Can you legally turn a commercial shed into a house?
 

Is anything really illegal if you live where there aren't building restrictions?

You could just put up a tent. Are there building restrictions if there’s no buildings? Housing laws shouldn’t apply if you’re camping right?

Alternatively there’s
https://www.trulia.com/p/az/show-low...01--2426014712
With features like, a bathroom.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1582777357
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1582777349
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1582777355
My phone wouldn't charge when I came home from this trip, so I set up my third Samsung Galaxy S6, and just got back on this one for long enough to upload the pictures, but I really needed to upload them to the cloud or crop them before uploading them here.

What is this, a JPEG for ants?

I mentioned this two-story shed in my shavingcrete thread. I was excited that 512 square feet were on sale for potentially less than $7,000 [before tax]. However, would this even have 2x4 construction?

This guy looks inside a similar shed. I do not know how similar, this guy really does not give any information. The fourth-highest comment was: The two-story shed is at 4:20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iX8xscCA5s?t=260
He commented that the walls were not 16 inches on-center. I took a screenshot and estimated that they were 21". I do not know how accurate that was, but about 1/3 off?

They look like 2x4s. I do not know that 2x3s would support their own weight.

So, I worked both jobs, caught up on updates, and wondered about converting a shed into a home. This family bought a 16x48 shed from another company, spent a year and five months finishing it, and released dozens of videos about it. It is still a work in progress, but it looks nice. Do you count lofts when calculating square footage? This is 768 square feet otherwise.

He said that you need to choose a county without building restrictions and live outside the city [because it has its own regulations].

I do not know how to tell if a property is within the city limits or how much it would cost to connect utilities. Ask a realtor? Call me crazy, but I really like the idea of cheap and easy utility connections. Why would I intentionally have a septic tank?

It can cost so much to connect electricity that people say "I might as well go solar!"

Sure, if you only want electricity during the day and fair weather.

If you give them an e-mail address they will give you their expense report. In a video he said to plan for an extra 10% cost, but he budgeted for $75,591.04, and it actually cost $94,494.92, so it was a full 25% more expensive than they planned. It cost $18,414.43 just to connect septic, electric, water, propane, and the Internet. The $94,000 included front and back decks, which were $11,279.73.

I tried to purchase a three-bedroom townhouse in 2012 for $94,500. The property was only about 800 square feet, but it was 1,200 square feet. However, it is now worth $162,256.

Here is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,600-square-foot fixer-upper in-town on 2.3 acres for $85,000.

Can you fix it up for $10,000?

I highly doubt it. I really like what this family did, but it looks like I lost another couple of hours to another distraction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDyFZqHQLgM

What if I want to live somewhere year-round?
Oh yes, I rage-quit their videos when he said not to pay your debt with the highest interest first, to pay the smallest amount first.

That only makes sense if your feelings are more important than reality.

Had I watched that video earlier I would have stopped wasting my time sooner!

For square footage to be counted it has to be heated and have a minimum hight of 74 inches. Local codes may vary.

$7,000 for that is way, way over priced.
I built a big shed like that in 2007. I think the total was $1,700.
For $7,000 you should be able to build it from 2x6, spray foam insulation, premium inverter split, kitchen, bathroom, ect.

If it's legal to live naked in your own feces on the sidewalk, anything should go.

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
 

Or something.
https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...3&d=1582786372
I thought that it would be nice, but potentially weird, to buy my niece flowers for Valentine's Day, so I asked permission. Our sister told me to buy flowers for my nephews, too.

I am not buying boys flowers.

The mom said that they would prefer candy, so I ordered them some, while I found the best deal for flowers.

The best deal for flowers was having my sister pick up some, but I asked her twice, and she ignored me. Sure, she doesn't like me, but why did she make it difficult to do something nice for her little princess?

I bought this box of Chocolates on the fifteenth and tried to find the time to drive down and spend time with my niece. I asked my brother if he wanted some day-old Valentine's baked goods, but he took me back to get him a box of chocolates, which sat on the counter for a week or two, and then he ate the entire box before we realized that he opened it.

While I was distracted wondering if I had finally figured out a good way to get an inexpensive home my brother found the box that I had bought for my niece and, as you saw, ate half of it.

One of my clients is a girl scout and the mom recently told me that they would be set up in front of Walmart, so I took my brother to meet them, and bought him four boxes.

He has repeatedly eaten stuff that Mom has hidden in her car and he has gotten stuff out of mine, but so far that has been limited to suitcases and stuff. If he realized that I had a 13" television in my trunk he would put it back in my room, but apparently my trunk is a no-box when it comes to my brother. I should have put the candies in there, but I am going to send my brother's boxes of Girl Scout cookies to my niece, and take pictures, so my brother knows.

Yes, you can even get an engineer to draw up building plans and (in some jurisdictions) permit one of these "portable barn cabins" for recreational (=part time/cabin with plumbing) or in some cases residential. It depends on your county/city, check with the planning department. The reputable companies such as old hickory sheds, sundance, and graceland portable buildings are typically built using conventional stud spacing, and can even be ordered 2x6 construction. As mentioned the materials cost would be lower if you built it yourself in most or all cases, so it's not going to be the absolute cheapest, but might make sense in some cases

the 14x40 is an interesting size- with porch, extra tall walls, lp smart siding, we priced one 11-12k in our area

In this area this would be considered a garage and a house must be on property before you can build a garage. (And there are better/cheaper “garages” for conversion)

I’ve argued unsuccessfully several times that it’s not being assembled and is just dropped on site complete. They could care less that these buildings are bigger better than 90% of the homes here or that I plan on upfitting it into a house.

In effect, the mayor, his brother and their friends need $40,000 of approvals to build here, sadly that is how most areas are, it’s not about something being sound and well thought out it’s about money.

What garages would be better and cheaper?

.

One of these would probably be a better option. Better quality, not very expensive and easy to build. They have shed and home kits.

https://www.ezlogstructures.com/products/


Or build a 2 car garage with a apartment above. That way you could have a place to live, storage for personal things and a place to keep or work on a car.

Then, if and when you build a house later on the lot, you can rent the apartment to offset the mortgage. Or just have some nice added income $$$.

However, as rmay635703 has already posted, some municipalities don’t allow it. :(


>

This is their only 2-car garage. It is $20,769 plus shipping. This is one of their larger homes, 1,767 square feet and two stories, but without a staircase. That is extra. It comes with "a retractable pull down loft ladder." Right now it is on sale for $42,999. They say that it is usually $65,725.

They do not use drywall, they have wood boards inside.

They also offer an extra insulation kit for 10% more. The walls are R12, the kit adds R13, but they say that makes R27.

Right.

Math.

I did not see any homes with an attached garage.

.

Do you need that much sq. footage?


Many other companies offer garage apartment kits or plans.

Examples.

Plans

https://www.thehousedesigners.com/garage-plans/


Kit

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Barn-Pro...iABEgKmWfD_BwE


Amish - built on your lot. (probably no Amish around your local though)

https://www.ebay.com/i/132116343311?...algv%3DDefault


Plans

https://www.ebay.com/i/193012453795?...iABEgKEh_D_BwE


Google search

https://www.google.com/search?q=2+ca...w=1024&bih=666



>

IIRC square footage excludes cabinets and built-in beds, etc.
The question is tautalogical. What is the purpose of this thread?

I should finalize my Cyberhaus plan. I can post it here, but I know someone who knows Elon Musk and I want to get it in front of him.

Do I need as much square footage as what? The 512-square-foot shed? Or the 1,767 square-foot home? :)

The first plan is weird. One bedroom and one bath, but a three-car garage? :)

I wonder what "Five sets" and "Eight sets" mean. The plans are several hundred dollars.

Another one is one-bedroom, one-bath, and five garages! :)

The Home Depot kit looks cool, but it is just a garage and a loft. How much would it cost to have a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom designed? Would my Veteran's discount apply to the $34,499 cost? :)

I like the Amish home over the two-car garage, but free shipping only applies within 100 miles of their ZIP code. They charge extra within another 200 miles, but then "WE DO NOT DELIVER OUTSIDE OF A 300 MILE RADIUS FROM 19310."

The Easy Log Structures that you shared earlier have a Chicago 6, a zero bedroom, but has a loft. Apparently lofts do not count, it says 259 square feet, plus a lofted area of 127 square feet. It is 13'9" x 18'10", which sure seems too big for Mom's backyard, but if I just had an office I could get more work done, although an office and storage would be great.

I chose that one specifically because it was on sale and had free shipping. :) They have an Omaha, which is $12,056 for 205 square feet. They say they will make modifications for free as long as they do not require additional material. It is 16'9" x 13'5". If it were 16'4" x 13'5" [5" shorter" it would be an even 200 square feet, and not require a permit, but I am confident that offices are more useful with electricity. :)

I like that one because most of the roof is one angle. If I had it face the other shed and apple trees instead of the house, most of the roof would face the sun.

It would be silly to have a one-car garage in the backyard. I once parked my Civic back there, but I folded in my mirrors first. However, Mom's shed has two big doors, so it would work for moving large items in and out. Garage A is 10'6" x 18.7' for $7,578.

Their London 2 has double doors and is $4,082 for 138 square feet.

These may be overpriced compared to building from scratch, but this should be much more difficult to mess up. :)

Those plans are interesting, a two-car garage with a bathroom and patio on the first floor, and then "bonus space" above the size of the garage and patio.

I wish that there were more specifics.

Interesting stuff. The log cabins are interesting. They are not what I would expect from that term, but they look vastly easier to assemble than the alternatives. Don't like Lincoln Log interior walls? Just nail drywall to it! :)

.

Municipalities require multiple sets of plans so they can handout a copy to every department and inspector. They usually require a digital copy (more $$$) also to keep on file.


Garage apartments need not be limited to the upper floor.

You could after inspection, choose to use the lower floor not as a garage but as actual living space.

Just keep the doors shut... ;)



As it has been said many times before.

There is more than one way to skin a cat...

One just need to think outside the box.



:turtle:

>

Menards about 5 years ago used to list a $9999
4.5 car garage with a side entry door that looked “house like” it was tall with the roof having dormers and windows.

I planned (based on its height and dimensions) to place it on a floating slab with a 3 foot cement block wall, this elevation in height would allow me to wall off one side, dormer one garage door and end up with a 2 story.

Despite everything being laid out in plans and passing code the town would refuse to look at it claiming no matter what anything starting as a garage could never be allowed to start.

This despite the concept being larger than most local homes and being designed per code.

Slab and all would have been under $20k, the lot I was looking at was only $500


Sadly Menards lists a lot of random local 3rd party products, don’t even remember who was offering that prefab.
I can’t imagine inflation making a simple stick built square costing much more today.

Did you present garage plans or new ones for a house, modified from the old ones?

I watched a number of this guy's other videos and decided to watch some more about making your own shed. This guy's four-hour behemoth was a top result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLk_CAMmQPc&t=12662s
He does not give a materials list, parts estimate, and I am unsure that he said how long it took.

This would be a game changer for DIY stick-built:

Inkjet Printed Studs? This is a Framing Innovation

Hey everyone! The guy who cannot remodel a house if he is in charge is excited by bundles of sticks!

Labeling parts is cool, but for how long have we been assembling furniture based on a diagram?

You've drunk that Meet Kevin guy's Kool-aid.

His videos that hit Youtube's main page have him being sued or losing $1M. How authoritative is he?

Also, I've done rough framing. The nailing isn't rocket surgery but cutting the pieces is. I worked for a roofing truss company (this century) that used lasers to light up where the individual pieces should go on the assembly table. Before they added the gang-nail gusset plates.

Meet Kevin is not a suicide cult leader. Your reference failed.

He calls out people richer than him and they sue him. Big deal.

He tried and failed, but you are a better man for sitting on your laurels?

Meanwhile, Matt Risinger is six months into his remodel and just demolished half of the house. Explain that!

For those of us not just randomly posting solely for the sake of hitting 15,000 messages, the one car garage is appealing more and more.

Imagine if I built an inspection pit! :D

I got exhausted just reading about installing pits. Popular opinion is that jacks and stands are better.

*Hadn't noticed, wasn't counting.

Every house built since Bucky Fuller put the Hexa-Pent Dome engineering plans in the public domain via Popular Science magazine has been sub-optimal.

If you lived in an hemisphere with an oculus your life would be most optimal. I know, I've done it. Today I have to settle for a beveled box with 14" skylights.

Before 15K I will show the Cyberhouse design. Promise. (25 messages to go)

If Kevin were underwater, I doubt he would say so.

I do not think that most people would volunteer that information, especially if they want people to watch their videos and purchase their courses, but he also has a video about reporting a loss to the IRS, but buying six houses that year. He has another video about his ten income sources.

I doubt that he would hide extravagant spending. Millions of people spend to show off. Working as a realtor, posting videos on YouTube, selling courses, YouTube ad revenue, and everything else. He has a Model S and a bunch of big monitors in his office, but most of the times that he shows us projects he tells us that he spent X, but it raised the home value by Y.

I question everything about the homebuilding industry. It boggles my mind why most homes are a bespoke work rather than built from a large number of existing plans. Then, why are we still cutting lumber and nailing it together? There's got to be a better way were either the frame is printed on site, or the materials are all precisely measured and cut at a factory, and then Ikea assembled on site.

Then all windows are custom rather than standard sized, probably because all framing is custom rather than prefabed.

Roofing is a dangerous and backbreaking job that repeats the same thing over and over again. Isn't that why we invent machines?

All of my comments are coming from a profound ignorance of homebuilding, but why are building structures among the only things we haven't streamlined?

That's a huge improvement for the reasons given above. Furniture assembly by diagram is a more recent development from furniture construction by craftsman. It puts very useful and reasonably attractive furniture into the hands of ordinary consumers rather than it being only for those wealthy people that can afford to hire a craftsman.

Most of those prefabricated sheds look better than what I have already seen in some Brazilian slums.

They are nicer than where I lived in Afghanistan.

Some of those prefabricated sheds actually do look good. I would be OK living in one in a lot instead of living in an apartment as I currently do.

In the 1920s Bucky Fuller talked about having a car handbuilt in the driveway as an analogy. His Dymaxion bathroom and houses were his response.

I built and operated Oregon Dome's first factory in 1980. Flat-panel kits that went up in one day. The forms were built to 1/64th" and the pieces were cut to 1/32nd". Across a 40ft circle they were accurate to 1/8th".

I worked for two roofing truss companies 40 years apart. There was quite a difference, I mentioned the laser patterns, but I was an estimator and used CAD software that automated layouts. I don't like engineered trusses though, they create unusable space.

I completed a 3D model of the cyberhouse and emailed it off. There're others who will see it first, but I should be able to meet my self-imposed 24-post deadline.

It seems they can make trusses that leave usable space, but they cost more: https://www.askthebuilder.com/roof-t...e-bonus-space/

Does this post mean anything? Thinking about building a geodesic dome? Don't.

It is after 03! Why am I still awake?!

I believe that we discussed 3d-printed homes before. I ran across a video, watched a few more on the subject, and this has as much information as any of them--not nearly enough. Does this meet building codes for anywhere in the U.S. [with regulations]? How much does it cost? When can I get one? How are these earthquake and tropical-storm resistant?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVUlbpZS0Rc
I previously found some videos that sounded like they were supposed to show people building sheds, but they just bought one from Home Depot. In one series of a half-dozen videos, Home Depot gave a girl a shed kit and other supplies, and she built it with her dad.

It was the hardest thing that she ever did!

A glorified dog house?!

I feel like building one from scratch and just saying "I enjoyed it."

However, I would feel obligated to keep a list of things that went wrong.

Undoubtedly, that would be a long list.

I like these videos. This carpenter in Norway started building small sheds and he can assemble one in two hours, although he hardly gives any other information. He said that business was slow until he started making these sheds and I believe that he said this was his most popular product.

They fit in his van, which makes delivery easy.

All that he says is they are about 30 square feet, but like Kevin's list of cheap home improvements, maybe this is something that I could do to earn money:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSq1GS7gtCYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUyd...ature=youtu.be

Those exist. They're called attic trusses or something. Can't provide as big a space as the raftered attic in the picture. The slanted ceiling part is [more] limited.
Anecdotal. Paint isn't a roofing material. An engineer isn't an architect. No oculus = no ventilation.

I've actually seen one worse example. It's gone now too.

Have you looked into tiny houses? They have the same idea of skirting around zoning. They're also generally DIY and have to deal with issues like getting utilities to remote land (it's not cheap).

There are plenty of people telling how they built their tiny house ridiculously cheaply, but they got all or almost all of their materials for free. They really like using pallets for siding. There is one for free in my area. How far will that get me? :)

I searched for free pallets in my ZIP and just found some webpages telling me contradictory things like "It is pointless to check supermarkets for free pallets, they always have pallet recycling programs" and "Check your local supermarkets!"

Another page said that pallets used to transport food often have food spills, which invite mold.

If one wanted pallets, they might as well try to find some for free, but as popular as pallet crafts appear on Pinterest, plus people up here burning them for heat, I wonder how many I would find.

Okay. Let's say that you find so many pallets that you can use them for the exterior and interior walls, floor, ceiling, and roof, where do you get 2x4s cheaply?

I did not find anything, but I did not spend hours looking, like I did for pallets.

Someone on reddit said to find companies that do stone cabinets, they go through tons of crates made with good wood. Someone else said that dismantling crates is too labor-intensive.

One of those other pages said that it is often worth paying for them instead of scavenging. Someone mentioned all the time and energy involved in dismantling them.

Here is a twelve-minute video of a guy dismantling a pallet using a four-pound sledge hammer, a claw hammer, and scrap wood. Seriously, that is it! I watched other videos and they seemed to take much more time and used special tools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMcyXes7MPg

I was trying to wrap up this mess and do something productive--or fun--and was closing down the rest of the tabs that I had opened when I saw Izzy Swan's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkKFGIjPSvI
He made a tool out of wood and dismantled a pallet in 2.5 minutes, but how long does it take to remove the nails?

If it takes ninety seconds to remove the nails then this is three times as fast as the other video.

That changes things, but as much as I love saving old things, there is definitely an argument for purchasing new materials and saving a ridiculous amount of time.

So, five pallets in one hour and lots of exercise. This guy waited for his wife to take a nap to start hammering pallets apart. He mentioned wearing a mask "since pallet sawdust isn’t thought to be part of a healthy diet." I think that it took him an hour and a half to dismantle one pallet and then he gave up, bought new wood, and "Distressed it." https://www.younghouselove.com/how-m...odchuck-chuck/

I never understand that, like buying jeans that look like they should have been thrown away.

This post says "It takes about 7 or 8 pallet boards to get 10 square feet."

Seriously?! Let's say that you have a 10' cube with doors and shutters made from pallet wood. If we say 9'8" it would (more or less) average out to 10'.

That is 560.67 square feet for the interior and 533.89 square feet for the roof and exterior walls. That totals 1,094.56 square feet. At 7.5 pallets per 10 square feet, it would require 821 pallets!

If you dismantle five pallets an hour it would take 164 hours or four forty-hour weeks and four hours. [Or fifty-five hours with Izzy Swan's method]

I suddenly cannot find tiny houses built with pallet wood siding--just tiny houses built out of whole pallets, like this, made from "just" 80 pallets (100. Why does everyone lie?!): https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1583098660
No windows, doors, or insulation.

Five people working full-time for a week for this?

"To find free pallets, a quick internet search should bring up anything you need."

I have been looking for two and a half hours!

I have used both my drill and my electric screwdriver more than that and I am confident that Dad's drill has seen a great deal of use.

I screwed together a fence for the back yard. It took forever! :)

Seriously?!

I found a dozen pallet companies in Phoenix and none of them post current prices. Do they fluctuate that badly?

Alibaba shows bulk pallets for about $5 each, although I do not have any idea how much shipping would be. Eighty, like you supposedly need for that weird shack, would cost $400, but it actually says 100, so $500.

If you made the 10' cube requiring 821 pallets it would cost $4,105 for 100 square feet.

This post says: "Pallet Prices for B Grade Recycled Wood Pallets - $5.00 - $7.00."

Instead of getting volunteers to repurpose used materials, would it make more sense to get volunteers for a fund raiser to buy new materials, if either way the materials are used for charity? :)

How bad is it that pallets go to the dump, at least if they are heat-treated?

[What are you supposed to do with chemically-treated pallets anyway?]

Apartment-over-garage kits would not pass regulations
 

The manufacturer stated:
Other people commented that carbon monoxide and fire would easily travel from the garage to the loft.

I had figured that I would need to have an architect modify the plans to include plumbing and electricity, but it sounds like far more would be required.

That's why there is 5/8 firewall sheetrock, the corners and seams are taped.

Most jurisdictions have an option for owner designed/built housing using an ICBO cheat sheet listing minimum materials.second floor additions self engineered are really overbuilt.

I have done some owner occupied design and building. Pissy part was forgetting to bribe the inspector.

The kits that I saw are mostly just hundreds of wooden boards, assembled like Lincoln Logs. The pictures of the interior and exterior just show these boards.
Installing drywall should not be a problem, but the boards slowly shrink over the first year, settling a couple of inches per floor.
How would you install drywall before it finished settling? :)
Any place requiring 2x6 construction would prohibit this, they are 2.5x4.5. 3x5s? :)