much standard
for copper and galvanized systems. Apart from the pipe runs, you will have to know how
to connect the fixtures to the pipes. We will start with the water heater, as it is the first
actual fixture in line because it supplies hot water for the other fixtures. Water heaters
typically have a ¾ inch cold water line on the intake, a ¾ inch line on the outlet, and a
pressure relief valve. See figure 8.15. They are also equipped with a spigot at the bottom
for hot water access or to drain it. Figure 8.16 shows a gas water heater.

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The relief valve and overflow line need to made of either copper or galvanized because of
the possible high water temperature they might have to withstand. Also, in most areas,
the overflow will have to be diverted under the floor and outside the foundation onto the
ground to prevent anyone from getting scalded.

Let’s move on to some other fixture connections. Bathrooms consist of a sink, a

bath/shower, and a toilet. The waterlines will need to be routed so that they branch off of
the main lines and into the walls where each fixture will be located. FIG. 8.17 shows the
bathroom layout.

Figure 8.18 shows how the shower/bath assembly works. You can usually buy this piece
as a whole unit that’s already measured and ready to install. Figure 8.19 is how you
install the sink shutoffs with compression fittings. The fittings will screw onto the pipe
nipple. Copper and galvanized pipe nipple fittings have threaded ends for termination
fittings to screw on and for branching off of the mainline.

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The kitchen plumbing is basically like the bathroom sink except for the difference of a
dishwasher, which only takes a hot line. See figure 8.21. The laundry room will require

a hot and cold line also. Figure 8.22 shows how to run the hot and cold lines. These lines
are usually brought together in a recessed wall box with spigots to hook up the washer
supply lines as well as a waste line for the washer to pump out dirty water. See figure
8.23.

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Figure 8.24 shows how the hot and cold supply lines connect to the washer. It also shows
the waste water pipe with drain hose and trap. One more thing to think about at this point
is that many people like to have a deep laundry sink by the washer to soak extra dirty
clothes. It’s a good idea if you have space to do it because the cost is quite minimal being
that the water and waste lines are there already. Deep plastic sinks are very reasonable
and really handy if you get dirty a lot.

Before we move on to the Drain, Waste, and Vent systems, there are a few things I
should mention. First, I don’t talk much about galvanized pipe because it is expensive
and difficult to work with. If you do have to use it, you can usually rent thread makers
from plumbing stores. It takes a little practice at first, but so does everything. Another
thing is that quite often, copper and galvanized pipes will leak around the threads if you
just screw them together. I like to use Teflon tape for that. Just wrap the threads a few
times before screwing the pieces together. You can also use RectorSeal on water lines,
but it is used more often in small copper propane and natural gas lines. Both are available
at any plumbing store

You will need to do a pressure test on the water lines before connecting any fixtures. It is
a good idea to do pressure tests on both the water and septic lines at the same time so the
plumbing inspector doesn’t have to show up twice for the same inspection. Most
waterline inspections are just a simple matter of turning on the water and checking for
leaks, but you may have to do an air pressure test. If so, you can cap off all the water
lines with test caps and then integrate an air compressor and gauge in the line. The line
will need to hold constant air pressure for a specified amount of time. The septic lines
will definitely have to have an air pressure test, but it’s not too bad. You just cap off all
the waste and vent lines with plastic caps or test balloons made especially for testing
waste systems and integrate an air compressor and gauge in the line. The usual pressure
for waste systems is only 5 pounds for 15 minutes. See figure 8.25 Once the inspection
has passed, you can knock out the caps and move on to other things. See figure 8.26

Make sure that the inspector has approved your work before you put the sheetrock on the
walls. They get cranky if they can’t see your work.

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Now, it’s time to move on to the Drain, Waste, and Vent systems. Most plumbers now
use plastic pipes for these systems because of the ease of use. Plastic is much lighter,
cheaper, and more flexible than cast iron. It really is fun to work with. If your local codes
prevent the use of plastic, then you’ll have to use cast iron. By and large though, plastic is
an acceptable product to use.

Two types of plastic pipe are PVC and ABS. See figure 8.27. Both are readily available
and inexpensive, but the better of the two is probably the PVC. It is more durable than
ABS. There are a lot of plumbers that still use ABS because it was the first plastic
product for DWV systems and they have grown attached to it. I think that both are fine to
use.

Plastic pipe is extremely easy to cut. You can use a small-toothed saw, or a pipe cutter.
See figure 8.28. One thing that is crucial to remember is that when you cut plastic pipe, it
leaves behind burrs that need to be taken off with a utility knife on both the inside and
outside. If you forget to do this, things will snag on the inside of the pipes and you will
have a lot of plugged lines after awhile.

When you do the DWV layout, you’ll use many different fittings to help with corners,
branches, traps, and cleanouts. It is always good to do a dry run with all the pipes and
fittings before gluing them together. After you cut and burr the pipes, put them all
together to make sure they are the right length. After you know for sure that everything
fits, you can use the joining compound and cement them in place. ABS and PVC cement
is a one-time try. It welds the pipes and fittings together almost instantly. If you do need
to get them apart after cementing, you’re better off cutting the pipe apart with a saber saw
and putting in a coupler. Remember, even if you can get them apart by pulling hard, the
cement will leave a residue on the pipe and it will be a leaker. We’ve all done that before.

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When you put the pipes and fittings together, make sure they are in all the way. This gets
a little difficult when the pipe has to run through joists and studs and is often times hard
to reach. A good seal is understandably important though. Let’s go through the most
common fittings that are used in the DWV system. See figures 8.29 - 8.32.

There are many other kinds of fittings besides these, but we’ll just focus on these right
now. First off, you don’t want to mix and match PVC and ABS. They aren’t the same
material and they each use a different kind of solvent cement. There are several different
variations of fittings because they do different things.

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 An elbow is either a vent elbow or a wastewater elbow. The difference is that the vent
has a short turn radius and the water has a long turn radius. Air goes around corners
easier than water. Vent pipes can be 1 1/2 inches, but pipes carrying wastewater (washing
machine, sinks, dishwashers, and baths/showers), need to be 2-inch lines. Soil pipes are
those carrying solids so they need to be at least 3-inch lines. That is the difference in the
sizes and the turn radius of pipes and fittings. Now let’s put it all together to see what
they do. See figure 8.33

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When installing the septic lines, it’s easier to start from the end and work your way
forward. The best place to start is where your septic mainline enters the house. See figure
8.34. From that point, the line is probably a 4-inch pipe that needs a Y with a cleanout.
That’s where I will start the process and proceed by the numbers.

1. From mainline, install Y with cleanout and plug, go up with 3-inch PVC pipe.
2. Install 3-inch reducing Y into main waste stack for 1st floor wastewater fixtures.
3. Put in 2-inch PVC with 2-inch Y with cleanout. Add long radius elbow.
4. Install a 2-inch T for sink wastewater and vent can be 1 ½ inch to vent line.
5. Install 2-inch sink trap usually with slip fittings to hook up to sink drain.
6. Put 3-inch reducing Y into main stack with 2-inch reducer for sink or washer.
7. Install waste T with side inlet for closet bend and sink wastewater.

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 8. Install 2-inch trap for shower/bath or sink.
9. Put in 3-inch closet bend for the toilet install.
10. Install 3-inch reducing T into main waste stack for lavatory trap access.
11. Put in 2-inch lavatory trap.
12. Continue stack to the 2nd floor where you will install 3-inch waste T with reducer.
13. Install PVC wastewater pipe and bath/shower trap on 2nd floor.
14. Put in closet bend for 2nd floor toilet.
15. Put 3-inch reducing T into main stack. Reducer will be for sink, bath, or washer.
16. Put in trap for sink, bath, or washer.
17. Put final 3-inch reducing T into main waste stack. Reducer can be 1 ½ for vent.
18. Main waste stack continues up through the roof.
19. Install the 2-inch Y with cleanout back into the stack for sink wastewater.
20. Put 22-½ degree elbow for wastewater to flow smoothly into Y.
21. Install 2-inch waste T for access to sink and vent.
22. Install 2-inch sink trap.
23. Install vent T. Can be either 2-inch or 1 ½ inches for venting.
24. Put in vent elbow and run line back down to 2-inch T wastewater fitting.

You can assemble the parts anyway you want. It’s not difficult. There are a few rules
about venting however. Many locations don’t allow, “wet venting”. This is where a vent
pipe running horizontally carries water for a distance greater than normal. The example in
figure 8.34, has 2 cases of wet venting so you can better understand what this means. The
bath/shower in number 8, and the lavatory in number 11 are mild cases of wet venting
because the wastewater and the venting airflow are sharing the same pipe for about 5 or 6
feet. This could cause a problem with draining, so it should be remedied. FIG. 8.35
shows how to solve the problem. Figure 8.36 is a simple, but correct example of venting.

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A few decades ago, venting wasn’t a major consideration and there was a lot of leniency
in the area of wet venting. Trial and error has taken us down learning lane once again. If a
vent is full of water or has restricted airflow, an imbalance in atmospheric pressure can
suck the water out of traps and also prevent wastewater from draining. Take the time to
make sure everything is properly vented.

Figure 8.37 shows a typical bathroom plumbed with galvanized pipe. Copper is exactly
the same layout. This shows how things look after rough in. It helps to see the plumbing
in respect to the walls and floor joists so we know how it should look. I did fail to
mention the use of air chambers in metal plumbing to prevent noise. As in figure 8.37,
the air chambers are pipes that extend about ten inches above the lavatory water line
outlets. They create an air buffer to absorb rapid water movement that sometimes causes
pipes to vibrate and jump. They could be a good idea. I don’t really know much about
galvanized pipe. Air chambers are a code requirement in a few areas only, but by and
large, it is left up to the owner to decide.

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There are only a few things left to cover about what to expect from plumbing. I didn’t
mention much about the slope ratios for waste lines. A person unfamiliar with the aspects
of plumbing might think that down is down no matter the angle, but in truth, if the slope
is too much on the waste lines, the water will run down and the solids will stay behind.
Bad formula! The idea is for the angle to be just right so that the wastewater carries the
solids away and out of our lives forever. That’s why the codes will state something like
having a ¼ inch slope every 12 feet of run. The inspectors are very particular about things
like that.

Also, if you live in a cold climate zone, you may want to get frost bib spigots. They have
a longer internal attachment that allows the spigot bearing to be closer to the warmer part
of the house and not the exterior foundation. That can reduce the likelihood of frozen
pipes through the spigots. You should have at least one spigot on each side of the house.

All other subjects regarding plumbing that include the fixtures; will be covered a little
later on. There are a few procedures that require a fair amount of detail such as installing
a toilet, or hooking up a water heater. These things will be explained in greater detail in
some of the following chapters.

As for now, that should give us a general idea of what we need to do in the area of
plumbing.

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 NINE

Electrical Wiring
Now this is where the fun really begins, but this is also where a lot of first time builders
start to doubt themselves. I am going to start with the basics and move through the entire
process, but I’ll keep it very understandable at the same time.

Now, it’s not my intention to discourage or frighten anyone from doing their own
electrical work, but respect for Electricity needs to be observed and never put aside. Most
of the time, you’ll be working with 120-volt circuit runs, which have the power to give
you a bad jolt or maybe even stop your heart causing death in rare cases. The circuit runs
that are not as forgiving are 240-volt lines. If you lose your respect for these lines at any
time, you stand a good chance of finalizing your life insurance policy. There is no reason
at any time to be working on a live circuit, especially a 240-volt line.

There are detailed instructions available from the NEC (National Electrical Code) that
can be used as a basic guideline for all residential wiring, but local codes from the
Building inspectors and Electrical Inspectors always take priority over national codes.
Local Electrical Inspectors are a very good source of information because they are the
ones holding up the hoops we all have to jump through. In all honesty, I am very glad I
was forced to jump through a lot of hoops from my inspectors, although at the time I was
really bent. When I sleep at night, I know the fuses and circuits and wires aren’t
overloaded because that inspector made me tear them out and redo them, -----twice.

Let’s get started from the beginning assuming that you are still using the temporary
power hook up the utility company rigged up for you. It’s been a struggle with only a few
outlets to do all the sawing with. Now it’s time for some real power! The utility company
will put up the meter and base. Everything after that or rather, the lines going to the
service panel and all the circuitry and fuses are the homeowners’ responsibility.

Let’s start out by first making a plan where we want everything to be located. It is a good
idea to decide where to put the service panel. The Electrical Inspector will have some
advice on this matter. There are specific requirements that can’t be compromised. The
service panel will be on the inside of the house and will hold all the fuses. All the circuit
wires will be connected to it. The service panel needs to be close (usually within a few
feet) to the service entrance or meter on the outside wall of the house. The service panel
will have to be a specific height and distance from the floor. Also, the meter will need to
be accessible for the power company. This means that wherever the service entrance is on
the outside of the house, the service panel on the inside of the house will have to be just
about on the other side of the wall.

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 So don’t put a living room there on that side of the house because a breaker box makes
for a poor conversation piece while entertaining guests. A garage or utility room would
be a better option to house the service panel box. The Electrical Inspector will help you
with the details for the service panel placement. Figure 9.1 shows a service entrance and
meter with an overhead supply. This helps show the proximity between the service
entrance outside and the service panel inside. The utility company will wire the service

usually to the meter, then from the meter, you run heavy gauge cables through the wall
into the service panel box and connect them to the hot terminal bus. The type of cable
used from the meter to the service panel is something like #000 Aluminum rated at about
200 amps, and there are usually 3 of them providing enough current for a 200-amp
service. Figure 9.2 shows a typical type of electrical service cable used in residential
dwellings. This will usually have a black covering. Figure 9.3 shows a service panel that
is commonly used. It is also known as a “breaker box”, or a “load center”.

When considering a service panel, the minimum requirement that I would recommend
would be a 200-amp, 40-slot load center. The higher amperage rating is a code
requirement in most parts, but the slots for breakers is often left up to the electrician. An
owner/builder might be tempted to opt for a smaller and cheaper service panel with fewer
slots, but inspectors are becoming real sticklers on dedicated electrical circuits.

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There are many new code regulations that didn’t used to exist so one needs to plan for the
future.

So now that we know what the service entrance, the meter, and the service panel are, let’s
get them all wired together. You can get the wire at an electrical wholesale store. You
will connect all the wiring and have to pass your first inspection before the Electrical
Inspector will give the utility company permission to connect the power. That’s a good
thing anyway, because you will be working with two 120-volt cables and a neutral cable,
three wires in all. They won’t be energized until everything is sealed up and secured.

Figure 9.4 illustrates how the 3-wire service leaves the meter and ends up inside the
service panel box. The 2 black wires are then connected to the hot bus, and the white or
neutral is connected to the neutral bus as shown in figure 9.5.

There are special conduit fittings available at most electrical wholesale stores that make
the job look more professional and also help keep moisture out. You can use either a
hole saw or a large spade bit to make the hole in the wall for the power cables. Once the
power service from the meter and the service panel box are connected, then you will need
to run a system ground wire to a grounding rod. The grounding wire is just a copper wire
made for that purpose. It attaches to a grounding screw usually at the bottom of the
neutral bus. The copper line typically exits through the side of the house toward the
bottom and attaches to the grounding rod or the plumbing if metal pipes are used.
Grounding rods are about 4 feet long and made of copper. They can be hammered in
close to the foundation. If you look at figure 9.1, you can get an idea how it’s done.

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Your service panel box or breaker box will hold all the breakers or fuses and every circuit
run in the house will begin at the breaker. See figure 9.6. The hot lines are either black
or red wires. Each circuit run begins with a hot line (black or red) connected to the
breaker, a neutral line (usually white) connected to the neutral bus bar, and a ground wire
(bare copper) also attached to the neutral bus bar. From there, it goes out of the breaker
box and on to the first outlet, (receptacle) or switch, (lights) or hard-wired appliance
(water heater, electric wall heaters and heat pumps).

The breaker box has removable round tabs on all four sides giving access to the wiring.
Romex is a common name for cable and one I use frequently. It’s important to note that
when a cable enters the service panel, the hole needs to have a fastener or clamp to
prevent the metal box from possibly cutting the wires. Figure 9.7 shows some examples.

This should give us a good idea how the breaker box is put together. From this point, it’s
a matter of laying out the many circuits and mapping them throughout the house. The
dedicated circuits will be the easiest to map out because the entire circuit goes to just one
appliance such as the range, or the water heater, or the clothes dryer to name a few. These
are all power hogs and not only do they need their own dedicated circuit, but they also
use higher amperage breakers and heavier gauge wiring.

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 There are two kinds of voltages used in residential dwellings, 120-volt for lights and
small appliance outlets, and 240-volt for larger appliances. The breakers determine the
difference between the two voltages. A 120-volt breaker is narrow and only attaches to
one hot bus in the service panel. That gives it 120 volts of electricity. The big gnarly 240-
volt breakers however, are wide and cover both hot bus bars giving them all the
electricity available, which is 240 volts. Check out figure 9.6 again and notice the
difference in widths between breakers. Also, the larger appliances have varying levels of
electrical current needs, so the breakers are also available in different amperage ratings.
Let’s make a couple of charts with the symbols and numbers we will need to lay out a
good electrical floor plan from this point. Figure 9.8 shows us some standard symbols.

These are the symbols used for an electrical floor plan to show the inspector. It also helps
to keep things organized on paper. Figure 9.10 shows a useful chart of appliances along
with the size of wire, size of breaker, voltage requirements, and the required receptacle.

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Almost everything else in the house will use a 120-volt, 20-amp circuit. If you have
electric heat, you will need to find out the specifications on voltage and amperage
because some heaters use 120 volts and others use 240 volts. Usually the higher voltage
heaters run more efficiently.

It helps to make a top view of the electrical floor plan with the different symbols. It may
look like a mess at first because there are so many symbols in such a small area to work
with on paper, but you’ll get used to seeing and understanding the diagrams and
blueprints long before you begin construction on the actual circuitry. Figure 9.11 shows
a simple electrical floor plan with outlets, switches, and lights. I found it useful to make
several copies of the same floor plan without all the electrical symbols, and then make an
overlay diagram of each electrical circuit starting with circuit number “1”. You will need
to number your circuit runs at the breaker box anyway, so this is a good time plan it out.
On each plan, include only one circuit run even if it is just your water heater or cooking
range. Draw the circuitry exactly how it will run through the walls and joists and even
include measurements in the plans if you want to. You might even want to laminate the
plans because they will help you years later when you’re trying to remember where you
ran those darn wires. See figure 9.12.

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The diagrams can be easy or complex because they aren’t for anyone but you. The idea is
to simplify something that is intimidating. That’s the whole idea behind everything I
stand for. If something is overwhelming and seemingly impossible to understand, step
back a bit, scratch your head a few times, then break it down in your mind to the smallest
steps or particles necessary. When you start to understand it at that level, then move on.

When planning your circuits, you will want to divide up the circuits with two major
points in mind. First, and most important, is that you don’t put too many loads on one
line. That makes for hot wires and you’ll wear your carpets out running back and forth
resetting breakers. As a rule of thumb, you probably don’t want to put any more than 15
loads on one circuit. A load is an outlet, appliance, or light switch. Both plugs on an
outlet or receptacle are one load. This is one of those things that vary greatly from region
to region so you’ll need to consult your local codebook. That is one of the reasons you
are going to need a large service panel box. Most residential dwellings will use around 30
breaker slots these days.
The second reason to divide up your circuit runs is to avoid total darkness when a breaker
trips. Keep that in mind while planning circuit routes. Romex is cheap and it’s easy to
run, so try to at least integrate the lighting into several different circuits. In other words,
don’t run all your lights on one circuit.

Now, let’s get started on the actual wiring. I like to put all the receptacle and switch
boxes in first. These can be either plastic or metal depending mostly on the homeowners’
choice, but in some locations, only metal boxes are allowed. See figure 9. 13. This also
includes light boxes, or more often called junction boxes. Figure 9.14.

These attach really easy. They have a sheetrock depth calibration already on them so you
get a good accurate fit without having to measure. Most boxes can just be nailed in place.
Every outlet, light switch, junction box, and even modern day phone jacks will need a
box. You can get these boxes in many sizes depending on your needs. You will probably
use a lot more boxes than you’d expect, but they’re dirt-cheap.

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It’s important that each box is nailed evenly to the wall stud, but it’s also important to
make sure that the box extends beyond the stud evenly. See figure 9.15. If the nails are
too tight on the top or the bottom, the plastic box will not be so square anymore. These
are mistakes that aren’t covered up by the finish work because the switches and outlets
will appear slightly crooked when everything is done. Also, it’s just a good idea to put a
reinforced junction box in where every light will be. A bracket or telescoping rod seems
like overkill at the time, but somewhere in the future either you or someone will want to
put up a ceiling fan, a chandelier, or something heavy and it’s much harder to reinforce a
finished ceiling than to install a cheap $2.00 piece of metal while the ceiling is exposed.

The bar hanger junction box gives more support than a normal hanger bracket. See figure
9.16.

Once the boxes are installed, the wires can be run from box to box as illustrated in figure
9.17.

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You will need to leave extra wire for working with. It’s always a good idea to leave an
extra 6 to 8 inches of wire in a loop just above where the cable enters the box. This loop
will allow for a margin of error when stripping wires. Try to drill all the holes in the studs
at the same height to run the cable. Also, it’s best to keep the hole centered in the stud to
prevent finish nails or screws from penetrating the cable. See figure 9.18

. There are some code variations on just how much cable needs to protrude from the box
to work with. Some say 6 inches, while others say 8 inches. If you’re like me, you’ll
probably screw up all 8 inches at first and be fishing for the 8-inch loop you put, or
should have put just above the box in the wall.

Prepping the wires for the receptacles and switches couldn’t be easier if you have some
good wire strippers. See figure 9.19.

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You will need to strip about ¾ -inch off the wire and make a bend in the direction that the
screw will turn on the receptacle or switch. See figure 9.20

Tighten down the screws really well. Most receptacles and switches have insertion
fittings or holes on the back to put wires in. This gives more options, but seldom do
electricians use the insertion fittings because it crowds the wires inside the box often
causing wire connectors to come apart. Most electricians use the screws on the side of the
receptacle.

This is an important point to remember before we get into the many different wiring
combinations. If you’re doing your own electrical work, you are an electrician because
you will do everything according to a national standard. If someone comes a few years
later and works on your electrical system, that person will assume that when he or she
grabs a plain, white neutral wire, his or her hair won’t get curled. That’s because
everybody follows code, or at least, is supposed to follow code. Personally, I keep my
voltmeter handy when testing other systems. Black wires are hot. They are wired only to
hot terminal screws or other black wires. Red wires are hot and are usually either a
traveler wire (for 3-way switches), or an extra 120-volt line to double voltage for a 240-
volt appliance. Red wires are also only wired to hot terminal screws and other red and
black wires. White wires are neutral and are only wired to the neutral bus at the service
panel, the neutral terminal screw on receptacles, or other white wires. Bare, copper wires
and green wires are ground wires and they attach to other ground wires or can be
terminated in metal boxes.

The basic cable used is Romex 12/2. This is just a non-metallic, sheathed cable of
different sizes and number of wires inside. The size of wire is the gauge. That’s the first
number. The second number states the number of wires, which are 2. Actually, there are
3 wires if you count the ground wire, but nobody does. Also, a lot of 12/3 Romex will be
used because it has an extra wire in it and it is required by most codes to be used where
there are 3-way switches that need that extra wire called a traveler.

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There is one exception to the color code rule that needs to be mentioned. In certain
situations, such as in 3-way switches and dual control, dual light switches, even 12/3
cable falls one short of enough hot wires. In this case, it is legal to use a white wire as a
hot wire only if the wire is painted or wrapped with black tape on both ends. This is very
common. Figure 9.22 shows two common types of cable.

Now that we have learned a few things about electrical wiring, it’s a good time to get into
the thick of the installation methods and to also show many kinds of wiring diagrams.
The easiest way to get started on the actual wire installation is to nail all the electrical
boxes in place. These are the boxes for all outlet receptacles, light switches, ceiling light
boxes, and junction boxes which include phone and TV cable outlets as well. After all the
boxes are in place, the wiring is a simple matter of running the cable from box to box.
Remember, cable is quite inexpensive, so try to make the cable runs look neat and
organized even if you have to use a lot of extra cable. Use staples to fasten loose or
hanging cable. Figure 9.18 shows the height requirements for receptacles and light
switches. You will use standard 12/2 and 12/3 Romex for all the 120-volt circuit runs.
Some contractors still use 14/2 Romex for lighting. You will need to use 12/3 Romex for
any 3-way light switches. A 3-way light switch is a light that can be turned on or off from
more than one location. All 3-way switches need to be connected by a traveler wire that
can only be found in 12/3 cable.

The circuits using more electricity will require different types of cable. These are special
circuits that have strict codes to follow. You will need to get all local code information
about these circuits because certain areas have different regulations. For now, we will
follow the National Electrical Code regulations. Remember that local codes always take
precedence over the national codes. The electrical inspector will be a wealth of
knowledge in that area. Most inspectors have free material to give to ensure the
guidelines are followed.

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 The electric water heater will be a dedicated circuit. A box won’t be necessary because
the cable will run directly from the service panel breaker to the connections inside of the
water heater. You will probably also use number 10 cable with a 240-volt, double-pole,
30-Amp breaker See figures 9.23, 9.24, and 9.25. Number 10 cable is thicker than
number 12 cable and is able to handle higher amperages without getting hot.

Another circuit that requires special wiring is a clothes dryer. Like the water heater, it
uses a dedicated line with a 30-amp, 240-volt, double pole breaker with 10/3 Romex. One
thing to keep in mind here is that modern clothes dryers and ranges now use a four-wire
plug. This is a simple matter of connecting the copper ground wire to the plug as well as
the other three wires. Normally, the copper ground is attached to the dryer chassis. You
can also get a special adapter plug that converts a three-wire plug to a four-wire plug.
These adaptors are available at all appliance stores. Many local codes now require the
extra wire because of the new plugs on all new appliances.

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The one circuit that takes the most electricity is the oven/range. These vary quite a bit in
the amount of wattages used, but as a standard, the oven/range has a dedicated circuit that
uses a 50-amp, 240-volt breaker. The cable is usually two heavy six-gauge wires for the
hot lines, and a six or eight-gauge wire for the neutral. It is called range cable. This cable
also comes with a ground wire for four-wire plugs.

There are other 240-volt lines depending on the heating and air conditioning structures.
Most heating circuits will require at least a 30-amp, 240-volt breaker. The size of cable is
typically 10-gauge, but this depends greatly on the type of heating system and the
manufacturers requirements. Air conditioning systems are the same.

These heavy current lines tie into the breaker box with only the hot lines attached to the
breaker, the neutral and ground wires will attach to the neutral bus bar. See figure 9.26.

The breakers just pop into place as they attach to the hot bus bars. You will need to label
each breaker so you don’t forget which circuit it is.

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Now let’s get into some circuit runs. We’ll start with a plain outlet receptacle. Your local
codes will indicate the number of minimum outlets each wall will need. I prefer to have a
lot of outlets. In these modern times where we have computers, the peripherals for the
computer like printers, scanners, speakers, monitors, and external drives can completely
fill up one eight-slot surge protector with several things left to plug in. It’s the same for
TV/Stereo entertainment centers. Remember, outlet boxes and receptacles are very
inexpensive so definitely put in plenty outlets. I thought I had gone way overboard by
putting outlets about every eight feet. Still there are times when I could use another plug.

Figure 9.27 shows how to connect a plain receptacle in the middle of the circuit and at
the end of a circuit run. In the middle of a circuit run, one cable comes into the box and
one cable goes out of the box on to the next receptacle or switch. At the end of the run,
there is just a cable coming into the box, so only one hot terminal and one neutral
terminal screw is used. Hot terminal screws are usually brass colored and neutral terminal
screws are silver. The ground wire attaches to a grounding screw that is usually green.

You will have to use only GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) receptacles in the
kitchen, bathrooms, and outside outlets. Figure 9.28 shows how to connect a GFCI.

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You will want to wire the GFCI receptacles in a pigtail style and not in a continuous
circuit like normal receptacles. You can wire GFCI receptacles like normal receptacles
where you have both incoming and outgoing hot and neutral wires on each side, but if a
GFCI trips, then everything after it on the circuit will be dead until the GFCI is reset. Not
only that, but when you put too many loads on a GFCI, it will trip more often and you
will be resetting it constantly. It’s better to make a splice off of the circuit with wire nuts
and have only one hot and one neutral going into the “line” terminals on each side. That
is called a “pigtail”.

Figure 9.29 shows a basic diagram of receptacle outlet wiring.

Next, let’s move on to the lighting. There are a few different kinds of light switches, but
they all have one thing in common. A switch is just a voltage interrupter within the hot
wires that either completes the circuit, or breaks it. Figure 9.30 shows some of the basic
light switches that are used frequently in residential construction.

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Single-pole switches activate a light or lights, from only one location. Three-way
switches activate a light or lights from two locations. Four-way switches activate a light
or lights from more than two locations. They can get a little tricky, so the diagrams can
really help out a lot. Figure 9.31 shows a simple single pole light switch diagram with
the switch before the light in the circuit run. Figure 9.32 shows a single-pole with the
switch behind the light. In this case, an extra hot wire is needed so it is legal to paint or
wrap electricians’ tape around both ends of the white wire.

Three-way switches are a little confusing at first, but after you look at the diagram and
think it through, it’ll make perfect sense. The easiest way for three-ways is to place the
light between the two switches as shown in figure 9.33.

Another way is to put the light at the end of the switches as in figure 9.34.

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Four-way switches sound confusing, but they are quite simple. Just remember this one
thing: four-way switches are always between three-way switches. You can have one light
that is controlled from a dozen locations, but you’ll start with a three-way switch at the
start of the light circuit, place ten four-ways in between, and then end with another three-
way switch.

Many homes, especially those with garages, have lights controlled from many locations.
You need to be able to turn the garage light on when you’re entering from outside, or
entering from upstairs, or downstairs into the garage. You will want to be able to turn the
same light on or off from any surrounding part of the garage outside or inside. Any place
where there is a doorway or entrance should have a light switch.

Three-way switches aren’t really “three way” at all. They’re only two-way if you
consider that a light can only be controlled from two locations with three-way switches. I
don’t know where that word came from, but if you need to have a light controlled from
three locations, you will need to start with a three-way, put a four-way in the middle, and
end with another three-way. See figure 9.35.

Dedicated circuits are easier to run than lighting circuits because there isn’t any branch
circuitry. The dedicated circuits will require special wire and breakers. Each appliance
will have a specific outlet or plug that will be used. The only appliance that has no outlet
is the water heater. It will be hard-wired which means the cable will run from the wall
directly into the water heater’s own wiring box inside the water heater. Any cable that
comes out of the wall through the sheetrock should be encased in flex conduit (BX
Cable) or wire loom and fastened at each end from the wall to the appliance with cable
fasteners or grommets.

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Figure 9.36 shows the circuit run for a Range/Oven. The fuse is a 50-amp, 240-volt
breaker. The cable is 6/3-Range cable. The outlet is a four-wire plug.

All dedicated circuits will be similar to the Range/Oven circuit in the way they are run
and connected to the breakers and the outlet plugs.

Now, let’s take a look at low voltage wiring which is used mainly in doorbells, phone
systems, and computer networks.
Doorbell wiring ties in to the electric circuitry of your home by means of a transformer
that reduces voltage. The transformer will fit into a junction box just like a light or a
switch. Figure 9.37 shows a doorbell controlled from two locations. Usually the chime is
different between the front and back so you know which door to answer. The 120-volt
line goes into the transformer and usually two small lines go to each doorbell. The wires
are usually about 18-guage and carry a voltage smaller than 12-volts. See figure 9.38.

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The phone system is another low voltage line, except it isn’t tied in to the electric
circuitry of the home. The voltage comes from the phone company and is maintained by
them. They will install service up to the box. This box is called a “Demarcation block” or
just “D-marc block”. To us homebuilders, it’s just a box. From the box, we run our
separate lines to each modular jack or phone jack. If you have multiple lines, you will
have to map out a circuitry route just like the electrical circuits so you don’t get confused.
The modular jacks will fit into regular electric boxes.

Figure 9.39 shows a simple residential phone system with two phone lines. The phone
company only runs service to the box. The homeowner then runs the wiring from the box,
into the house, and on to the rooms in the house that will have phones in them. The above
illustration is an example of a “Daisy chain” wiring method. This is an old way of doing
things. The problem with a daisy chain is if one phone jack goes bad, all the ones behind
it will stop working. A solution to this problem is called a “junction box”, or a “star”. It
acts like a hub and each mod jack or phone jack will be wired separately and exclusively
back to the junction box. It takes more cable, but is more reliable. See figure 9.40.

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Now that we can see how the circuit is laid out, we need to know what kind of cable to
use. The most popular cable being used in residential as well as commercial dwellings is
called “CAT 5” cabling. It stands for Category 5 cable, which was mostly used in
network wiring because of its high data transfer capabilities, but was too expensive for
home use. Now, it’s more reasonable in price and it is better for homes or businesses that
will someday be expanding their communication needs. That is most of us if you consider
the impact that computers have had on our communications systems over the past two
decades. Besides, appraisers love to see “Data ports” in every room. It just says, “ I’m a
modern, state-of-the-art home and I’m built with the future in mind”. That will boost the
home’s value by thousands. No kidding.

Cat 5 cable is a plastic shielded cable with four twisted pairs of color-coded wires. See
figure 9.41.

The CAT5 cable is run just like the other electrical circuits. The cable will run to each
room that will have a phone and it will have an outlet in the form of a wall plate or a
flush mount mod jack. See figure 9.42. The cable will be wired to the RJ11 outlet or mod
jack using the red-to-red, and green-to-green wires for the first line, and yellow-to-
yellow, and black-to-black wires if you’re using regular phone cable. See figure 9.43.
Just as a side note here, the CAT5 has eight cables, but not all wires need to be used. In
fact, you only need two wires for each line, so as a rule of thumb you start out using the
red and green wires or whatever color is close to those colors that you can remember. I
say that because CAT5 varies in colors from manufacturer to manufacturer. The standard
for wiring also varies between phone companies so you will get many different answers if
you want the right one. The right answer is just this: be sure to use the same wiring order
on both ends of the cable so that the phone lines actually work. You will want to use the
same standard throughout the entire wiring though, that only makes sense.

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Now, having said that, I will say that there is a vague industry standard that helps
maintain some form of compatibility between old and new cable. See figure 9.44.

You can see in figure 9.45 that the phone company uses 8-wire cable, and many
residential dwellings still use 4-wire cable. There might be certain local codes about
which colors of wires go where, but they aren’t strict like electrical codes.

If you decide to take advantage of the star idea instead of the daisy chain method, there
will be one line of CAT5 that runs from the Telco box as shown in figure 9.45, to the
junction box, figure 9.46. Just remember to have one line coming in from Telco, and then
you can connect several mod jacks running from the hub.

Now, let’s move on to network wiring. It sounds complicated, but it’s actually easier than
phone system wiring. It’s a good idea to put data ports in every room with the exception
of bathrooms and storage rooms. Figure 9.47 shows a data port with the wall plate
attached. This is called an RJ45. Networks use CAT5 cable with a connection that is a
little larger than a normal phone connection. A phone connection is an RJ11 and it will fit
into an RJ45 port.

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Networks are the same as phone lines in many respects. The old method for wiring
networks as well as phone systems was in a daisy chain, that is, out of one computer into
the next computer on down the line. The problem is when one computer goes down it
pulls all the others behind it down also. It didn’t take long to figure this one out. Almost
all networks now use a Hub. This is where each data port is a dedicated line running back
to the hub. Most modern homes are built with an accessible “Distribution Center”. This is
typically located near the breaker box. The only reason for this is just to keep the utility
panels together as a matter of convenience. It’s a good idea to have the distribution center
contain all communication wiring. For example, I would put a junction box for the phone
systems in there. Also, I would put a network hub and a TV hub for my coax cables. So
all the CAT5, Coaxial cables, speaker wires, and intercom wires will start from the
distribution center and then branch off to all the different rooms. See figure 9.48.

It is always a good idea to run all the communication cables together. They’re easier to
manage that way and you can keep everything organized all in one strand. The
terminations for the RJ45 connectors are color-coded making it easier to keep the wiring
order consistent. The wires each fit into a slot that cuts through the plastic coating and
make a solid connection with the copper wire inside. See figure 9.49.

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You’ll need a special tool for terminating RJ45 network cables. See figure 9.50

Terminating CAT5 is really easy, but it takes a little practice. You’ll want to cut the
sheathing off about an inch down. Next, you will cut all the wires so they’re even. There
is a cutter on the crimper tool. After lining up the wires in the correct order, you take the
connector and slide it over the wires with the tab down. They should each fit into each of
the eight holes and you will be able to see if they’re straight or if they’re crossed
anywhere. The crimper will have a slot for RJ-11 connectors and RJ-45 connectors. Slide
it in the RJ-45 slot and crimp it down tight. There is a high potential of error when
terminating CAT5, so you may want to buy or rent signal testers and test the cables
before you close things up. See figure 9.51.

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Line testers will test all eight channels on RJ-45 connectors and they are also useful with
regular phone line circuits.

Now, we’ll move on to Coaxial cable. Coax cable for TV antenna comes in 3 standard
sizes, RG-59, RG-6, and RG-11. Most homes use RG-59 because it’s smaller and easier
to work with. It’s terminated with a fitting called an “F” connector. See figure 9.52.

The coax is shielded to prevent interference from higher voltage lines or fluorescent
lights that might be too close. The coax needs to be trimmed and the shielding needs to be
pulled back before the F-connector can be slid on and crimped. See figure 9.53.

The F-connector will close around the coax to form a tight connection. See figure 9.54.

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Now, when we put everything together, we can keep all the phone lines, TV cable lines,
network lines, and even speaker wiring neatly organized so they all run a straight line
back to the distribution box. Distribution boxes look confusing and intimidating at first,
but everything has its proper place. See figures 9.55 and 9.56.

This wraps up the chapter on Electrical Circuitry. You might be a little hesitant to do the
electrical work yourself, but you can save so much by doing the work. Electricians really
do charge a lot for labor and that’s money out of your pocket that just doesn’t need to be
spent that way. Besides, it’s a huge advantage to have knowledge about home wiring.
This chapter is brief yet thorough enough to get the job done.

TEN

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 Exterior Siding
This is my most favorite part of the whole construction process. It’s easy and fun and
your house project will emerge a beautiful creation in just a few days. Exterior sidings are
important not only for looks, but also for protection from the elements over the years. A
house can stay preserved in a new condition for decades or a house can dilapidate and fall
apart in just a few short years depending on the exterior barriers. My whole purpose for
creating this book is to teach people how to build a nice home on low income. As I’ve
covered many times, this is a way for people to get a new home and to financially propel
themselves years ahead of others who decide to hire someone else to do it for them. With
drastically reduced monthly payments, we can afford to do things we otherwise couldn’t
even dream of doing. It’s all because of sweat equity. It’s a wonderful thing.

I bring this point up occasionally to remind us all that we have to make certain decisions
during the building process. Decisions not to overspend on unnecessary materials.
Because as I’ve said before, if we buy the finest quality without regard to cost, our
building project will not get finished and we’ll run out of money before we’re done. I
think most of us have seen major investments in real estate go bad. A hotel, a lodge, a
condominium, or whatever, that was put together by people who had insufficient capital,
yet ignored the warnings. Suddenly, the funds are spent, the project is over budget as
usual, and nobody will step in to save the visionaries from financial ruin. The project
remains unfinished and is either purchased by someone who can pay the bank and usually
some mechanics liens, or the project is scrapped and something else goes up in its place.

Our main focus here is to produce a quality home at a very low cost. There are many
areas where we can save a lot of money and choosing vinyl siding instead of brick or any
other expensive siding material is the best choice by far. The only people that will really
bad mouth vinyl siding are those who can afford brick or perhaps those who sell
aluminum or some other siding that isn’t a good economical choice for someone in our
tax bracket.

Vinyl is a dream to work with. It’s fairly durable, and very economical. It has a few
obvious setbacks, but the pros far outweigh the cons. It is the only exterior siding I will
cover in this section because to me the choice is a slam-dunk.

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The positive qualities of vinyl siding are that it’s maintenance free. It never needs to be
painted and it holds its color very well. It can be cleaned with a garden hose. It helps
insulate the house. Most brands of vinyl have a lifetime guarantee and so far from what
I’ve seen, they could last years without maintenance.

The major expense with vinyl, as with most things, comes from the installation done by
professionals. It doesn’t take a professional to put up siding, just a person that knows a
few characteristics of the product, and has a little common sense.

The most important fact to know about vinyl is that it expands and contracts with the
temperature. Each strip is nailed in place, but the nails aren’t driven in all the way. The
strips of vinyl have nailing flanges, but are more or less hanging in place by the nails.
Each strip should be able to move freely from side to side. A few years back, I remember
seeing a few homes with this new product installed. The homes looked great, but just
after a few weeks; the vinyl was doing some nasty tricks. It was pulling apart in places
and leaving gaps and swells in other places. The homes were new and the siding
installation was still under warranty so they were do-overs for sure. The problems were
an easy fix once the installers understood that they were not supposed to hammer the
nails in all the way. Many contractors and installers have learned this way. Anymore, this
is common knowledge about vinyl siding, but the novice builder can sometimes make
these same mistakes. So here’s the heads up on that subject.

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There are ten rules to follow for basic installation. These rules are made by the actual
manufacturers of vinyl siding and can be found wherever you buy vinyl siding.

1. Installed panels must move freely from side to side.

2. When installing a siding panel, push up from the bottom until the lock is fully
engaged with the piece below it. Without stretching the panel, reach up and nail it
into place.
3. Fasten nails or other fasteners in the center of the nailing slot.
4. Do not force the panels up or down when fastening into position.
5. Do not drive the head of the nail tightly against the siding nail hem. Allow 1/32”
(about the thickness of a dime) clearance between the fastener head and the siding
panel. Drive nails straight and level to prevent distortion and buckling of the
panel.
6. Leave a minimum of ¼” clearance at all openings and stops to allow for normal
expansion and contraction. When installing in temperatures below 40 degrees,
increase minimum clearance to 3/8”.
7. Do not caulk the panels where they meet the receiver of inside corners, outside
corners, or J-trim. Do not caulk the overlap joints.
8. Do not face-nail or staple through siding. Vinyl siding expands and contracts with
outside temperature changes. Face-nailing can result in ripples in the siding.
9. In residing, furring or removal of uneven original siding may be necessary.
10. In new construction, avoid the use of green lumber as the underlayment. Keep in
mind that siding can only be as straight and stable as what lies under it.

Some of these might seem a little redundant, but they are worth mentioning a few
times. The siding will be able to cover all parts of the house that are visible except the
roof. The eaves and soffit will have vinyl or metal coverings that will give them a
professional look. Figure 10.1 shows the parts of the exterior that will be covered.

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Let’s run down the list of the different parts and where they go. We’ll start off with
the vinyl panel itself, which can be several styles both in size and color. The panels
are usually 2 rows of 4 inches or double 4’s, but some are 4 ½ inches for a total
coverage of 9 inches. See figure 10.2.

Figures 10.3 and 10.4 show how the panels fit together with a top lock and a bottom
lock.

Figure 10.5 shows the siding accessories. First is the utility trim, which goes below
the eave and holds the top panel in place. Next is the starter strip, which is where you
attach the first panel and then work your way up to tuck the top panel into the utility
trim. The F-channel holds the soffit panels in place and gives the eaves a professional
look. J-channel is installed around windows and doors before the vinyl panels are put
up. The vinyl slides into the J-channel so the cut edges of the vinyl aren’t visible.

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 Let’s get started on the installation methods. Most building materials centers will
send someone to your building site to measure the house to get an estimate for
materials needed. This is almost always free of charge. If by some chance you don’t
have a Home Depot, Lowe’s or some other center, you may have to calculate the
amount of materials yourself. There is an easy way to do this if you have to.

For the wall area, you can just multiply the height times the width. See figure 10.6. Don’t
subtract anything for windows or doors. Also try to add an extra 10 percent to
compensate for waste. You can get very close to the amount needed for the gable ends if
you multiply half the height times the width of the gable as in figure 10.7. You can get
the measurements for the starter strip, the utility trim, the J-channel and the F-channel
simply by doing a linear measurement. The starter strip and utility trim are installed as in
figure 10.8. The gable ends will have J-channel to hold the vinyl in place at the ends. See
figure 10.9.

You will use J-channel on gable ends, but also around windows and doors. The vinyl
panels will tuck neatly inside the J-channel. A lot of J-channel will be used because of all
the windows and doors in a home, but it’s very inexpensive and it’s extremely easy to
work with.

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Figure 10.10 shows how the vinyl tucks up into the J-channel on the gable ends. The
utility strip will hold the top row of vinyl in place as shown in Figure 10.11. The nail
hem has to be cut off from the top piece of vinyl. See figure 10.12. After the nail hem is
removed, the vinyl needs to have snap-lock lugs punched into it about every 4 inches
with a snap-lock punch. See figure 10.13. The top piece of vinyl then slides into the
utility strip and snaps into a locked position which can move from side to side, but not
down.

Before the vinyl panels can be put on, all trim accessories have to be put in place. That
includes flashing, soffit and fascia, J-channel, F-channel, utility trim, starter strip, inside
corner posts and outside corner posts.

The best place to start is up on the eaves because the soffit should be finished before the
wall panels go on, that way you get a nice even fit between the J-channel that holds the
soffit panels and the utility trim that holds the top vinyl panel. Let’s begin with the soffit
and fascia installation.

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In figure 10.14 we can see the how the different accessories fit together to make a neat
appearance. It all fits together tight and creates a good protection barrier from the
weather.

The first thing to do when siding the eaves and soffit is to put up the J-channel or the F-
channel on each side of the eave so that the soffit panels just slide in. See figure 10.15.

You can see the difference between an open eave as in figure 10.15, and an enclosed
eave as in figure 10. 16. The open eave needs the F-channel and the enclosed eave will
need to have the J-channel attached.

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The soffit panels come in different lengths and styles. See figure 10.17. They also come
in vented or unvented varieties depending on the amount of vents you put in your eaves
to create air flow and prevent rot. You can just cut them to fit up into the J-channel or F-
channel. You’re probably better off with metal soffit than with vinyl because it is
stronger. It’s very common to use metal soffit with vinyl siding. The fascia is usually
made of metal as well and it just fits into place with the bottom fitting over the J-channel
and the top will fit up into the utility trim. This means that the top of the fascia needs to
have snap-lock lugs punched into it. See figure 10.18. These snap-lock lugs should be
spaced about 6 inches apart and they should only be about 1/8 inch below the top of the
fascia so that they make a good connection with the utility trim.

Now we can move on to the flashing. Flashing is what keeps moisture from entering
vulnerable parts of the roof and walls. The flashing is just strips of metal that can be cut
to fit anywhere. It needs to be put up before any J-channel goes on.

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It’s always a good idea to flash around windows, doors, corners, and any structure
attachments. The idea of the flashing is to help the moisture get from the house to the
ground with no resistance. As we can see in figure 10.19, you need to start at the bottom
of the window with the first piece, and then do the sides overlapping the bottom. Finally,
you’ll do the top piece and it will overlap the two side pieces. This will keep any
moisture that gets in from penetrating the sheathing and causing damage. Attached
garages will need flashing where it connects to the house as in figure 10.20.

After the flashing, comes the installation for the J-channel around windows and doors.
The top piece of J-channel needs to overlap the side pieces as shown in figure 10.21.
This helps keep water from getting in. Figure 10.22 shows a door lined with J-channel.
The windows are the same.

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After all the J-channel is put in place, then we can move on to the corner posts and
special fittings for exterior outlets. There are outside and inside corner posts as shown in
figure 10.23. The corners should have flashing covering about 10 inches on each side of
the corner before the corner posts are put on. Figure 10.24 shows an outside corner and
how it is started. The top nail will be completely to the top of the nail hem hole so that
the corner post rests there. All the other nails will be in the center of the nailing slot.

When putting the corner posts on, you need to leave a ¼ inch gap between the top of the
corner post and the eave or soffit. The corner posts will also extend down below the
starter strip by about ¾ inch. That will make a neat appearance once the vinyl is in place.
After the corner posts are done, you can put the external outlet fixtures on. These are
prefabricated vinyl fittings for outlets, lights, spigots, dryer vents, etc. See figure 10.26.

FIG. 10. 26
These fittings make the job a lot easier and they are quite inexpensive. They give the
exterior a nice finished look.

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Now that all the vinyl accessories are done, we can start the vinyl siding. To make sure
that the vinyl panels are even all the way around the house, we need to take some
measurements on one wall from corner to corner. Start at the soffit and measure down to
the top of the foundation. Subtract the width of the starter strip plus ¼ inch. See figure
10.27. Mark that spot or put a nail there and attach a chalk line. Next, you will go to the
other corner and do the same measurement. Stretch a chalk line between the two
measurements and use a 4 foot level to make sure it’s level. You will be able to find the
lowest corner of the house by this means. The lowest corner is where you begin your
reference point. Snap the chalk line and then move on to the other sides of the house. See
figure 10.28. When you get back to the starting point, the chalk line should match up.
You can start the first piece of starter strip by putting it against the chalk line so that the
top touches the line.

Be sure to leave about ¼ inch gap between starter strips to allow for expansion. Now we
can put our first vinyl panel in place. See figure 10.29.

FIG. 10.29

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The first panel will lock in place over the starter strip and will slide into the corner post as
shown in figure 10.29. You will want to leave ¼ inch gap when you slide the panel into
the corner post so it doesn’t go all the way in to the end. That will leave room for
expansion. Then pull the panel up so it has a snug fit and nail it into place using the
centers of the nailing hems. Don’t pull up too hard on each panel. You don’t want to
stretch the panels because they will pull away with temperature changes. Try to straddle
or offset the seams so they look nice. See figure 10.30.

The panels will overlap about 1 inch where there is a seam, that will prevent them from
pulling apart and leaving the walls exposed. See figure 10.31.

FIG. 10.31

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Once you get to the last row, you will need to make a special fit by measuring how wide
the last piece has to be. Then you will cut off the nail hem and punch snap-lock lugs into
the panel so it will fit up into the utility trim. See figures 10.31 and 10.32.

The last piece just snaps in place and stays there. That is the last step to the vinyl siding
project. Your work will look professional and you’ll save at least half by doing it all
yourself.

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Vinyl siding is the best choice to accomplish what we need in terms of affordability and
quality. There are many contractors that discourage the public from doing the work
themselves. They say that an inexperienced installer can make costly mistakes. I don’t go
for that. I never did. Homeowners are going to take the time to get it right without
rushing through it. Besides, vinyl is so easy to work with that even the most novice
builder can learn the basics in just a short time and the basics is good enough to do a
great job.

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 ELEVEN

The Roof

The roof is the first line of defense against the elements so it needs to be done right and
with the right materials. The basic idea is that a roof will let water or snow run down to
the ground with no stops on the way. If water forms pools on the roof, it has a more likely
chance of getting in than water that runs straight off.
The type of roofing material depends mostly on the local climate. I will cover only two
types of roofing materials because of our purpose in creating a nice home on a tight
budget, there are many other choices that don’t make sense. I live in an area where there
is a fair amount of snow and ice, but rainfall is minimal. In these conditions, a person
could use either asphalt shingles as in figure 11.1 or metal panels as shown in figure 11.2

. Asphalt shingles are much less expensive than metal and they are of much better quality
than they used to be. If I travel 30 miles north, most roofs are made of metal because of
the heavy snowfall. Just 15 miles south of my home, most roofs are made with asphalt
shingles and metal roofs are considered overkill.

I opted for a metal roof because of some of the problems I have seen locally with asphalt
shingles. If you can get away with using shingles then do it because it’s a lot cheaper.
Metal is a little harder to work with because it’s difficult to cut. The roof goes on faster
with metal because so much area is being covered at one time. The cost difference is
substantial though. The house will appraise for more with metal because it is more
durable.

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Now to start with, we will need to have a protective barrier to put directly over the
sheathing or the wood on the roof. This moisture-resistant barrier is called roofing felt or
tar paper. See figure 11.3. It’s important that the roof is dry before this goes on or it will
hold the moisture in and cause the roof to start rotting. See figure 11.4.

Roofing felt comes in different lengths, widths, and thicknesses. 15-pound felt is the most
common thickness. You just roll it out starting at the bottom of the roof from one end to
the other end. If you have to put two pieces together while going across, then you should
overlap them at least 4 inches. You can secure it with galvanized nails, but only put in as
much as is needed to prevent the wind from blowing it away. The second row will need
to overlap the first row by at least 2 inches. That’s why you start at the bottom and work
your way up. See figure 11.5.

Once you have finished with all the roofing felt you will need to consider the areas that
need flashing. The flashing material is important and can be found wherever roofing
materials can be found.

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Figure 11.6 gives us a good idea how the flashing is applied and shows its purpose in
diverting moisture downward in vulnerable areas such as valleys, hips, chimneys, vents,
or any other attachments.

FIG. 11.6
This shows how the flashing is installed and where it is placed above the shingles or
beneath them.

The flashing for metal roofs is applied in exactly the same manner as shingles. The only
important difference when doing a metal roof is that the flashing and the fasteners be the
same type of metal as the roofing material to prevent electrolytic action which causes
deterioration. You can usually find the same color of flashing as the metal you buy at the
same place.

Now let’s move on to the actual installation of shingles and metal for roofing. Shingles
come in many different sizes, thicknesses, styles and colors. Local codes will determine
the required weight of the shingles. Asphalt shingles are categorized by weight where the
heavier the shingle, usually the better quality it is and the more expensive. The weight is
calculated by how much a hundred square feet of coverage will weigh.

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It also has different class ratings which is important where local fire codes matter. For
instance, Class A shingles are made of noncombustible glass fibers which make them
fire-resistant. Class C, for example, only has a moderate resistance to fire because they
are made of organic-based materials. All-in-all, the most popular style is the 3-tab square
butt shingles. They are really easy to work with also. See figure 11.7.

The most important thing to remember about shingles is that they need to be offset so that
the tabs don’t line up. So we need to have a starting point to begin. We already know that
we want to start at the bottom of the roof and work our way up, but some contractors like
to start at one end of the roof while others like to make a centerline and start from there.
Measure the halfway point and snap a chalk line for a reference point. See figure 11.9.

The first row is called the starter course and it’s basically a buildup or reinforcement so
the edge will have more strength. You can buy starter course shingles if you want, but it’s
just as easy to cut off the tabs so you have a straight shingle to start out. See figure 11.10.
Now we’ll start out the actual shingle coverage by putting the first shingle in the center of
the centerline and make sure to set the shingle at least 1 inch beyond the sheathing so that
water and snow will fall away from the eave. See figure 11.11.

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 FIG. 11.11
The first row of shingles should be laid out completely before you nail them in place so
you can make sure they are even. It helps to snap a chalk line above the starter course to
keep things in order. Once all the shingles are laid out and nailed down, we can start our
second row. The second course shingles need to be offset from the first course so the tabs
don’t line up. See figure 11.12.

Each 3-tab shingle will need four nails to make it secure. The nailing assignment is
manufacturer specific so it should be followed closely. See figure 11.13.

The second row offsets the first row and so on until it’s finished. See figure 11.14.

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You will want to put on all vent covers and lay the shingles accordingly. See figure
11.15.

It’s important to use the proper nails and to drive them in straight. See figure 11.17. Also,
you don’t want to drive them in too far because that can damage the shingle. The nailing
position is important to prevent the shingle from buckling. You need to start from one
side of the shingle and nail each slot across. See figure 11.18.

You will need a special type of shingle for the ridge called the ridge cap or ridge roll.
You can make your own by bending shingles, but they can sometimes leak. It’s better to
buy them because they are reinforced for that purpose. See figure 11.19.

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Now let’s suppose we wanted a metal roof. Some manufacturers call it steel. A steel roof
is quite easy to install, it’s just kind of difficult to cut. I use tin snips, but you can also use
an abrasive blade in a circular saw. That works quite well. The flashing is the same
except that the flashing needs to be the same type of metal and it should be the same
color. It comes in long sheets usually no longer than 12 foot lengths in residential, but
you can special order longer sheets if you need them. See figure 11.21.

FIG. 11.21
The sheets can overlap to increase the length and they fit closely together with the
corrugations. See figure 11.22. There is an over lap side and an under lap side. They fit
tightly together and the overlap side needs to have screws put in it so the wind doesn’t get
under it once two sheets are fitted together. See figure 11.23.

The screws are usually hex head wood screws with a rubber ring. The screw shouldn’t be
over tightened. The screw is in far enough when the rubber just starts to expand out.
Figure 11.24 shows where the screws should be placed for maximum strength.

FIG. 11.24

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When all the metal panels are installed we can now move on to the last step. The ridge
cap or ridge roll is a specially designed metal panel that fits right over the ridge. See
figure 11.25.

The ridge cap needs to be secured by putting screws in the ridges. That will keep the
ridge from bending or buckling in places. You can fill in the valleys under the ridge cap
with roof cement to prevent wind and rain from getting in.

That’s it for roofs. Just remember to be careful especially when working with metal
because it is bulky and you can become a kite on windy days.

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 TWELVE

Heating, Venting, and Air Conditioning

There have been a lot of improvements over the years in the area of heating, venting, and
air conditioning or more commonly referred to as HVAC. A century ago things were
much easier. Most homes had a fireplace and a few windows and that was their HVAC.
Things are quite a bit different today as we have many complex forms of HVAC’s out
there. They can seem difficult to understand, but they really aren’t too difficult to install
and maintain. Some of the modern day HVAC systems are very expensive and even
though they will save on electricity costs because of high efficiency, it’s better to start out
with a more economical system. Remember, if you use the finest quality materials and
fixtures all the time, you will probably run out of money before your house is finished.
There might be a few contractors out there that would have plenty to say about that
statement, but the truth is, they aren’t going to install the highest quality fixtures either
unless you ask for them. They make handsome profits from overcharging the wealthy and
middle class for high quality fixtures, but most of the simple homes will get low end
fixtures.

In this chapter I will concentrate on simple and inexpensive HVAC systems. Let’s start
out with the heating units. The easiest heating system to install is definitely wall heaters.
See figure12.1.

FIG. 12.1

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 No duct work is needed because each room has its own heater. These are inexpensive to
buy and fairly economical. They are much more efficient than they used to be. They are
electric and come in several sizes, colors, and BTU’s. The BTU is short for “British
Thermal Units” (I think). It’s just a means of measuring a heating area. The BTU’s will
go up as the wattage goes up, so for a big room, you may want to install a 3,000-watt
heater, but for bedrooms, a 2,000-watt heater should be fine. They are also available in
120-volts, or 240-volts. The 240-volt series is more efficient in terms of power
consumption. These heaters fit into a 4-inch wall easily enough. The rough opening for
the hole in the wall will need to be framed in. See figure 12.2. Some heaters can be
attached to a wall stud without being framed in. The dimensions for the canister are on
the box. The canister fits into the wall and houses the wiring. The heater fits into the
canister, and then the grill is put on. See figure 12.3.

The wiring for these heaters is easy as well. For the 240-volt heaters, you will want to use
a 30-amp breaker at the breaker box, and 10-2 Romex with both black and white wires as
hot. See figure 12.4. These heaters should be placed on interior walls for the best
efficiency so they aren’t trying to heat cold air of an outside wall.

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You can use 12-2 Romex, but 10-2 wire will tolerate higher wattages without getting hot.
That way if you want to put in a larger heater in the future, the wiring will support it.
Figure 12.5 shows how the wires from the heater are connected to the heating circuit. All
these wiring standards will be subject to local codes. The electrical inspector will have
the minimum standards necessary for this type of heater. You should probably put no
more than three heaters on one circuit to avoid overload. This circuit will of course be a
dedicated circuit to heating units only. Figure 12.6 shows different types of heaters.

FIG. 12.6

The next type of heat system is a stove or fireplace. Gas stoves are much more efficient
then ever before. Woodstoves are a good investment if you don’t mind gathering and
chopping firewood. Fireplaces now have inserts that make them more efficient, but an
open fireplace is more for atmosphere and ambience than heating. Stoves that use natural
gas and propane are inexpensive to buy and fairly economical. See figure 12.7. We can
see how to vent a gas stove in figure 12.8. You can also put the vent straight up in single
story homes. These stoves are more efficient with fans or blowers installed.

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The next form of heater we will look at is a furnace type with duct work. This is usually a
furnace that can be gas, electric, or oil. See Figure 12.9.

FIG.12.9

It has heat ducts going to each room in the house and usually has an air exchange system
to bring air back to the furnace. See figure 12.10

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Metal ductwork was pretty much the main type of venting material used for a long time,
but now it’s quite common to see flexible ducts. Flex ducts are much less expensive than
metal and a lot easier and faster to install. See figure 12.11. They can be installed right
into the floor joists, rafters, and crawlspaces. The trick is to get a good tight fit so that air
doesn’t escape.

FIG.12.11

The air-conditioning system can be included in the heating ductwork. It is usually run this
way to save materials. Figure 12.12 shows some examples of air conditioners. Air
conditioners can be central or local. A big AC system using air ducts would be a central
system. Smaller units in each room would be local air-conditioners. The decision of
which to use depends on the local climate.

FIG. 12.12

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 THIRTEEN

Installing Insulation

One of my least favorite parts of the whole building process is installing the insulation.
Modern day insulation and insulation methods are much better than they were three or
four decades ago. Fiberglass insulation was a nasty, itchy product. Today, it’s not bad.
There are several methods of insulating your house, but we will stick with the most
economical and the easiest. There are a few considerations to make before you get
started. First of all, you should consider the local climate. Insulation comes in many
forms, but the least expensive is the fiberglass rolls, so I’ll only cover that kind. See
figure 13.1.

Batted insulation comes in different widths and lengths. The two standard widths for wall
studs are 16” on center and 24” on center. Insulation is made to fit snuggly into the walls,
so both widths are available almost anywhere. The money spent on insulation is always
money well spent. Three decades ago, the standard wall thicknesses were the width of a
2x4 stud. We know better now, so most walls are made with 2x6’s instead. This allows
more insulation which is a good thing in both the summer and the winter.

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Insulation is measured by its R-value. The higher the R-value, the better, and usually the
thicker the insulation. Here are some examples of R-values and insulation thicknesses.
The climate map is a general guideline. Local codes will be slightly more demanding. See
figure 13.3.

Most codes have a minimum of R-11 for the walls, but if you have 2x6 walls, you will be
better off with R-19. It will make a lot of difference in temperature extremes. You can see
the R-values according to board thickness in the graph in figure 13.4. Some insulation
bats have a small flap on the edge to staple so it stays in place. Other rolls might need to
be held in place with plastic as in figure 13.5.

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The chart in figure 13.4 gives a general idea of the thicknesses used for each size of
board. Figure 13.6 shows the outside walls that will be covered in either R-11 or R-19
depending on the thickness of the wall studs. The interior walls don’t need insulation.

. It’s also really important to insulate the floors as shown in figure 13.7. Some might not
feel it necessary to insulate the floors, but it makes a big difference in heating and cooling
a home.

Insulating a Gambrel roof is different than a normal rafter roof because you will need to
roll R-30 or R-38 into the rafters as shown in figure 13.8.

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For a normal roof that uses regular trusses, the insulation is put into the rafters directly
over the ceiling so there is a dead air space in the attic. This helps regulate heat and
moisture under the roof. See figure 13.9.

There are a few areas that often get overlooked when insulating. One of those areas is
inside headers and between rough openings for doors and windows. See figure 13.10.
Also behind outlets, switches, and any place where there are openings in the sheetrock.

Installing the insulation is about as easy as anything can be, so I won’t spend any more
time on it. It just makes economic sense to be thorough and to do a good job, you’ll be
glad you did for many years afterward.

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 FOURTEEN

Walls and Ceilings

Now this is where the inside of the house really starts to take shape and you will get a
whole new feeling about the building project. This is where our brain switches into
finish-work mode from rough-in work mode. Everything from this point on will be done
with the knowledge that it has to look good because it won’t be covered up. By this time,
first-time homebuilders are getting pretty good with measurements and cutting. Things
are a little more precise than when you started. There is probably less waste and
hopefully a few less smashed fingers.

This is where we put up the sheetrock. Sheetrock or Gypsum board, as it’s sometimes
called, is kind of heavy so this is a good place to get some help. The standard thickness in
residential sheetrock is ½-inch. Before we start to put up any sheetrock, we’ll need to
make sure that the wall studs are straight and square. You can take a tape measure and
check the inside walls to make sure the sheetrock will be on center to a wall stud.
Remember, where two sheets are joined, there needs to be enough room on the stud to
nail both sheets. Figures 14.1 and 14.2 show how to measure the wall and apply the
sheetrock.

You will probably want to get some 1 or 2-inch boards, lathe, or furring strips to nail
along side the wall studs where there isn’t enough nailing room. These are called
“nailers.” Nailers help support the sheetrock in corners. Drywall hangers use nailers a lot
because of the time they save. You can just nail, screw, or even apply them with
adhesive.

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The sheetrock needs to be secured to the wall studs or joists. Sheetrock comes in many
different lengths, but is typically four feet wide. The most common size of sheetrock for
walls is 4X8. Walls are either on 16” or 24” centers. Sometimes the walls are warped or
out of square. That will throw off the measurements so the sheetrock won’t line up on the
studs to be nailed. Furring strips or nailers really help out in this situation. See figures
14.3 and 14.4.

Figure 14.5 shows a wall that is shimmed with a furring strip so there is adequate nailing
room on the wall stud. Figure 14.6 shows the different kinds of nails and screws.

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 These are screws and nails made solely for securing sheetrock. The nails need to be
driven in just lower than the sheet’s surface, but not deep enough to break the paper. It’s
easier to cover the nail heads that way. It requires a special hammer as shown in figure
14.7. If you choose to use sheetrock screws, make sure that you don’t screw them in too
deep.

. There is a special bit for sheetrock that prevents the screw from going in too far. See
figure 14.8. Sheetrock can be cut with a utility knife as shown in figure 14.9.

It only needs to be scribed enough to cut the paper and then it will break apart. You will
need to cut out all the holes for outlets, switches, and light boxes. This gets a little tricky
because there is no easy way of doing it. The best way is to measure how far up and over
the box is and then write the measurements on the floor. A close fit is really important
around the electrical boxes because the faceplates to the boxes will only cover up small
gaps in the sheetrock, not really big ones. Sheetrock is very inexpensive, though, and so
you can make a few mistakes and still not break the bank.

When putting up the sheetrock, you might be tempted to use bits and pieces to save
money, but it will be difficult to tape and mud a little later on. Sheetrock is cheap and you
should use as big of pieces as you can.

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As far as which way to run the sheetrock on the walls, I prefer to run the sheets
horizontally so I have a horizontal seam 4 feet up the wall. That makes it easier to tape
and mud. The best way to hang sheetrock will leave as few seams as possible. See figure
14.11.

Some people find it easier to install the ceiling sheets with the use of a dead man. See
figures 14.13 and 14.14

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A T-square can help make perfect cuts for straight pieces as shown in figure 14.15, but a
chalk line is usually the best tool for tricky cuts as in figure 14.16.

Hanging sheetrock takes a little practice, but it’s also a very “common sense” kind of
thing. The important thing to remember is to make the taping job easier by using big
pieces and getting the sheets to fit together without uneven joints.

After all the sheets are hung, you will need to reinforce the corners with a special kind of
tape figure 14.17 or corner bead figure 14.18.

The tape folds in half and makes a 90 degree angle or whatever angle you want to make.
It is applied the same way normal tape is. It is not as durable as vinyl or metal corner
beads. These are nailed in place and are covered with compound. They need to be put on
before any other taping because they usually require more layers of mud to hide the
seams.

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Now it’s time to move on to the mudding part of drywall. You will need to prepare the
joint compound. I personally prefer the already mixed mud to the dry stuff. The premixed
mud will still need to be thinned down with water. This is a trial and error approach, but
everyone is a little different in his or her preference to mud consistencies so you will have
to find out how thin you like to have it.

Taping is truly an art, which takes a lot of experience if you want to do an expert job.
Fortunately, the owner/builder doesn’t need to spend years learning how to tape and mud
to do a fairly good job. The idea here is to tape the joints or seams and to spread enough
layers of drywall compound (mud) over the tape, that the seam is completely invisible
under a layer of paint or texture. Most of the tapers start out with a 5 or 6 inch taping
knife. They will scoop up a little more than a handful of mud with the knife from the
palette. A thin layer of compound is spread evenly along the seam as shown in figure
14.19. Next the tape is applied to the mud. It should cover the seam evenly. You will
need to slide the tapers knife along the seam to flatten it and squeeze any air bubbles out.
See figure 14.20.

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You will want to make sure that the tape is exactly the length that is needed because
splicing the tape makes a seam that’s hard to cover. As you squeeze the compound out
from under the tape, make sure to get all the wrinkles and blisters out. If you get blisters
or little round bubbles in the tape, you probably aren’t getting enough compound on the
wall before the tape goes on.

Make another pass with the same knife to get any excess mud out. Let this first layer dry
for at least twelve hours. Once that coat has dried, you should use a drywall knife to
scrape any burrs or high spots you may have created with the first coat. Be careful not to
put gouges in the tape. If you do, just cover it in with mud.

Next, it’s time for the second coat or filler coat. This time you will use a 10-inch trowel.
Spread an even coat over the first coat that’s as wide as the knife. See figure 14.21. If the
mud is too thick it will crack when it dries. It needs to be just right and sometimes it takes
a few do-overs to get it right. Get it as smooth as possible. Make repeat passes until it
looks good and is free from high spots and bumps. Let this coat dry for at least 12 hours.
Once this coat is dry, remove any high spots and bumps with a tapers knife.

Now for the final coat or finish coat. Take a 12-inch finishing trowel and spread a light
coat of mud over the second coat. Move with long steady strokes while feathering out the
sides to make a gentle rounded cover over the seam. You can apply more coats if the
seam is still obvious. As far as sanding is concerned, it’s a dirty word to the experts, but
to the rest of us, we sometimes need to go over our seams and do some sanding in a few
places. If you do it right the first time, sanding won’t be necessary.

Next, let’s move on to corner bead mudding. There are interior corners and exterior
corners. The interior corners can be taped with regular paper tape. Some people like to
use a corner trowel. See figure 14.23. The wall preparation is the same for inside corners
as for wall seams.

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You will need to apply the mud to the inside corner in a thin layer and then fold the tape
down the middle to fit into the corner. See figure 14.24.

FIG 14.23 FIG 14.24

Once the first coat is dry you can start the second coat. You will do this with a 5 or 6-
inch trowel smoothing the mud into one side of the corner at a time. See figure 14.25
Once that coat dries you can put a finish coat on.

FIG 14.25 FIG 14.26

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We have finished the inside corners and now we can concentrate on the outside corners.
After the corner bead has been nailed in place you can apply the first coat of mud. Corner
beads don’t need tape; they just need to be covered with at least three layers of
compound. You just start with the 5-inch trowel and do one side at a time with the first
layer, then switch and do the other side covering the entire corner bead with compound.
See figure 14.27 and 14.28.

FIG 14.27 FIG 14.28

From this point it’s just the same as inside corners. Make a second application, let dry,
and then chip away burrs or high spots, then on to the final coat. See figures 14.29 and
14.30.

FIG 14.29 FIG 14.30

Now we’ll move on to patching the nail and screw holes. I have found it to be better to
run a vertical line down the wall covering a line of screws than to cover each screw
individually. This helps to keep a uniform line of mud that’s easy to cover.

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It’s the same for covering nail holes as it is for mudding seams, except you don’t need
tape. If you can put three coats on, you won’t be able to see any nail holes through the
texture or the paint. See figure 14.31 and 14.32.

FIG 14.31 FIG 14.32

The finished project should look something like this. At this point you may want to go
back over a few lines and do some sanding if needed.

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After all the taping and mudding is done, you will need to decide if you want to texture
the walls. Texturing is very popular right now and it’s very easy. There are a few
different ways to texture your walls, but I’ll stick with the easiest way. A hopper and an
air compressor make texturing a breeze. You will need to thin down the drywall
compound to about the consistency of thick cake batter. Then you connect the air hose
and dump the mud into the hopper and pull the trigger. You can either use a hopper or a
roller. The hopper saves a lot of time, but you’ll need a compressor. See figure 14.33 and
14.34.

FIG 14.33 FIG 14.34

You can decide how heavy you want to spray the texture. There are many different
designs, but the two most popular are the thick orange peel coat and the flat orange peel
coat. The only difference is once you have the coat sprayed on; you can smooth it out
with a long trowel or a board making a flat texture. You can also make designs with the
compound. See figure 14.35 and 14.36.

FIG 14.35 FIG 14.36

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If you decide to make designs with the drywall compound, just remember that when it
hardens it can leave jagged edges. Ceiling designs are usually a great idea but wall
designs within reach might need to be flattened to smoothen out the sharp edges.

That’s about all for drywall. The house will be stronger, quieter, and it will have a
finished look.

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 FIFTEEN

Floor Finishes

To continue in the building process, we need to finish the second layer of the floor. The
first layer was put on when we did the framework. The floor joists were covered by a
layer of plywood called the sub floor. This layer of plywood is the only layer of flooring
up until the finish work gets started. We don’t put the second layer on immediately after
the first layer because it can get damaged by building materials, careless workers, and
weather.

The second layer of flooring is called the “under layment”. It is usually either
particleboard or plywood. It doesn’t matter which one you use. See figure 15.1

FIG. 15. 1
You will want to get a good fit with the under layment. This is one of those areas where
you will be cussing yourself if your foundation is out of square. It’s really important to
get a good fit in the more open areas of the floor. Gaps can be filled with flooring putty to
prevent uneven areas that can cause excessive wear on carpets and even make holes and
bare spots.
Screws help hold the sub floor and the underlayment together better than nails to prevent
squeaky floors.
The second layer of flooring will make the floors much stronger. It’s definitely a lot of
work to fit each piece into place especially around toilet flanges and up against the walls.

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When this is completed the floors will have a consistent flow from one room to another.
This gives the home a more completed look and feel.

Once the second floor is done, we can start preparing for the floor coverings and finishes.
There are several options to choose from and they are all fairly close in cost. We can
choose carpeting, wood flooring, vinyl (linoleum), or tile. Some kinds of wood flooring
are very expensive, so be sure to shop around for good quality, but a good price. If you
go to a flooring store, the salesmen will probably try to sell you something pricey. If you
have a Lowes or a Home Depot handy, any of the salespeople will help you find
something of good quality that’s in your price range.

There is one thing that I should mention here about carpeting. Most carpet stores sell
carpet by the square yard, but the installation is already included in the price. I tried to
find carpet that I could install myself, because I thought it would be cheaper, but the price
was the same if I did the work or not. This is very common. It’s much easier to have the
carpet installed for you and it’s usually the same price. See figures 15.2 and 15.3.

FIG 15.2 FIG 15.3

Carpet is really quite reasonable unless you decide to buy an expensive brand, which will
last longer, but even the more economical type will last close to a decade. By that time,
you’ll probably be ready for a newer style, so the less expensive brand is a good idea.
Heavy traffic areas like hallways and entryways will need a durable type of carpet. Try to
get a good deal on carpeting because there is a wide variation in price.

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You will need the carpet pad, which goes down first. See figure 15.4. You will need to
nail all the tack strips in place, which actually holds the carpet in place without having to
use tacks. The tack strip will be placed ¼-inch away from the walls. See figure 15.5

The carpet pad will fit inside of the tack strip. The carpet roll can now be rolled out onto
the floor to be measured for cutting. See figure 15.7. There needs to be about three
inches of spare carpet all the way around before cutting it. This is the first measurement
and it needs to have extra. Once that is cut to a rough estimate, you will need to get a
carpet edge cutter or a utility knife. See figure 15.8. An edge cutter is preferable because
of its ability to cut straight lines up against a wall. You can still get a good close fit with a
utility knife, but you need to be much more careful not to cut too much carpet or it will
leave a bare spot. This is a time when it is essential to have good sharp blades for your
utility knife.

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The carpet will need to be stretched tight with a stretcher as shown in figure 15.9. Once it
is stretched tight, you can start to press it into the tack strip with the head of a hammer.
You can secure the carpet onto the tack strip by rolling the hammer head firmly along the
strip and pressing down. This will push the carpet onto the strip and bend the strip tacks
over to hold the carpet in place. You can then lightly hammer the tack strip to make sure
there aren’t any tacks sticking through.

That is the nutshell version for carpets. As I said before, you will probably not have to do
your own carpets because the price is the same if you do it or if you let somebody else do
it. Laying carpet takes a fair amount of experience, so it’s best that the professionals do it
anyway.

Let’s take a look at wood flooring. This is quite expensive no matter what kind of quality
you get, but definitely shop around for the best price. Wood laminates is the most
economical route to take as opposed to the real expensive hard wood flooring. See figure
15.10. You can use solid wood for a little more money as in figure 15.11.

The important thing to remember about wood flooring is to get the floor marked
accurately with either a marker or a chalk line. The floor needs to be marked in a grid
pattern that is in square. For laminated squares, you will start in the middle of the floor
and work towards the walls. That way, when you have to cut a tile to get it to fit up
against the wall, it won’t look bad. If you start from the wall and work your way to the
middle, you’ll end up with an odd-sized tile or tiles in the center for everyone to look at.

191
After you’ve marked the floor then you can apply the flooring adhesive with a notched
trowel. The adhesive dries fairly quickly so you might want to cover only as much of an
area that you can work on inside of an hour. See figure 15.12. Next you will start laying
the tiles in place according to the measurements on the floor. See figure 15.13. Some
types of floor laminates need to be glued. Once in place, make sure they fit tightly
together.

Tap them gently with a piece of scrap wood and a hammer to make them fit tightly
together as shown in figure 15.14. You can make special cuts for the final tiles with a
jigsaw or a coping saw and place them in until you have a perfect fit. See figure 15.15.

Once you’ve finished putting it all together, you can go over it with a damp cloth to get
all the glue. It should come off easily with water.

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For areas where there will be a lot of moisture like kitchens and bathrooms, it’s a good
idea to use cement board or more commonly called “backer board” on top of the
underlayment flooring. This will protect the plywood floor from water damage. You will
need to put a layer of thin-set mortar mix down with a ¼-inch notched trowel. See figure
15.17. Backer board can be fastened with 1 1/2-inch galvanized screws. See figure 15.18.

Once you get the backer board screwed down, you will need to put another layer of
adhesive for the tiles. See figure 15.19. Ceramic tile is perfect for humid environments.
See figure 15.20.

It helps to use spacers on ceramic tile to keep them even. See figure 15.21. Smaller tiles
usually come on a mesh screen so they stay uniform without spacers. See figure 15.22.

193
Once you’ve secured the tiles and let the adhesive dry a bit, you can apply the grout.
Grout is a special type of cement that you spread into the cracks between tiles. See figure
15.23. It helps to tilt the float trowel a bit to push the grout into the cracks. When the
grout has evenly filled the cracks, you can remove any excess grout by wiping the tiles
with a damp sponge. Do this very lightly and just enough to remove the excess without
pulling any grout from the cracks. See figure 15.23.

Vinyl tiles are also an option for floor covering. They are quite inexpensive and very easy
to put in place. They aren’t nearly as durable as wood or ceramic tiles though. Vinyl tiles
are available in many styles and colors. They are also available as self-adhesive tiles
where you just peel off the wax paper and lay them in place, or you can get the dry-back
vinyl tiles where you need to put a layer of glue down and stick them in place. See figure
15.25. You can also go for the option of sheet vinyl (linoleum). It’s harder to put in place
and you have to be precise when you put it onto the floor because the adhesive will
usually hold it in place once it is down. See figure 15.26.

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Sheet vinyl needs to be glued in place but it is much more durable than vinyl tiles
because there are no seams to wear or come loose. The floor preparation for sheet vinyl is
a little more demanding as every crack and hole in the plywood underlayment needs to be
filled before the adhesive can be spread on. The best way to put on the vinyl is to spread
it out onto the floor before you put on the adhesive and make sure every corner has a
perfect fit. Once you have it just right, pull back half of the vinyl and then put the
adhesive down in front of the vinyl with a notched trowel. See figure 15.27.
Lay the vinyl back onto the adhesive, then pull back the other half and do the same thing.
Once it’s in place, you will need to use a roller to flatten any air bubbles. See figure
15.28.

195
When you have all the flooring done, you can put threshold strips across doorways to
prevent the vinyl from peeling up. It also keeps carpets from fraying. See figure 15.29

Well, that’s all we need to cover for flooring. Most flooring is very easy to install and
with the new kits available at the flooring retail stores, you can do a professional looking
job with no previous experience.

196
 SIXTEEN

Bathrooms and Fixtures

Bathrooms is a fun part of the whole building project because it goes quickly and looks
so good when it’s all finished. The hardest part of bathrooms is the plumbing and at this
point, most of it has been done.

The fixtures and components in bathrooms can be really expensive or really cheap. What
we want to look for is something that has a low price, yet is of good quality. You can find
good quality products at a fair price at most building stores if you shop around. The
fixtures and components you’ll want to find for your bathroom are a toilet, a bath, a
shower, mirrors and cabinets, lights, a sink, a fan, faucets, handles and switch plates.

Bathroom cabinets are usually considered as a part of kitchen cabinets if you have a
cabinetmaker build your kitchen cabinets. The cabinetmaker will need the dimensions for
any bathroom cabinets you have.

To start off, we need to make sure the walls have adequate protection against moisture.
Regular sheetrock can be used, but in bathrooms, it is becoming more and more common
to use cement board or backer board for the walls. This not only protects against rot and
mildew, but is also a solid surface to attach tile and tub and shower surrounds to. See
figure 16.1 and 16.2.

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Cement board can be taped with a special fiberglass mesh tape and latex cement. It
doesn’t need any more than one coat. See figure 16.3. A tiled bathroom wall can be
absolutely gorgeous if done correctly. See figure 16.4

Cement board and backer board is the same thing. It really helps make a stable wall to
attach tile to.

Next, we’ll move on to the installation of the bathroom fixtures. The toilets are very easy
to install. As part of the plumbing you’ll see the toilet flange with two bolts sticking out
of the floor where the toilet will go. See figure 16.5. Before you put the toilet onto the

198
flange, you will need to put a wax ring onto the bottom of the toilet. You can get wax
rings and sleeves at any plumbing store. After you apply the wax ring and sleeve as
shown in figure 16.6 you can then place the toilet on to the flange bolts. You should push
down on the toilet so the wax ring makes a good seal. Next you will put the washers and
nuts on and secure the toilet. Over tightening can break the porcelain, so be careful to get
it just right. Next you will put on the trim caps and you are done with the toilet bowl. See
figure 16.7. Next, you’ll put the tank on. You need to make sure that the holes line up
before screwing them in place. The flush valve and bolts will fit into the holes.

Figure 16.8 shows how the tank will fit on to the toilet and where the screws need to be
secured. Figure 16.9 shows where the bolts will be tightened and figure 16.10 and 16.11
shows the connection of the waterline and the toilet seat. And that is it.

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Let’s move on to something a little more difficult, the shower. The problem with
freestanding showers is that they have a tendency to leak. There are many different kinds
of shower stalls. Most of them rest on top of a pan that connects to the wastewater
plumbing lines underneath. If the pan isn’t adequately secured, the plumbing connection
will leak over time because of the weight shifting around every time someone uses the
shower. That’s bad news particularly if it’s an upstairs shower.

There are a few ways to make these showers leak proof. Figure 16.12 shows a cutaway
diagram of the shower pan and the drain fittings. Figure 16.13 shows the drain cover,
rubber gasket, and drain tailpipe. The tailpipe fits into the p-trap and the gasket around
the drain keeps the pan leak proof.

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 Now let’s lay the mortar to show how it needs to be done. The shower pan should be
ready to put in place. Make sure you have the drain cover, rubber gasket, and tailpipe
installed and it is tightened down with a drain collar nut. See figure 16.14

Pour about a 1-inch thick layer of dry-set mortar. See figure 16.15 Make it even and then
rest the shower pan on it making sure that the tailpipe is in the p-trap. Sometimes it helps
to put some dish soap around the drainpipe in the floor and on the rubber gasket on the
drain tailpiece. Push down on the shower pan especially hard immediately around the
drain so the rubber gasket makes a good seal around the drainpipe. Let it sit for about ten
hours before you put on the surround. The surround goes on easy, but you may want to
put up a template so you know where to cut out the handle hole. You can use adhesive to
attach the surround to the backer board on the wall. See figure 16.16.

You can probably work on the plumbing through the shower surround regulator hole, but
it’s easier if you do it before the surround goes on.

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 You will need to install the anti-scald valves on the shower control stem, but most
shower assemblies come already put together with the device in place. See figure 16.18.
Anti-scald valves are now a mandatory code in all fifty states.

Every building center has the right parts for shower and bath anti-scald valves so don’t
worry about getting the wrong parts. It would be difficult to find shower pipes without
anti-scald valves these days. The shower handle assembly comes with a cover that fits
into the cut out hole in the surround. The top of the handle comes off and under it is a
screw for tightening the handle. You just pop the top back on when it’s done.

We have covered shower pans and surrounds, now let’s briefly talk about tile work. Tile
is becoming very popular and for a good reason. It has unrivaled beauty if done correctly,
and it’s not that expensive to do yourself. If you hire it out, it will be pricey because it
takes a lot of labor to install. Still, tile helps hold the homes value like nothing else
because of its durability. Let’s see what we have to do to make a tile shower. First we
have to make a box and put building paper down. Glue the bottom piece of the three-
piece shower drain with PVC cement or ABS cement if using ABS. See figure 16.19.

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Next, you probably should put a rag into the drain hole to prevent mortar from getting in.
If you can find metal lath, staple it in place. This helps make the mortar much stronger.
Now, mix the floor mortar with a latex additive to make a mixture with the consistency of
soft modeling clay. You will want to mark a level line around the box as high as the
mortar will be. The idea is to make a gentle slope from the outside down to the drain. Try
to get the mud even all the way around as it slopes inward. Next put the screws into the
drain assembly. There is a new type of rubber sealant that is very popular for this type of
stuff called CPE membrane. Just stretch the rubber over the mortar and cut the rubber
where the screws are so they stick out. Stretch the membrane over the sides of the box
and staple it high where the backer board will cover it. See figure 16.22.

You can reinforce the membrane over the drain if you want to for more strength. Now
screw the middle drain piece down evenly and tightly to make a watertight seal. See
figure 16.22 Next, we put the backer board on the walls and put the third drain piece in.

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Lay out another layer of mortar while keeping in mind that the tile needs to be just
slightly above the drain when it’s installed. This will help us remember how high to make
the mortar. Let this dry overnight and then we can start with the tiles. It’s easier to get the
sheets of tiles than to do one at a time. From this point, it’s just a matter of securing the
tile and grouting in the cracks. See figures 16.25 and 16.26.

After the grout has had a short time to dry, you can clean away any excess grout. That’s
about it for a tile shower. It seems like a lot of work and it is, but you will enjoy it for
years to come.

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Installing the showerhead is the easiest thing yet. You will want to wrap the threaded end
of the shower arm with Teflon tape and then just screw it into the shower pipe assembly
inside the wall. See figure 16.27and 16.28.

Now, let’s move onto baths. Baths are easier than showers because they are self-
contained and there aren’t many places where a bath can leak. We’ll start out with a
simple tub, which you install. Some have surrounds and some don’t.

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The bathtub plumbing fixtures will already have been installed at this point. It’s just a
matter of hooking up the water supply to the correct handles and the drain waste
assembly to the septic system. The drain waste is an assembly piece that covers the drain
and the overflow hole in the tub. See figure 16.29

The overflow is attached by inserting two screws through the overflow plate and the drain
is secured by screwing it into the drain waste assembly to make a water tight seal See
figure 16.30.

The faucet handles and faucet just screw into the bath plumbing assembly and the handles
usually have a screw on the top to secure to the pipes in the wall. See figures 16.31 and
16.32.

Next we will need to move on to bathroom sinks. We will already have the plumbing all
set up and waiting for the sink just like the other bathroom fixtures. Most bathroom sinks
fit into specially made cabinets, but some are freestanding. Connecting the plumbing is
quite easy. All it entails is to connect the drain line to the septic line and it needs hot and
cold-water hook-ups.

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Most sinks have the p-traps installed immediately under them and it fits into the cabinet,
but some freestanding sinks have the p-trap built into the walls or floors so you can’t see
them. Usually toilets, showers, and bathtubs already have the p-trap installed because it’s
part of the rough work, but for bath and kitchen sinks, the p-trap will most likely need to
be installed after the walls have been finished and the cabinets have been made.

Figures 16.33 and 16.34 show how the p-trap assembly is connected to the septic line.
The sink will next need to be put into a cabinet. The one-piece sink and counter top is
very popular these days. See figure 16.35

As we can see in figures 16.36 and 16.37 the drain connects with the tailpiece. The
tailpiece is held onto the sink with the underside locknut. The tailpiece extension then
goes into the p-trap.

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Next we need to make the hot and cold-water connections. We’ll have to first secure the
faucet to the sink by screwing on the locknuts on each water intake. In figure 16.38 we
can see the faucet with both intake valves. This will fit through the holes in the sink.
After we tighten down the lock washers, we will put on each water line.

You will need two supply tubes. These tubes come in different lengths and they come in
plastic or metal. They have fasteners at each end so they can screw onto the sink intakes
and the plumbing waterlines as shown in figures 16.39 and 16.40.

Now, lets move on to bathroom fans. These fans can be put in as part of the finish work,
but as usual, the venting should have been done along with the HVAC before the
insulation and sheetrock was put up. Bathroom fans are important for more than the most
obvious reason, they also pull moisture out of the air and deliver it outside. This helps
prevent mold from growing in humid places. They are a snap to install if you use dryer
vent. When installing the dryer vent, you’ll need to be careful not to twist or kink it.
There is usually one exhaust vent on the roof or the side of the house in medium sized
houses.

You’ll first need to cut a

hole in the roof the size of the vent flange. The vent cover will completely cover the hole
and the flange will stick into the hole and connect to the dryer vent. See figure 16.42.
Connect the dryer vent with a hose clamp as in figure 16.43.

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Connect the other end of the dryer vent to the fan outlet using another hose clamp. The
wiring should have been run with the electrical so it’s just a matter of connecting the hot
and neutral wires. See figure 16.44. Some fans are a fan, heater, and a light. In this case
you will have three sets of wires to keep straight and run to a switch or switches as we’ve
covered in chapter 9. Remember that all bathroom outlet switches need to be GFCI’s.
See figure 16.45

Well that’s it for the installation procedures of the fixtures for bathroom components.

SEVENTEEN

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 Kitchens and Cabinets

Kitchens are fun and beautiful. They are also really expensive. The kitchen will be the
most expensive room in the entire house to build. The reason for that is the cabinets.

My purpose for making a book on house building is to pass on what I have learned about
the cost of labor and how we can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run by
doing the work ourselves. This is an area where we have to step back a bit and analyze
things a little though.
After calculating the expenses of building my own cabinets, it was about the same to
have them made for me. Also, kitchen cabinets are such an important focal point to
appraisers and future buyers. They need to look good.

There are a lot of specialized cabinet-making tools that are really expensive to buy and
almost impossible to rent. So what is an owner/builder supposed to do?

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There are several options of varying cost and labor. First, you could really shop around
for the best prices from cabinetmakers. There is a fair amount of competition out there,
but most cabinetmakers seem to stay busy. Still, if you’re careful you can find the right
price and the right quality. For a 2000 square foot dwelling you should be able to get your
cabinets made for $5000-$10,000. We was able to get our cabinets made for $6500. The
quality of the cabinets and the installation was perfect. It saved me a lot of time and I’m
sure our final appraised value was higher than it would have been had I made the
cabinets.

There are more options now than there have ever been. You can now get cabinets as
components at Lowes, Home Depot, or almost any other building center. The cost is
much less to do it this way, and the results are usually quite good. You can also get RTA
cabinets. It means ready-to-assemble. They are shipped to your building site in flat boxes
and you assemble them. This has also been an inexpensive option, but you need to make
sure you’re getting quality before the boxes show up.

Another option is to build the cabinet boxes (better known as carcasses) yourself and buy
the doors from either a cabinet maker or a building center.

There are a few things to watch out for though. No matter how much money it will save,
you should never get cabinets made entirely of particleboard or any similar substrate
material. It won’t pass the test of time and appraisers will knock extra points off the value
of your house. They think that if you’re willing to cut corners on the visible areas, then
you’ve probably done it on the less visible parts of the house. Most countertops are made
of particleboard so that’s fine.

I won’t go into depth about how to build kitchen cabinets from start to finish. I will
however assume that some people will want to learn as much as they can to save as much
money as possible by doing most of the work themselves.

A good place to start is with the dimensions of each cabinet including appliances. This
gives a good idea how big to build our kitchen. There are standard sizes to each cabinet.
If you have to have one specially made to fit in a corner or to make everything fit right, it
will cost a lot extra. That’s why careful planning and a little foresight make things work
out well in the end. It’s best to design your kitchen dimensions around the standard sizes
of the cabinets.

There are basically four types of cabinets; they are the base, wall, oven, and pantry
cabinets. The kitchen sink cabinet will entirely depend on the length and width of the sink
See figure 17. 1.

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 Base Cabinets (without countertop) Oven Cabinets

Height 34 ½” Height 83”, 95

Depth 24” Depth 24”
Width 6” to 42” in 3” increments Width 30”, 33”

Wall Cabinets Pantry Cabinets

Height 12”, 15”, 18”, 24”, 30”, 36” Height 83”, 95”
Depth 12” Depth 24”
Width 6” to 36” in 3” increments Width 18”, 24”
Sink Cabinets Dishwasher Cabinets

Depends on sink size Height 34 ½”

Depth 24”
Width 24”

The base cabinets are the main cabinets and they are the ones that get the countertops.
Some people like to have different heights and levels on the base cabinets, but the
majority of us prefer to have all our base cabinets level throughout the kitchen. This
includes islands and work centers like desks and bars.

Wall cabinets depend on the person’s height and preference. The cabinets where ovens
and dishwashers fit into aren’t really cabinets at all. The oven just fits into a space made
specifically for the oven and one that is equipped with the 240-volt oven/range wiring.

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The dishwasher fits into a space that has a 120-volt outlet, a hot water line, and a
wastewater outlet that goes to the septic system. Most people prefer to have a countertop
over the dishwasher to keep everything continuous and level.

These measurements are very helpful in the early planning stages of a house. They help
get everything into perspective.

Let’s start with some simple and brief designs for building cabinet boxes. As we can see
in figure 17.2 and 17.3 there are many parts to a cabinet.

First we start with the box, which is sometimes called a carcass. You can build it out of
whatever you want, but the better choice is a hardwood or a hardwood veneer. You will
need to make it very strong with screws and glue. A good material for the inside of the
carcass is called melamine. It is durable, smooth and comes in many colors including
white so you can see things inside the cupboard easier. See figure 17.4. Some cabinet
makers will use a wood veneer on the outside of the cabinets and melamine on the inside.
It makes a very tough cabinet as it has two layers of wood. See figure 17.5.

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Once the box is done you will need to sand it. See figure 17.6. After sanding it
completely, you’ll want to fill the holes and joints with putty. See figure 17.7. Let that
dry overnight then sand it again. After that you should be able to apply the first coat of
stain. See figure 17.8.

After you get the carcass stained you can stain the doors and let them dry so you can put
them on with screws and hinges after the carcasses are hung. The doors should be made
of solid wood. It’s all right to use veneer on the carcasses, but the doors will have too
much movement and the veneer will wear out.

Next we’ll want to get all the measurements drawn out on the walls so we know exactly
where to hang the cabinets. They are really heavy and the time for measuring for
accuracy is before you’re lifting them in place. It helps to have the screw holes already
drilled before hanging the cabinets. Just drill a pilot hole all the way through that’s about
half the diameter of the screw so it goes in evenly while you’re trying to hold the cabinet
in place.

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One very important thing that needs to be done before the sheetrock goes on is extra
bracing for the kitchen cabinets. You can just add an extra layer of 2x6’s crossways on
the walls between the studs where the cabinets will be. This is overkill if professional
cabinetmakers are doing the installing because they are good at finding the studs. I
overbuilt my kitchen walls and my cabinet installer was grateful and quick. The cabinets
are very secure.
Let’s mark the walls where the wall cabinets will hang and where the base cabinets will
be secured. You will also need to mark where the studs are. See figure 17.10.

It makes the job easier if you mark a level line where the top of the wall cabinet will be.
From there you can mark where the bottom of the wall cabinet will be. If you’re short on
help, you can put a 1X4 where the bottom of the wall cabinet will be and it will help
support the weight of the cabinet until you get it completely fastened down. See figure
17.11.

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Let’s hang the first box as a starting point and everything else can butt up against it.
We’ll let it rest against the board we’ve put up while we screw it in place.

As shown in figure 17.12, the first wall cabinet is resting on the board or sometimes
called a ledger to help hold it until all the screws are put in. It’s very important to get a
good hold. The size of screws to use depends on the wall stud or joist it’s going into.
Most cabinet installers use 3 or 4-inch screws. See figure 17.13.

The base cabinets are the same. It’s much easier to put the cabinets in without the
countertop on. See figure 17.14.

The countertops are fairly easy to install and they make everything beautiful. See figure
17.15. There are many choices and colors. You can try a custom laminate, which are
sheet laminates of your choice of design and color glued to dense particleboard and fairly
inexpensive too.

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There’s Post-form countertops that usually come from the factory with rounded faces and
backs. They are also laminates glued to dense particleboard. You can buy these
countertops pre-made or you can make them yourself. Tile countertops are becoming
increasingly popular, but they are a little pricey and time-consuming.

Let’s start with custom laminate. This is how it’s made. You will need to get the
particleboard countertop and measure it to the perfect fit. See figure 17.16.

You will want to cut the sidepieces because they will go on first and try to leave extra to
get routered off. See figure 17.17. The laminate is attached to the countertop with contact
cement and pressed in place. See figure 17.18. Once it has had a short time to dry, you
can router off the edges using a flush-cutting bit. See figure 17.19.

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When you get the sides done you can do the top. Cut it with extra laminate to router off
just like the sides. You will need to put contact cement on both the countertop and the
laminate. The contact cement is not at all forgiving because it dries instantly so if you
don’t have someone to help you lay the laminate down on the counter, you can put
spacers to position the laminate evenly over the countertop. Pull the spacers out as you go
along pressing the laminate to the countertop. This also keeps bubbles out. See figure
17.20. The laminate should make a smooth, level surface when it’s all done.

Now, let’s talk about the post-form countertop where the laminate is already done.

The post form countertops are already made so you just cut them to the right length and
put a batten in the end. The batten helps make a more secure end plate. See figures 17.22
and 17.23.

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When putting the end cap on you will need to activate the adhesive with an iron so it will
make a good contact. See figure 17.24. Post form countertops are almost a guaranteed
success. They make the job very easy.

We’ve already been over doing tile and tile countertops are exactly the same, but
repetition doesn’t hurt anything so we’ll just do a brief run down on tile countertops.

You start with the plywood center. You put a layer of plastic over the plywood. Then put
the cement board on with screws. You will need to put cement board on the sides too.

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Next put a layer of thin-set adhesive on the top in a small area and lay the tile in using
spacers at the corners to get a uniform design. Next, do the sides with the special bull
nose tiles. Once that has dried, you can start the grout. Take out the spacers and fill the
cracks with grout. Get it into all of the cracks in a nice, even layer. Let it dry for a while,
then go over it with a damp cloth to get the remainder of the grout off the tiles. Once it
has dried, you can apply a grout sealant that will keep it from getting dirt into it.
That’s it for cabinets; let’s move on to other kitchen details. Before we move on to other
things, check out my cabinets. They cost $6500; sometimes it’s worth spending extra.

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There are a few other important things to do with kitchens that are worth mentioning
here. The kitchen sink is one of the items that is under planned. People that do a lot of
cooking and food preparation should almost always have a triple sink. See figure 17. 27.
While the triple sink isn’t much more expensive than normal sinks, it takes up more space
and needs to be planned out. Every bit of counter space in a kitchen is important.

For the person who doesn’t have a passion for cooking a double sink is fine. I don’t know
any case where a single sink would be acceptable. Besides, a triple sink is one of those
things appraisers and buyers remember as an “extra”.
The cabinetmakers will usually cut the hole for the sink and some will even install it for
you. If you have to install the sink, you will need to run a bead of silicone or plumbers
putty around the flange of the sink and place it in the cut out. See figure 17.28. There are
special fasteners that go under the sink to secure it with. See figure 17.29. You can really
torque it down with these to make a good seal so the sink has a smooth edge.

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Once the sink is secured into the cutout we’ll need to connect the wastewater line. A
triple sink can get a little tricky. There are so many styles of triple sinks that it might be
hard to find a PVC drain assembly to fit. It’s not a bit difficult to make your own though.
See figure 17.30 and 17.31.

This is how you might need to get creative when installing triple sinks. You will want to
ask the plumbing inspector for suggestions, but as long as the p-trap is there and it’s a 2-
inch waste line, there most likely won’t be any problems.

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Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of the drain installation. This is the same for any type of
sink. First we need to put some plumbers putty around the underside flange of the strainer
then put the strainer into the sink. This will keep the sink from leaking. Put the rubber
washer in place and screw the locknut into place. See figure 17.32.

Next, put a washer on the rim of the tailpiece and put it on with the slipnut. See figures
17.33 and 17.34. The tailpiece usually needs to be cut off because it comes extra long.
The tailpiece will then fit into the tailpipe and it can be adjusted to the height of the p-trap
and then screwed on with the slipnut. Figure 17.35 shows a double sink drain assembly.
It just has another drain that goes into the main drain stack. The main stack goes to the p-
trap and then out to the septic line.

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If you have a dishwasher you will need to have an outlet for the wastewater. A good
place for that outlet is right on the tailpiece on the sink assembly. You can get tailpieces
with dishwasher adaptors at any plumbing store. Almost everyone has a dishwasher these
days. See figure 17.36
Now let’s move on to the faucet installs and hot and cold water outlets. These are the
same as all the other faucets and outlets. They just need to be screwed on. See figure
17.37

Now, let’s learn how to install a dishwasher. We’ve already learned how to take the
dishwasher wastewater outlet hose and connect it to the sink drainage assembly. Now we
just need to hook up the hot water and the electricity. It’s much easier if the dishwasher is
close to the sink. If you’re building your house new, then you will have a dishwasher line
already run. If you’re adding a dishwasher to a kitchen without that extra hot water line,
you can simply put a T-fitting in the sink hot line as shown in figure 17.38. Connect it to
the intake valve as shown in figure 17.39.

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The dishwasher will need it’s own dedicated 120-volt, 20-amp circuit, so it won’t have an
outlet or a plug. It is going to be hard-wired, but it’s really easy. First, remember to shut
the power off before doing any electrical work. You’ll have to remove the panel on the
dishwasher electric box. From there you just connect the black wire from the dishwasher
to the black wire from the dedicated circuit run. Do the same with the white wire.
Connect the green wire to the ground screw on the dishwasher. See figure 17.40.

Now let’s learn how to splice into a waterline to supply water to a refrigerator for the
icemaker and water through the door. The modern refrigerators just have one line going
to both the water through the door and the icemaker. It is done by putting a saddle valve
onto an available cold water line. See figure 17.41. You puncture the waterline by
turning the saddle valve until it breaks through. It makes a watertight seal and a new
waterline at the same time. The other end just screws onto the refrigerator intake valve.
You can use either copper tubing or plastic. They both work the same way.

Now let’s move on to oven/range wiring. There are new code rules in some states that
require a four-wire oven/range cable. So you will need to install a 4-wire outlet plug
when you do the electrical. It’s easy though. You just go look for range cable. It typically
is called 6/3 cable. That just means it has 3 cables that are each 6 gauge and a bare copper
ground wire. It makes 240-volts by adding together 2 of the 120-volt lines and using the
third for a neutral wire that goes back to the neutral bus in the breaker box. A four-wire
plug will just have the bare copper wire attached to the ground and it will be grounded to
the oven chassis.

You will most likely have to attach the power cord to the oven at the junction box in back
of the oven. You will have four wires. There will be a block with four screws on it and
they will be marked. Two of the lines will be hot, one will be neutral and one will be a
ground.

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In figure 17.42 we see the plug with four wires and in figure 17.43 we see a block with
four screws. Remember the red cable and the black cable are both hot lines. The white is
a neutral and the ground will be connected to the oven ground.

That pretty much covers it for the oven/range installation and it completes the section on
kitchens and cabinets.

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 EIGHTEEN

FINISH WORK

I think the funnest part of the whole building process is doing the finish work, although
people have said to me, “I just want to get it over and done”. I like it and it’s easy to get
fired up to put the finishing touches on things before you move in.

In most cases if the house is financed, the leinholders or banks won’t let you move in
until you get the occupancy permit, which is actually a good thing. I know some families
who moved in to their unfinished houses and they had a difficult time getting motivated
to finish.

The occupancy permit varies from state to state, but it is basically the green light to move
in from the local inspectors stating that the house is completely finished and safe.

Now, we still have a few things left to do to finish our house. The walls may or may not
be painted. It’s easier to paint the walls before the carpet goes in. The stairs need railings,
and the baseboards need to be put on. All the lights and cover plates still have to be put
on. Windows need to be finished. Trim has to be put up and we’d like to put a deck and a
sidewalk in.

I don’t have a clue what I’m doing when I’m painting. I really don’t like to paint so
giving advice how to paint would be poor advice. When it came time to do all the
painting, my wife and sister-in-law stepped up. They really enjoy painting and they had
the whole interior primed in one day, then they came back the next day and painted
everything. It looked perfect and they never made a mess at all like I always do.

I won’t go into how to paint because anyone can do it better than me, so I will move on to
other things that I’m better at.

Let’s talk about stair and handrail assembly. That’s cool stuff. The stair rail needs to be
made very solid and stable. It should be made out of hard wood. It’s important to make it
look nice while at the same time making it really durable. That can be challenging.

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The cutaway drawing in figure 18.1 shows how the stair pieces all fit together. This is a
stairway with a landing, which is very popular right now. The drawing shows the newel
post attached to the stringers in the stairway. This makes for a good stable fit.

The landing newel will be a really strong support for the rest of the stair railing. It will
need to be braced very well. Figure 18.2 shows us how to connect the newel post to the
handrail. You will need to drill a hole big enough to get a wooden plug into. A spade
bit works best for that. Figure 18.3 shows how to secure the stair treads if you need to.

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I made my stairs and rails extra strong by putting in newel posts very securely, and then
attaching the handrail with 4-inch lag screws. I also attached each baluster with screws
and glue and then reinforced each connection with oak plates on each side of the baluster.
It’s overkill, but as a kid I would always do Tarzan swings off the stairs and my kids will
probably do the same. Figure 18.4 is my own stairs. They have held up extremely well.

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As you can see in figure 18.5 I was able to secure the balusters with small plates of oak
after screwing them in. This takes the pressure off the screws. Try to use wood glue on
every connection because it really helps a lot. After the balusters are connected and
screwed in place you will need to cover in the holes with a similar color of wood putty.
For the bigger holes where the lag screws are, it looks quite good to get plugs that are
made of the same kind of wood of coarse. See figure 18.6 After all these are secure, you
can sand any of the rough spots, and then stain the oak with two layers of Varathane.

You can find all the different types of stair assemblies at your hardware stores. All you
have to do is take your measurements and they can get you all the parts you need.

Let’s move on to trim pieces. You can use baseboards or trim pieces to line your doors,
windows, floors or ceilings. Real wood is in very high demand and it almost always
raises the value of your house much higher than it would be without wood trim. See
figures 18.7 and 18.8.

If you can get a good deal on hardwood boards then definitely go for it. Oak is
particularly beautiful and you can find many shades of stain. It’s worth the extra money
spent. I lined my entryways with oak, but used painted finger-joint pine trim for my
doorways and windows. I wished I would have gone with oak throughout, but it’s a big
difference in price at a time when money is tight.

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There are many different kinds of trim styles and colors to choose from. If you’re really
on a budget, you can get the finger joint pine and paint it. That actually looks pretty good.
You can also buy some pre-painted trim and save some time by not having to paint it.

This is how the trim pieces are cut to fit together. There is the scarf joint that joins

trim pieces in a line. There’s the coped joint that’s used for inside corners, and there’s the
outside miter joint for outside corners. This is the simplest way to do baseboards.

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The coped joint is a little tricky. You need to cut the end of the molding at a 45-degree
angle with the backside longer than the front side. Take a coping saw and cut along the
contour as in figure 18.11. Once that’s done, bring the two pieces together to see how
they fit as shown in figure 18.12. If the joints don’t match up very well, you can make
adjustments with a utility knife or some sand paper. If you’re planning on painting the
baseboards, you can dab a little silicone in the joints or cracks.

The easiest way to cut trim pieces is with a miter saw, but not everyone can afford one, so
a three dollar miter box, either plastic or wood and a five dollar back saw work just as
well. Trim pieces for doors and windows are pretty much 45 degree angles. That makes it
really easy to get a lot of work done in a short time.

In my house, I made the trim work a little more challenging and put in several small
arches that give it personality. See figures 18.13 and 18.14.

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If some of the trim measurements aren’t 45-degrees, then you can still find the angles.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of holding the two pieces together and marking them where
you think the angle should be and then making adjustments to it. Common sense will be
your biggest asset when you’re building your house. If you don’t have much common
sense when you start, you’ll have tons of it when you finish.

The door trims are the easiest. You just need to measure to the top of your door, add the
width of the trim and you will have the length of the vertical trim pieces. Cut them at 45-
degree angles and then put them in place. Then you just take a measurement across the
doorway including the trim on the sides and you have the horizontal trim measurement.
Just cut that at 45-degree angles on each side and you are done. See figure 18.14.

The windows will need something to cover up the rough work. This is one of the few
areas that didn’t get covered up with sheetrock. We need to make a frame on the inside
all around the window seal. One of the most popular materials used for windowsill
framing is called MDF or Medium Density Fiberboard. It’s actually really tough stuff.
You can put it in without any fancy cuts and it will look just fine. It usually gets silicone
in the seams so you can just paint over the silicone and make a great seal against
moisture. If you want to miter the ends into 45-degree angles, it will probably fit better,
but either way is fine. See figure 18.15.

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The window trim is almost as easy as the door trim except you have four sides and they
all need to match up so you don’t have big cracks between the trim pieces. Silicone can
only do so much. Figures 18.16 and 18.17 show how to attach the window trim for
perfect 45-degree angles. Figure 18.18 shows a slightly more complex angle, but still
very easy to figure out. The octagon window has been such a big hit with my children.

That’s really all the information we need to do all the trim and baseboard stuff. Now let’s
move on to some of the lighting. Up to this point, we should be completely done with the
sheetrock and any texturing. The lights in the ceilings can now be put in. There are the
specialty lights that take a little TLC like the fan/light in figure 18.19.

FIG 18.19

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Fans like these are heavy and they need to have a special reinforced box that attaches
between joists or rafters. We covered that back in chapter 9. The constant movement of
the fan will also work weak connections loose over the years so make sure it is strong.
There are basically two types of modern light box connections. The larger, heavier lights
usually require a strap connection with mounting screws as shown in figure 18.20, but
lighter fixtures can get by with just a nipple mount as shown in figure 18.21.

Fans and heavy fixtures will require a connection that uses mounting screws, but small
lights as shown in figure 18.22 and 18.23 only need a nipple mount and are really quick
to install.

The lights that will be the most difficult are the fluorescent lights, but even they aren’t
any problem. Sometimes it helps to have two people on the bigger lights.

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Fluorescent lights will last longer than incandescent lights, but after a few years,
fluorescent lights can have trouble with weakening ballasts. You can tell by the slow
response time that it illuminates after turning it on. They are still an excellent option
especially where extra lighting is needed. Kitchens are usually the most popular place for
larger fluorescent lights. Most larger fluorescent lights will need some assembly. You
will probably need to slide the lamp holders in place. The electrical connection is the
same as everything else; white-to-white, black-to-black. You will probably need to put a
cover plate over the ballast and then put the fluorescent tubes in. The cover will go on
and that’s it. Some of the bigger lights will have multiple ballasts, but it’s still really easy
to figure out. See figure 18.24.

Next, we’ll move on to the cover plates for light switches and outlets. This couldn’t be
any easier than it is. You just put the right plate on the right switches and screw them
down. See figures 18.25 and 18.26.

Well, that’s it for the finish work. The inside of the house should be ready and all the
fixtures should be fully functional. It’s at this point where the occupancy permit is issued.
The decks and sidewalks aren’t considered part of the physical house, so even though
they aren’t finished, the house is still considered to be finished.

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That is all there is to building your own house. The short-term hard work might seem as
if it will last forever, but it gets over soon enough. What will last forever are all the
benefits. The financial, the pride, the emotional, all these and many more benefits will
stick with you forever. Nobody can take them away. They are your reward for the small
sacrifice of time, sweat, and money you gave for a short time. I hope this book has helped
you make a decision to build your own house. You’ll be so glad you did.

End

Larry Angell

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