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Woman Built House From the Ground Up Using Nothing But YouTube Tutorials (digitaltrends.com)
schwit1 quotes a report from Digital Trends: In this generation of self-starters and self-made women and men, do-it-yourself isn't just an option, it's a way of life. And if there's not an app for that, chances are there's a YouTube video for it. That was certainly the case for a woman named Cara Brookins, who is living proof that if you're willing to learn, you absolutely can. In 2008, Brookins was in the midst of a family struggle, having left a husband she called "violent and abusive." Looking to make a fresh start for herself, she took the idea of rebuilding quite literally, perhaps using the physical experience of constructing a house as an extension of her emotional and mental journey. Though she had no previous experience in construction or architecture, Brookins found a series of YouTube tutorials on building a home and got to work. Over the course of nine months, Brookins worked tirelessly with the help of her four children to build a new home for themselves. "I had rented this cabin for a Thanksgiving getaway," the mother of four told CBS News. "And driving there, we passed this house that had been ravaged by a tornado. It was this beautiful dream house and it was sort of wide open. You don't often get the opportunity to see the interior workings of a house, but looking at these 2x4s and these nails, it just looked so simple. I thought, "I could put this wall back up if I really tried. Maybe I should just start from scratch.'"
I get paid and the new owner takes possession. I have to disclose and problems with the house in a seller's disclosure, but no special notification is required for any work I have done myself. It's common for buyers to hire a professional home inspector that will make sure everything works and look for signs of potential problems, including going in the attic (or crawl space if there was one) to look at utilities. They'll spot things that may not be up to current code and let the buyer know.
I originally had the idea that I would build a house with craigslist free materials, but gave up quickly on the idea because it was taking a long time to find the parts I needed...though I'm certain that it could be done. It's not a tiny house either.
Same in the US although home owners are typically exempt from a lot of things, the paperwork alone would cost 3 out of the 9 months the article says it took with plenty of weeks in between construction where you have to wait for an inspector to come before proceeding to the next (unless you're a professional and know your schedule in advance, you have to schedule them when you actually finished a portion or risk having to pay for a second visit).
Ok so i actually am a licensed electrician. And to tell you the truth when you do Owner-Builder it is 100% identical to if you were a contractor. You pull a building permit(normally valid for 180 days, but you can get extensions. I have seen projects span almost 10 years) With that permit is a fee, That fee includes initial inspection of all facets of the permit. You only have to repay on a Fail. You have that 180 days to get all work done(there is a certain order) But as i said you can get extensions. And when you call your inspection in normally if youre before 4pm that day it will be handled the next business day. There is no "plenty of weeks in between construction where you have to wait for an inspector"
During my training as an electrician I was advised to never sign off on an amateur installation. Refuse the job and walk away - the liability is just not worth it. We were shown some quite grisly photographs of the aftermath of untrained DIYers trying to cut corners on cost by cutting out professional work where it is most needed. They all thought that they were being rather smart and saving money.
Don't play around with electricity - get a proper professional to do the job.
This is a bullshit attitude. If the amateur made mistakes, point those out and fail them based on that criteria, not just some blanket refusal.
Or is it that you rush the inspection because you don't want to check all of it and just assume the professional did it correctly, which you can't assume with the amateur?
something you can give to an intern to do at $25/hr vs your 25 years experience $75/hr
That's a great example, since fixing interns' mistakes has made my years of experience very profitable.
Sure, an intern can write the software spec, unless he doesn't understand the difference between a Widget and a Wotsit, and doesn't even realize that there are two different things. With sufficient minimal skill, he can flub his way through a basic review (often done by other intern-quality folks) and get the spec published, then be long gone with his credit and job offer once the complaints start coming in.
Similarly, an amateur electrician can screw things up in ways that aren't obvious, like pulling wires through conduit roughly enough to strip insulation. Sure, it's working fine now, but in a few years, it could very well be a fire risk. Another particularly egregious example from my own experience is seeing a ground wire attached with an eye terminal with a nylon washer (instead of a star washer) on one side and a painted (instead of conductive) surface on the other. The connection at the terminal's edge was enough to make a connectivity meter happy, but in an emergency that poor connection could have been lethal.
[Grunt work] takes a long time, but not a job you can screw up unless...
...you don't have the experience to know that what you're doing is wrong.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.