Hello everyone, I have a question about new home construction. Is it a far-fetched idea for me to build my own house, because I have began saving to build an ICF home utilizing Hambro joist(both floor and ceiling), with radiant heating, and interior framed steel stud track. If I were to have footings, ICF walls, and Hambro joist engineered with rebar scheduling and all other necessary details could I use those plans to build my house-also concrete work I would contract out since one man would have a hard time laying a 1500sq ft suspended slab. Other then concrete work, would I be biting off more then could be reasonably handled.
It just has always been a dream to be able to build my own place and with my recent 2acr. lot purchase I want to go for it.

Sounds like FUN !!!

Have you worked construction before? I have seen firsthand homeowners waste a lot of money trying to save a buck. There are a lot of parts of the house you can do yourself, but on the critical structural parts, you NEED them done right the first time.

I am building my own house all by myself, and it has been challenging indeed. Everyone will try to talk you out of it and tell you that you can't do it. That of course is hog wash, but be forewarned it's not as easy as it looks.

One thing that can help you is if you keep things sized down and try not to make anything too tall. I've got one part of my second story with a ridge beam at 28 feet high and a 10/12 roof pitch. Oh how I wish I had designed a one story with 8 foot ceilings!

If you have to rent cranes or scissor lifts to get material in place, this is going to cost you because you won't get the same price as a contractor (you'll pay more as an individual).

Also if you're married, be sure your wife's on board.

My wife and I are planning to build our dream ICF home later this year. Originally planned to start a couple years ago, but learned early on that we needed to get some construction ABC's under our belts. Reading about ICFs and even attending a day long ICF training course only gets you familiar with the basics. Some things we've done include;

- Helped build a 1000SF ICF home in Greensburg, KS for an elderly lady who lost hers to a tornado
- helped a friend stack 10' high 6" ICF block walls for a 3300sf home
- couple of weeks ago helped a contractor friend stack and pour 10' high 4" ICF block walls for a detached garage and, hopefully, he'll let me assist on stacking and pouring the home coming up in a few months.
- Constructed a small ICF pumphouse for our water well.
- Constructed a 15'x15' efficiency apartment inside a metal building where we'll live as we build our house.

We learned how to deal with a variety of problems including getting the desired concrete slump, insufficient bracing and pouring technique leading to small blowouts, and how to fix a blowout and keep the pour going.

We feel much morel confident we'll be able to build our own place. We've also learned what trades and expertise we'd rather contract out. Square, plumb and level should become second nature terms in your vocabulary and unless you have enough experience be careful of short cuts. The right tool for the job will save you time and effort. Learned on the garage job that screws with a star head vice a phillips seem to drive easier with less stripping.

Guess the bottom line is assess your skills, get some experience so you can decide if you really want to build your own home, realistically decide how long it will take and if that is acceptable to you. To paraphrase Jelly, Simpler is easier on you and your pocketbook. Cheers, Dave