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Comment by thekhatribharat | Hacker News Reader

How does the construction industry work in the US? Do many people DIY? Do many people get hands-on with building homes while still hiring experts where needed? Is it common for city people to own farms/land nearby?

It seems it isn’t really that costly to build a nice 1000 sq. ft. place complete with appliances and modern amenities.

The construction industry in India is shitty - carpenters, painters, plumbers, masons, general contractors have little to no professional training and eff up projects often, the tools aren’t modern and renovation work is infrequent because of the poor quality of construction services (and non-existent DIY culture and ecosystem). Also, it’s probably looked down upon in the Indian society if a house owner goes DIY with any construction work (gardening is an exception).

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In more rural areas, you can still build your own home without a huge amount of paperwork and certification. As someone else mentioned, if your funding hasn't got strings attached you're even more free. Of course there's always the "forgiveness is easier than permission," factor too, but that only works if you're "somebody" to the authorities you hope to be forgiving you.

I built my house from 2003 to 2005 in rural TN with only a couple of permits needed (electrician, one for the well, one for the septic system) and no special laws about what contractors i could employ. This was self-funded, self labor, etc etc as much as possible; and probably about the most benign location for the effort in the entire USA.

Curious, what was the total 'all done' cost of doing this?

Just under $40k, with salvage materials and every cost saving i could scrape up. Place has been assessed 2x - 3x higher and I've been told "If it was a more normal structure it could be worth twice that"... Most people don't want houses with industrial flooring and 900 sqft loft rooms; thats why I had to build :)

This sounds very interesting! Have any pictures?

What do you use the loft room for?

I live in a city of ~200k (Grand Rapids, MI). We need a few more permits than you (structural plans, foundation...), but there's nothing prohibiting DIY work. I've found the building department to be fairly DIY-friendly.

Ha. A family member built a ~2,500sq ft, 3 stall garage home near the beltline a few years back with the help of my other family members. One of them had a contractor's license (I think primarily for the discount and credit line at Menards - they never worked as a contractor) but GR was very amenable to self built homes. Just needed the normal inspections (foundation, electrical, plumbing) and it went smoothly.

In the 40s-60s, one could get a kit home and build it yourself. They were of decent enough quality where existing structures in the Bay Area are selling for over $1m.

Contractors are supposedly licensed and bonded. They may employ others. There are some very good ones - they are all booked out years in advance. The shady/shitty/marginal ones are easier to find.

I was surprised to learn you can still buy kit houses from Menards, a major store similar to Home Depot and Lowes. They have a catalog you can look through to make your choice.

The value of expensive property with old houses is 90%+ in the land. My 1950's house is valued at 6% of what the land is.

I looked into building our home. Unless you can self fund you’ll need a loan. If you need a loan for new construction the banks will require a general contractor. If you already work as a general contractor you’re all set. If you’re not you’ll need a GC to shepherd the project through. But going completely DIY is extremely difficult for most Americans.

I'm in the middle of building a 1000sf home with some friends. It'll probably be about 80k for the house (including various permits). We hired contactors for: plans (including engineering calcs), concrete slab finishing (our floor, did the forms & rebar ourselves), trusses (required by code), plumbing, and drywall. I just got back from putting tile in the bathrooms :) We had a retired electrician friend who guided us but did that ourselves, otherwise we probably would have hired one. We're in the countryside so also needed a well and septic system (not part of the 80k).

It's been a tremendous amount of work but is otherwise rather doable. The internet/youtube has been very helpful (like Neo downloading how to kungfu). Another surprise is how helpful the building inspectors have been. They're usually dealing with cranky contractors who want to do the minimum, and we've been very eager for their advice on how to make things last since we'll be living there.

It's been notably more expensive (maybe 15-20%) than we expected, mainly do to the modern building practices and materials which are either required by code or just a good idea.

In Soviet Union of the 80s a male person with rural origins aged over 18 was considered capable of building a wooden house by himself (or little help from other males in the family) by default. Nowadays you can hardly find someone who is not a carpenter professionally but still capable of building.

Yeah, and that’s why most of the modern rural Russia reminds everyone of the 1920s southern states in America.

It was eye-opening to end up at a photography exhibition by a guy who did government-backed photography in the south in 20s and see the same house my babushka used to live in.

But frankly, it doesn’t mean these were _good_ houses.

In Russia good means reliable, and that's all. Comfort is secondary. But not for youngsters of course, that's why rural Russia is almost abandoned.

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