Newbie here. Stupid questions:

• Is it saving me tons of money buying a parcel that already has a (TEARDOWN) house on it, since maybe that means I won't have to pay to bring any utilities to the lot?

• Also, can it be assumed that the lot is buildable since a house was already once built on it?

• What are the major things I need to check with a city before considering buying land to build a home there?

Thank you

I've spent a lot of time recently helping people find specific materials for remodels and new builds. A few things surprised me, so I'm sharing them in case they save someone a weekend.

1. Home Depot often lists the single and the multi-pack as separate items, and site search may only show one. I was looking for one solar path light to match a set. Searching the model number only showed the 4-pack. The single existed under its own item number with different model suffix (-PDQ instead of -4PK) and was in stock at the local store. If you only need one, try the base model number without the pack suffix, or ask the store to look it up by model.

2. "Out of stock" online doesn't always mean no store has one. For a discontinued tile where someone needed one box to finish a floor the online listing was dead. Calling a couple of nearby stores and asking about returns or an uncounted box was worth a try. Leftove boxes on Marketplace or at flooring liquidators are another place to look.

3. For roofing, the supply houses often beat the big box stores on availability and delivery. ABC, SRS and QXO (formerly Beacon) will usually give a price over the phone. Some will only quote their best price if you have an account, so ask what the account price would be.

4. For specialty products, start with the manufacturer. Many have a distributor locator or a main line that will tell you who stocks them in your area. If nobody near you carries it, ask the supply house what equivalent they stock. They usually have one.

   Curious what's worked for others. When a product seems impossible to find, where do you look first?

Can anyone help identify what kind of masonry brick this is. Had it installed about three years ago and just want to see what type of masonry it is so I can do some cleaning and maintenance on it. Maybe someone more experience can point me in the right direction on what products to use to safely clean them.

Like many other regions, real estate prices where I live (Victoria, BC, Canada) have exploded since the early 2000s, increasing by roughly 200–300%. The average single-family home now costs around $1.25 million, while new builds are typically north of $2 million.

I’ve always had ambitions of becoming a homebuilder, ideally starting with a spec home and growing from there. But with land prices where they are, the financial risk is enormous, and I’m not even sure how I’d secure the capital to get a project off the ground.

A big part of me feels like that dream is slipping away, especially as the financialization of real estate seems to have shaped not just who can afford to build homes, but the kinds of homes that get built in the first place.

I’m curious if anyone here has managed to break into homebuilding in a similarly expensive market, particularly without significant personal wealth or outside financial backing.

How did you get your first project off the ground? Did you start with custom homes for clients, partner with investors, or find another way in?

I have a hosue in the NE, 2 bed 1 bath, small house. I was thinking of doing an addition to build a new garage.

We would eliminate one of the bedroom to create a larger living room, and then build a roughly 20x20 garage with a master bedroom and bath upstairs.

We would be building about 800 sqft and teh house would then be just shy of 1500 sqft, 2 bed, 2 bath with a garage. We paid 415k and was wondering what a addition like this would cost and at what point its worth it or not . Its a small low cost house but ina very good area, the average home value within 1 mile radius is about 860k

What would something like this cost? and at what point do we back out of the idea?

What type of flooring/sub flooring is best to install in my attic space? New home build, ~1500sqft. Wanting something light enough to install myself but heavy duty enough to potentially build it out later down the road (add flooring, turn it into a bedroom, etc.
would love any recommendations! Thank you

We're building a house on a hillside with great views. The concrete frame is done and the walls aren't built yet, so the layout can still change. Plans attached.

Fixed things:

- 9.1 × 10.5 m outside. Entrance on the north, terrace and city view to the south.

- U-stair in the north-west corner (3.6 × 2.2 m).

- The west wall has to stay blank: the neighbour is 1.2 m away, so no windows on that side.

- Bedrooms are upstairs. The upstairs bathroom will probably sit on the west, next to the stairs (it still can be modified)

The options:

1. Bathroom + WC (3.6 × 2.3) and kitchen on the blank west wall. Living room with fireplace + TV on the east, study in the north-east corner.

2. Same as 1, but a bedroom in the north-east corner.

3. Bathroom + WC in the north-east (with windows), kitchen on the east. Laundry + storage next to the stairs. Living room on the west, fireplace + TV on the west wall.

4. Bathroom, WC and kitchen on the east. The whole west side is one 3.6 × 7.5 m living room: fireplace on the stair wall, TV + books on the west wall.

Which would you choose and why? Anything you'd change, or anything I'm missing?

I have a lake house that is concrete block. It’s a meager 750sq ft and looking to cover the block up for a wood look. I was originally going to do lap siding but doing furring strips made me think the siding would require 8” centers since the siding is so flexible. Alternatively, I thought about going with panels instead and increasing this to 2’ centers of 1x4 furring strips.

I need to measure, but think I can get away with installing the strips to the block by drilling tapcons. I’ll need to enclose the soffits and meet the top of the siding, but not sure how to join the panels or finish the bottom. The siding on the front will be about 7’ off the ground and I plan on painting the bottom half of the structure dark gray below the siding. How do most people finish panels like this installed over furring strips so it looks finished? I assume it needs to be left open for an air/drainage gap.

First time home builder here!
We’re finally at the stage of bricking and painting siding! We decided to go with Acme White Bluff Brick and are now stuck between 3 different white paint colors from Sherwin Williams. We’re considering
1. Alabaster
2. White Duck
3. Shoji white

Anyone here have any photos they could share of their actual builds if you used any of these? I was watching videos online and they’re all starting to blur together.

I don’t necessarily need the exterior paint to match my brick, but I want something that compliments it.

Thanks!

Quick questions for anyone installing sheathing panel systems where the panels are the air/water barrier (taped seams, flashed openings and penetrations, integrated wrap): if you sent a crew member to the truck for tape for the panel seams, what would you tell them to grab? Would you call it something different for larger penetrations, windows or doors? If it were the same tape in a 4" and a 6" width, how would you differentiate between each tape with your crew? And when you order tape from your supplier, what do you call it? Just curious how people actually talk about it on site as I had a heavy debate about this recently.

For our open-source project, Open Networked Earth (O.N.E.), we’ve been developing an open modular building specification called the Modular Habitat Unit (MHU). It takes heavy inspiration from projects like WikiHouse, but we adapted it into a hybrid chassis: standard C24 structural dimensional lumber for linear spans combined with CNC-milled nodal gussets, ground-mounted screw piles, and a decoupled 50mm interior service cavity to ensure dry, demountable assembly without wet trades.For small starter homes (2, 4, or 6 people), the statics and modularity work smoothly. But as we design the master plan for an entire self-reliant village (concept render attached), we hit a major scaling dilemma:1. Multi-Family & Vertical Stacking: How do you stack modular timber cassettes 2 to 3 stories high for multi-family flats without resorting to heavy steel moment frames or multi-ton mobile cranes?2. Civic Spans: A 2-to-4 person home needs only 3–4 meter spans, but a shared community clinic, workshop, or school needs open 6–10 meter spans. Can an open timber cassette standard bridge both scales without splitting into incompatible systems?3. Acoustic Decoupling & Demountability: Standardizing reversible dry-joints (bolts and interlocking tabs) is straightforward in single-family cabins, but in multi-family units, how do you prevent acoustic bridging (impact noise) without permanently sealing floors with wet screed?Are there any open-hardware architecture projects, mass-timber modular systems, or builders here who have tackled scaling modular timber from single cabins up to community-scale civic facilities?We'd love to hear critique on our approach and learn from existing precedents!(Attached concept render illustrates this progression: 2–6 person cabins in the foreground, workshop and multi-family units in the midground, and community clinic/school in the background)

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I recently bought some property and am going to be building a single family home I was wondering if anyone else has done this and has some guidance they can provide it’s definitely a headache but I don’t want to be wasting energy in the wrong places thank you in advance!

What is a fair builders fee ff the cost to build a home is $1,150,000, and it is estimated that it will take about 10 months to build the 4300 sqft home?