• Design and installation techniques, tips, and shortcuts used by professionals• Provides step-by-step instructions, timeframe for completing plus skills and materials lists
• "Wisdom of the Aisles" on every page guarantees success
• Details how to design, layout, maintain, and work with a variety of materials in building patios and walkways
• Features walkways using soft set paths, hard bed paths, brick and paver patterns, and boardwalks
Designing Your Dream Home gives you every question to ask, every detail to consider, and everything to check out before you design and build your dream home.
Designing and building a home can be stressful and expensive, but knowing what to consider ahead of time will save you stress, time, and money. Beginning with the questions to ask before you purchase land all the way through your final punch list, this guide addresses the entire process. With this step-by-step and room-by-room guide, the design process will come together in the most efficient way possible. Features include detailed checklists for every room, common mistakes to avoid, design details that pay big dividends, and unique "lifestyle questions" that reveal what you really need and want from your new home. Remodelers and renovators will also find value in these tips and suggestions. Also provided is such vital information as terms, symbols, abbreviations, measures, and dimensions that are often unfamiliar to the layperson.
As energy costs rise, more and more companies are looking to create green offices buildings ones that use resources efficiently while simultaneously creating healthier working environments. The energy use statistics are staggering: The heating, cooling, and powering of offices accounts for 40 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States and are responsible for more than 70 percent of the country s total electricity usage. Office computers consume $1 billion of electricity annually. Moreover, recent surveys demonstrate that employees are fed up with their companies energy-wasting ways: One-third of workers are more inclined to work for a company that is going green, and approximately 50 percent want their employers to be more environmentally friendly. How can you attract workers and reduce your costs at the same time? By going green; the tips in How to Design and Build a Green Office Building will show you how. In this book, you will learn how to protect the building occupants health, how to improve employee productivity, how to use resources more efficiently, how to reduce your impact on the environment, how to select a site for a new building, how to protect and maintain the current landscape, how to use recycled content, how to use natural lighting, how to install high-efficiency lighting systems, how to select heating and cooling systems, how to select materials, and how to use dimensional planning and material efficiency strategies. You will also learn everything you need to know about water savings, energy efficiency, environmentally-friendly building materials, indoor environmental quality, building shape and orientation, alternative energy sources, dual plumbing, green building guidelines, gray water systems, water-conserving fixtures, the costs and financial benefits of building green, foundations, floors, and roofing. In addition, How to Design and Build a Green Office Building provides you with thousands of low or no cost ways to make your office more environmentally friendly. Whether you are building a brand new building, remodeling an existing one, or even just looking to make small changes that will have a big impact, you need to read this book. Employing the techniques in this book will ultimately save you money, increase your productivity, and attract more employees.
Build your dream house without getting a headache!
From selecting the property and meeting with an architect through resale considerations and construction, So You Want to Build a House walks you through every step of the building process painlessly, on-time, and on-budget.
Appealing to enthusiasts and beginners alike, this series offers detailed information on planning, costing and constructing for specific DIY tasks. This text is an illustrated guide to building your own outdoor structures in brick, with information on tools and equipment, plus advice from professional bricklayers. It shows how to lay basic brickwork including corners, openings and lintels, throwing a foundation, screeding and plastering, and includes information on fitting doors and basic roof structures.Price: $9.95
Build your dream house without getting a headache!
From selecting the property and meeting with an architect through resale considerations and construction, So You Want to Build a House walks you through every step of the building process painlessly, on-time, and on-budget.
Price: $19.95
Wow! If you’ve got the time and inclination, there isn’t anything that cannot be automated in your home. This one-stop resource shows you step-by-step how to plan and install smart home systems using clear step-by-step instructions and illustrations. Discover projects for automating entertainment systems, home security systems, utilities and more.Price: $29.99
Grid beam is a modular, reusable building system that is fast, easy, affordable, and virtually goof-proof. Ordinary people with few skills and even fewer tools (all you need is a wrench!) can tackle projects ranging from furniture and shop benches to more ambitious projects like wind turbines, truck racks, small buildings—even electric vehicles.
Grid beam’s modular pieces and bolt-together construction make the system fast and straightforward to work with. It has all the advantages of an industrial building system: standard, modular sizes; uniform materials; and interchangeable parts. Projects knock flat and are easy to transport. Since the pieces can be used over and over again, grid beam is easy both on your wallet and on the environment—the authors have been using some of their components for over thirty years.
How to Build with Grid Beam includes hundreds of photos of real projects built over a sixty-year period, showing the many uses of grid beam, from shelves for college students to projects involving alternative energy. The versatility of grid beam is inspiring for beginners, more experienced do-it- yourselfers, and innovators who will develop their own designs. Even school-age children can use grid beam to build simple projects.
Phil Jergenson is an innovator who built the first grid beam vehicle.
Richard Jergenson built his first grid beam project in 1977.
Wilma Keppel is a writer and editor who is also a welder, carpenter, and grid beam builder.
Price: $29.95
• Design and installation techniques, tips, and shortcuts used by professionals• Provides step-by-step instructions, timeframe for completing plus skills and materials lists
• "Wisdom of the Aisles" on every page guarantees success
• Details how to design, layout, maintain, and work with a variety of materials in building patios and walkways
• Features walkways using soft set paths, hard bed paths, brick and paver patterns, and boardwalks
Price: $24.95
An earth-sheltered, earth-roofed home has the least impact upon the land of all housing styles, leaving almost zero footprint on the planet.
Earth-Sheltered Houses is a practical guide for those who want to build their own underground home at moderate cost. It describes the benefits of sheltering a home with earth, including the added comfort and energy efficiency from the moderating influence of the earth on the home’s temperature (keeping it warm in the winter and cool in the summer), along with the benefits of low maintenance and the protection against fire, sound, earthquake, and storm afforded by the earth. Extra benefits from adding an earth or other living roof option include greater longevity of the roof substrate, fine aesthetics, and environmental harmony.
The book covers all of the various construction techniques involved, including details on planning, excavation, footings, floor, walls, framing, roofing, waterproofing, insulation, and drainage. Specific methods appropriate for the inexperienced owner/builder are a particular focus and include:
The time-tested, easy-to-learn construction techniques described in Earth-Sheltered Houses will enable readers to embark upon their own building projects with confidence, backed up by a comprehensive resources section that lists all the latest products such as waterproofing membranes, types of rigid insulation, and drainage products that will protect the building against water damage and heat loss.
Rob Roy is a former contractor with 27 years of experience and 12 previous books to his credit, including Cordwood Building and Timber Framing for the Rest of Us. An expert on underground building, he founded the Earthwood Building School in 1981 with his wife, Jaki, and is frequently a speaker at events throughout North America.
Price: $27.95
A variety of walls, hedges and fences combine to form the basic framework of the garden. This practical approach to the construction of walls and fences shows in the number of ways in which they may be used on the boundary of a property; for privacy and security, and sometimes to block out an unsightly view; to delineate certain areas as independent segments; to provide a protective screen from the elements, reduce noise and increase the value of your property. Guidance is provided for initial planning, costing and materials and step-by-step projects are illustrated with photographs and diagrams. Intended for both the experienced and inexperienced DIYer, hints and tips are given on the varities of boundaries and the style of home for which they would be suitable.Price: $9.95
Here is everything you need to successfully get a better home - whether tract, spec, or custom. This completely revised edition will show you the way. Remember it's your home! With Build It Right! you can decide what you want. Learn what your options are so you - not someone else - can make the decisions; include function in your decisions and make your new home a better and more pleasant place - and be sure it is built for the people who will be living in it; plan, plan, plan. By thinking ahead you can avoid problems before they happen, problems that would take time and money to fix - or that could be in the house forever; and insist on getting what's best for you. Even ideal builders can only build what they think you want. When you know what's good and bad, you are the one in control. Many thousands of readers have used Build It Right! to turn their dreams into reality. Some of their stories are in the front of book.Price: $18.95
Price: $16.95
The perfect companion to the Better Homes and Gardens New Complete Guide to Gardening.Illustrated easy-to-follow instructions for planning, designing, and building typical landscape projects.
Price: $24.95
Since 1973, Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins have offered practical, hands-on instructions designed to help readers master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. There are now more than 170 titles in this series, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life.Price: $3.95
Price: $19.95
Until now, homeowners have had to choose between the twin worlds of budget-friendly mediocrity and unaffordable fantasy. Responding to this gap, acclaimed architect Duo Dickinson demonstrates that a custom house doesn't depend on a fabulous price tag. House on a Budget, originally published in hardcover as The House You Build, is about a third way of building grounded in the realities of time and money, but focusing on your fondest hopes and dreams. He offers 19 real-world situations where unique and imaginative homes were built on real-life budgets. Price: $21.95
• Packed with practical techniques and technical know-how to help do-it-yourselfers succeed• Covers fences and gates, retaining walls, outdoor sheds, trellises and arbors, outdoor electricity, plumbing and drainage, and working with concrete
• "Wisdom of the Aisles" on every page guarantees a beautifully landscaped yard
• Guarantees great results with step-by-step instructions, timeframe for completion, plus skills and materials lists
• Plenty of helpful tips and shortcuts that the pros use
Price: $24.95
