Cheapest???

topic posted Sun, April 13, 2008 - 3:06 PM by 
I'm about to buy a sweet old fucked up house for really cheap here in Georgia. But if after the inspection tommorrow, if it makes more sense to offer less and just tear the house down and build a new one, what would be the cheapest most efficient alternative housing to build? I keep looking at the shipping containers and steel housing. Hopefully the house can be fixed though. The floors are all screwed up. But if not, if I get the property for cheaper, I just wonder what is the best thing I could do? It's in a good location near main street and the lake beach. Anyway, all that isnt important really to this question. I was looking at the small pre-fab type houses also and papercrete, etc...... The steel houses I really like though as they can be raised and are very resistant to harsh weather.
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  • Re: Cheapest???

    Tue, April 15, 2008 - 11:00 AM
    Maybe straw bale housing. Because there is a lot of humidity and storms out in that area. I would check with your local alternative architects, because they would know the situation a lot better than someone here would. Maybe someone at Georgia Tech would have some advice for you. Prefab I've heard takes more money than any sort of conventional construction with an architect. My old boss actually went to a few jobs to give people advice prior to purchasing for about $100 for a visit.
    • Re: Cheapest???

      Tue, April 15, 2008 - 2:51 PM
      That house I thought I was going to get is a tear down. Total trash. I told them I'd give them 5 dollars for the lot. It's near main street Acworth and near the lake beach. It's just not worth the investment. I think I need to stay in Tucson, Portland, Seattle or something to retire though anyway. I was thinking if I got the cheap house I could just tear it down and build a shipping container house or something else. It will probably be another year or two before I could do something like this unless the perfect "meant for me" situation falls onto my plate. I dont know why I'm planning for the future anyways. When I feel there is no future. I'm so up on life. Yay.
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        Re: Cheapest???

        Tue, April 15, 2008 - 7:04 PM
        You really have to work with the building dept. first on things like that. Surprise them and they get all uppity and then you will never and I mean never gat a permit. They do all kinds of things, lose your plans for months, nit pick, just flat out say no or demand thousands of dollars of site reviews by engineers.
        • Re: Cheapest???

          Tue, April 15, 2008 - 7:10 PM
          Zoning, restrictions, etc.... for sure.
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            Re: Cheapest???

            Wed, April 16, 2008 - 6:35 AM
            More of building codes. Most require detailed engineering drawings before you get a single permit. If you can't draw them and do the calculations yourself you hve to hire someone. Like one engineer told me, you bought the land but you don't own it. To own it you have to be able to decide what to do with it. They own your land because they decide what you can do with it.
            • Re: Cheapest???

              Wed, April 16, 2008 - 9:21 AM
              Hence, why I wouldnt want to buy land that had zoning restrictions. I would want to build whatever I want without anyones permission.
              • Re: Cheapest???

                Wed, April 16, 2008 - 9:51 AM
                If you are building in the states you will have to go to a remote location to avoid codes and inspectors, but you can build many small structures that fall outside of code enforcement. 100sf. is the limit usually. That could be multiple 10ft diameter domes, but there are limits to how much land you can cover because of water shed. Super adobe is a cheap alternative especially since it is so energy efficient, and your site is your building material. Super adobe structures are about ten degrees cooler than the outside temperature without any cooling, and they gain thermal mass for heat storage in the winter. Oh yeah there are already plans with engineering notes for two different larger structures.

                Here at Cal-Earth the largest of the two is 1850sf of living space and another 600sf of garage space. It cost roughly 50,000 to build and appraised at over 300,000. The plans are available at Cal-Earth. This structure has passed all of it's inspections with the building department here in San Bernadino county California (This county has one of the toughest building regulations on the planet), But all of the material is available to present to the building department.
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                  Re: Cheapest???

                  Thu, April 17, 2008 - 7:13 AM
                  For a lot of the smaller building offices that have a small staff it pays to be "helpful". Give them lots of books and Lot them educate themselves. There is a natural resistance to doing something that is not in the building code manuals but if you are very helpful they can give you a permit.
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                    Re: Cheapest???

                    Thu, April 17, 2008 - 10:22 AM
                    Build a dome home like you see in some places in AZ. you could precast the whole thing in concrete or some recycled material, but again that's pretty far out.
                • Re: Cheapest???

                  Fri, April 18, 2008 - 11:27 AM
                  That's not entirely accurate.

                  There are places (they are very few now) where there are no building codes. I know of places in Idaho that are like this. They are very rare, but can still be found in the US.

                  It only really works though if the type of project matters more than the location.... If you dont want to have to build/live in idaho or some place similar, you still have your problem.
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                    Re: Cheapest???

                    Fri, April 18, 2008 - 10:16 PM
                    It would work for me becaues in general if there are no building codes there are few people around and that is what I like. :)

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