I need tips on building a cheap block house.

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We are building a block house to live in. We have sold our house here and have 30 days to get it built. We have the land and pad ready. My husband is a block layer and we have cheap block so it will be cheaper to go that route. My main question is on a cheap way to finish the inside. We want to do it for under $2000.00. The only appliance that I get to keep is the refrigerator. As far as the kitchen we were thinking of buying some metal cabinets, but are unsure. The shower will be made of block also and the bathroom will be the only room seperated off. Everything else will be open. I would love any ideas on saving money while doing this. Also any ideas on how to maximize our storage area because we are not going to have closets? If all goes well I may submit it to Countryside if I can do it cheap enough. Thanks.

-- renabeth (renabeth@yahoo.com), December 03, 2001

Answers

for the storage,, shelves shelves,, and more shelves. What part of the country are you moving into? COld climate,, that block will get cold fast.Or a warmer climate,, then condensation may be a problem. For real cheap finishing,, free paint,, mix it all together,, never know what color you'll end up with,, and paint away. BEsides that,,, do you have access to free lumber? scrap wood? HAve seen some fabulas looking paneling made from scrap wood,, took awhile,, but was cheap and looked great

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), December 03, 2001.

At a budget of $2000, I wouldn't put too much into "finishing", but would be more concerned with "survivability". As soon as you have the block up and a roof over your head, put up insulation and get a heater going. That'll use up your $2000 right there (after fuel/power costs). Start saving to put a decent interior up next spring. And try not to freeze this winter...

-- Paul D. (pd-personal@qwest.net), December 03, 2001.

An idea for storage if your not going to have a closet in the bed area then put up shelves (two sets) on one wall. Leave a space between the two sets then put a rod between the two sets of shelves for hanging clothes. You can then put a curtain over the opening.

-- ruby (mcfays451@aol.com), December 03, 2001.

Hi,

Turning our 40 x 80 block stable into a house is quite an investment in time, $$, and creativity. We got our kitchen cabinets from a man who was tearing down two old houses. He told us anything in the house, fixture wise, that we wanted we could have. So for two days we took down really nice kitchen cabinets, they were heart pine, and then carefully cleaned them of the many years of dirt and grease and rehung them in our kitchen. I will tell you that living in a block house can be ok for awhile (it's been over six years for us), but we soon tired of concrete everything...so even before insulation, I painted the whole house inside. You will need a very good heater of some sort, ours is a wood heater and we also have a wood cookstove in our kitchen. In the winter, we have both going if the temps are below 30. The problem is, that when the blocks cool at night, it takes a long time to heat back up. We burn less wood by keeping a fire going continuously day and night (just a small fire in the daytime)which doesn't allow the blocks to ever get really cold. Our plumbing is under the slab coming into the house, but you really need to consider where all the plumbing will go as it gets messy running on the inside block walls until you can cover it up with sheetrock or whatever. I have learned a great deal about dealing with block, but one thing I did learn - moisture control. Unsealed block will just wick moisture through them. So again, the paint idea seals the moisture out. Your husband will know the name of the paint to use, I used mine on the inside as we are board and battening the outside. For cheap really nice paneling, we bought sawmill grade red oak, and my husband planed and sanded each board, polyurethaned them and put them up in the kitchen. The boards contracted as they cured, and he is putting the battens over the cracks. I have beautiful kitchen panelling for less than $500. All it took was time to do the boards. We don't have closets either, we use antique armoirs that I bought at estate sales. The most I paid was $50.00 and it is the oldest of the bunch with two mirrors. Lots of people don't have room for armoirs as the rooms in new houses are too small. I also have an antique piesafe that is used for good stuff and converted an old art table into a bathroom vanity. My husband had a shop table he made that had shelves and a wide table top, this houses sheets, pillow cases, and blankets. I also use a portable metal clothes rack in my son's room for his everyday clothes. These can be bought at Home depot or Walmart. My Dad built me a pantry closet which is 6 feet tall and five feet wide that I store my canned goods in. It is made out of plywood (not the expensive finished on both sides kind, but the less expensive, finished on neither side kind. It didn't matter, again I painted it and put shelf paper on the shelves and it looks fine. If there is anyway to get lots of light into your new house, do it. I started with windows bought second hand, and now I am replacing those with the nice double pane insulated kind. I just added a skylight that my husband bought me two birthdays ago and we couldn't afford to install it - so just got an early christmas present. Find a salvage company in your area and get lots of your stuff there. We have two within a 100 miles - at one, I got windows, (make sure the frames are straight and square)and at the other I got my kitchen sink. I got a bathtub from a retired cattle farmer who watered his cows in it(love my clawfooted tub)but he didn't have the plumbing, so spent a rainy afternoon in a retired plumbers shed and pieced together the parts. Got those for $15. I had to re-enamel the tub, so got Tough as tile at Home Depot and spent a week redoing the tub. Total tub cost: about $30. It looks good as new and has lasted for five years. What I am saying is you will have to spend some time looking for ways to stay away from Home Depot and Lowe's. If it is something that you can buy second hand, that will be cheapest way to go. Almost everything in our house was purchased second hand and is now being upgraded piece by piece - not fancy, just for function, like the windows. The best thing I did was paint though - sure did help the overall mood and you guessed it, the original paint came from Big Lots and was your basic white block sealant paint. I bought every can they had. Guess the Big lots folks thought I was some kind of nut as everyday at lunch I would go and look to see if more paint had come in. It took alot of paint, but at Big Lot prices, not very nuch money. Not very original color, but did the trick. The worst part of a block house is it is hard to change anything once those blocks are laid. So everything we change involves a great deal of thought on how to do it. Like the windows. Our new windows are taller than the old windows, so we have to take out block which involves all kinds of stuff like new headers and concrete block saws and reframing. But I didn't know at the time, all I knew was I had openings where horse's heads used to stick out and now I gotta close them up! And the old windows fit pretty good in those horse stall openings, so there ya go. I also told family in the early days to forgo presents for me and get me stuff I could use in fixing up the house. Each birthday and Christmas I get a present for the house. Talk to local contractors about the stuff they overbuy when building a new house - find out what they do with it. Sometimes they will let you have the stuff fairly cheap if they bought too much of something. Also talk to the remodelers in your area - lots of people just throw out their old stuff when they are remodeling and it might be a good way to get nice windows, doors, trim, etc. really cheap or free if you agree to haul it away. I got my GE electric range from a guy who took it in on trade and he fixed the oven and sold it to me for $75.00.

Good luck, you'll get everything done in time - I just got an inside toilet after six years - (our "outhouse" was placed on the exact site where a tornado took away my house in 1991 and was plumbed into the septic tank that was still there - unfortunately that "outhouse" was a long ways from the stable!). So now I have a stablehouse with two baths - that's a lot better than a stable with no bathroom :>).

Best always,

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), December 03, 2001.


Thanks for all the ideas. So Cindy, do you think that the paint will solve the water wicking through the blocks. Also do you have a concrete slab floor in your house? Does the water wick through that too? I am in Arkansas so it is really humid here. I never thought about the moisture problem. I think we will use propane for heat, but I am not positive. This whole moisture thing is worrying me a little bit. Oh well. Thanks a lot and if you can think of anything that I should be sure and not forget please let me know. Thanks so much.

-- renabeth (renabeth@yahoo.com), December 03, 2001.


Have a 20' x 30' two story cement block house I am building. One big room on each floor except for a bathroom. Block shower on first floor. Wood stove and water heater on other side of shower. Two blocks of shower are sideways to allow heat in. (Also handy to set things in).

Semi-freestanding closets give bathrooms privacy. Don't go to the roof with closets because I like to store things on top that I can get to from either side.

Counters are just 2" x 4"s and BC 5/8" plywood. Can get granite fairly cheaply, and one day this will be on top of all counters. Shelves are also plywood. Will make doors later.

Live in Texas. Just have a small Earthstove downstairs. Someday will get a bigger woodstove for downstairs and move the small one upstairs.

Use Behr Primer/Sealer or Drylock on exterior and interior walls. Then paint. Seal doors and roof well. No water will come through the blocks.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), December 03, 2001.


Paul could you give us all the details on your block shower including how you designed the shower's floor? How did you run the water supply lines and do you just use a shower curtain? Thanks! Brad

-- BF Morris (chelone@cci-29palms.com), December 03, 2001.

The north shower wall is also the north wall of the house. We built a 48" x 32" frame when roughing in the shower drain. When the slab was poured, the frame was set 8" in. The shower is 1.5" lower than the surrounding slab sloping to a little over 2" at the drain cover.

Just a curtain now, but putting in a step and door shouldn't be too daunting when time and money permits (low priority).

It is 56" of block on the west side of the shower. Wood stove is just in front of water heater on the other side of the block. 8" gap at the bottom so I can drain the water heater easily. Additionally, two blocks on this side are turned sideways so I can get heat off of the woodstove in the shower. Also, the blocks hold some heat.

The south wall is 48" long. I use a 32" x 96" closet to exclude this area.

A friend who did not have a drain set his shower on 4" x 6" treated wood and just drains out the side of the house. Anything that gives you enough heigth for a P-Trap will work.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), December 04, 2001.


My home is two story. Water comes into the house through the slab. The water pipes run through floor joists and come into the shower from above.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), December 04, 2001.

Two story like Paul did, or a loft house, may be (may have been - too late now?) worth consideration. Cheaper in materials (less roof, less foundations and slab, for the same amount of floor space). Also more efficient thermally - again less roof area for the same amount of living space, and that's where you lose most heat. Of course, it does take more trouble building a second story, but if you do it as a loft- style that may only be end-walls, as the roof would be the other two walls of your second story.

One thing - I think the house will be cold - don't do the walls in white or other cold colours, or you will always be feeling chilly just looking at them.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 04, 2001.



If I had it to do over again, I would think seriously about blowing rockwool or foam into the walls before I put the roof on. A friend has built interior frame walls with insulation. Makes it much easier to build sheves.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), December 04, 2001.

Both I and my mother live in cinder block houses, but in very different climates, so here's what we've discovered. SHe lives in MO, with the same humidity problems. The water doesn't so much wick through the slab as condenses on it some mornings, especially if it is hot and humid outside, but the slab is still chilly from the night before, and double that if you open a door or window in those conditions - sometimes as much as 1/4" layer of water!!! Yuck. Talk about a suprise on your way to the bathroom in the morning. SPLASH!

Living in NC, I don't have that problem, although I have had a bit of condensation from time to time in the right conditions - but not enough or often enough to matter. My problem is that the landlady went code minimum on the windows and it is unpleasantly dark and hard to keep indoor plants happy here. Go for at least a few decent sized windows, or I promise you it will be cave-like in there. As far as shelves go, if you build with cinder block interior walls, you can use those butterfly bolts that open their "wings" as you screw in the attachment screws to hold up shelves. Barring something heavy enough to rip them out of concrete, they should hold up well.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), December 04, 2001.


Hi,

I live in Georgia so the humidity is pretty much always high here. We used the drylock as Paul suggested in one room, it was the kind that you have to mix water with, but I found the Behr's block sealer is easier and works just as good. You can have it tinted if you buy it at Home Depot, but I just bought mine at Big Lots so whatever color it was, is what I used. Moisture did come through the block after heavy rains before I sealed them, and it took a lot of paint to seal the blocks as one gallon only did about 100 square feet - the block just soaks up the sealer, so I used two coats on all the exterior walls and just didn't use it on the interior walls. Since our house used to be a horse stable, the concrete slab for the main hall is twice as thick as a regular slab - it is around 8 inches. I used to have heavy feed delivery trucks drive down the hallway to the feed room to unload. We have never had any trouble with moisture coming up through the slab. The side rooms were done by raising the stall depth up using pea gravel on top of regular gravel, then a moisture barrier was put down, then the concrete was laid on top of that. No moisture problems there either. We are now going to install wood floors over the concrete floors, so will raise the wood floors up about six inches and run all the exposed piping in the bathroom between the concrete floor and the new wood floor. We will screw down the wood floors on the frame, so if a pipe busts, we can just unscrew the boards to get to it and not have to rip out the boards. The walls will eventually be sheetrocked so some plumbing will go up the walls. The hardest thing to solve was heating and plumbing duct work, but we decided to run that between the two floors as well. But a less expensive way may be to use industrial duct work at the ceiling level if you aren't planning on having an attic. I like the heat coming from the floor. We may not use the heat pump at all as we love our wood heater, but one never knows when we get old, we may not be able to cut wood anymore. So long term planning helps alot as it is hard to redo anything once it is set in block or concrete. Hope this helps you out.

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), December 05, 2001.


For block construction, you can insert perlite or vermiciculite (sp?) in the cavities of the block, just before you install your block lintels. That is one easy way of insulating block; if you are putting 2x on inside of block, install foil face batt insulation between studs. For wall studs, use 2x6s at 24" o.c.; less studs to purchase and construct, and can use R-30 6" batt insulation. More costly now, but will lower bills dramatically.

I hope this information helps you.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), December 06, 2001.


Your biggest moisture problem in your area is likely to be summer. To prevent moisture coming through the slab, put about three inches of pea gravel down, then a layer of six mil visqueen. Drain pipes of perforated "weinie" pipe should be placed around the inside perimeter of the footings and sloped, or at least flat, towards the lowest spot of the building, and caried away from the house.

I used a two by four stud wall, with the inside surface of the stud wall seven inches from the interior of the blocks. Six inch fiberglass was stapled to the studs. This gives either R19 or, in my case, I used high density fiberglass, and it has an R value of 21. Mr. Guerra has his numbers off a bit.

The stud wall doesn't even need to be real great quality studs, except you don't want them to twist and stuff. They don't carry any weight, if the block wall is designed right. They also give you a practical, easy place to run wiring and plumbing, which saves a bunch of hassle over trying to run these inside the blocks.

Putting insulation inside the blocks gives but a modicum of insulation, as the blocks' webs wick heat right through the wall. The building codes here in Orygun don't allow this anymore

I'll be amazed if you can really build this in two months, unless your hubby is block layer and organizer of the year! My house took six professionals almost six weeks, just for the block work (3000 blocks). But I wish you all the luck in the world! Keep us posted. BTW, my blocks cost me almost two bucks apiece, so I had over $5000 in the blocks.

-- joj (jump@off.c), December 06, 2001.



Thanks for all the great tips. We bought all our block for 20 cents from a company that was going out of business and my husband is a block layer. A really great one if you don't mind me saying so. Is your house a two story joj? My husband felt that it should have taken more like two weeks for 3000 block. It would take longer the higher it goes. And of course weather plays a big role in that. I have talked to him about the moisture problems and he says that we are going to seal it and put the stuff under the slab. Oh and by the way I meant finish the inside for $2000. Our whole budget total is $8000. Hopefully we won't freeze. Thanks again for all your ideas.

-- renabeth (renabeth@yahoo.com), December 06, 2001.

I would insulate the outside of the block home with rigid four inch thick insulation and skip the interior walls. This would incorporate all the mass of the concrete as thermal mass in the living space and would be of tremendous benefit in stabilizing interior temperatures of longer periods of time. Brad

-- BF Morris (chelone@cci-29palms.com), December 07, 2001.

I'd agree with BF Morris in principle. Most houses are really built wrong-way out as far as insulation goes. Bare cement block is perfectly OK for interior walls, as far as I'm concerned - at least for a couple of years - and then just paint it. Not luxury, but the real luxury is living in a debt-free home, and if you remember that then you can enjoy it a lot more than the neighbours who spend a third of the year working to pay taxes, half of it paying the mortgage, and only 1/6 buying food and clothes and fuel and cars and other non-essentials (did you notice they're probably sliding deeper into debt each year?). What you do want is insulation from the exterior temperature changes - cold or hot; and thermal mass on the inside to smooth the changes that do occur. Very few people seem to realise it, but that does imply masonry mass inside, and insulation outside. I've heard of people building the standard brick-veneer house inside out for this reason - bricks on the inside, insulation and some form of sheeting on the outside. Makes sense when you think about it - particularly if you can buy slabs of foamed insulation and stick them to your cement blocks with a bit of glue. Later paint them, and later still stick some siding to them with glue.

What this all does imply is that you want wide eaves - whether to stick insulation on, or to shelter the walls from rain that will wick through, or whatever. Also maybe think about windows that can take additional width of material under their sills if you decide to add it later.

P.S. I'd still think hard about a loft-style house. Alternatively, I'd think about just a skillion-style roof at this stage, rather than peaked - cheaper and easier and FASTER, and you could lift it off later to do something else (like a loft), and re-use a lot of the material.

-- Don Armstrong (from Australia) (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 08, 2001.


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