# Forum More Stuff Go to Whoa!  3 bedroom home for $135,000

## DavidAinge

I have recently finished building my home as an owner-builder. I built it myself, from the ground up, doing 90% of the work without any help. It took me 18 months  and I built for a total cost of $135,000, including all the hidden extras. I was 67 when I started and I don't have any trade background.  Our house is in the rainforest near Kuranda in Far North Queensland, an area of high rainfall and termites. There is something of a tradition here of homes which have timber cladding with natural finish and a good deal of timber inside. This raises a couple of important issues. Timber must be protected from termites, which can be very destructive in a short time. Although timber frame can be treated, we should always keep in mind that one day we might want to sell, and buyers want to be confident about the house not being attacked. I was also concerned that because I wanted to do as much of the work as I could myself, including the frame, there could be distortion if the timber was frequently wetted, then dried out by the sun, during the many weeks it would take me to get the roof on.    I decided to deal with these issues by building a steel frame house. Rather than buy a kit home, I took the much cheaper option of buying a kit frame, which included steel stumps, steel subfloor, walls, and roof frame. All of this was supplied unassembled for me to put together on site. There was no cutting or measuring. All components were supplied ready to be bolted or screwed together. There was a book of plans which showed each section, e.g. wall section or roof truss, with details of how the individual pieces went together, and the weight. Each piece of steel was stamped with with a code showing which section it belonged to, and its individual number, all corresponding with the plan. The pieces were pre-punched for the bolts or screws. This was particularly good for the walls and roof frame because assembly involved lining up the holes in adjacent pieces and putting a tapered screw through both holes, so there was no risk of movement as could have happened with self-tapping screws.    Knowing the weight of each wall section was also very helpful, so I could choose between assembling it flat then standing it up, or if it was too heavy, assembling it in position. Because of the expense of getting a crane, I assembled the roof trusses lying flat on top of the walls, then stood them up. I did have a mate to help me with the big trusses and heavy beams on the verandah, but the rest I did by myself, from the ground up. I had the stump holes bored in July and the roof sheeting went on in October.     For the external cladding we chose Darwin Stringybark, which is a good looking hardwood with a natural resistance to termites. Again, I installed this working alone, with the help of a simple third hand made from scrap timber which held long lengths in place while I screwed them to the steel frame. I sealed the cladding all around and on the ends to avoid distortion and water damage.    Inside the house I lined the lounge and bedrooms with pine VJ fixed vertically to wood battens which I had screwed onto the steel walls. I finished it with varnish. It wasn't difficult to install provided I constantly checked to make sure the pieces of VJ, which were 125 mm wide, did not start to lean away from the vertical. It does happen, but if the error is picked up early when it is only 1 or 2 mm a correction can be made with the next piece and is not noticeable.  On the ceilings I used fibre-cement board rather than plasterboard, for two reasons. I have no experience with plasterboard, and I thought that if we ever did have a leak in the roof the fibre-cement would dry out without any problems. However, that created the problem of what to do about the joins. I was happy to use the plastic joining strips in the bathrooms and laundry but not with the panelling in the lounge and bedrooms. My solution was to install lightweight cosmetic beams with timber strips running between them, finished with varnish. I finally installed a cork floor which we think goes very well with the timber.  It is interesting to note that the steel frame is identical with the shed frame, but the use of exterior and interior timber gives a home which looks nothing like some steel frame houses I have seen, and everyone tells us it looks very appropriate in the rainforest setting. We are very happy living in our home, and it is very satisfying to have built most of it by myself. As for the cost, I think the large amount of money I saved was a very good tax-free wage for 18 months work. David Ainge HowIBuiltMyOwnHome.com

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## Random Username

Such a shame you didn't take pics and post a build-in-progress thread here (or rather, on the renovation forum) to actually make this a go to whoa post 
Oh, wait, no, I suppose interested people can go to your website, which consists of the home page, a contents listing of your book, a sample chapter, a gallery of 15 small pics, a bio page, a review page, a contact page and a disclaimer...and of course the 'buy this book' page. 
I think a better forum location for this would be 'Members Businesses and Services'.

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## TermiMonster

Looks like a good job, David, congratulations.
Was the frame a custom design, or was it  standard?
What company supplied it?
Is the house on a slab or stumps?
cheers,
TM

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## DavidAinge

> Looks like a good job, David, congratulations.
> Was the frame a custom design, or was it  standard?
> What company supplied it?
> Is the house on a slab or stumps?
> cheers,
> TM

  Thanks very much TM. We designed the house, then McSheds' engineer did the specs and drawings. It is on steel stumps. The block has a 1 in 7 slope, and a concrete slab would have been horrendously expensive. Using stumps gives lots of room underneath, and I can easily move around to check for termites, which would be seen very easily on the outside of the stumps. If the house was on a level block and on short stumps, say 600mm or so, getting underneath would be hard. 
David Ainge
HowIBuiltMyOwnHome.com

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## Godzilla73

Looks good, must be rewarding to stand back and admire your hard work.  :2thumbsup:

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## jatt

Stumps are good in my opinion.  Not to mention stuff like plumbing easier to access if required.  
good job.

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## DavidAinge

Yes, the stumps were a good choice, for the reasons you give, and you can also easily rearrange the wet rooms, which we did.

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