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Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 4/20/2010
The wetlands delineation is now officially finished. Here was the timeline:
26 Feb - I asked for quotes from three or four soil scientists.
11 Mar - I finally got financing, so I then contracted it out to the best bid.
16 Mar - Site work complete
19 Mar - Figured out site was buildable.
22 Mar - Closing shortly thereafter - submitted to Army Corps of Engineers for confirmation.
16 Apr - Army Corps visited site and confirmed the borders.
Incredible that it could take so long. Even more incredible that this is much faster than would normally occur. The soil scientist that I used had very little work in progress, so he was able to quickly get the work done. I had also heard that the Army Corps could take 30-60 days or more to do their sitework. When I called the Army Corps, they stated it was rare that they ever found fault with the soil scientist but if they had, I would have been in trouble. Thankfully they weren't very busy either. And thankfully my soil scientist did a great job the first time.
Even now, I only have five years before this delineation could be reconsidered which could shut down construction if it looked like I was damaging new wetlands that had appeared.
Overall it was pretty frustrating. Timber companies are allowed to step over most of these wetland regulations. Cities don't have to abide by most of the rules either, as they build roads or put in utilities. It seems unfair that the homeowner gets stuck protecting the environment when we rarely are the ones who cause damage in the first place.
Regardless, it is a big relief to be done with this hurdle.
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| Weeping Willow soaking up the wetland moisture |
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Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 4/5/2010
I decided to go with a 45' diameter dome. Yeah, it's kind of big, but I have a large family with young children at the moment who will soon be older children and then teenagers. We've lived in some very small houses recently (1,050 sq ft for two-and-half years, 1,100 sq ft plus basement for three years, and then the trailer for a year, which will be around 900 sq ft) so I want to correct that. The dome we're building will have a 1,400 sq ft downstairs with an eventual extra 800 sq ft upstairs and a cupola loft of 140 sq ft. Even living in the downstairs only will be a big improvement for us. And to be honest, I originally wanted a 48' dome, so I am downsizing my dream a tiny bit.
Downstairs I wanted the master bedroom. Since this is our dream home, I couldn't say that we won't end up retiring in it, so I thought it best to listen to all of my elders and put the master bedroom on the ground floor without stairs to climb. Next to it is a nice master bath with double sinks. Downstairs is also a guest bathroom with only a toilet and a shower. Also downstairs will be a living room, dining room, family room, kitchen, and utility room. All of the plumbing works well in this design, as nearly everything that requires water or generates waste is in close proximity.
Upstairs I wanted at least two more bedrooms with a fourth as a possibility. Also there is a second full bathroom with double sinks again and a tub and toilet. Technically to achieve a four-bedroom house I would have to redo the septic and leach field, so it's more of an option. If I did create a fourth bedroom, the city rules require that I put an occupancy limit of 6 people (two is assumed per bedroom) that meets the maximum capability of the existing septic tanks (tank and pump tank) and leach field. AI Domes also tells me that none of the upstairs walls are load-supporting so I should be able to move the walls around as I want later after the kids leave the nest. That may change if I put anything heavy into the cupola, but there will still be plenty of flexibility. Additionally I will be building in bolts into the shell to help support the weight of the cupola from the shell itself.
The cupola will be the last thing finished, and it will have a trapdoor for access that sits above a built-in wall ladder. Windows for the cupola will be very expensive and AI Domes has tried to talk me out of it for economical reasons. It takes a lot of man-hours to build it. However, I've wanted a cupola for as long as I have wanted a dome, so I've been stubborn about it. I'm hoping to get away with just boarding it up initially to get the Certificate of Occupancy. Or, since two windows exist per side, I've thought of making my own permanent (non-opening) window next to each window that opens. I've done this before for the tree house by ripping grooves in the 2x4's which allow the plexiglass to slide into the box created from 45-degree chop-sawing the ripped boards. Since I'm planning on keeping the cupola isolated from the main house by a tight-fitting trapdoor (once the house is completely finished) I don't think I will have a problem with heat loss during the winter. Another reason to shove insulation into the joists before installing flooring.
AI Domes had a stock design similar to mine, but I desire the ability to have a fourth bedroom instead of the full-vaulted headroom above the dining room. This meant I had to do a modified design, which they easily created for me. I'm also ordering plans with only the ground floor completed. This will allow me to move in faster as my Certificate of Occupancy will only look at a completed ground floor. I think this will save me just over $25K which would have had to be spent to complete the upper floor before moving in (equates to moving in around 8 months earlier). The attic will likely have to be completely closed off, however, and will need pull-down stairs to meet the city's attic requirement. AI Domes did help me out and positioned the pull-down stairs between the joists to minimize the effect on the floor joists. The building dept. did also say that I could pre-run much of my plumbing and electrical as long as the final connections met code. This will allow me to run those connections before I drywall in the first floor. I shudder at the thought of having to run wires and piping after the first floor is drywalled in. Maybe it's not as bad as I imagine it, but it's certainly not as easy as doing it before drywalling the ground floor.
I also asked AI Domes to put a thicker wall between the master bedroom and bathroom. This will allow me to send the septic waste down this wall and put thick insulation around it to muffle the sound from the master bedroom. It has little impact on the available space in the master bedroom or master bathroom. Since I'm using PVC for the drain pipes, I think they have a good chance at being loud. The insulation will hopefully prevent that. Another advantage is the super-thick wall gives me a tad more room for error when placing the drain pipe before pouring the slab. Most others will tolerate slop by moving the fixture a bit. I wanted this one to have some built-in tolerance as well.
AI Domes was also particularly helpful at generating my footing/foundation plan first as I needed that for my site map.
My plumbing vents will all tie into one vent. The tie-ins will occur in the overhead space available above the upstairs full bathroom.
Any comments on my plumbing ideas will be appreciated. I've done PEX and copper, fixtures and such before, but I've never plumbed new construction. I'm basing all of my ideas off of several books I've been reading. I have tried to plan out my waste and vent stacks, as well as my potable-water lines but I won't know for sure if they will work/pass code until I show them to the building inspector. One of the things I want to do with this blog is recommend the books that have helped me the most. Of course, that actually means I have to physically finish something instead of the years of planning I've done so far.
The final holdup on the plans is the engineer seal. I have a quote for $1,000 but I also have a friend who is a Virginia PE and he also has friends that are Virginia PE's. I'm hoping to coax at least one of them into doing the seal for me. The dome design by AI is far superior to any stick-built home, but building departments worry about liability, and the unique design of the dome scares them. Since I'm building a 'unique structure' I will need a PE seal. Even if they charge me $500, I will have saved 0.25% of my $200K budget. If it comes down to it, I may even barter hunting rights to the marsh on the property.
I'm also been working hard lately at getting a plan together to pour the foundation before winter sets in. This gives me the most time to get it right. I think I have a plan to get one inspection of a temporary electrical pole during the winter to reset the 6-month timer. The only hard stop is the three-year start-to-finish requirement. I'm pretty confident that I will meet that one.
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Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 4/2/2010
My surveyors finished the site plan, although I did have to send them a last minute request to move the house a bit (7' closer to the septic) based on the health dept. recommendation. I still have about a 20' distance to reach the inlet to the tank. Since the minimum drop is 1/4" per foot, I only need about 5" of vertical separation. I'm bringing in 2' of fill, so I'll have that and more, allowing me to easily clear the slab foundation before turning the sewer pipe to near horizontal. Also, my bathrooms just happen to be closest to the septic tank in the planned house orientation.
After the site plan was ready, I emailed a copy of the .pdf to the city. Both zoning and planning looked at it and it meets all of their setbacks and it meets the wetlands requirements. I can finally relax a bit and stop worrying that wetlands will shut my project down. Not to get too excited, they did tell me that they would look at the plans again when I submit the building permit. Another reason to move quickly before requirements change!
I have a friend who is looking at my site plan as well. He has access to excavating equipment and will give me a better idea of what/how to prepare the site. My dome diameter is 45'. However, there are protrusions that stick off of the dome that support the entryways. I called AI Domes who promptly told me to allow a diameter of 48.5' to account for all protrusions. Bringing in fill I will need to go beyond that 48.5' diameter by 3 to 5 feet on each side. Compacting it will result in a 20% reduction in height. Before I knew about the compaction I had planned on a 55' diameter of sand required at a height of 2' which is 176 cubic yards. I did this one night and looked up the cost of a cubic yard of clean sand (for fill purposes) online. I found $30 a yard which resulted in over $5,000 in fill costs! Thankfully there is a sand pit about 2 miles from the house location. I called them today and was told $6.04 per yard which is only $1,062. What a relief...
However, I've been pretty worried about costs lately. The septic redesign and subsequent construction permit was unexpected and it is very likely that other costs will spring up as well. So I did a couple of things. Brian Hoskens recommended not using skylights on the second floor. I really didn't need them, as I already had a window dormer per room. He believed that I would have an increased risk of leakage if I used four. I talked to AI Domes and they believe the leaking skylights problem has been fixed and was the result of aluminum corroding beneath the type of caulking compound they once used (butyl rubber I think, which I've used when redoing an automotive windshield). Regardless, I really don't want leaks and eliminating the four skylights saved me well over $1,000.
Next, I looked at plumbing. I've really wanted to use tankless water heaters. I recently installed one in my church and I was very impressed. Instant hot water, and since they only use hot water on Sunday mornings, they save a lot of money. However, I have a big family that uses quite a bit of water. I think we do about a dozen loads of laundry per week, run the dishwasher every day, and I sometimes take a shower both morning and night (morning to wake up and night because I've often been under the truck or working outside or whatever). Either way, we use a lot of hot water and so I don't think we would ever recuperate the initial cost of a tankless hot-water heater (even with the installation cost at zero, since I'm the plumber). Also, we have a relatively new water heater in the trailer. It was pretty clogged up with scale, but I think I can fix that. So, if I can remove that water heater and put it in the dome when we are ready to move in, I'll save over $1,200 which I had budgeted for tankless water heaters. Plus, our design has the hot-water heater in the utility room, which is very close to the kitchen and bathrooms so the piping runs really shouldn't be all that long.
Most of my budget has also been based off of components found at my local Lowe's. I'm really hoping to find most of my components at Habitat for Humanity or even Craigslist. One good thing about the trailer is the toilet. It flushes even better than the commercial toilets! I've already told the wife that when we scrap the trailer we will be saving the toilet for the upstairs bathroom. I don't feel comfortable using costs from HFH or Craigslist, but it does give me a comfortable feeling that I can save money when we get to that stage.
Now that the site map is approved, I will be talking to the health department again. As much as I don't want to pay all the fees, I have to get their approval in order to submit a building permit. Their approval will require the redesign of the force main coming off of my pump tank.
Additionally I am trying to talk to the building dept. about scheduling inspections. I need to find a way to pour the foundation this fall and then build on it in the the spring. That would allow me the most time to reduce errors (and costs).
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| Trailer view (Dome to be built in front of trailer.) |
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| Road view |
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Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 3/28/2010
The trailer is now livable, but only barely. I had never run PEX before, but it was quite simple. I ran it to all the fixtures, which of course leaked as well. I replaced some of those, but I will take additional parts down the next time we go. The rotten floors also have termites, so I treated them. I never did figure out if the water heater leaks or not. It was plugged up at first due to the hard water but I back-flushed it enough to make it usable. I think I will need to build fast to make sure the trailer lasts until we have a Certificate of Occupancy. My wife did do a good job of painting, so it looks nice and clean now. Very frustrating, but as I see it, we bought the property and the trailer came free.
The well is a 20' deep, 8' grouted shallow well. The water is not great, but hopefully it will be okay until I have the house built. I can't afford to dump money into it at the moment. I did do a water quality test on it before I left. Hopefully the results will be okay. At one point it looked like I would need to move the well, due to some IRC requirement that a well be placed greater than 50' from a termite-treated foundation. However, I found a local termite company that can do something called a wood treatment where they come in after the slab is poured and framing is completed and spray treatment over all the framing (in contrast with treating the ground before pouring a slab). Of course, all the wood in contact with the slab will be pressure-treated, so this should meet the requirements of the city and allow me to use the current well without contaminating it with termite chemicals. I did price a new shallow well. It costs $850 for a 2" well to reach 50'. Beyond that is $8/ft. I think it was $1,600 for a 4" well to go 50'.
Septic. The property has an engineered system with a 1,000-gallon septic connected to a 1,000-gallon pump box which pumps the water about 300' (horizontally) to high ground on the property where the leach field was placed. The pump was bad, so that cost me $600. The leach field had roots in the distribution box, so I had to seal off one line. Thankfully the original engineer for the city over-designed the field, so I am still good for a three-bedroom house. The septic tank had never been pumped since work was done in 2001 so I also had it pumped for $215. Additionally, the main coming off of the water pump passes under where I hope to place my foundation, so I will have to move it. For this the city wants a new septic permit, so they can 'redesign' the system to incorporate a few bends into the pipe going from the pump tank to the leach field. That will probably cost $500 in permits with $200 or $300 in site work. Everyone laughed at me when I asked if I could just run the main under the foundation. I guess a leak would quickly undermine a foundation if left.
Surveyors came out and finished surveying the wetlands flags and the topography. Since they had already done the boundary survey, I think this will finish it up so we can submit a site plan. Once that is done, I can then submit my septic permit which will send the main drain line around the foundation. My next trip I will try to get that installed. If I submitted the septic permit now, I'm afraid that the site map would have corrections that would require redoing the septic design. Better to wait and have an approved site map first.
With site plan approval, I can also go ahead and clear the site of the foundation. Three trees will need to come down, but it is very flat. Regardless I hope to go ahead and bring in sand and compact it. That should allow me to pour the foundation. Based on my current problems I'm trying to move up construction. I have to get the shell dried in during the month of May, 2011 as that is the only time I'll have 30 days off at once for many years. If I move up the pouring of the foundation, I should create more flexibility. I am a little nervous about pouring a monolithic foundation during the month of December, but hopefully the weather will cooperate.
I have no leeway with my setbacks, even with agricultural zoning. I'm allowed 50' to the front property line and I'm currently at 57.5'. I'm allowed 20' on the side but the driveway pushes me out to 42'. In the back is the existing well and pump house which are 23' to the edge of the foundation (I needed 50' originally). On the other side is the existing septic and pump tank. My health dept. recommended coming as close as possible to the minimum allowed 10' which will help with the slope of the drain lines entering the septic tank. Even with 10' to the pump tank I will still have about 20' to the actual septic tank. Hopefully my elevation will be okay. I'm already bringing in 12" of sand, but perhaps I should bring in 24". I did price moving the concrete septic and pump tank. That would cost me around $2,500.
So far, all of my money saved during the closing and title insurance is being shifted into septic work. Pretty frustrating for my budget.
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Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 3/22/2010
We closed on the land today. Took a while to get here:
So I picked this property after forgoing any properties that showed up on the national Army Corps of Engineer wetlands maps. Even though this property didn't show up, it has wetlands. I had a delineation performed, and it also showed wetlands in the center due to a 'spring'. This drainage then extended across the entire width of the property. Using 100' buffer zones, the entire property became nearly unbuildable.
However, this city is a bit behind the national requirements, so currently I will not be required to put a 100' buffer zone on the wetlands drainage in the center of the property which will allow me to position the house where I like. Very good news, but another reason why I need to quickly get a building permit. The creek will still have a 100' buffer zone, but it will not impact my building site. Still I will need confirmation by the Army Corps of Engineers which may take 60 to 90 days.
The spring also bothered me. I contacted a landscaper to get an idea of what it would cost to run 4" corrugated drainage pipe from the spring to the creek. Materials alone would have cost me over $200 plus renting a trencher for at least a day (maybe more). The landscaper said springs could be dangerous and turn into a sinkhole. To further illustrate, he told me a story when his backhoe fell into a spring that turned into a sinkhole. He needed a crane to recover the backhoe and they had to condemn the house he was working on when the spring appeared under the foundation. He thought that the spring could be a fissure off of the well.
This made me quite nervous, so I called in a well inspector who confirmed that the well is fine. I hated to spend the money, but I didn't want to close with significant well problems (I already had some other doubts about the well). This well company also told me that the spring was really just a rotten stump providing an easy point for the high groundwater to come up to the surface. Due to all the rain the last year or two, the groundwater at that point is only 6" below the ground. The well got a clean bill of health. This week I also ordered a well-testing kit. I will perform that myself and mail it in.
So we proceeded to close. The honeymoon didn't last long. As soon as we closed I began the process of making the trailer livable. First is the plumbing. It wasn't winterized, so many of the pipes are busted. Instead of trying to piece-in new piping into the rusted mess that currently exists, I will be running PEX. Hopefully tomorrow I will have everything but the bath hooked up to new PEX plumbing. Meanwhile my wife is busy painting everything. The goal this week is to fix all the plumbing, paint the exterior and all rooms, and fix the rotten floor in one bedroom. At this point I think the rotten floor was caused by the busted pipes. Both the hot and cold busted a few feet from the hot water heater, so I think a lot of water drained onto the bedroom floor next to it. My plan for the floor there is to rip the entire thing out and put in new plywood, pad, and carpet.
A local surveying company mistakenly performed a boundary survey already, so I'm able to acquire that at a good discount. I will go ahead and have them survey the new flags indicating the wetland boundaries and place my dome foundation for the site map. While they are out, I will also ask them to give me the elevation difference between the spring water table and the stream.
Talking to the previous neighbors and the sellers, it looks like the best place to place the dome will be on the back. This will still require significant fill of sand, but I think it will be worth it. This means I will also have to tear down a pole barn that is in the way. The trailer's septic tank would also have to be moved. I had planned on pumping the tank and finishing up an inspection on it that has been incomplete for years, but there's no point in spending that money if I have to move the tank in a year.
Comments (1)
Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 3/11/2010
First off, I've realized that I need more minutes on my cell plan. We don't have a land line, so my cellphone usually has enough minutes if I only call at night or weekends. Well, that doesn't work when you're making phone calls to building departments and bankers and surveyors, so I doubled my cellphone minutes. My carrier also offers 10 friends and family which may also help me if I can predict which numbers I'll be calling the most and keep the list updated.
Second, someone else mentioned doing internet faxing. The cheapest is by fax1.com for small usage. They allow you to pay by the page with no subscription fees. I couldn't get it to work at first, until I downloaded their program to my computer, which installed a fax machine as a print driver. That has worked well for me.
And now for the depressing portion:
I expected financing problems because I have other mortgages (rentals), because it's a single-wide trailer, and because I'm in another state. The one thing I didn't expect was that banking regulations have changed. To borrow from my forum post:
"My lender once allowed me to offset my rentals' mortgages with their rent income if I had a one-year contract. Now they don't even consider the rent income, but yet want 6 months' reserves for each mortgage that I have, including the one I'm applying for. This is crazy! Fortunately, they do allow me to count IRA's but only at 60% and the current market doesn't really help me there either." Additionally, the rental mortgages count against your debt/income ratio. This run-down trailer is really all I can now afford.
Believe it or not, I made it past the new FHA hurdles (barely). My problem is that I couldn't call this my primary residence if I live several states away and won't be moving for a year. End result is the loan was denied. I also called my secondary sources and none of them do mobile-home loans. Next, I added my wife to my loan so that she could call the property as a primary residence. That just allowed the first lender to find new faults with my loan package such as "This is a trailer?" after pulling up the listing. End result is that primary lender, the one I've done dozens of loans with over the last 15 years, clearly does not want to lend me money. This ends my hope for a loan as a single-family residence, which would have given me low interest rates for 30 years. This means my only option is to finance the property as a land loan. The worst part is it took me 15 days to get to this point from the time I submitted my loan application. And I did my homework, too. I called this bank three times before even making an offer to ensure they would give me a loan on this trailer and I even had a pre-approval letter from them. Their original words were "the trailer just has to be habitable with a working kitchen and a permanent foundation". What a joke. I look forward to commenting on their review sheet that I should be receiving soon.
I got some other bad news this week. Turns out the trailer has some issues with flooring and the well breaker wouldn't shut either. This is a minor issue if I'm on site and can fix them, but as it is I would have to pay someone to come out and fix it to get it past the new appraisal requirements (now appraisals have to do indoor inspections of the residence). Even if I do pay someone to correct those issues, the appraiser will likely find new problems for me to spend money and fix. The land loan, aside from minimizing many of my other closing costs, doesn't even look at the trailer for the appraisal and won't force me to insure the crappy trailer which was going to cost me $300 a year. So land loan it is!
My first choice for the land loan was a bank that I routinely do business with. However, the interest rate is near double what I was hoping to get and at a shorter time period of 20 years. End result is my construction timeline (cost driven) just got pushed further out. The extra money ($152/month) I had planned on spending on building materials will now have to be spent on mortgage payments. Regardless, I later found out that this bank won't lend on agricultural land and won't lend on any vacant land that has taxable improvements on it. Double hit for me on this property.
Thankfully I had identified two more lenders who seemed willing to do the land loan. They have even higher interest rates and even shorter terms, which means I will have even less money to spend on construction. After another week working with the two new lenders on land loans, one of those also denied me financing based on the property itself. No real specific details, but it wasn't what they were looking to finance, even with 25% down, excellent credit. I didn't even know banks walked properties themselves...
The last lender, a local bank, however, will extend me credit, but it's a 5-year balloon with 20-year amortization at 7% interest and 25% down. Talk about a budget killer... Can I still build? Yeah, but the timeline for completion will immediately move right if any of my estimates are incorrect. The wife is already taking my two-year guesstimate and saying that it will take me three years.
And we're back to the wetlands issue. Before even looking at this property I researched the Army Corps of Engineer maps available online and didn't see wetlands on this property (in contrast to every other vacant land MLS that was covered in wetlands). However, there is a 2-3' stream on the border that would be considered wetlands. If I begin construction and someone declares that wetlands I would be shut down. So now I'm back to doing a wetlands delineation. Hopefully the delineation will find no issues that will prevent my construction, but it's still more money to be spent. Thanks to the ownerbuilderbook.com advice, I did attempt to obtain quotes from several different soil scientists. Only two responded, but that at least gives me a reasonable range for pricing, which allowed me to talk down one to a good price. Since I now have a loan commitment letter, I've signed the contract for this portion. If it comes up with major wetlands problems on the land, all of this work will have been for nothing.
Once the delineation is approved by the Army Corps of Engineers, I have five years before someone can change it, which would allow me to get the new house built. There is also a question about buffer zones, but I'm still learning about that one. It has to do with whether the stream drains into the Chesapeake or not. If it does, a 100' buffer zone is required around the stream.
One cost savings that I am working on is my survey. I've been advised to get a survey before closing and the building dept. requires a site survey before approving the building permit. I called four surveyors and am getting quotes from all four for the combined work. My plans dept. is preparing a foundation plot early to get it on the site survey. However, the surveyor can't do work until the wetlands is flagged on site.
Comments (1)
Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 2/21/2010
After the previous search for land fell through, I began a new search for a piece of property. The one I've found is a 4.4-acre mini-farm property with a single-wide trailer already on it. This will allow me to obtain financing as a single-family residence - unlike vacant land. It also already has septic, water, power, and a driveway!
It's relatively flat and I've already verified the following before going under contract:
-Not in a Chesapeake Bay Protected Area
-Not in a flood zone
-Not impacted by wetlands where I hope to put the new house
-Per the Health Dept. a repair was made to the septic some years ago, but never re-inspected so I will need to get it finished. Should be relatively minor and at that time they can tell me whether the tank is big enough for a three or two-bedroom home. My house plans are for a three-bedroom home, but initially only one bedroom will be finished, according to the plans. I was told that the leach field will support a three-bedroom; so even if the tank is too small I can fix it by adding a larger, 1,000-gallon tank in series with the smaller tank. That's something I can do myself if I can get access to a backhoe, I think.
-The building dept will require an engineer's seal of my dome.
-The soil will support a normal foundation. It's not the special soil that requires structural-engineering analysis.
I've also changed the design of the house. Before, I wanted a little vacation cabin. Now I need a primary residence for the next 10 years. So I'm going with a 45' diameter dome, which is one of the largest. I'll only finish the downstairs at first, to get the Certificate of Occupancy. For financing, I'm hoping to only need the original 30-year loan on the property and trailer, use a HELOC I already have available, and then pay for the rest as we go. Currently we hope to do the majority of the work. Attached is the new design. I'll also be adding one more additional bedroom upstairs. I can get something from the health dept. that limits me to 6 people for a four-bedroom house, since I'll only have the leach field/septic tank to allow a three-bedroom (times two is the occupancy allowed).
It will likely be a slab foundation, as that is easier and cheaper. A lot of people dislike them, but I've lived several years on a crawlspace and they leave a lot to be desired. In a crawlspace, the floor often squeaks and acts springy. Mold grows on the joists, requiring moisture abatement (yeah, I've installed 6-mil poly to fix it, which helped some). Plus, it's a lot harder to do your own foundation if it's a crawlspace vs slab. A slab offers radiant heat.
Now that I'm under contract, I'm still a little worried about financing. I've never bought a mobile home, particularly one where the mobile home is worth less than 5% of the value of the land. I'll feel better once I hear those magic words from the lender, even though I've already called them three times to verify they will do it.
For cost estimation at this point I've only used this website, RSMeans Cost Book, and building-cost.net. Where that left holes, I've called contractors and made trips to Lowe's and Home Depot to get basic quotes.
For a timeline, I'm planning on taking the next year to finish my building plans, get the engineer seal, permits, and finish all the planning. Then I'll do the slab in the spring, followed soon by the shell when we'll also be moving into the trailer. Then I think it will take me a year to get the certificate of occupancy, upon which we'll move into the dome and scrap the trailer. As funds allow, we'll finish the downstairs and then start work on finishing the upstairs. Living in the trailer will be a big money savings that will help me (hopefully) rapidly devote a large portion of my income to building supplies. Since I'm now 1.5 years away from moving, I felt like this month was the last month I could look for land. Good thing I found this property!
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Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 2/13/2010
Two years later...
The building site in Vermont didn't work out. I had plans, contractor appointments, and financing, but the building site didn't work out. Lots of time spent planning, but not too much money. I did compromise by building the nicest tree house you'll ever see. It is 8' x 8' and the bottom joist is maybe 12' off the ground. I'm 6' and can stand up inside. It has plywood walls, rolled metal roofing on top, a trapdoor, and four windows. Two windows on opposing walls open out and two are fixed plexiglass windows that I created. The flooring is treated wood decking. My children love it, and we camped in it this last October. Build time was about 10 days. The whole thing is treated lumber and screws and TimberLoks, so the cost was around $1,000. Hopefully it will last forever. I picked the nicest tree on about 10 acres that is a 30-something-year-old evergreen. Great building experience, but I did need help hauling the 3/4" treated plywood up for the roof. It also gave me a great opportunity to buy a few more nice DEWALT cordless tools.
I'm now a year and a half from moving again, so I restarted the land search to build my dome. I found the nicest property about 10 minutes from my next job. It had just over five acres and was very secluded. I spent many, many hours calling contractors and getting quotes. The property was set back about 700', requiring an easement through three other properties for the driveway. Here are my concluding remarks:
The driveway would have been a minimum of $12,800 if no fill had been required. That’s for a 12’ wide driveway that met the fire dept. requirements, but not necessarily their checklist. Their checklist specified a 20’ driveway for greater than 100’ long. This price is for the absolute minimum amount of work that would stand up to code.
Electric was free up to 200’ from Dominion. Past that you had to pay extra. If I had dug the trenches myself to put in underground cable, it would have cost me $8,000 to run electric the 800’ to the closest housing site. Plus, we would have had to get that additional easement (currently only an ingress/egress easement). One neighbor saying no to the easement would have shut the entire building project down from an on-grid-electric aspect. I was also planning on running the electric under the driveway, which would have probably raised my driveway costs. Most municipalities require electric to be run 4’ down or so. I think trenchers exist that can do this, but if the soil had been rocky, then costs would have escalated quickly.
Septic fields need dry soil that will take moisture. This property didn't have that, so previous attempts looked at Engineering Drainage Management. This creates ditches around the septic field that then drain to deeper ditches offsite that then take that water to even deeper, public ditches offsite. This property could never reach public ditching (without being deeper than the public ditching by the time it got there) hence the inability to use a standard septic system. At present, the only engineered septic system passing the health dept without problems was a mound system that I was quoted $50,000 to engineer and install. This system is also higher maintenance and has a higher risk of failure as compared to conventional septic systems that often last 30 years with only routine pumpings every three years or so. I did find a second system called the Clearstream drip irrigation that was costing $18,000 but it was currently in appeals with the health dept.
Lot clearing for this lot also proved to be more difficult. I wasn't sure the fire dept. would approve burning of debris (like stumps and limbs), so all of the debris generated would have to be hauled away in dump trucks. That placed the cost of clearing only two acres around $9,500. If I had gotten the permission to burn, that cost would have been reduced.
The driveway would have started in a Chesapeake Bay Conservation Area 50’ buffer zone. I was confident that I could get my variance approved to put in a driveway, but the engineering analysis alone was expected to cost $1,500, which could also reveal higher costs for the actual driveway itself.
I had an idea that wetlands existed, but I thought that they would be limited to the borders. During my snow-covered walk on the parcel, I didn’t see any of the aquatic plants that I expect to see on wetlands. On recommendation from one of my many phone calls, I called the Army Corps of Engineers hoping for a quick answer of 'no wetland problems'. Instead he told me that the property has massive wetlands. Having a lot of wetlands either rules out construction completely or requires massive amounts of money for individual permits and/or wetland credits. Either way, the initial engineering estimate was another $1,500 or so just to determine where the wetlands started.
This ended my planning for this property. I did make a 24-hr drive (round trip) to see it, and I learned quite a bit. Now I'm working on a second property, but I'm not sure what land mines it will contain.
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Posted to DomeSweetDome by Rich in Suffolk, VA
on 1/1/2008
I've wanted to build a dome by American Ingenuity for over 6 years now (aidomes.com). The problem is that I am in the Navy and move frequently. Even this may be premature, as I am not even sure yet that I will be moving to the northeast. But all I can do is plan, hoping for the opportunity. If I wait until I find out (March) I will probably miss the summer window for getting a house shell up to allow interior work throughout the winter.
That said, however, I do have some land picked out in the wonderful town of Irasburg, VT which has the most amazing mountain scenery you've ever seen.
After talking some with Brian Hoskens (TheHoskensProject) I think we will be going with a 36' diameter dome. This is the largest size that you can build by using a radial support method instead of a rib method. In short, it's easier and simpler and will work better for me as I'm doing this on a weekend basis only. While this smaller-size dome will not minimize the price per square foot, it will, however, minimize the cost of the project as we are financing this on a second home basis.
Financing will be via a Home Equity Line of Credit on another home that we own as I am trying to avoid a construction loan which would require some painful inspections and questions that I'd like to avoid. Thankfully, Vermont is limited to inspections only on the sewage system as of yet. Once the dome is built we would wrap up the HELOC into a single mortgage on the dome.
Why a dome?
R-36 insulation for the walls with incredible airtightness
I can owner-build the entire shell myself with zero construction experience
Spherical design is incredibly strong for all snow loads
No shingles to replace (I have roofed three houses in last year...)
No gutters or siding
No way for insects to get in
Nothing for termites to eat or for fire to burn on the outside
Nothing to rot or grow mold
Innovative design that is still very, very unique
We are planning on a timeline that will likely run at least two years and possibly even more. My wife's uncle lives a few doors down and he has offered to give me a lot of advice. Depending on cash flow, I also hope to sub some of the work out to him to help the pace of construction (drywall, trim, etc).
The Excel document for the budget is probably too aggressive, but I'm really trying to do this on a shoestring budget.
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| Already has some slight modifications to the bathrooms. |
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