eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Chapter 1 covers the preliminaries that should be considered or dealt with before beginning construction ― financial planning, site selection, design, etc.
Chapters 2–4 discuss laying the groundwork (including foundations, footings, and retaining walls), framing and closing in ― describing each step in the order it is usually completed.
Chapters 5–7 describe later tasks that don't necessarily have to be done in the order they are presented. Topics include porches, decks, interior wall framing, plumbing, heating and electric installation, flooring, interior finishes, cabinets, and more.
Chapter 8 covers special topics often associated with wood-frame construction: protection against decay and termites, energy conservation, all-weather construction, maintenance and repair, and other matters.
Technical notes, an annotated list of suggestions for additional reading, and a glossary round out the book.
Clear, thorough, and easy to follow, with nearly 200 helpful illustrations, Wood-Frame House Construction offers a detailed, informative guide to construction techniques invaluable for the do-it-yourselfer or as a review for the professional.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780486156286 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dover Publications |
| Publication date: | 05/14/2012 |
| Series: | Dover Crafts: Building & Construction |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 20 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
Read an Excerpt
Wood-Frame House Construction
By Gerald E. Sherwood, Robert C. Stroh
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 1990 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-15628-6
CHAPTER 1
BEFORE CONSTRUCTION STARTS
Regulation
Local regulations (2), Model codes (2), Inspections (2).
Financial planning
Site selection
House design
Selecting materials
Labor-saving techniques
Materials delivery
Efficient use of materials
Energy conservation
Protection of materials
Subcontracting
Schedule of activity
Regulation
The construction of a house is a complex process and requires detailed planning. It is often advisable to engage the services of an architect or experienced builder to assist in the process.
Local regulations
A site may be selected first, or the desired house plan may be developed first and a site then selected. In either case, both must conform to local requirements for house construction and land use. If a site will not be served by a sewer system, local codes governing septic systems need to be followed. A building permit must be obtained before construction starts, and periodic inspections by local officials are required during building of the house.
Building code regulations generally include criteria for structural, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical design, and also cover light and ventilation, egress, fire safety, sanitary equipment, and security. Local jurisdictions sometimes modify model codes to reflect particular requirements in matters such as snow loads, strong winds, and seismic activity.
In many communities, zoning and subdivision ordinances and regulations govern the type, density, and use of the buildings permitted and such matters as setback from the property line.
Administration and enforcement of building codes and ordinances is coordinated through the local building inspection department, and land use matters are handled by the zoning department. In many instances, a house plan must be submitted to the building inspection department and a site plan to the zoning department, and they must be approved, by issue of a building permit, before construction begins. The staffs of these offices are available to confer with and assist the house builder prior to such formal submissions. It is good practice to meet with them at an early stage of the planning process to assure that the formal submission, when it is made, conforms to local requirements.
Model codes
Local codes, standards, and ordinances are generally derived from model documents. The majority of local building codes are based on or adapted from codes developed by one or more of four major code organizations. The organizations and the types of codes they have developed are as follows:
• BOCA—Building Officials & Code Administrators
International, Inc.
4051 West Flossmoor Road
Country Club Hills, IL 60477-5795
(312) 799—2300
Basic/National Code Series: building, plumbing, mechanical, fire prevention, energy, and other specialty codes.
• SBCCI—Southern Building Code Congress International, Inc.
900 Montclair Road
Birmingham, AL 35213
(205) 591—1853
Standard Code Series: building, plumbing, mechanical, fire prevention, and other specialty codes.
• ICBO—International Conference of Building Officials
5360 South Workman Mill Road
Whittier, CA 90601
(213) 699—0451
Uniform Code Series: building, plumbing, mechanical, fire, and other specialty codes.
• CABO—Council of American Building Officials
5203 Leesburg Pike
Falls Church, VA 22041
(703) 931—4533
One- and Two-Family Dwelling Code and the Model Energy Code.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Bat-terymarch Park, Quincy, MA 02269, also issues codes and standards vital to the housing industry. NFPA publishes and maintains the National Electric Code and the One- and Two-Family Dwelling Electrical Code. Both codes are recognized and referenced by the model code organizations in their code documents.
Inspections
After the building permit has been issued and construction begins, inspections are required at several stages of completion, usually at the completion of footings, framing, electrical work, plumbing, and mechanical features, and finally of the whole building. You need to schedule inspections, as follows, during building.
Footings. These inspections are conducted on the open trenches and/or formwork prior to pouring concrete. Steel reinforcement, if required, is inspected at the same time. The depth of the footings below grade is checked to insure proper level and footing size, and soil conditions are checked to insure that the footings provide proper bearing.
Framing. This must be inspected for grade, size, and placement prior to being covered with finish materials.
Electrical and plumbing lines. These are roughed in while the framing is open. Insulation and vapor barriers, as required, are placed in the walls and ceiling and coordinated with the electrical, plumbing, and mechanical installations.
Ductwork and mechanical equipment. These are installed and then inspected. Before any work is enclosed, they must be inspected and receive approvals for compliance with building, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical codes.
Once these inspections are completed and approvals obtained, the interior of the house is ready to receive finish materials.
Final inspection. This is required after all necessary electrical and plumbing fixtures, duct registers, and/or baseboard units, roofing material, and doors and windows are installed. The final inspection includes approval of numerous other details necessary to finish the house. In many jurisdictions a certificate of occupancy is issued after all final approvals are secured.
Financial Planning
Financial planning should occur early in the preconstruction process. It is good procedure to visit the loan officer of a lending institution to discuss your plans. Be prepared to discuss preliminary house plans, the approximate size and location of the building lot, your income and other financial resources, and, in general, how the construction will be accomplished. If you are planning to do some of the construction yourself, be prepared to describe your experience and training in order to assure the loan officer that you are capable of performing the tasks.
An experienced loan officer is able to estimate the approximate costs you can expect to incur based on a knowledge of the local building industry. In addition to estimating the cost, the loan officer can estimate the amount of money that you could expect to qualify to borrow.
It is recommended that you contact more than one lending institution. Often considerable variation is found from lender to lender regarding types of loans, loan amounts, interest rates, and down payments.
Once you select a lender, the loan office is likely to provide guidance regarding professional assistance. They may recommend that you seek a professional architect or builder to assist in such matters as the final house design, plan preparation, detailed estimating of labor and materials, and subcontractor selection.
Some lenders require two loan agreements. One loan is a short-term construction loan and the other is the long-term mortgage. The construction loan is designed to provide the builder with the financial resources necessary to pay for the construction of the house as it progresses. A typical schedule for disbursing the construction loan money, commonly referred to as a "draw schedule," is as follows:
Draw Amount Requirements
1 15%
Land survey completed
Building permit issued
Foundation walls or slab completed
Floor joists and subfloor in place
Insurance policy in place
2 15%
All exterior walls framed and sheathed
Roof complete
Well dug, if applicable
3 10%
All interior framing in place
Heating, plumbing, and electrical lines roughed in
Bathtub set
4 20%
All exterior walls complete
All windows set
All exterior doors hung
Interior wall covering complete
5 15%
All trim work complete
Basement floor poured, if applicable
Heating plant in place and connected
Septic system completed, if applicable
6 15%
Interior and exterior painting complete
Cabinets installed
All tile work complete
Plumbing, heating, and electrical fixtures operating
7 10%
All appliances operating
Air-conditioning operating, if applicable
Driveways, walkways, and walls complete
Finish grading complete
Sodding or grass seeding and shrubbery planted
The interest rate associated with the construction loan may be higher than that for the mortgage. This higher rate, however, is paid only on the amount of money disbursed and only during the term of the construction.
Once the house is complete and ready for occupancy, the amount of the construction loan may be transferred to the mortgage at lower interest for the longer term.
Site Selection
Selecting a lot on which to build a new house requires an investigation not only of the legal history and future plans for the land and surrounding areas but also of the physical characteristics of the soils and underlying geology. In some cases the investigation is best performed by a qualified land planner or engineer. In other cases the staff of local government offices can be of assistance.
Investigation of the legal history of the property, commonly called a title search, is usually performed by an attorney or title search company, who check that there are no outstanding liens against the property and confirm the correctness of previous transfers.
Investigation of the current zoning status of the property and surrounding areas, and of the status of the area in the master plan for the local municipality, is also important. This includes an examination of plans for the expansion of the transportation network and how these plans may affect the location of the house.
The physical characteristics of the lot include a boundary description or survey. The land recording procedures often require an official survey, which must be performed by a licensed surveyor.
Local offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service are an excellent source of data describing soil conditions and the geology of the area. This information is important if a well is to be drilled or a septic system to be installed. It may also affect the choice of foundation system to be built, particularly in areas with unstable soils.
For information regarding availability of electricity or natural gas service, water, storm sewer, sanitary sewer, and telephone service, contact the organizations, public or private, that provide the services.
House Design
A good way to begin designing a house is to visit model homes and collect ideas. Professional and trade magazines frequently offer floor plan files that contain many ideas. You may wish to secure the services of a professional architect to develop the final plans.
In general, a simple plan and an uncomplicated roof offer important advantages. Their construction is more rapid and involves less waste than more complex designs.
Two factors to consider in choosing a design are the relative ease of future expansion of the house, and its ultimate resalability. For example, an expandable design may use a more steeply pitched roof to provide space for future rooms in the attic area or may include second-floor dormers in the original design, so that additional rooms can be provided at a future date at a much lower cost than by adding to the side or rear of the house. Professional advice may be of value when considering expandability of the design and ultimate resale of the house. Other features of design that can affect costs are described below.
The width and length of the house can be chosen to use standard-length joists and rafters and standard spacings to avoid waste of material. An architect or builder has this information. Dimensions can also permit use of standard-width sheets of sheathing materials on both interior and exterior. In contrast, dimensions that require waste or ripping add to labor and material costs.
Rooms can be arranged so that plumbing and heating lines are short and risers can serve more than one room. In constructing an expandable design, roughing in plumbing and heating lines to the second floor does not add appreciably to the original construction costs but would reduce costs later if the second floor were to be completed.
Whereas a rectangular plan is the most economical from many standpoints, economy should not always govern final design. A rectangular plan for the house proper, with a full basement, can be made more desirable by a garage or porch wing of a different size or alignment. Such attachments require only shallow footings, without the excavation necessary for basement areas.
The type of foundation affects costs. Selection of slab, crawl space, or basement should be based on climatic conditions and on the needs of the family for storage, hobby, or recreation space. While space is not so desirable in the basement as in areas above grade, its cost per cubic foot is a great deal lower. The design of a house on slab usually includes some space for heating, laundry, and storage; this extra area often costs as much as a full basement. Many multilevel houses include habitable rooms over concrete slabs as well as a full basement.
Many contemporary house designs include a flat or low-pitched roof that allows a light truss to serve as both ceiling joists and rafters. This generally costs less than a pitched roof in materials and labor. However, not all house styles are adaptable to such a roof. Cost savings can often be realized by using preassembled roof trusses for pitched roofs. Dealers who handle large quantities of lumber are usually equipped to furnish trusses of this type.
Pitched roofs are of gable or hip design, while the gambrel roof has features of both designs. The hip roof is somewhat more difficult to frame than the gable roof, but usually requires less trim and siding. Painting is much simpler in the hip roof because the wall area is reduced by elimination of the gable, and because of accessibility. In the gambrel roof, which is adapted to two-story houses, roof shingles serve also as siding over the steep-pitched portions. A roof of this type provides a greater amount of headroom than the more common gable.
Selecting Materials
A great variety of grades and types of material can be used in a house and the choice of materials affects the cost.
With regard to grade, it is poor practice to use a low-grade or inferior material that could later result in excessive maintenance costs. It is equally uneconomical to use materials of a higher grade than required for strength or appearance.
As for types of material, for foundation walls, concrete blocks can be used in place of poured concrete. A good water-resistant surface is less costly to provide on a poured wall than on a block wall, but a common hollow concrete block has better insulating properties than a poured concrete wall of equal thickness. Costs often vary in different areas. A third alternative for foundations is pressure-treated wood, which may cost even less than concrete. (Caution: Wood preservatives used in pressure treating wood may present certain hazards. Refer to the precautionary information given in chapter 8.)
For chimneys, precast blocks may be considered, if available. These blocks are made to take flue linings of varied sizes and are laid up more rapidly than brick. Concrete blocks can also be used instead of bricks in laying up the base for a first-floor fireplace. Prefabricated lightweight chimneys that require no masonry may also save money.
The cost of dimension lumber for framing varies somewhat with species, grade, and size. Use the better grades for joists and rafters and the lower grades for studs. Do not use better grades of lumber than are actually needed. Proper moisture content is an important factor and is discussed separately in a later section.
Cost can be saved by use of conventional items such as cabinets, moldings, windows, and other millwork that are carried as stock or can be easily obtained. Many manufacturers have a good variety of millwork components to choose from. Any nonstandard materials that require extra machine setups will be much more expensive.
For wall covering and for floor covering, the use of a single material can provide substantial saving. A combination subfloor/underlayment of 5/8-inch or 3/4-inch tongue-and-groove plywood will serve as subfloor and as a base either for resilient tile or similar material or for carpeting. Panel siding consisting of 4-foot-wide full-height sheets of plywood or similar material may serve both as sheathing and as a finish siding. For example, exterior flakeboard with a painted finish can be used as corner bracing on the stud wall and may also qualify as a panel siding. Plywood may be obtained with a paper overlay or with rough-sawn, striated, reverse board-and-batten, brushed, and other finishes.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Wood-Frame House Construction by Gerald E. Sherwood, Robert C. Stroh. Copyright © 1990 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
PrefaceIntroduction
Chapter 1-Before construction starts
Regulation
Financial planning
Site selection
House design
Selecting materials
Labor-saving techniques
Materials delivery
Effience use of materials
Energy conservation
Protection of materials
Subcontracting
Schedule of activity
Chapter 2-Laying the groundwork
Site preparation
Excavation and footings
Foundation
Basement floor and crawl space
Other features
Concrete floor slabs on ground
Retaining walls
Chapter 3-Framing and closing in
Recommended nailing practices
Floor framing
Stairways
Floor sheathing
Exterior wall framing
Exterior wall sheathing
Ceiling and roof framing
Roof sheathing
Roof coverings
Skylights
Chapter 4-Completing the shell
Flashing and other sheet-metal work
Attic ventilation
Windows and exterior doors
Exterior covering materials
Exterior covering installation
Exterior trim
Chapter 5-Specialty features
"Fireplaces, wood stoves, and chimneys"
Garages and carports
Porches and decks
Driveways and walkways
Chapter 6-Working inside
Interior wall framing
"Plumbing, heating, and electrical installation"
Insulation and vapor retarders
Interior wall and ceiling finishing
Wood flooring
Other floor coverings
Interior doors
Chapter 7-Finishing touches
Interior trim
Cabinets and other millwork
"Finishes for interior walls, ceilings, and trim"
Finishes for floors
Finishes for exterior surfaces
Maintenance of finishes
Chapter 8-Special topics
Protection against decay and termites
Energy conservation
Noise control
"Wind, snow, and seismic loads"
All-weather construction
Maintenance and repair
Technical notes
Concrete
Heat flow and insulation
Lumber grades
Design values for visually graded structural lumber
Plywood markings
Finishing pressure-treated wood
Nailing schedules
Square corners
Selected Bibliography
Glossary of housing terms
Index