Chapters give detailed coverage of critical topics: design options, selecting and supervising the architect and contractor, cost estimates, budgets, plan specifications, contracts, dealing with town officials and keeping track of everything along the way. For each stage of the project there is detailed information on common pitfalls and how to avoid them, as well as insiders' tips which reveal what most contractors can't tell you. This book was previously published by Warner Books (2004) and titled What the "Experts" May Not Tell You About Building or Renovating Your Home.

    You won't have to wait for a helper or pass up a job that seems too difficult to do alone. And if youre a homeowner working on your own house, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.Written by a builder with 30 years' experience, Working Alone is packed with more than 50 innovative tips and techniques. You'll learn how to handle nearly every aspect of home construction alone, from foundation layout to raising walls to building decks.This book, the only one of its kind, offers a myriad of unique solo solutions. A perfect example is the problem of bringing a large sheet of plywood up a ladder. Even with a helper, this is a difficult and dangerous task. But if a large C-clamp is fastened to one end of the plywood, it's easy to pull the sheet up the ladder from behind. Clever techniques like this will have you solving common problems safely and efficiently.

    This revised fourth edition reflects the most recent changes in residential frame construction. It contains more details for engineered wood products, fasteners, and seismic hold-down requirements, as well as the latest IRC code updates. It is well annotated and covers foundations, floors, walls, stairs, and roofs. Because examples are taken from actual job sites by a trusted expert, this book is an invaluable visual aid that can help builders and homeowners alike to tackle a wide range of framing projects.

    It's full of sage advice from a master architect about how to design the perfect house for you.Presented in twelve understandable lessons, this book moves from wonderful concepts to a finished dream home. Beginning with an exploration of the philosophy of design, the grammar of architecture, the creation of space, and discussions of how to make spaces be appropriate and gratifying for the people living in them, the lessons explore issues of scale, daylight, how to make a house feel like a home, unifying a design, flow, and proportions.This book answers questions like: How do I get started? How do I select a building site? What kind of house can I afford with my budget? How do I make my dream house just right for me?Other topics include: site analysis and selection, programming, schematic design, style, room relationships, budget, working with professionals, methods of contracting, and more.Numerous color photos and drawings illustrate the book's major points

    She presents the definitive guide to what makes houses look and feel right, revealing the dos and don'ts of livable home design. Hundreds of elegant line drawings--rendering the varieties of architectural features and displaying “avoid” and “use” versions of the same elements side by side--make this an indispensable resource for designing and building a timelessly beautiful home.

    Using 28 of the best designed homes from around the country, Susanka brings these concepts to life with 150 powerful and inspirational examples: from something as simple as placing a rug under a table to renovating a whole second floor. Home by Design shows homeowners a new way to look at their spaces and provides ideas for how to make each home reach its full potential.

    Packed with clear color photos and easy-to-understand descriptions, the basics of home plumbing systems are clearly explained, and all of the most popular plumbing projects are shown with beautiful step-by-step photos.This new edition has been thoroughly updated to ensure that all information conforms to the most recent codes, including the 2015 Uniform Plumbing Code and the 2014 International Residential Code. New projects include plumbing and tiling a curbless shower. Other features include projects to promote accessibility in the bathroom; updated bathroom ventilation featuring new products; and an expanded section on exterior plumbing, including pools, pumps, and sprinkler systems.

    Jim Tolpin celebrates the diversity and charm of 30 sample cottages, from a Pacific Northwest cottage modeled after a French hunting lodge to a "salvage yard vernacular cottage" built with junkyard materials.Each featured home reflects individual personality, priorities, and lifestyle. Whether by the water, on a mountain, or in a forest, field, or town, these homes emphasize quality of place over quantity of space.

    Thousands more see him at his personal appearances and visit his website, looking for advice on renos-gone-wrong. Mike Holmes is Canada's most trusted contractor, a crusader with a mission to expose botched renovations - and now the author of a bestselling book. Mike has taken his professional expertise and tell-it-like-it-is style and turned it into the guide no homeowner should be without. Make It Right walks readers through a renovation from start to finish, from the process of finding a reliable contractor to understanding the legalities of renovation. Mike explains the inner workings of a house, covers the most popular reno projects and describes the most common pitfalls. Packed with informative sidebars, checklists, diagrams and photographs, all showing what to expect from contractors and tradespeople, and how to keep every reno running on time and on budget, Make It Right is the book you need to read before you plan a renovation. Be smart. Take charge. Get it right the first time. About the Author Mike Holmes is the star of the incredibly popular Holmes on Homes program, where, in every episode, he and his trusty renovation crew fix renovation disasters. Mike has more than two decades of construction experience and was schooled by his father, a master plumber, in all aspects of construction and renovation. With a passion for doing things the right way the first time and a deep-seated respect for construction professionals, Mike has worked on hundreds of home and commercial renovation projects, earning a reputation for outstanding craftsmanship and a willingness to stand behind his work.

    This has led to widespread interest in using natural materials—straw, cob, and earth—for building homes and other buildings that are inexpensive, and that rely largely on labor rather than expensive and often environmentally-damaging outsourced materials.Earthbag Building is the first comprehensive guide to all the tools, tricks, and techniques for building with bags filled with earth—or earthbags. Having been introduced to sandbag construction by the renowned Nader Khalili in 1993, the authors developed this "Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique" over the last decade. A reliable method for constructing homes, outbuildings, garden walls and much more, this enduring, tree-free architecture can also be used to create arched and domed structures of great beauty—in any region, and at home, in developing countries, or in emergency relief work.This profusely illustrated guide first discusses the many merits of earthbag construction, and then leads the reader through the key elements of an earthbag building: Special design considerations Foundations, walls and floors Electrical, plumbing and shelving Lintels, windows and door installations Roofs, arches and domes Exterior and interior plasters.With dedicated sections on costs, making your own specialized tools, and building code considerations, as well as a complete resources guide, Earthbag Building is the long-awaited, definitive guide to this uniquely pleasing construction style.Kaki Hunter and Donald Kiffmeyer have been involved in the construction industry for the last 20 years, specializing in affordable, low-tech, low-impact building methods that are as natural as possible. They developed the "Flexible Form Rammed Earth Technique" of building affordably with earthbags and have taught the subject and contributed their expertise to several books and journals on natural building.

    Patterns of Home promises to become the "design bible" for homeowners and architects. The 10 patterns described in the book -- among them, "capturing light" and "the flow through rooms" -- are drawn from hundreds of principles and presented with clarity by the authors, renowned architects who have designed homes together for more than 30 years.Patterns of Home will jump-start the design process and make the difference between a home that satisfies material requirements -- and one that meets the personal needs of "home."-- Insightful tours of 33 homes that bring essential design concepts to life-- 300 photos and 50 illustrations illustrate the patterns

    Wiring a House: 5th Edition, is a must-have reference on home wiring - essential for homeowners, electricians, and apprentices. You'll find all the information is updated to the latest electrical code and contains significant revisions that impact residential work, including:Expanded AFCI and GFCI protection in homes New approaches to ensure the safety of photovoltaic (PV) electrical systems New methods to distribute low voltage power New DC provisions designed to save energy lost in conversion from AC Written in plain language. Author Rex Cauldwell shares his wealth of experience in a simple, straightforward manner. He covers all the basics from idiot-proof advice on how to keep track of your tools -- cart them in bins in a little red wagon -- to the highly technical aspects of wiring, and tried-and-true industry tips.Current and accurate information. Wiring a House is a comprehensive guide written by a master electrician with over 37 years of experience. An indispensable reference for keeping pros up-to-date, it also provides apprentices and homeowners an accessible reference with the latest information: 350 full-color photographs 120 instructive illustrations Plus information on lighting, inverters, and electrical vehicle chargers.

    R4 reflects the new realities of planning carefully, spending wisely, maximizing space and building durably. Its 614 pages contain extensively revised chapters on planning; doors, windows and skylights; electrical wiring; and energy conservation. Its illustrations are crisp and informative. And its 1000+ photos were selected from more than 40,000 that the author has taken over the years. This classic work covers renovation from start to finish surfaces. Best of all, R4 is written in a down-to-earth conversational style that is clear and easy to understand. Litchfield has a sharp wit and a dry sense of humor that makes this book not only useful, but great fun to read.

    Yet while heat from sunlight and ventilation from breezes is free for the taking, few modern architects or builders really understand the principles involved.Now Dan Chiras, author of the popular book The Natural House, brings those principles up to date for a new generation of solar enthusiasts.The techniques required to heat and cool a building passively have been used for thousands of years. Early societies such as the Native American Anasazis and the ancient Greeks perfected designs that effectively exploited these natural processes. The Greeks considered anyone who didn't use passive solar to heat a home to be a barbarian!In the United States, passive solar architecture experienced a major resurgence of interest in the 1970s in response to crippling oil embargoes. With grand enthusiasm but with scant knowledge (and sometimes little common sense), architects and builders created a wide variety of solar homes. Some worked pretty well, but looked more like laboratories than houses. Others performed poorly, overheating in the summer because of excessive or misplaced windows and skylights, and growing chilly in the colder months because of insufficient thermal mass and insulation and poor siting.In The Solar House, Dan Chiras sets the record straight on the vast potential for passive heating and cooling. Acknowledging the good intentions of misguided solar designers in the past, he highlights certain egregious--and entirely avoidable--errors. More importantly, Chiras explains in methodical detail how today's home builders can succeed with solar designs.Now that energy efficiency measures including higher levels of insulation and multi-layered glazing have become standard, it is easier than ever before to create a comfortable and affordable passive solar house that will provide year-round comfort in any climate.Moreover, since modern building materials and airtight construction methods sometimes result in air-quality and even toxicity problems, Chiras explains state-of-the-art ventilation and filtering techniques that complement the ancient solar strategies of thermal mass and daylighting. Chiras also explains the new diagnostic aids available in printed worksheet or software formats, allowing readers to generate their own design schemes.

    It describes the benefits of sheltering a home with earth, including the added comfort and energy efficiency from the moderating influence of the earth on the home’s temperature (keeping it warm in the winter and cool in the summer), along with the benefits of low maintenance and the protection against fire, sound, earthquake, and storm afforded by the earth. Extra benefits from adding an earth or other living roof option include greater longevity of the roof substrate, fine aesthetics, and environmental harmony.The book covers all of the various construction techniques involved, including details on planning, excavation, footings, floor, walls, framing, roofing, waterproofing, insulation, and drainage. Specific methods appropriate for the inexperienced owner/builder are a particular focus and include:Pouring one’s own footings and/or floor The use of dry-stacked (surface-bonded) concrete block walls Post-and-beam framing Plank-and-beam roofing Drainage methods and self-adhesive waterproofing membranes The time-tested, easy-to-learn construction techniques described in Earth-Sheltered Houses will enable readers to embark upon their own building projects with confidence, backed up by a comprehensive resources section that lists all the latest products such as waterproofing membranes, types of rigid insulation, and drainage products that will protect the building against water damage and heat loss.Rob Roy is a former contractor with 27 years of experience and 12 previous books to his credit, including Cordwood Building and Timber Framing for the Rest of Us. An expert on underground building, he founded the Earthwood Building School in 1981 with his wife, Jaki, and is frequently a speaker at events throughout North America.