U.S. carpentry for a non-U.S. resident ( Help !)

[olivier]

hello, i plan to build a small house ( 30fx30ft ), only in wood and only use the US carpentry way-of-making. but my only source for informations is the TV show " extreme makeover home edition" ( and this really make me and my friends ask us a lots of questions ) i want to build simple, efficent and fast. so, i have some questions : when you have a wall in 2 parts how are they joint together ?

are the outside of a wall in plywood or osb or something else, do you use a special kind of osb ?

i plan to use chesnut on the outside of the wall, what thickness is good for shingles ?

are all the parts of the "frame" of the walls jointed by metallic plate ?

how are the angle of the walls made ? you join 2 wall at 90° ? you nails the walls on a big wood ?

Are you nailing everything or you use screw sometimes ?

what kind of nails do you use ? ( i'm not using so much nails in carpentry )

How are the wall of the 2nd floor fixed to the top of the first floor ?

where can i find a document with the rules of US construction ( like, the minimal sixe of wood for a wood , the fixtures ... )

and the last for fun : you never use wood for firing your bbq ?

i have many more questions, but it would be long ....

thanks,

oliver.

[BobS]

Oliver,

Try this link as a starter

use Google and the search phrase - How to build a house.

That should keep you busy for awhile....

Bob S.

[olivier]

BobS a écrit :

thanks Bob, i'm planning some other questions, howstuffworks is great ( i'm like a child, i understand better with pictures ) for me , that's totally different from the way i use ..... ( concrete or stone, we don't build in wood )

i will ask a few more questions, but, right now, it's 3 in the morning.

thanks again.

oliver

[DonkeyHody]

Oliver, What you need is a good book. I have an earlier edition of this one.

is intended as a student's textbook. It's almost a thousand pages, with many, many photos and diagrams. It will lead you through the entire construction sequence and answer your questions. I highly recommend it for anyone about to undertake building anything bigger than a dog house. I don't make money if you buy it, I just think it will help you.

DonkeyHody "The best things in life . . . aren't things."

[The Davenport's]

> It is intended as a student's textbook. It's almost a thousand pages,

I don't have the book, but I did drool on it for a while at a friends...actually, it's a pretty good book to have even if ALL you are going to build is a doghouse...you never know when you might upset SWMBO and you have to sleep it it!

Mike

[olivier]

The Davenport's a écrit :

>>> It is intended as a student's textbook. It's almost a thousand pages,

i don't know what is a standard sizing for an U.S. room or house. for me a room is 4 by 3 meters ( 13 by 10 ft )....

and i don't really plan to buy a book at amazon or barnes&noble, overseas shipping fees are sometimes as expensive as the price of the book....

oliver

[Greg Neill]

You're going to build a house and you shy away from the=20 cost of obtaining a book on the subject? The cost of your first contstruction error will be far greater.

[J. Clarke]

You're basically asking someone to teach you a carpentry course via USENET. Not gonna happen. Too much information and without illustrations too easy to get misled. And that assumes that anybody actually has the time to do it.

You need a good book on US building practices--one has been suggested. You objected on the basis of cost. I don't know how materials prices run where you are but around here if it saves screwing up three sheets of plywood then it's paid for itself.

You should also have a copy of the International Residential Code, which is used in much of the US--you can purchase it for download from

The code is not a substitute for a carpentry book, but it's generally the final arbiter on what fastener to use or what size lumber to use.

[Phil Again]

{snip}

{snip}

I agree! Get books.

I have lived in 8 states, and in each state there were county building codes and enforced at the county level. You want to build a house where people will actually live in...you need a building permit from ether the county or city local government. Some of the questions the OP asked will need to be answered before the county issues the permit.

When I lived in Pennsylvania, the only way to get the county to rubber stamp a building permit was to have the building plans submitted by a registered Architect. Otherwise, it would be a long slug through the mud of bureaucracy before the plans would be approved.

And before you will be issued an "occupancy" permit on the new building, the building needs to be inspected. and maybe re-inspected.

Oh, and if you don't get all the permits and inspections, yes, the county can make you tear it down, or the county will tear it down for you, and sue you to pay for the tear down.

BTW: in some counties, if your foundation is off by as much as 3/4 of an inch from the plans you submitted to the county, you could be made to re- do the foundation.

Phil

[J. Clarke]

Remember, he's outside the US, so the rules are likely to be different. Codes per se may not apply.

[Phil Again]

WOW! I missed that part completely. After your post I re-read the original, and it still took me a couple of tries to realize Olivier was talking about being outside the USA.

Olivier, Can you let us know what country you live in? Makes a difference if you are subject to Hurricane damage, or 1.5 meters of snow on the roof.

Phil

[Charlie Self]

I hope he has good luck finding chestnut for the exterior, too.

[Fred the Red Shirt]

I suggest wormy chestnut. It will add a certain Je ne sais merde to the project.

[DonkeyHody]

There is no standard sizing for U.S. room or house. We have regulations that require minimum clearances for safe access etc. We have many regulations relating to fire safety and electrical safety. We have standard heights for countertops and sinks doorknobs and light switches, but people feel free to adjust to suit their personal stature. But there is no standard size room or standard size house.

DonkeyHody "The lessons I remember best are the ones I learned the hard way."

[olivier]

wormy chesnut ???? what is it ? it will add a certain je ne sais merde for sure, if the worms don't move too fast ...

i'm not subject to hurricane damage, and not more than 0.8 meters of the snow....

i love your " je ne sais merde " and " merde " now , you know where i'm living.

Fred the Red Shirt a écrit :

[olivier]

what i'm doing :

try to understand the " how and why " the USA are using a different way of carpentry, i'm also searching to do something, nice and fast. olivier

[Fred the Red Shirt]

Or rather I know where you are coming from...

[Fred the Red Shirt]

As you may know the American chestnuts were almost entirely wiped out by blight (fungus) early in the 20th century. Some kind of insect or other borer made holes in a lot of the wood, though it was not the reason for the high mortality. That wood, with the holes, is wormy chestnut.

As you may know, there is no commercial source for virgin American chestnut. Chestnut is only available as recycled, antique lumber, the wormy sort is more expensive than others.

Thus, using it for siding would add a bit of the aformentioned Je ne said mot de Cambronne, to the project.

[Tanus]

Maybe overseas shipping is a killer, Oliver, but the scope and breadth of information that you need far exceeds what can be answered in a newsgroup. Simply the rules followed for stud framing (wall structures) would be enough to fill one book and there's no way you'll get that kind of info here.

If you can't get a book from online retailers, try some other means. You can get specific answerss here or in other NGs, but you really need proper documentation.

Tanus