How to Design and Build Your Own House

by Lupe DiDonno, Phyllis Sperling

This book guides you systematically through the whole process of designing and building your own house. It offers practical assistance from the moment you begin thinking about the kind of house you want. It helps you focus your ideas and translate them into working plans. It shows you how to estimate costs. Then, step by step, it shows you how to construct the house -- explaining and illustrating every step systematically so that you can proceed confidently from beginning to end.

Here are complete, clear instructions on everything you need to know,
-- How to decide what you want the house to be like -- inside and outside, and in relation to the environment and neighborhood
-- How to translate your ideas and decisions into working drawings
-- How to deal with all the components of a structural (roof, floor, walls, columns, foundations), mechanical (plumbing and heating), electrical, interior and exterior finishing materials
-- How to establish the exact dimensions of everything, how to decide and specify where components go (from windows, heating ducts, and electrical outlets to toilets and showers)
-- How to choose and specify those parts of the house (windows, doors, furnace, hardware) that can be purchased prefabricated and ready to install
-- How to estimate costs of everything specified
-- How to incorporate the latest energy-conserving materials and equipment
-- Step-by-step directions on how to build the house section by section, from excavation and foundations to floors, walls, and roof; fireplaces, chimneys, and stairs; plumbing, heating, and electricity; wood shingles, gutters, and waterproofing; how to lay brick and principles of brick construction...everything!

Practical information is provided on purchasing materials and tools. And, throughout the book (exactly where needed) are pertinent instructions on basic techniques such as how to mix and work concrete, build forms, lay block, toe-in a nail, install a lockset, cut gypsum board and tile. Tables are included for calculating heat loss, loads, distances between structural elements, and so on. And the 748 line drawings illustrate every aspect of design and construction.

With its clarity and authority -- and its extraordinary wealth of specific, detailed instruction -- this is the single most comprehensive and useful book ever published on how to design and build your own house.

Genres: Architecture, How To

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Foxtower · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my most worn out reference books. I poured over it for years, first when I lived in small apartments, then some more when I renovated my first house, until finally it became such a part of me that when I did actually get to design and build my home I never even looked at it.

It's covers so much that one must consider when designing a home, from egress to energy efficiency, that it became part of the zen I have from years of making things, from that first small barn, to a drying rack for beans.

If you dream of designing and building your own home, this book will feed the dream until it becomes reality.

[Beth (FebruaryFilly) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very old so some out of date information, but basics are still relevant and drawings are detailed and VERY good at explaining, lots of the tables and procedures are more information than I need to know, will hire an engineer to figure out those things

[Nora · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I just got tricked into looking through a textbook. :P

[Bisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very brief but comprehensive and useful info about house design and construction