Hello.
The thing is that my boyfriend and I are considering starting a house construction that we can live in in the future. What we had in mind is a single-story house or a 1½-story house (possibly just with a loft on the second floor) of about 120-150 sqm.
Neither he nor I know anything about house building really, but luckily we are both very handy, and he is a trained electrician. Additionally, my father and stepfather are experienced when it comes to building houses since they have both built at least one each. Furthermore, we have lots of contacts in plumbing-electrician-building materials-painter-skilled friends, etc.
But I still want to be as well-prepared as possible, and that's why I'm appealing to your dear ones who can teach me something. I wonder literally thousands of things:
How long can you expect it to take to build a house? (on our own with 3 people or with a company)
Approximately how much can it cost?
How much money can you save if you do everything indoors yourself and paint the facade? (excluding the erection of walls)
What can it cost to install a heating source, broadband, sewage, and water to a plot?
Is it possible to pour foundations year-round?
Would you recommend building everything yourself with self-purchased loose materials or getting everything sent with instructions, etc., and building according to that?
I would also like to hear other good suggestions and tips from anyone with experience in house building!
Oh, now it's a long text, so let's start there, hope someone has the energy to read it and thanks for the answers!
The thing is that my boyfriend and I are considering starting a house construction that we can live in in the future. What we had in mind is a single-story house or a 1½-story house (possibly just with a loft on the second floor) of about 120-150 sqm.
Neither he nor I know anything about house building really, but luckily we are both very handy, and he is a trained electrician. Additionally, my father and stepfather are experienced when it comes to building houses since they have both built at least one each. Furthermore, we have lots of contacts in plumbing-electrician-building materials-painter-skilled friends, etc.
But I still want to be as well-prepared as possible, and that's why I'm appealing to your dear ones who can teach me something. I wonder literally thousands of things:
How long can you expect it to take to build a house? (on our own with 3 people or with a company)
Approximately how much can it cost?
How much money can you save if you do everything indoors yourself and paint the facade? (excluding the erection of walls)
What can it cost to install a heating source, broadband, sewage, and water to a plot?
Is it possible to pour foundations year-round?
Would you recommend building everything yourself with self-purchased loose materials or getting everything sent with instructions, etc., and building according to that?
I would also like to hear other good suggestions and tips from anyone with experience in house building!
Oh, now it's a long text, so let's start there, hope someone has the energy to read it and thanks for the answers!
The question about construction time... should I then answer how long a piece of string is? Say, between 10 months and 1.5 years if you work full-time on the project.
What you gain from doing everything inside... You gain enough from it to make it worthwhile - It is worth it, definitely.
The groundwork will just be unnecessarily expensive if you do it in the middle of winter with frost - but pouring a slab is done (I do) down to minus 20 degrees - the concrete withstands colder temperatures, but not me.
You shouldn't attempt to pour yourself if it's colder than 5 below because the cold demands higher skill and experience with the concrete.
Buy a ready-made kit, it will ultimately be the cheapest and least hassle.
A very good tip that everyone on the forum will definitely agree with me on: The house construction will take 4 times longer to build and it will cost 3 times more than you think.
That calculation formula applies to everything that is built and affects everyone who builds.
What you gain from doing everything inside... You gain enough from it to make it worthwhile - It is worth it, definitely.
The groundwork will just be unnecessarily expensive if you do it in the middle of winter with frost - but pouring a slab is done (I do) down to minus 20 degrees - the concrete withstands colder temperatures, but not me.
You shouldn't attempt to pour yourself if it's colder than 5 below because the cold demands higher skill and experience with the concrete.
Buy a ready-made kit, it will ultimately be the cheapest and least hassle.
A very good tip that everyone on the forum will definitely agree with me on: The house construction will take 4 times longer to build and it will cost 3 times more than you think.
That calculation formula applies to everything that is built and affects everyone who builds.
Houses cost 10000 - 30000/m². Another rule of thumb is that it takes 10 hours for a carpenter per m². You don't earn anything by painting or carpentry yourself, but you might save 350-500 SEK per hour that you won't have to pay someone else. However, as an amateur, you have to consider that what takes a professional an hour might take you two, three hours, or even more. "Bring in a heat source"? Are you thinking about district heating? You should check with the relevant district heating company. The same goes for broadband. Municipal water and sewage usually entail a connection fee of just over 100,000, but of course, it can vary both up and down. Check with your municipality. Also, keep in mind that this is just a "membership fee." The physical connection is extra. You probably want electricity. It usually involves an 20-25000 connection fee. Landline telephone costs from 10000 and up. (In some cases, it has involved hundreds of thousands of kronor.) Personally, I prefer wood frame construction, but that's largely because I find carpentry fun. If the goal is to get a house as quickly as possible, a kit might be better. But whether there are kits with "descriptions" for houses larger than small garden sheds, I don't know. Taking on a house build is usually the most complex (and expensive) project an average person undertakes in their lifetime. Just giving random tips isn't very meaningful. Once you've studied and read up, you can start asking more concrete questions. Then it will be easier to give concrete tips.
Agree with "andersmc" in what he writes. I can give an example from life regarding the time required: tearing down EVERYTHING except the timber frame and chimney stack on an 80 m2 cottage over 100 years old, then building over 80 m2 crosswise (the house became like a cross) including everything with electric heating. It took my father-in-law full time, my father part time, and myself all available free time including some nights, almost a year. We started demolition on 1/8 and moved in the Thursday before Midsummer Eve the following year. 1 1/2 stories, built with loose timber on a crawl space according to our own design, managed by ourselves. The men had built several houses before, but for me, it was my first. Hired out plumbing and wiring/connection of electricity but ran all pipes myself.
Thank you for your reply and please continue to help, I'll come up with more as I go
So, can you count on 10 hours per sqm, is that total for the whole house or just the interior? And in that case, is it for building a house with loose timber or with a kit that you have taken into account?
So, can you count on 10 hours per sqm, is that total for the whole house or just the interior? And in that case, is it for building a house with loose timber or with a kit that you have taken into account?
A building kit from, for example, Fiskarheden I believe in if you are a bit handy. Building yourself with loose timber is definitely the most fun part of the whole project, but it requires that you are quite persistent
I haven't built anything new, but I've renovated a summer cottage and am now working on a new renovation/extension of a former summer cottage...
I haven't built anything new, but I've renovated a summer cottage and am now working on a new renovation/extension of a former summer cottage...