Build Your Own House

Has anyone built a Peter Lees design?

I was wondering what the rough $$$ would be to DIY one of his smaller S series lofts using say formbrick or mudbrick on a slab, colourbond roof.

I would be doing all the work I could myself except of course plumbing and electrical.

Any idea what the costing would be?

I am also looking at a WideSpan shed/kit home on a slab, but starting to think there wouldn't be a lot of difference in $$$ at the end of the day.

any thoughts?

Thanks,

Paul.

Hi, we are about to start building our Peter Lees design house, it is an A2. We were originally going to do it Load bearing mud brick, but were not able to get a good outcome with our brick tests, so have decided to go Non load bearing. So, I have had the oportunity to look at both plan sets.

We havent done a proper costing on ours, but are going to try and do the slab, frame, and hopefully the roof before running out of money. (19,000)From there we will just build it one bit at a time when we get the money. We are lucky in having somewhere to live on the block until we finish it.

The frame timber sizes are quite large, it is basically a post an beam design. The loadbearing design even has posts, although not as many as the non loadbearing. There are so many different ways of building it too, ie. if you have the alcoves, an atrium or the dormers etc.

Donna

Thanks Donna,

I am going to go with one of Peters smallest lofts. S1

I'm hoping to be able to get it to lock-up for under $40,000. Well, I still have to allow for the slab and my septic system costs in that figure.

We shall see.

I am lucky enough to have accomodation onsite too. A shed, caravan and power & water already connected.

Cheers,

Paul.

Paul/Donna

Any further developments on your project budgets?

We're still at the planning stages for our building... and am leaning towards building a S type building to start with. Either using Formblock or Timbercrete and colourbond roof (no gables).

What about costs for the concrete slab? What sort of figure/s are we looking at?

TIA.

Yvonneh,

There are so many variables involved in the costings. But doing it ourselves, our slab cost around $6000. Plans, council submission, Soil tests, OB course, OB Permit etc came to around $3000. Also you will have soil works as well, to prepare the site and dig the footings.

We have now got our posts up, strutting beams up and about to start putting up floor joists. We have spent a lot of time sourcing secondhand hardwood for our house. This is quite a time consuming and somewhat expensive thing to do. We could of bought Cypress locally for a much cheaper amount than secondhand hardwood.

Buying new timber means that you can order the lengths you actually need. When you buy secondhand, you end up getting 4.5 m lengths when you need 3.2 etc. It adds up. Also if you plan on having exposed timber, you have a lot of work cleaning up the old stuff, and it is hard, and heavy. The depths vary heaps between beams.

I have spent hours and hours and hours with an electric hand plane bring our joists down to the same depth, and tidying up the sides. It can be hard finding the wider boards for a reasonable price, and almost impossible to get them all in one place unless you are extremely lucky. We have to travel about 3 or 4 hours away to access good demo yards.

The S plans work on a 3 x 3m module, which is quite small when you are looking at a lounge room. However, the main bearers should be a bit smaller than for the A and B series. (These are three 290mm x 50mm boards laminated together).

We have spent over $21,000 so far, have all our joists, some of our rafters, timber for studs, some of our roof battens, most of our (secondhand) roofing iron for the verandahs, shower cubicle,screen and tray, sink, stove. I will be building our kitchen and stairs, but havent worked out the costing for the kitchen yet. We have a lot of the timber for the stairs already. I roughly estimate another $5000 or $6000 for timber, probably around $1200 for insulation, and I dont even want to think about what the electricals are going to cost, or the plumbing (I will do most of that myself down to the hook up with the sewerage treatment plant hopefully). Still to buy the roof iron, guttering etc. Have bought one of our tanks and pump which we use on our shed. Havent yet made decision on what we are going to use for hot water. Hope this helps.

Donna

Hi Flynn. I'm thinking about a Peter Lees design too, and also leaning towards the A2 but with 3 bedrooms upstairs instead of the atrium. And using strawbale in a post-and-beam frame too. I'm very interested to hear rough ideas of what your slab and frame are costing? Please keep posting with news of your progress! I'm an extreme novice myself, and think I'll get a builder to install the frame then fill in the strawbale myself. Still in the very early stages of thinking what I want to do so far... by the end of this if I never have to think about buy land or a house again it'll be too soon!!! There's just so much to consider before I even can buy my land - safety reports for bushfire, building envelopes, septic approvals.........

We're on our way!

We bought our plans from Peter for an S4 design (basically a double garage with a loft floor). Plans are to camp out there while we work out exactly what we want the house to look like.

The plans look very confusing at first glance! I've read some bits and pieces and flicked through the plan sheets. Wow. I don't know if I can do this. I don't know what I was expecting but probably more like a recipe or a step by step guide. Looks like I may have to just take it slowly and nut it out myself!

Peter is wonderful btw. Chatted to him before we purchased the plans and he had lots of wonderful advice.

I made a model so I could understand how each bit went together, also helps when we are talking about different bits to each other. It is not completed, but made things a lot clearer.

Donna

Hi Donna

Thanks for the reply. Hmm a model makes sense! But I am wondering if things become clearer after we do a owner builder's course? Or is that all "safety" type theory?

I look at the slab information (ie the first thing?!? we need to do) and get so confused that I think we just outsource it... and then I look at the door/window and then think we need to get a brickie in to help so we get it "right" and then I think... maybe we shouldn't be OBs after all!

Yvonne

Hi yvonneh and all,

How is your Peter Lees design coming along??

Have to admit, I am struggling with working out many aspects of the drawings.

There is enough trees used in the plans themselves to almost build a house!

I'm hoping to get the slab finished by August. Then I will sit back and try to nut out the bricking and roof framing etc.

There is a lot to digest here. Not really suitable for a novice I'd say.

I've gone with an S2, (load bearing adobe). Not planning on making any changes to the stock design at all.

Cheers,

Paul.

PS

I bought a copy of Rob Rich's 'Earth Garden Building' book to help me with a few things.

A very informative book.

sounds all very interesting, I just ordered his book. Has anybody here build a Peter Lees design home in a high bushfire danger aerea?
Thanks
Reiner

Hi Reiner,

I'm not sure, but I'd say a Peter Lees design would be as well off as any other house in such a high risk area.

His work is fantastic. I highly recommend his designs, although not really that easy for the novice to follow as claimed. Well, maybe I'm just a slow learner. I will nut it all out in the end.

Get a copy of that Earth Garden Building Book too if you can. It compliments Peter's plans extremely well.

Good luck

Paul.

Hey Reiner,
I've had a couple build a Peter Lees home out of Timbercrete here in SA as the blocks have the highest fire rating that any blocks/bricks can achieve. I guess the beauty of Peter Lees plans is that they can be adaptable to use products such as Timbercrete that will enhance the thermal attributes etc The plans worked very well for them and the council were able to work it out fine.

Thank you for your replies Glenno and Peter. I'm looking forward receiving the book.
I have had a look at the timbercrete blocks and red only good coments.
Cheers
Reiner

Hi all, havent spent much time on this site for a long time!

Our house is coming along very slowly, but today finally got the first two intermediate beams up (yay! didnt think it was ever going to happen). Will order our rafters as soon as they are all up. (have secondhand rafters for the verandah. This is the first new timber we have used on the place. Much easier than secondhand stuff! We have done the slab, main posts, floor joists, upstairs posts, mini stud wall upstairs, most of the studs on the end gable have been done too, and we have also cemented in the stirrups for the verandah posts.

Will post some pics up one day.

Donna