Building a house

working around homes through the yrs it is a really great suprise when you come across a pull pipe in the attic that has some strings hanging down in the basement

8122pbrainard wrote: Okie Boarder wrote: Another thing being considered is to fully pre-wire the house for A/V, security or automation. Cat 6 and coax drops to every room and back to a central location. Good idea. Put a plaster ring at each wall location before the dry wall.

Definitely.

Okie Boarder wrote: Another thing being considered is to fully pre-wire the house for A/V, security or automation. Cat 6 and coax drops to every room and back to a central location.

Good idea. Put a plaster ring at each wall location before the dry wall.

Another thing being considered is to fully pre-wire the house for A/V, security or automation. Cat 6 and coax drops to every room and back to a central location.

NICE!

8122pbrainard wrote: Andy, I agree with Peter on the costs. Dreams sometimes don't fit into reality however,keep going and decide when the time comes. I've been there!

Yep, that's the plan.

When building on a budget I tell friends to think about putting your money into the things you very likely will not have the opportunity to change later. This is your big chance to foam in the walls, put radiant heat tubes in the concrete and such. Think about windows quality and size. You can upgrade the quality when they are shot in 20-30 years, but making them larger would cost a fortune in re-framing. An opening size upgrade now is only the window cost. Install and framing cost does not change much. Also your trim package, if you like heavier/taller base boards and casings invest now. Same for siding and exterior trim. Counter tops get swapped out frequently by many, but the cabinets are a much bigger deal. Tubs and showers are fairly permanent. A toilet/ sink /vanity is easy. Think through what you can upgrade latter and what you can't when ruling expenses in or out.

Andy,
I agree with Peter on the costs. Dreams sometimes don't fit into reality however,keep going and decide when the time comes. I've been there!

its nothing like granite its more like slate in that it is as Pete said very porous. you may have seen old farm house sinks that are a grey black stone   that is soapstone.. i bet you will do a lot of chipping off the list when you find out all the expense of even a basic new construction. its unimagineable what things cost these days.. but always build with the basics if you have to but try and make the future upgrades easily doable later.

Okie Boarder wrote: Has anyone had experience with soapstone counters tops?

They are very porous,must be sealed and the sealer must be maintained.

I have to kiss petes butt here and agree with everything he said.......god that hurt.
in New england the only time i have seen any foam under roof in attic is on very old homes id stick with good venting and insulate attic floor . by the way blown on the attic floor may be better r value than pink stuff but it sure makes any kind of future construction or any chance of using the attic for storage or maintenence a complete mess..

Okie Boarder wrote: I'm already considering the foam in the walls, but a subcontractor we work with, for work, told me about a friend that had the inside of the roof foamed, with no insulation in the ceiling. It was a retrofit job along with changing his ducting system from the floor (which was rotted out) to the attic. They foamed the underside of the roof, and removed the standard attic insulation. I'm not sure what they did as far as venting is concerned, but it sounded like it is working well. He mentioned that the attic temperature was in the 80 degree range on a 100 degree day, versus it being 120 on 100 degree day. Interesting thought and I could see how it might be a feasible idea.

Andy,
It sure sounds like he is air conditioning his attic now! Duct work can be insulated and preferred in a unconditioned space. Did his electric bill go up? ROI? Roof damage will not show up immediately after insulating the bottom of the roof deck. How long ago did he do it? BTW, I have insulated ducting in my attic and it's 0 degrees out now and dropping!

Orlando76 wrote: y'all are way over engineering this. I have a 2200 living sq ft house with a well and lift pump on septic and my insulation is so thin my joist sit higher.... And last month my power bill was $97 tax, tag and title. I was gonna reinsulate but at that rate, why?

Todd,
Your living in Florida sure helps!

dochockey wrote: spray the walls with cellulose,and blown in in the attic and do the most R factor u can afford . Vent the soffits and have a ridge vent.

Spray insulation is expensive especially poly foam. I investigated it when I built my shop up north. I ended up with 2x6 walls with standard fiberglass batts and insulating board sheathing resulting in a R-28. Then the attic was blown with 18" of glass resulting in a R-66. The concrete floor with hydronic was insulated with foam below as well as it's perimeter (important) resulting in a R-20. The shop is twice the size of my little cabin and the heating cost is 25% of the house. Calculating the spray foam cost VS: 2x6 walls resulted in a ROI of 21 years!! Spray foam is only beneficial when you have limited space (cavity) typically on existing construction or money to potentially waist!

dochockey wrote:    tank-less Water Heaters When I remodel My master Bath I'm putting one in but you definitely want to filter the water before the unit.

You can not filter out dissolved solids (minerals).