/diy/ - Do It Yourself

[Anonymous No.1598547]

I want to buy some land and build my own house in Alaska. I have lived here 10 years and decided this place is my fit.

I am in between doing a butt and pass type log home or an a-frame. Boomer friends of mine tell me to do traditional home with dutch gable but it sounds gay and non inviting. Looking at land trying to buy about 5 acres. My foundation is probably gonna be stilts (concrete filled tubes with adjustable u-brackets for frost heaves) with enough room below to walk around and put tools and /out/ gear.

Advice on building myself? Are A-frames really cost effective?
Pic related is what i would like. Huge reasons are heating, snowload, and it seems inheritly easier to add to the side or front/back of an aframe compared with other construction.

[Anonymous No.1598557]

>>1598547
A frames only work if you have a good unobstructed southern exposure to point them at. Skip the second floor, too hot in the summer, just put a sleeping loft for winter sleep.

They do suck to heat and cool if you want a climate controlled life, but they are easy to keep liveable if you are ok with the less perfect wood heat or the like.

[Anonymous No.1598560]

>>1598557
Well the house would be in alaska so i dont think it will get too hot. Idea is to use a wood stove for effective winter heating.

[Anonymous No.1598564]

>>1598547
did you mgtow your own way?

[Anonymous No.1598565]

>>1598560
It will get hot in the summer, the long days of the sun cooking the building, the upper part of the A frame collects that heat, if you are somewhere like Juneau and well below the horizon it will not be bad, but they really can collect the heat up on the second level.

[Anonymous No.1598567]

>>1598565
Looking at kenai peninsula not north of ninilchik

[Anonymous No.1598568]

>>1598564
Nah married with kids.

[Anonymous No.1598569]

>>1598565
Windows and fans wont help? It doesnt get very warm up there and a good 75 percent of the days have overcast

[Anonymous No.1598573]

>>1598569
Problem with fans is they mix the cool low air with the high hot air. Windows are helpful, ideally you have a clear southern exposure and a south wall of glass, few small Windows in the north and the roof unbroken. This greatly helps heat the house in the winter and cool in the summer even if you cook in a wood stove, it is a design designed to exploit the environment, and it does not to well when you fight that.

Also you OP pic has the eaves wrong, should be deep at the peak and taper back to the bad of the south wall, this let's in as much low winter sun in while still keep out most of the high summer sun.

They are great houses but if you fight them they become perpetually uncomfortable.

[Anonymous No.1598575]

>>1598573
God, Samsung has the most retarded auto correct ever.

[Anonymous No.1598583]

i built my own house OP, and ill skip the youre in for a lot of work talk because im sure you know and im not a faggot (spoiler alert i am a faggot)

i built a two story (started as just a loft) house using core spinouts i scooped from the mill i worked at that i dimensioned on a sawmill i made

i made a jig to panel 10 of these dimensioned pieces together then bolted them together with long pieces of ready rod. big ready rod, $$$, then bracketed them together using half inch plate and more heavy as fuck bolts. think 1 1/4. got these from work too.

one panel is 8 feet long 8 feet high 10 inches thick

i used 20 foot screw piles as foundation, would recommend

dug the sewer lagoon (not happy about placement smells in winter but it could be worse)

the hardest part was hanging the 40 foot long peak timber that was fucking scary. 40 feet let me have an overhang timber framework for a roofed deck.

i used tin i stole from work (they were okay with me taking it) to do the roof. very steep snow slides off.

about 30 feet high 40 feet long and 28 i think wide total dimensions with a full second story. all hardwood floor except bathroom rip n stick linoleum.

blaze king wood stove, propane catalytic back up. propane hot water heater propane cook stove propane fridge. 800lb pig out in the yard. this is all on 15 acres.

took me 10 years while working 8-5 and about 100 grand. worth it? absolutely

[Anonymous No.1598597]

>>1598583
Well fellow faggot, with my idea I can erect the framing triangles on the ground then pull them up. For foundation (one thing i am not going cheap on) i will use metal pipes filled with concrete like they do up in the tundra up north. Seen frost heaves fuck up too many houses

[Anonymous No.1598622]

>>1598597

not a bad idea forgot to mention im about 500km from alaska so our climates are the same.

ive seen lots of cemented piles and lots of screw piles. either will work fine assuming you go deep enough

[Anonymous No.1598784]

>>1598622
Any ideas how i can get a rough estimate of what the structure sans foundation would be? I went on avrameusa.com and looked at one of the kits and figured it would cost me about a third less but I dont know how accurate this is.

[Anonymous No.1598796]

>>1598597
A frames are easier for DIYers without a lot of help or experience than many other styles.

A frames have real value when there is a lot of snow.

[Anonymous No.1598802]

>>1598784
30% of the kit price is often about right on most of these .

If the site is hard to get to, you might have problems taking delivery.

You might be able to haul it in on a smaller vehicle in batches.

You might use better quality materials, which will raise the cost.

Take a building contractor to lunch and pick his brain for what works best in your area.

[Anonymous No.1599001]

put it in a hole in the ground that way you can heat it and cool it for less

[Anonymous No.1599026]

>>1599001
>put it in a hole in the ground that way you can heat it and cool it for less

True, and this has been known for ages. Other than the water-proofing challenge, a buried or semi-buried home is awesome year round. The drawback is that if you spend $500,000 on a house most people want their wealth to be visible from the street.

Is Captcha broken, like in a good way? I don't think I've had to solve one all day.

[Anonymous No.1599079]

>>1599026
>Is Captcha broken, like in a good way? I don't think I've had to solve one all day.
You're probably still logged in on a Google account.
(Gmail, Voice, YouTube, Hangouts, etc.)

[Anonymous No.1599166]

OP here, thanks for all of the advice! Anyone know where I can score some plans online that isnt mother earth news or the avrame website? Tried archive but no dice. Trying to get plans/ supplies list to see what the cost would be vs. Cabin kit. Was looking at kodiak steel homes but i dont feel like making a profile just for a basic price quote, also delivery from Arkansas is gonna be super lame.

[Anonymous No.1599606]

ebay
Kalamazoo

20 x 35 x 16

$5,000

Much much faster and easier to get the basic structure up

You need a site that is good for a concrete floor

Put radiant heat waterlines in the concrete.

[Anonymous No.1599607]

>>1599606

[Anonymous No.1599612]

>>1599607
My neighbor put one up about the same size. garage door on one side, framed in on the other, with electric.
$20k for entire project including beer for the helpers

[Anonymous No.1599763]

>>1599607
It will make a lot of condensation in the cold. Concrete slab isnt the best for frost heaving.

For a shop its good.

Also need to figure in shipping to AK