Anytime I see a new video from home performance no matter what I’m doing. I watch it 10 out of 10. Thanks for everything you do. This channel is invaluable.
@RRBuildings builds post-frame units of all types with mostly a 2 man crew. They could probably be an incredibly useful expert to talk to for this idea. You should get together and do a panel discussion for youtube about quality affordable housing ideas.
We have a ton of respect for RR buildings, Corbett is the king of high performance homes and RR are the best post frame builders there is, would be a fascinating conversation!
This is what I have been saying for years! This is why I will build a post frame house. A lot more DIY friendly. This guy has a lot of info and can’t wait to hear more from him. Post frame can also be extremely efficient.
I built my own home over the last 3 years. I managed to build an eco home with better than code insulation and it cost half of what it would of cost to purchase it. My electric bill is 50 percent lower than the average home. I managed to achieve my build savings by doing 95 percent of the work myself and buying left over materials on facebook marketplace and sourcing the wood directly from small local sawmills cutting out the middle man. But one thing that is very time consuming is the research needed for each step of the build if you have never done it before. I would really like to see an open source step by step guide to building a starter home. The more it would be built the more opportunity would be available for the community to improve the open source guide.
We’ve had about 15 homes in the neighborhood sell over the last year. 12 of those have been bought for rentals and most of them by companies, not individuals. We don’t have a lack of houses to house people we have a problem where single family homes have become a corporate investment strategy which just jacks up the price. Get corporations/billionaires out of owning single family homes and I think you’d go a long way towards fixing the affordability portion. Good on Alan for looking for ways to make homes more affordable and streamline building though.
The vast majority of SFH landlords are individuals (80% by some reports). Corporations dominate in multifamily. I'm not saying it's not something to consider but I think the bigger levers are zoning changes and ideas like discussed in this video. I find it hard to blame individuals or corporations for making good investment decisions.
Im an individual. Used to be homeless. Real Estate investor now. I buy my homes in a corporation. That does not mean its some giant company (could be) Its just how a smart investor structures his or her investments. Its also the way poor people can become rich in this country.. so be careful what you wish for. More regulation rarely hurts the big corp's since they have legal departments to find a way to follow the new regs while doing the same thing... New regs often benefit the big guys since it puts little guys like me out of the market because the regulatory burden is too much.
For the building supply issue. There are something like 10 OSB plants in the US right now, and that is down from the peak. On top of that one of those is going to convert to making siding products. Also we Tariffed Canadian wood 14.54%. We deport 500,000 people a year, who I would guess at least 1/3 work in the low skill construction sector, and we have a high number of skilled trade workers retiring. On top of all of that our Suburbs have kinda hit the easy commute distance limit (ie a low supply of large cheap tracts of land). And then Condo's and Townhomes not being seen as kid friendly, and not as desirable as single-family homes. Add in personal income and mortgage rates, it's no wonder housing affordability is an issue. These are all mostly solvable issues, but it is very rare to hear politicians actually talk about them.
Lol his pitch is essentially modern day Sears Homes. I totally agree more people would DIY their home build if it resulted in them being home owners. That's one of the requirements for purchasing a Habitat home.
Eh, half the people I worked with at my last job didn't even mow their own lawns so I don't think that many people would DIY if given the option. Me, though? Hell yeah. Personally, I want to go post-frame and have the guys go work on something else once it's dried in so I can do the insulation, vapor retarder, window rough-ins and maybe interior framing
Thank you Corbett for posting this talk with Alan. I have been trying to buy my first house for the last several years and it seems I have chosen just about the worst possible time to do it. I finished paying off my student loans at the end of 2018 and started saving for a house in 2019. Then the pandemic happened, and prices soared. By the time I saved enough for a downpayment on the house prices I was seeing in 2019, houses at those prices no longer existed. Now with the higher interest rates and commensurate loss of buying power, most of the houses in the price range I qualify for are 30+ miles and a 45+ minute drive from my work, which increases my fuel and vehicle maintenance costs enough that those houses aren't really affordable or sustainable long term either. This led me to consider building a house, but the few contractors I spoke with charge over $300 per square foot, so a 2 bedroom 1000 square foot house is still about $100,000 over budget. I looked into kit homes, but many either weren't reputable companies or ended up costing more per square foot to build and finish than hiring a local contractor. I like the idea of building a small post frame cabin and garage (RR Buildings is an excellent channel btw), but I have no idea where to start with getting plans made and approved and creating cut lists, etc., so I love the idea of Alan's DIY post frame kit. I would be very interested in hearing more about that as he gets further along in the process, so if you can, please keep us updated on this and gives us a link to his RUclips channel if he ever creates one.
We’re hoping to document our first post frame build this year, coming soon Hope to offer other useful advice, have some ideas around making the lots and the concrete work cheaper also
We have exactly the same problem here in Australia. New building codes were introduced in May this year that improve homes efficiency but add costs onto new homes which is making new homes less affordable for 1st home buyers. Banks like certain sized blocks and homes for resale, so councils, developers and builders cater to that except the buyer demographic has changed, there's more single people, couples with no kids, shared houses so entire market needs to change. Not easy but needs to happen and quickly. Interesting conversation...
Awesome discussion! Would love to hear more from Alan. I've been researching how to build my own for two years but most don't want to put in that kind of effort so a "kit" house would be much more applicable. Most of us have some free time, but not a lot of expendable income. I'd much rather work for two years building a home than pay a mortgage for thirty.
Looking forward to some of these ideas be realized, especially on the coast! My county has a pre-approved designs process that cuts out months of red tape.
@@HomePerformance The walking didn't really bother me but I did want a speed control so I could stop you or put you into a sprint or anything in between. That would have been much more fun. This really would have been better as a podcast because there wasn't anything to gain from watching the two of you talk. If your intro told me that, I might have put RUclips in the background and played a game while i listen the way I often do while listening to a podcast.
excellent episode! I built my 3200 sf house between 2020-2023 for $72 a square foot. btw Corbett, due to following your excellent advice I was able to achieve an ach50 of 1.48!!! the key is to be the labor, if you can. or as Alan said, find a crew that does everything. I am looking to build a 700 sq ft granny pad and I've been looking very deeply into post frame. the only question I have is that since the posts carry the load there is not a need for a continuous footing. So how do you keep rodents from burrowing under the slab?
Hey this is Alan, with @BatteryBuilds-p5x One thing Corbett and I talked about was a french drain around the perimeter of the house I've read that a compacted angular gravel is good for drainage, the side benefit should be to prevent rats from burrowing through the gravel we're using as drainage around the edge of the slab. We also are using 6 inches of compacter road base as a support under the slab, which we expect will also minimize the amount of burrowing under the slab. So that's our plan initially to prevent the rodent under the slab problem, i'll let you know how it goes when we build later this year.
To me how you fix this problem is kit homes meaning you buy lumber pvc pipe concrete in bulk therefore getting it at a cheaper rate and build 1200 to 1500 square foot homes that is how you pull the costs down
Just think of how much you'd save in materials if we switched back to multi-family homes as the "normal" option, and just built them to a higher standard. 25% fewer walls to frame, 50% less siding, 50% fewer windows to install, and significantly cheaper for the owner to heat and cool. That's just the townhouse model. The cost drops even harder once you go multi-level.
With a post frame house is there sheathing? How do you attach the siding? Is the siding from a metal roll and only needs to be fastened where there is a post?
Companies all raising prices at the same time the last few years using “inflation” as an excuse has given them record profits and us less money in our pockets. Large companies are squeezing everything as much as they can. It’s crazy! Young people in FL can’t afford 1 bedroom apartments in my town! I didn’t think I’d ever see that here.
Another affordability issue is insurance. If the engineering firm could partner with an insurance company for reduce rates because the design has proper details.
very interesting to see how different things are compared to downunder. it like your trying to copy us to make building cheaper, while we are trying to copy you to make building cheaper. also interesting that a first home buyer can even buy a new home. the only reason they can do that here is because 2nd hand homes are almost the same price, so you get more for your dollar buying new. of course its only the more wealthy people doing that. our first home buyers are an average age of 30-40 years old. people here buy and sell 2nd hand homes to make other people pay for their new home. so when the housing market stalled because of high interest rates, people stopped buying new houses and builders are going bust.
What stops the 3rd party engineer from pencil whipping your house? He’s being paid by the entity that he’s inspecting. It’s a conflict of interest. I don’t think the engineers liability is enough to keep him honest btw, DRH hires their own inspectors. Not exactly the model for quality.
thats exactly what happens. have a look at whats happening in aussie downunder @Siteinspections. even in NZ they are trying to change the system so company's take the responsibility, who can then disappear when things go wrong leaving the home owner footing the bill.
I believe the engineer becomes liable for performance as the inspector and it’s covered under their license. So just as all engineered projects, they become liable to a large degree They’re still responsible to hold us to code, their simply a much more responsive inspector to speed up the process When we do custom engineering, they’re on the hook for the design and performance of the project alongside the builder so it’s got to be a sturdy relationship based on wanting it to work as intended
@BatteryBuilds-p5x they are looking at having third party inspectors here. While they are liable, they can simply close down and run away from any problems.
@@BatteryBuilds-p5x you don't think that the builder who is paying them will pressure them to pass, especially if the alternative is an expensive fix? It's the VERY DEFINITION of "conflict of interest".
Lol my situation is exactly like he said. We sold a 3000sqft in ATL for 190K in 2019, now I can't even build a new 1100sqft house in rural TX for 300k. And the builder won't even build it to 2012 IRC codes :(. He keeps telling me I'm throwing away money to ask for walls with 2012+ R values.
@@agisler87 Dive down the post-frame rabbit hole. Cheaper and faster to build, and if you design it right you can have some crazy insulation and air tightness performance. 8ft oc with triple 2x8 posts was something like R33 whole-wall value and, like 1% thermal bridging not counting the fenestrations last time I got bored and ran the numbers. That's with just OSB sheathing and mineral wool insulation, nothing fancy like Zip-R or spray foam. It's nuts.
@@agisler87 Nacogdoches, there are other builders that are cheaper in our area, but they look at you funny when you ask for ZIP and Dehumidifiers etc..
Anytime I see a new video from home performance no matter what I’m doing. I watch it 10 out of 10. Thanks for everything you do. This channel is invaluable.
Hey, that’s awesome to hear! Thanks Jacob!
💯
@RRBuildings builds post-frame units of all types with mostly a 2 man crew. They could probably be an incredibly useful expert to talk to for this idea. You should get together and do a panel discussion for youtube about quality affordable housing ideas.
Yeah... I'd be very interested in getting Corbett's take on the performance of RR's post frame buildings.
We have a ton of respect for RR buildings, Corbett is the king of high performance homes and RR are the best post frame builders there is, would be a fascinating conversation!
This is what I have been saying for years! This is why I will build a post frame house. A lot more DIY friendly. This guy has a lot of info and can’t wait to hear more from him. Post frame can also be extremely efficient.
I built my own home over the last 3 years. I managed to build an eco home with better than code insulation and it cost half of what it would of cost to purchase it. My electric bill is 50 percent lower than the average home. I managed to achieve my build savings by doing 95 percent of the work myself and buying left over materials on facebook marketplace and sourcing the wood directly from small local sawmills cutting out the middle man. But one thing that is very time consuming is the research needed for each step of the build if you have never done it before. I would really like to see an open source step by step guide to building a starter home. The more it would be built the more opportunity would be available for the community to improve the open source guide.
We’ve had about 15 homes in the neighborhood sell over the last year. 12 of those have been bought for rentals and most of them by companies, not individuals. We don’t have a lack of houses to house people we have a problem where single family homes have become a corporate investment strategy which just jacks up the price. Get corporations/billionaires out of owning single family homes and I think you’d go a long way towards fixing the affordability portion.
Good on Alan for looking for ways to make homes more affordable and streamline building though.
100% agree- we didn’t even touch on the wider circle of that problem
As usual, politician$ work for the corporation$.
@JohnBaker3000 true
The vast majority of SFH landlords are individuals (80% by some reports). Corporations dominate in multifamily. I'm not saying it's not something to consider but I think the bigger levers are zoning changes and ideas like discussed in this video. I find it hard to blame individuals or corporations for making good investment decisions.
Im an individual. Used to be homeless. Real Estate investor now. I buy my homes in a corporation. That does not mean its some giant company (could be) Its just how a smart investor structures his or her investments. Its also the way poor people can become rich in this country.. so be careful what you wish for. More regulation rarely hurts the big corp's since they have legal departments to find a way to follow the new regs while doing the same thing... New regs often benefit the big guys since it puts little guys like me out of the market because the regulatory burden is too much.
For the building supply issue. There are something like 10 OSB plants in the US right now, and that is down from the peak. On top of that one of those is going to convert to making siding products. Also we Tariffed Canadian wood 14.54%. We deport 500,000 people a year, who I would guess at least 1/3 work in the low skill construction sector, and we have a high number of skilled trade workers retiring. On top of all of that our Suburbs have kinda hit the easy commute distance limit (ie a low supply of large cheap tracts of land). And then Condo's and Townhomes not being seen as kid friendly, and not as desirable as single-family homes. Add in personal income and mortgage rates, it's no wonder housing affordability is an issue. These are all mostly solvable issues, but it is very rare to hear politicians actually talk about them.
Good points Donald
Lol his pitch is essentially modern day Sears Homes. I totally agree more people would DIY their home build if it resulted in them being home owners. That's one of the requirements for purchasing a Habitat home.
Eh, half the people I worked with at my last job didn't even mow their own lawns so I don't think that many people would DIY if given the option. Me, though? Hell yeah. Personally, I want to go post-frame and have the guys go work on something else once it's dried in so I can do the insulation, vapor retarder, window rough-ins and maybe interior framing
Sears homes need to make a comeback!
Thank you Corbett for posting this talk with Alan. I have been trying to buy my first house for the last several years and it seems I have chosen just about the worst possible time to do it. I finished paying off my student loans at the end of 2018 and started saving for a house in 2019. Then the pandemic happened, and prices soared. By the time I saved enough for a downpayment on the house prices I was seeing in 2019, houses at those prices no longer existed. Now with the higher interest rates and commensurate loss of buying power, most of the houses in the price range I qualify for are 30+ miles and a 45+ minute drive from my work, which increases my fuel and vehicle maintenance costs enough that those houses aren't really affordable or sustainable long term either.
This led me to consider building a house, but the few contractors I spoke with charge over $300 per square foot, so a 2 bedroom 1000 square foot house is still about $100,000 over budget. I looked into kit homes, but many either weren't reputable companies or ended up costing more per square foot to build and finish than hiring a local contractor. I like the idea of building a small post frame cabin and garage (RR Buildings is an excellent channel btw), but I have no idea where to start with getting plans made and approved and creating cut lists, etc., so I love the idea of Alan's DIY post frame kit. I would be very interested in hearing more about that as he gets further along in the process, so if you can, please keep us updated on this and gives us a link to his RUclips channel if he ever creates one.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, and fyi Alan’s Yt is linked in the vid description.
We’re hoping to document our first post frame build this year, coming soon
Hope to offer other useful advice, have some ideas around making the lots and the concrete work cheaper also
We have exactly the same problem here in Australia. New building codes were introduced in May this year that improve homes efficiency but add costs onto new homes which is making new homes less affordable for 1st home buyers. Banks like certain sized blocks and homes for resale, so councils, developers and builders cater to that except the buyer demographic has changed, there's more single people, couples with no kids, shared houses so entire market needs to change. Not easy but needs to happen and quickly. Interesting conversation...
I LOVE what he’s talking about! He’s basically putting together a company that works with excellence and we need more of this.
Glad to see someone is trying to solve the affordable housing issue. One of the great problems of are time.
Awesome discussion! Would love to hear more from Alan. I've been researching how to build my own for two years but most don't want to put in that kind of effort so a "kit" house would be much more applicable. Most of us have some free time, but not a lot of expendable income. I'd much rather work for two years building a home than pay a mortgage for thirty.
Same!
I’ll be making some videos in a couple months on our first trial run, stay tuned!
Great video! The treadmill reminded me of watching Dr Greger, who is fantastic. Love this topic
Looking forward to some of these ideas be realized, especially on the coast! My county has a pre-approved designs process that cuts out months of red tape.
Curious where and what regulations got cut?
Great information! Somehow, your walking during the video was distracting. I really liked Alan's thoughts.
Sorry about that- like I said, it was only 3/4 of the way thru the session that I decided to release the vid publicly.
@@HomePerformance The walking didn't really bother me but I did want a speed control so I could stop you or put you into a sprint or anything in between. That would have been much more fun. This really would have been better as a podcast because there wasn't anything to gain from watching the two of you talk. If your intro told me that, I might have put RUclips in the background and played a game while i listen the way I often do while listening to a podcast.
@homeperformance
Dont worry Corbett, i am cooking, cleaning, multitasking while I listen 😂
I took a gamble and set my phone down as soon as I started the video. Worked great as audio only.
Since there wasn't any diagrams or images, I just listened to it rather than watch it.
excellent episode! I built my 3200 sf house between 2020-2023 for $72 a square foot. btw Corbett, due to following your excellent advice I was able to achieve an ach50 of 1.48!!! the key is to be the labor, if you can. or as Alan said, find a crew that does everything. I am looking to build a 700 sq ft granny pad and I've been looking very deeply into post frame. the only question I have is that since the posts carry the load there is not a need for a continuous footing. So how do you keep rodents from burrowing under the slab?
Great question, I’ll keep it in mind for future episodes! Glad to have helped you at all.
Hey this is Alan, with @BatteryBuilds-p5x
One thing Corbett and I talked about
was a french drain around the perimeter of the house
I've read that a compacted angular gravel is good for drainage, the side benefit should be to prevent rats from burrowing through the gravel we're using as drainage around the edge of the slab.
We also are using 6 inches of compacter road base as a support under the slab, which we expect will also minimize the amount of burrowing under the slab.
So that's our plan initially to prevent the rodent under the slab problem, i'll let you know how it goes when we build later this year.
To me how you fix this problem is kit homes meaning you buy lumber pvc pipe concrete in bulk therefore getting it at a cheaper rate and build 1200 to 1500 square foot homes that is how you pull the costs down
Just think of how much you'd save in materials if we switched back to multi-family homes as the "normal" option, and just built them to a higher standard. 25% fewer walls to frame, 50% less siding, 50% fewer windows to install, and significantly cheaper for the owner to heat and cool. That's just the townhouse model. The cost drops even harder once you go multi-level.
With a post frame house is there sheathing? How do you attach the siding? Is the siding from a metal roll and only needs to be fastened where there is a post?
Okay there are still horizontal wood members to attach to.
Our DR Horton has the cardboard type sheeting.
AW SNAP
Dang! I’d read about it but the DR Horton subdivision in our area didn’t have it
Is there cost savings by not using concrete? Instead of concrete the floor would be polyethylene, rigid foam then subfloor.
Companies all raising prices at the same time the last few years using “inflation” as an excuse has given them record profits and us less money in our pockets. Large companies are squeezing everything as much as they can. It’s crazy! Young people in FL can’t afford 1 bedroom apartments in my town! I didn’t think I’d ever see that here.
Inflation is not from companies. It's a baseless claim. The only big "corp" we should be blaming is government.
Where is Alan's youtube channel?
In the video description
Another affordability issue is insurance. If the engineering firm could partner with an insurance company for reduce rates because the design has proper details.
very interesting to see how different things are compared to downunder. it like your trying to copy us to make building cheaper, while we are trying to copy you to make building cheaper.
also interesting that a first home buyer can even buy a new home. the only reason they can do that here is because 2nd hand homes are almost the same price, so you get more for your dollar buying new. of course its only the more wealthy people doing that. our first home buyers are an average age of 30-40 years old.
people here buy and sell 2nd hand homes to make other people pay for their new home. so when the housing market stalled because of high interest rates, people stopped buying new houses and builders are going bust.
Thanks for the NZ twist
What stops the 3rd party engineer from pencil whipping your house? He’s being paid by the entity that he’s inspecting. It’s a conflict of interest. I don’t think the engineers liability is enough to keep him honest btw, DRH hires their own inspectors. Not exactly the model for quality.
Valid
thats exactly what happens. have a look at whats happening in aussie downunder @Siteinspections. even in NZ they are trying to change the system so company's take the responsibility, who can then disappear when things go wrong leaving the home owner footing the bill.
I believe the engineer becomes liable for performance as the inspector and it’s covered under their license. So just as all engineered projects, they become liable to a large degree
They’re still responsible to hold us to code, their simply a much more responsive inspector to speed up the process
When we do custom engineering, they’re on the hook for the design and performance of the project alongside the builder so it’s got to be a sturdy relationship based on wanting it to work as intended
@BatteryBuilds-p5x they are looking at having third party inspectors here. While they are liable, they can simply close down and run away from any problems.
@@BatteryBuilds-p5x you don't think that the builder who is paying them will pressure them to pass, especially if the alternative is an expensive fix? It's the VERY DEFINITION of "conflict of interest".
Homes can not be simultaneously a good investment and be affordable.
Fair point!
Gonna have to listen to this one. Your walking is driving me nuts.
Lol my situation is exactly like he said. We sold a 3000sqft in ATL for 190K in 2019, now I can't even build a new 1100sqft house in rural TX for 300k. And the builder won't even build it to 2012 IRC codes :(. He keeps telling me I'm throwing away money to ask for walls with 2012+ R values.
What part of Texas? My wife and I just got a quote to build a 1400 sqft house for 430k on our 30 acres in east Texas. We couldn't believe it.
@@agisler87 Dive down the post-frame rabbit hole. Cheaper and faster to build, and if you design it right you can have some crazy insulation and air tightness performance. 8ft oc with triple 2x8 posts was something like R33 whole-wall value and, like 1% thermal bridging not counting the fenestrations last time I got bored and ran the numbers. That's with just OSB sheathing and mineral wool insulation, nothing fancy like Zip-R or spray foam. It's nuts.
@@agisler87 Nacogdoches, there are other builders that are cheaper in our area, but they look at you funny when you ask for ZIP and Dehumidifiers etc..