Ask HN: How do I learn to build a wood-frame house?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39077166

by rmbyrro • 3 years ago

4 8 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I recently found out that I love building and doing manual labour, like digging or anything really. It's been a blessing, psycologically, to free my mind from SWE stuff.

Recently, my wife and I bought a piece of land to get out of rent. Now I want to build my own house (with professional help, for sure).

What are good resources to learn the wood structure part of it? Ideally, detailed videos showing how-tos, but anything would help!

unnamed76ri• 3 years ago

Mostly off topic but I firmly believe that if more people did manual labor that the world would have far less psychological problems weighing everyone down.

Some on topic advice: 1. Measure twice, cut once 2. Boards have a natural hump in them. Look down the length of each board on the skinny edge and orient the humps in the same direction for framing.

stop50• 3 years ago

The and the more an board is from the outer part it bends itself more.

rmbyrro2• 3 years ago

I can certainly attest that you are right, at least in my experience.

Another side benefit is that I now value a lot more the people who work with manual labour. They should definitely earn more from society, in gratitude and financially.

Gibbon12• 3 years ago

The journal of light construction is a decent resource.

https://www.jlconline.com/

rmbyrro2• 3 years ago

That's very handy, thank you!

Gibbon12• 3 years ago

Fine home building is also another one.

There are also books on framing out houses. Really if you follow code it's not rocket science.

Something else I saw. LA county has a set of approved ADU plans. They are complete plans for ADU's to make approval quick and fast.

https://www.ladbs.org/adu/standard-plan-program/approved-sta...

I'm pretty sure any of those you could build as it or with some modifications. Since they're approved for Los Angles they'll pass code anywhere.

Since I've had coffee I'll add for plumbing running PEX and PVC drain pipe is easy. You can totally do the electrical after the panel yourself. And don't even think about gas service. Use an induction stove, hybrid water heater, and a heap pump. Some minisplits you can install yourself.

westurner2• 3 years ago

From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37175721#37188180 :

FWIU Round homes fare best in windstorms: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37175721#37188180

From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37793288 :

"Zero energy ready homes are coming" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35060298
"Ask HN: Why don't datacenters have passive rooflines like Net Zero homes?" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37579505

So IMHO, round, with a roofline that causes passive heat exchange and ventilation, and Net Zero, with a heated slab, low VOCs, and a metal roof for rainwater collection and irrigation.

A stick frame house is built with standard dimensional lumber, with the walls nailed on the ground and raised.

A timber frame house is built with posts and beams made out of larger lumber.

Roof trusses are joined with metal (steel,) bracket plates typically as flatbed-delivered stacks prefabricated in a climate-conditioned warehouse.

Triangles, Arches, Circles and Spheres distribute load in structures.

Only certain tilings resist shearing.

Walls fall over if unsupported on their third axis.

Water fills behind nonporous (block) walls.

A polygon mesh is deformable, but a idk triangularly-filled mesh is not.

Triangles' side length to angle ratios only have one solution: triangles can't shear without the side or joined angle breaking (and so roof trusses are typically triangular and subtended into smaller triangles).

To shear a rectangle, you push and pull on it (and its vertices remain connected).

Shearing is usually described as a linear transformation (but which point is the origin, and so a linear transformation matrix about an origin is actually insufficient, and rigid body splined kinematics also omits GR).

The roof and stairs of a house are typically the strongest parts of a stick frame structure.

A square house twists underneath of a (relatively more static) triangular roof in high winds (with high shearing force due to wind).

Stick frame studs are '16" on center'

Doorways and windows have framed headers with crple studs that may be spaced less than 16" apart.

Add 2x8+ plated headers to insulate and structurally secure exterior doors and windows.

In the United States, a (2024) 2x4 is 1.5x3.5", and a 2x6 is 1.5x5.5".

With 2x6s or 2x8s, there is more room for higher R-value insulation.

Framing (construction) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(construction)

I have saved woodworking videos in a playlist for later review with materials from my neighbor's house first: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt_DvKGJ_QLau_vXQQnJKgTXQ...

Framing and (Hurricane proof) building code videos are accidentally interspersed, per traditional woodworking video procedure.

Also doing software And carpentry: "The Newbie Woodworker" on Kickback table saw Safety: https://youtu.be/ZUZ8hRm7a8g?si=tDYX92TUQKPvNQip

Joinery software, Japanese joinery: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36191589

Many older house framing videos show old methods that are not to code. For example, modern code requires that footers be bolted to the _____.

/? home framing terminology: https://www.google.com/search?q=home+framing+terminology

To be a building inspector, you train on the building code and then you label code violations.

Smart builders and contractors can hire and train their own preemptive inspectors to inspect it before you have it inspected by a 3rd party home inspector; for resale; for someone else with an infant to live in.

/? Building a house: https://www.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=Framing...

westurner2• 2 years ago

E.g. engineered I-beams may contain particleboard which in general may contain formaldehyde in the binder; so you have to ask for formaldehyde -free wood.

Ask HN: How do I learn to build a wood-frame house?

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