How to build a sustainable house is 7,000 Euros.
Sometimes we forget that we have hands, it's that simple. We embarked on obtaining our luxury home and, of course, with many meters in a perpetual "down payment" to a man named Don Banco, who will actually let us live in his home, as long as we religiously pay a "festival" fee. and, that in most cases, the best plans we could make in our long youth collapse.
We can rent a house, a room or go to our parents' house to live, but also there is the possibility of learning how to build a house with our hands.
Building your own house is not crazy!
In addition, a self-construction provides sustainable benefits to the building, that is, we can practice sustainable architecture with materials and techniques that respect the environment, biodiversity and the health of its occupants.
Let us remember that it is not so far-fetched, many of our grandparents were part of those men who fully participated in the construction of their own house, well then, if now we can opt for more information, better materials and tools … Why don't we build a house? Why not start build houses cheap ecological with our hands.
For one sustainable house; Materials are everywhere and they are cheap if we want to enter the world of sustainable housing, where the land we step on can be the best friend of our future construction, of our future self-sustaining house.
Although later we explain how to build a house step by step, first, let's see the real case …
How to make a cheap house
This example of how build your own house With little money (later there are manuals, guides and a free course), we have to go a bit far, to Thailand where in a few weeks he already had his "perfect" home.
This is the story of Steve Aren, being a handyman or not so much, the build your own house trying to use cheap materials, reuse others and applying a sustainable and bioclimatic architecture.
So let's see how to make a house step by step according to this curious project of a sustainable and economical home:
With only 7,000 Euros in your pocket decided to build a sustainable house, the home of your dreams, and all you had to do was find the perfect place to do it.
The basic structure only cost him around 6,000 Euros to build the house, taking into account that in Thailand the materials are very cheap. As he comments on his website, he had a friend from Thailand who guided him in the Building process.
Cement blocks and clay bricks were used for the construction of the house. What better than to use the land from the field where we started the project! … Cheaper, impossible.
For the remaining details and the furniture, he had to pay around the remaining 2,000 Euros. The power to respond to what what is a sustainable house And being able to understand it from the ground up is a quality that many of us should experience.
As we have seen, the construction finished quite well. From Steve Areen's portal (It takes a while to load the web) we can find more images to understand the process of building sustainable houses and really cheap based on good ideas.
From HERE we can see the process of construction of the house based on photographs to learn a little about how to build a cheap house. And in the following video we can see a little more of the finished house.
We remember that we can find different self-sufficient homes that vary in shape and quality. From the article how to build a dome that tells of the execution and construction of a geodesic dome for a house in Spain. Very interesting
Advantages of building sustainable houses and their disadvantages
We want to provide two schemes that recognize the disadvantages or problems and how to act in self-sufficient dwellings, which, due to their typology, will normally be an isolated dwelling.
Generalized problems:
Once the common problem when building a home is recognized, we must understand how it can be solved or what actions can be implemented:
10 Steps to make your own cheap house:
Do you want to make your home? Do you know specifically what you need to do it? If not, you will be interested in reading the following:
It seems incredible but it is possible to make your own home, although it is not easy, especially ignoring basic knowledge to avoid taking false steps. We propose an orderly way of beginning to study this objective, with different tips to build your house:
1.- Buy the land
Acquisition of land either solar or surface to lift on existing housing. The acquisition can be considered through sale, inheritance or assignment.
We must take into account the orientation that we will need in the house with reference to the land when building. We do not want to buy land where we have shade in winter, for example. Look at the following guidelines for housing (Guidelines for Spain)
2.- The feasibility study
Feasibility study and budget of all the costs that our new house will produce, namely: Basic and Execution Project, Architect and Technical Architect Works Direction, Health and Safety Coordination, Major Construction License, New Construction Deeds o Horizontal Division, Land Sale Deeds, Notary and Registry Fees, Taxes, Appraisal, Management Expenses, Cost of Construction of the Work, and so on.
When a house is built, there are many expenses, but the highest cost is in materials and labor. To find out how much a conventional building is worth, we can consult databases.
The IVE (Instituto Valenciano de la Edificación - Spain) has a tool to see the cost of a conventional residential house that we can consult from HERE We just have to enter the data! And we will have an approximation.
3.- The financial study and costs
Financing Study of all the costs to bear mentioned above. At this point we should not confuse terms such as the real cost of construction, market value or appraisal of the house once it is finished and the amount of the mortgage loan granted.
This last amount is the one that we must calculate very well so that it absorbs the maximum amount of the total costs. From the article how to calculate the price of a house, we can learn a little more!
Nor should we forget the terms and provisions that financial institutions propose to us as there are times when a real drama occurs when we are paying repayment installments and interest before having the full amount of the loan and this means that we could not pay our debt mainly with the constructor. Be careful with the fine print of special conditions, interest, opening commissions and life or home insurance.
4.- The housing project
The project. It is time to think about your future. The number of rooms, the bathrooms, the patio or garden, the kitchen, the television, the tiles, the doors, the facade and as far as I want the light switches. Good resources:
- We can see different house plans from here
- If we want we can also find and download free autocad drawings where we can see ideas.
- And find free online architecture and interior design magazines to get ideas.
Everything must be well clear and thought out, since the final cost of the building and the entire process itself will depend on these decisions. Also, you cannot forget that you are going to live at home for a long time and you want it to be the most comfortable place on the planet.
The Architects can help you a lot and will advise you at all times, ensuring your comfort and your money. Once everything is defined, our architecture studio will translate it into the Basic and Execution Project with its corresponding measurements and Health and Safety Study. After the approval of the projects, the legal process begins.
5.- The paperwork
The paperwork is a decisive step. This is how people like to call legal procedures that seem so convoluted but are well analyzed and controllable. It is true that getting lost in just one of the procedures can cause a significant delay in the entire procedure and the word delay in these cases is synonymous with money. The sequence of procedures is as follows:
- Obtaining the Building License.
- Appraisal.
- Deed of sale or assignment, New Construction Deeds., Mortgage Credit Articles of Incorporation, Registry, Taxes, Land Registry.
- Report and request for connections in supply companies.
- Works Contract with Constructora.
- Prior notice to the labor inspectorate.
- Act of stakeout of work.
- Certifications and releases of mortgage credit.
- Minutes and final certificates of work.
- Application for 1st occupation license.
- Cadastral registration of the new construction.
- Application for hitching water and electricity.
Now it's time to get into the pure construction process and better understand how to build a cheap house with different techniques:
6.- The construction
This is the most important step because it is the largest expense that we are going to bear and we must decide which of the requested offers is the one that offers us the best guarantee in terms of economic offer and technical solvency.
To do this, architecture studios make it easier for you to carry out a comparison between the companies that have offered us. We must not forget to agree on the forms of payment, the qualities offered, the execution period and the penalties for delays, all signed in a private contract.
7.- The completion of the work
Now the time has come to give the go-ahead to what has been built and it is not an easy task because the use, comfort and durability of what has been delivered will depend on it. We advise making a list of all the defects detected so that they can be corrected as soon as possible.
The Quantity Surveyor or Technical Architect will play a fundamental role in this task as he understands finishes better than anyone else. We cannot forget that in this phase the liquidation of the work will take place and if we do not want to be surprised, we must allow ourselves to be advised from the beginning. To make the approval official, both the Architect and the Technical Architect will sign the final certificates of work and final certificates of reception as well as of the liquidation of work.
8.- The rush
Difficult but essential task to be able to turn on the light or open the tap. We will request the approval of the supplying companies accompanying the bulletins of the installers. We will pay the rush fees and contract your services.
9.- The guarantees
Essential to protect against unforeseen events, damages or hidden defects. There are legal guarantees that defend us against claims to builders. The term of legal guarantees will depend on when we have received and settled the work.
10.- The decoration and enjoyment
And it was time to furnish. If we have done things well, we will not cover the plugs with the furniture, and the lighting will recreate the desired environments. Our house can have multiple decoration options, but the most advisable thing is to seek advice from the Architects, since they can teach you a wide range of fashions, trends and designs from the most traditional and classic to the current and avant-garde. This process is the most fun so relax to let your imagination and creativity fly.
Guides to build a home plus free course
At the time we already made several articles to learn the bases of bioclimatic architecture where different documents of interest such as.How to learn to build a house, with different manuals and guides in addition to answering the question of what is a sustainable home We can see it in the following links:
- The essential principles of bioclimatic architecture (A jewel of drawings for the sustainable house)
- Documents on biosustainable architecture (22 Guides to learn how to build your own house)
- Architecture and its relationship with the wind and sun
- Bioclimatic facade design
- How to calculate an eaves for a sustainable house
Apart from the information that we have provided, we are interested in recognizing which are the construction techniques that will best strengthen our home and how to implement them. From the next article HERE we will find the construction details of how to make houses more sustainable and bioclimatic. Highly recommended An example of the schema cheap house construction detailed would be …
Now it's time for two perfect and impressive manuals:
- From the Carlos Slim Foundation the Auto Construction manual from HERE (Be careful, there are 290 pages so it loads slowly)
- Another manual in the style of quality schemes and what to see about Self-constructionn to download from HERE.
And a complete and free self-construction course from the Carlos Slim Foundation that we can consult from HERE. and that it can be a good way to begin to understand the ecological and cheap houses what can we do.
Cheap house example
We want to show a small example of an eco-sustainable cabin that does not neglect modern design, the comfort of a home and a relatively cheap price. Undoubtedly, cheap house construction it does not have to be at odds with a good design or the most noble materials.
We must remember that in recent years, society has been becoming aware of the need to change our way of interacting with the environment and start a project of a eco-sustainable house it can bring us many benefits.
We have an interesting guide article to find the ideal home with interesting tips to buy a house with consistency.
In the construction sector this translates into a commitment to sustainable architecture and for the self sustainable houses, which represents not only a trend towards the use of energy or the use of environmentally friendly materials, but also a philosophy and a conception of a different home architecture in our time.
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