The part of building no one talks about

[@FJB2020]

Self building as well. I just CAD everything out, create a simple BOM, and buy what I need. The only part that I have struggled with is when to order something so I dont have to store it, taking up valuable space.. We also decided that while building my wife would work for Lowes for the discounts, access to special order returns, and I just call her before she comes home to bring me something that I may have forgotten. FYI, Lowe's will price match, and if you get a pro account, you can return stuff up to 1 year after purchase. Buy extra and return what you dont need.

[@FJB2020]

​@Navy1977 I am not a contractor, but I still have an account. With Lowe's being 45 minutes away, it's been invaluable to just make that call, and yes, I have had her bring me a stack of lumber, lol.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Wow that's definitely dedication to have the wife work at Lowes! I have pro accounts with both them and HD as well as their credit cards, HD also does the 1 year returns which has definitely come in handy

[@Prairiedogs11]

Gosh I really like this idea of working at Lowe’s while building. Brilliant!!

[@alexandrapeacher2771]

Self building a home in the Hudson Valley and you are making me feel so seen!!! Thank you for sharing because these are the parts that people don't see in the build... the hours and hours of deciding on the correct material and how much and all of the nitty gritty details. I was so naive as to how many screws, nails, zip tape, caulk, MORE zip tape and tools (just to name a few) we would need... we've watched many of your videos before starting certain stages to get inspiration on what we need to do and to have a starting point before going into a material rabbit hole... THANK YOU!

[@FJB2020]

The Zip tape!!! I had no clue I would use as much as I did, like 3-4x what I had budgeted for.. funny you say Hudson Valley as I used to live in the village of Chester..

[@daroldw4606]

Thanks for spending all the time and effort into these videos. They have motivated me to do a lot of the tasks myself. I may even have the radiant floor pipe ran under the slab for a future project.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Really appreciate that! Construction is just education, preparation, and hard work. Much of it you can do solo, although much slower. But it’s all pretty easily learnable with the right motivation

[@laurieclarkson9180]

I love the nerdy detail stuff! Tools, best places to get stuff, the little things, the costs etc..

[@GSchrades]

I own and run my construction company and also a carpenter for it as well. Mostly everything like Azek, decking, lumber, drywall, windows, doors, and other items we get from our local lumberyard. We also grab some things here and there from Home Depot, Menards, and Lowes but i would say its pretty rare to buy in bulk there. Most lumberyard reps can help with finding the best products as well. I would also say they have better access to most materials as place like Home depot could be some what limited. We also get our insulation through a different vendor completely. We also want to support our local lumberyard vs buying from a home store. I am more than willing to help answer any questions you have around products or which products are the best in areas etc. You are welcome to reach out to me if you'd like and I can assist best I can.

[@AlwaysHopeful87]

I run into the same problem with small projects too. Just part of being a DIY. Thanks for posting.

[@Prairiedogs11]

Thank you for making this video! It’s so relatable. We just finished pouring our slab foundation in the southwest and hoping to frame in 8-10 months. You got me thinking about how I will probably need to order windows soon!

[@metavichiendeavors8795]

Big box stores are saviors! We are building our house too and we spend so much time at the store. You always forget something. You even go to the store get what you wanted and still forget something and end up going back. Big box stores are like a second home. It doesn’t help that we are in a small town and the because the workers know us. 😅 Definitely a second home.

[@chipnegron950]

Very impressive, love watching the other video... very knowledgeable for a young man, thank you for sharing all of the tidbits, best wishes to you both... keep the videos coming.

[@bryce2113]

I'm building out our basement (~1,300 sq ft) on my own and sourcing materials has been such a chore. Especially having to carry everything down to the basement, which is carrying it down the hill from the driveway. Paying $1-2 per sheet to have the drywallers carry the boards into the basement for me was honestly the most worthwhile investment. The other hard thing has been ordering stuff for delivery and trying to maximize what I order so I can keep delivery costs down (i.e. not spend on multiple deliveries when I can get it delivered together). That has been an absolute logistical chore. But its just part of the process. On big box stores, Menards is absolutely great. They stock mid-high quality options on lots of things. And their lumber is as good as our local lumber yard. Their selection and choices is amazing too compare to Home Depot. Now that Menards has a smartphone app I've been using them a lot more because the app tells you where to find items in store (just like Home Depot's app does). Home Depot is nice too, but just for different items. SupplyHouse is also great. Our local sheetrock supplier (which is a general supplier too) was great too. Keep on pushing!

[@jacksonbartlett4818]

I cant wait to see the tooling cost video! It would also be interesting to hear what tools, if any, you think you'll get rid of after the build is complete as maybe there are some that are super specific for things you may only have to do once.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

The only thing I think I might sell is the Dewalt 20V concrete vibrator. Harbor freight makes a cheap corded one that would get the job done if I really need one in the future. For small stuff, a sawzall without a blade vibrating against the form does a great job. The only other thing I've contemplated are Dewalts vacuum and cordless framing gun to switch to Milwaukees, especially the vacuum (it sucks.. but not literally). Dewalt's framing gun is decent and way better than dragging a hose around, but I think I'd like Milwaukee's spring mechanism over the flywheel. That's about all I can think of, I will say if I have a tool that isn't serving me well I don't have a foreseeable use for it hits marketplace pretty quick

[@joemartino6976]

Agreed, choosing and buying materials is a huge issue. There are so many material choices out there and it may be hard for some builders and DIY'ers to be knowledgeable about all of them. I had a builder renovating the exterior windows/siding/trim on my home and every time I told him about yet another new product, he would laugh and say "you look at the computer too much!" I once warned him about painting Azek trim a dark color (because of heat expansion) on another commercial job and he thanked me for it. For all the difficulty, I really do enjoy sorting through all the possibilities.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

I've heard similar stories from others, it's definitely why the vast majority of houses in the US are built with the same old wall and roof assembly. Builders figured out it worked okay in the 90s, and it's been rinse and repeat ever since. Agreed, staying on top of the number of building products out there is basically it's own full time job. There are an infinite number of different combinations that depend on the specific project, location, budget, etc.. I guess that's why architects make a good living 😆

[@tonycortez8556]

I’ll be be building my house next year, hopefully found your channel right on time. Thanks for all the info

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Haha we'll see if I can get the rest of the videos out by then!

[@backwardsrun]

I am owner building and 80 percent of the work is getting /moving supplies, your 💯. I bought land 2 miles from a home Depot and Lowe's and many times after 5. I like builders first source for cheap lumber.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

2 miles holy cow you got a good spot 😆 I've heard a lot about builders first source, quoted our initial lumber through them but never ended up getting anything from them. They're huge though

[@JerodMatlock]

One other aspect of material is...what to do with the bits of material you have left over. That's another time you end up moving material again, sorting, organizing, deciding what to haul off, return, sell, etc.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

So true, that will probably be it's own video at some point 😆 I hate throwing good building materials away, so they either get hoarded for a project 10 years down the road or sold on marketplace 😂

[@tonymcalister9878]

Yep. We added a single room to an unfinished basement and the procurement was challenging. I do not know how many trips we had to stores to buy everything. I do remember thinking that we had everything, but there were more trips after that.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Exactly 😆

[@bruceblackerby3742]

Great video. There's a flip side to this. Keep the design simpler, and the BOM will be simpler too. I looked at hundreds of floor plans before settling on a single story with open basement and simple roof. No crazy roof line, multiple stories, stairs, attic. We'll see if it was a good decision. Starting construction later this year.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

True! Simple design makes building easier, as long as you like the final look. This is the reason most houses in the U.S. are single story rectangular ranchers

[@caverbrad]

Self building a small 600+sf timber frame cabin to live in. I could have easily hired the majority of the work before I retired and some days regret not doing that. My "kit" was delivered December '22. I rented a telehandler for a week just to unload. My place is truly out in the sticks 70+ miles from the nearest Menards or HD. It was actually 2 semis. The first semi flatbed was loaded to the max. I can't get a semi 3/4 mile down the county road so we unloaded up at the pavement intersection and I staged bundles along the gravel road. It took a solid 2 hours to unload that truck. The second truck broke down and showed up 2 days later with just insulated nail base panels. that was an easy unload. A few of the bundle were 12' or less in length so I could drive them down to my staging area. Many were longer so I had to load them on my 16' utility trailer then drive them down the last 1/2 mile with my truck. The lane is narrow in places and even the 12' bundle on the telehandler would drag on brush/ rocks if I wasn't paying attention. So then I either rode my motorcycle up to get the telehandler and drive it back to unload off my trailer. It took a few days to get everything on my property. In hindsight I should have had a friend come help me but we both live over 100 miles from the jobsite. I used to not care for Menards but they do carry a good selection of nails etc and other oddball stuff. I got my I-joists and subfloor plywood from an area lumber yard. they were cheaper on Advantech than the box stores. One thing is that it is taking longer to build solo than I ever anticipated.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

You have a whole nother level of challenge! That's awesome that you're tackling it though. The distance makes it really tough, even living 6 miles from our build site was hard until we moved into the RV, I can't imagine 100+. We're only 17 minutes from the nearest HD, I used to think that was a pain but holy crap 70 miles. I would have considered prefab for a site like that!

[@TreesAndRoots]

Thanks for this video! Very useful. I know what I will face soon while buying construction materials 💪

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Glad it was helpful! Best of luck on the project

[@MattSapp]

Trying to get an accurate materials take-off for my build has been an ongoing struggle. I'm in the same place as you - I'm doing this debt free, doing everything myself from blank graph paper to CoO. I'm ignoring tooling costs - I've been a tool collector since way before I started planning to build, so it's just another life expense for me, but I don't want to (or want my wife to!) think about the cost of the tools ever :)

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Hahah same here, I love tools. I look at them as an investment that will more than pay for themselves as long as I have projects to use them on that I'm not paying someone else to do.

[@MiddleRidge40]

First thing I did before building our cabin was go down and open up a charge account with the local lumber yard and get the pricing right before we started. Already had a Lowes pro account but I did check w the big box guys before the first lumber package order and the local guy beat them from the get go. Plus better quality! Stay local if you can.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

I got all our engineered lumber (I joists, LVLs, sheet goods) through HD because I was under the same impression that dimensional lumber quality was bad, because of the typical crooked lumber shelf. Obviously the engineered stuff is coming from the same factory, but it was way cheaper at HD in my case though. However, the nicest, straightest, and least knots dimensional lumber I got was through HD. Another lumber yard was about equal, but the 3-4 other yards I bought from had noticeably more bowing/crowning/twisting. Lumber is all commodity anyway and comes from the same forests and mills no matter where you get it, but my totally unfounded theory is that the mills supplying box stores take extra care to send them quality lumber, to make sure that high paying account stays open.

[@jareddavid65]

I'm small-time, but I've concluded that one goes to the big-box stores for the bulk shopping and then go to the local shop for what one forgets or miscalculates.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

All depends what's closest and at the right price for me!

[@camheady235]

Instead of buying topsoil, get free wood chips delivered by local tree service companies and put down a very thick layer. Watch them break down to enhance the soil and plant a forest of various edibles all around: fruit trees, shade trees, and wind-block trees on the north side, etc. BrickSaver LLC

[@MasonDixonAcres]

We actually did have several loads dropped off at the beginning of the project! They worked great for keeping mud down and did break down a little but not quickly enough to plant grass in

[@av1204]

im building my own house. The amount of moving of materials is out this world. We did ICF walls from basement to rafters. I would say 25% of the time is moving materials.

[@FJB2020]

ICF is the way to go. I started one a few years ago and took a break to build a conventionally framed home while wood was at its low. Since ICF and concrete skyrocketed in price, we would sell the stick built home to fund the rest of our ICF home.

[@av1204]

@Navy1977 I have built the entire thing myself from footers to the roof. I hired 3 helpers on pour day for the walls and a crew to do the slab in the basement. Everything else I have 100% don myself. I am adding the siding on right now (hardie). Have put windows & doors/roof subfloor, interior framing. I didnt do any termite shielding. We did nudura borate and then a liquid membrane + dimple matt. We will spray pretty heavy for termites. I stopped at the rafters because I wanted to do it myself and id have to get it engineered which I didnt have to have an architect or engineer to do anything, saving thousands. The house is 34x56 rectangle.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

That's a heck of a project, congrats! Stick with it

[@sumochop360]

The standard of the company I work for is a 57% mark up on material. I try to tell people to get their own material cause some jobs become so expensive and it's usually do to the amount of material and just like the drywall you mentioned it could take a 10k job and bring it down to 6k easy. Something else to think about is most companies have fixed prices and they include the cost of drive time,labor,warranty,material, advertising. So that $8 dollar light switch is now a $120 dollar job. Doesn't seem fair but there's a lot more to it than just the price.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Yep, procurement is definitely work that should be compensated for. Most clients probably don't feel like putting in the research to determine what materials they want and how much of them, they will defer to who they hired for that. But, if you are budget consicous and a little resourceful with Google, it can save you a ton of cash on any given project.

[@katiewright767]

Will you be sharing that budget spreadsheet template by any chance? It would be great to see what else I haven’t thought of

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Yes eventually we will publish a blank template on the website. Working on a lot more downloadable resources to go with content going forward now that we are past the wedding!

[@markjanes2392]

I'm a electrical contractor. I like eBay for tools and specialty items. Zoro's another one that get's over looked. Good luck to ya

[@MasonDixonAcres]

I've bought all of our dual function breakers and dimmer switches through eBay, I can't believe the price difference. Roughly 50% off breakers, and I just got 9 Legrand Radiant dimmers for $11/ea. Supply store quoted $41/ea! Will keep an eye on Zoro, haven't used them

[@davidstewart1153]

I remember when you were looking for land, you considered distance to big box stores. I bet if you multiplied the count of box store receipts by a 50% bigger time and fuel number, it would be a shocking extra cost. My other thought is doing it debt-free adds complications, because you can't just order six months out.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

When you go the route of self building, you should stop valuing your time in terms of dollars or you'd be bankrupt 😂 at the end of the day, the experience, quality control, and learning is worth more than not taking out a loan. Paying as you go is basically a necessity though if you're planning to do a lot yourself (especially if still employed) because of the time constraint on building loans. Even without a mortgage you still have to order some things 6 months out, like our windows we ordered just after breaking ground.

[@andrewpinson1268]

You might have hit on a subject that people would want more information on. Whatever means you sit down and begin your DIY supply list it is scary to get all possibilities and estimates correct. If you can figure out how to transfer information in video format that would cut down about 20% of those fears Planning procedures, estimation calculations, items people routinely miss, general best places to look for cost savings quality etc. you might generate some interest for more videos..

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Yep I'll probably do some more lessons learned videos on stuff like this in the future!

[@joemartino6976]

By the way, if you shop at big box stores, are you aware of the "Bid Room" at Home Depot? If you have an account and assemble a material order of at least $2000 (I think), you can ask the associate to submit the order to the Bid Room for a possible additional discount. Back in 2017, I put together an order for thirty nine Andersen 400 casement windows and doors. The in-store price totaled around $29K. After submitting it to the Bid Room, the price was cut to under $23K. The lowest number I got from building supply houses was $26K.

[@joemartino6976]

@Navy1977Yes. I presume Home Depot wants to be a good alternative to building supply stores among pro buyers. The weak point, from my vantage point, is the ability of the employee helping you. Make sure you carefully review he details in your order. And check again when its delivered. My experience was excellent and saved me $$$. I suspect that's not always the case however.

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Yep all our big orders went through pro desk staff and they ran it through bid room. I know way too much about the inner workings of the HD back end system, haha between all my lumber price shenanigans and other complicated special orders I have been behind the counter working next to the pro desk people way more than I'd like to admit lol

[@FJB2020]

Lowes does this as well. It's called VSP, and depending on how big your order is, either the store manager or district manager will quote you out. We did this for our Zip sheathing and got it for $14.71 a sheet. Never be afraid to ask for a volume discount when buying materials.

[@dsch522]

Literally hate the term “Bandwith”

[@MasonDixonAcres]

😂

[@dsch522]

@@MasonDixonAcres first time I heard “bandwidth” used this way was by a young School of Mines (Mimes) engineer talking about finding time to do things. Wanted to throw a slide rule and compass at him.

[@bubbatennessee7531]

I don't get it. Why do people like you two ever want to DIY build your own home ? Everyone knows that construction is the hardest work in the world, the hardest way of making a living. Both of you had cushy jobs in corp. of America, making easy and good money. Why not keep that jobs you were born for, making the money easy way, and pay others to build the house for you ?

[@MasonDixonAcres]

Corporate jobs are boring. Hiring a builder was too expensive for us and you don’t learn skills in the process. More satisfaction to design and build it yourself, allows you to go slow and with no loans using the best building practices and materials. And it’s very difficult to find someone who cares about workmanship and getting the details right as much as yourself, especially for a reasonable cost. Those are the high level reasons.