BEFORE THE ARCHITECT – HOME DESIGN GUIDE, HOME BUILDING GUIDE
HOME BUILDING BOOK REVIEWS AND
SUGGESTED READING
Butthead or none at all ? . . .
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ow bad is it out there on job sites across the fruited plain? Glad you asked. It is this bad. Last year, a client put our house plans to bid - about 20,000 square feet, 3 levels, 3 kitchens and a kitchenette, lotsa beds and baths, etc., etc., etc. - to a few high-end general residential contractors in a major metropolitan area. One bidder begged our client to reduce all fractional measurements to 1/2 linear inch, because his undocumented aliens had real trouble working with any other fractions. That's how bad it is out there. Before The Architect
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There are lots less of these entries than in this site's companion piece on home design book reviews. This home designer thinks it's because there are not that many good books out there on home building. You want to know some about Victorian Stick Style; you get a few books and work it out. You want to know about building a home; you get a library of life's work. It's not about the house; it's about all the real pieces of things and their physical interrelationships. The mind can round out an idea; the mind cannot round out onsite forces of nature and physics. Monographs on selected, narrow topics? Yep, plenty. The Web is chock full of 'em and, if you're careful about it, you can learn a lot from 'em.
Home design's no different, in that experience rules; however, the exercise is largely intellectual. Sure, you set the window high to a glaring, southerly direction, set a door where it should never have gone, and so forth, and you'll learn more and more about why home design counts. But you learn most of that by building the bad design and then living with it or . . . more likely as the home builder . . . demo and do-over. With home building, doing matters as much or more than understanding from a book or disc. This home designer thinks that you've got to grab the wrong wire, shatter that last tile, deeply scratch the floor, listen all night to the dormer window leak, order a homeful of the wrong doors, and so forth, in order to get it right(er) about home building.
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Home building design book reviews:
“Attaching Deck by Chery Anderson, Frank Woeste and Joe
Loferski, Practical Engineering, August 2003, pp. 81-87, along with .
. . . . . . “Deck Ledger Connection Design” by Joseph R. Loferski, Frank
E. Woeste, P.E., and Mary A. Billings, May-June 2004; Professional
Deck Builder Magazine, 7 pages.
. . . . . . .
For those
bold enough to specify or check the specifications of others in re rafter and
joist spans, here’s a reference the likes of which the AG’s not ever seen
before. Proceed at your own risk.
http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/calc/timbercalcstyle.asp
. . . . . . .
This is only
for those more than passingly interested in the nitty-gritty on electrical
circuit breaker
application options: “Circuit Protection: Avoiding the Common
Mistakes." Circuit protection is not difficult, but it is crucial to patient
care” by Ken Cybart, http://www.devicelink.com/mddi/archive/03/11/009.html
. . . . . . .
Let’s add one
more to the short list of gotta-have references for design and drafting:
CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLES, MATERIAL, AND METHODS , by H. Leslie Simmons , previous
Editions Developed by Harold B. Olin, John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
. . . . . . .
The Journal
of Light Construction, Hanley-Wood publishers. Of note, AG is known to
spend bigtime in the online archives. Their articles are way better than their
billing and customer service.
. . . . . . .
For
time-tested drainage guidance, Russell H. Lanoie knows his very respectable,
no-nonsense trade and tells it straight at a most remarkable website right here
at
http://www.ruralhometech.com/fr/main.php
. . . . . . .
“Position of
Underlayment to Prevent Cracked Tile and Grout” by Frank Woeste, P.E. and
Peter A. Nielsen, June 2004; TileLetter, pp.38ff.
. . . . . . .
For those who
take architectural drawing seriously: The Professional Practice of
Architectural Working Drawings, Third Edition by Osamu A. Wakita and Richard
M. Linde, John Wiley & Sons, 2003.
. . . . . . .
Residential
Structure and Framing: Practical Engineering and Advanced Framing Techniques
for Builders, from the Editors of The Journal of Light Construction,
Hanley-Wood, LLC, 1999-2001. Broadly useful.
. . . . . . .
Residential
Structural Design Guide: 2000 Edition (February 2000, 434p.).
http://www.huduser.org/publications/destech/residential.html
. . . . . . .
Solving six
common framing problems: quality construction requires addressing these trouble
spots, David A. Utterback, Contributing Editor.
http://www.housingzone.com/article/CA462902.html?text=solving+six+common
. . . can be a toughie to find.
. . . . . . .
To get
serious about residential framing with steel when you know that you don’t know
what you’re talking about, study Steel by Tim Waite in conjunction with
the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Craftsman Book Company, 2nd
printing 2002, 318 pp. (If you don’t know that you don’t know what you’re
talking about residential framing with steel, you will.)
. . . . . . .
Likely, this
text was the single most useful day-to-day reference when the AG and the Missus
built and contracted. It doesn’t break the eternal truth that “nobody knows
everything about something”, but it just might make it over the top with that
truth’s mate, “nobody knows something about everything” when it comes to
building and remodeling a residence.
The Visual Handbook of Building and
Remodeling:
The only guide to choosing the right
materials and systems for every part of your home by Charlie Wing;
Reader's Digest Association, Revised &Updated edition (June 1, 1998).
(The copy we’ve got now is a 1990 edition, not published by Reader’s Digest.)
. . . . . . .
Why Buildings
Fall Down: How Structures Fail by Matthys Levy and Mario Salvadori, W.W.
Norton & Co., 1992 & 2002.
. . . . . . .
Wood-Framed
Shear Wall Construction: An Illustrated Guide by Thor Matteson, Structural
Engineer, International Code Council, Inc., 2004. For designers and builders,
this is a gotta-have in your reference library and a gotta-read and study in
your professional life.
. . . . . . .
“Wood-Plastic
Composite Decks” by Robert Tichy, Donald Bender, and Frank E. Woeste,
Building Safety Journal, June 2003, pp. 38-40. Gotta keep up with the
times.
. . . . . . .
How about
stamped concrete from the stamped concrete king of the hill? Guide to
Stamped Concrete by Bob Harris, Decorative Concrete Institute, Inc. and
ConcreteNetwork.com, Inc. 2004; Guide to Stained Concrete Interior Floors
by Bob Harris, Decorative Concrete Institute, Inc. and ConcreteNetwork.com, Inc.
2004; Guide to Concrete Overlays & Toppings by Bob Harris, Decorative
Concrete Institute, Inc. and ConcreteNetwork.com, Inc. 2005. Do not go
quickly into stamping and staining.
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