What's the best siding, roofing, heating,and flooring material to use?

[herfrds]

Come dig on this site. tons of info and these guys are pretty willing to help if you do a search first.

www.diychatroom.com/

 

[reveriereptile]

Thanks for the website. I'll check it out.

 

[newfoundland]

What an absolutely fascinating thread! I have never heard of metal roofs, as here they are either tiles or slate. Also when you refer to the sidings, do you mean the walls? Can these be made of some sort of manufactured board? How will you build the house, will you build a house shaped frame work first, and the panel it with the board? Will you be able to do this yourselves? What about planning permission? here we have to submit plans to the local authority and they will either pass or fail the project. They look at all sorts of issues, for example, is it in keeping with the appearance of it's general locality? Is it on land likely to be flooded? Is it made of materials that are approved. I know for example that some colours of brick are unacceptable in this area. Please let us know how you get on and post pics from time to time. Good luck to you, I think you are marvellous!!

 

[reveriereptile]

Metal roofs look pretty to me anyways around here. More people are switching to them since it seems to help slide the snow off the roof. The siding I'm trying to decide upon would be the exterior siding. We will use drywall on the inside walls. The land is pretty flat except for some bumpy areas. It is currently being used for cows to graze on. There aren't any trees on it and it does have some rocks but not to many. My FIL's house is built across the road and it may be due to it being an old house is why his basement floods. The top of the grass doesn't puddle up when it rains though. We will have the land checked out to make sure it can be built on.

We still got to check with the building codes and talk with some people first before setting everything up. After we check with all the codes and figure out what we will have to have and can't have then we will do a quick sketch of what we want. We will then talk with my husband's friend about the floor plans, get an estimate of how much of what stuff we will need so I can look around for the better prices, and he can draft everything and certify it himself. He knows about some of the codes and built a house in the same village we are going to build in. We will definitely have everything checked out before building or drafting anything. We do have a cousin that own's a carpenter/lumber store business in another state that we might be able to ask about different materials to use. He built his own house also.

We will hire some people to come in and get the foundation and anything else set up that needs to be done when the foundation is building built like the well and septic. The same group of people that are going to do the foundation will do the frame of the whole house, the roof, and put up all the sub floors and walls. Then we have some family members that know how to install plumbing and electrical work. Pretty much we will want to be able to come in and put the insulation in the walls and any of the coverings that go over the insulation before we put up the drywall. We have plenty of family and friends that are willing to help us and some that we can hire that have experience in drywalling. After the walls are up we will probably start doing the painting or floors. Some other friends depending on the type of roofing and exterior siding will do that.

My SIL went through all the same stuff we will go through just a couple years ago. She actually was paying some people to do her interior till she got tight on budget and then found some relatives that helped her start putting the insulation in and the drywall. That ended up saving her a lot of money than paying someone else a higher amount to install it.

 

[woodmort]

Be aware if you are ever planning on getting electricity hooked up, your electrical work will have to be inspected and up to code. This means you'll have to have a certified electrician install it. Otherwise the inspectors can be really tough and picayune. If you're lucky you may find an electrician that will allow you to work with him to save a few bucks but it is the one part of the job that requires a pro.

 

[reveriereptile]

Thanks for the advice. We have a family member that is a certified electrician that we will use. We definitely want that done right. Don't want to take a chance on having a fire.

 

[herfrds]

Check your State laws. DH ran all of our electrical, he just needed a permit under his name. The inspector came out and passed it. Cost us $200.00
If your FIL's basement floods make sure you have weeping tile and clean gravel over it before you back fill. We also had our basement sprayed with this material to waterproof it. The guy also sprayed the exposed footings.
We have sandstone but took these extra precautions just to make sure nothing happens.

 

[Mountain Man Jim]

I think the following group is great for home building information, though they may be a bit more technical than you currently need (it's never too early to start looking at the details): http://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/building_america/

One of your best bets is to find a local architect that you can hire on a time and expense basis to answer some of your questions and later to provide you with plans that you might need for code review.

In regards to hydronic radiant heating, I believe there are some companies that sell DIY kits for laying out and securing the tubing, etc. I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say "dry insulation".

Jim

PS: The place to look on the Building America site is under publications. Here's a wealth of information there for saving energy and building efficiently.

 

[reveriereptile]

In regards to hydronic radiant heating, I believe there are some companies that sell DIY kits for laying out and securing the tubing, etc. I'm not sure what you are referring to when you say "dry insulation".

The dry insulation I was talking about is the type that doesn't go into the concrete but between the floor and subfloor.

My SIL says there might be a new building code requiring residential sprinkler systems in the house. Does anyone know if NY passed that or not? I live in the St. Lawrence County area up way north. That would be costly and ugly to install one. They should make some type of new sprinkler systems for the houses if they are passing the requirement.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I'm glad that I found this thread. I have been researching metal roofs and I want to replace my old shingle roof with the Standing Seam Metal Roof.