I bought and assembled a steel kit building.

I hired a site-work contractor to build a driveway from the road to my site. A well driller to drill a well. An electrician installed a power pole with 200amp Mains breaker 100' in from the road. A foundation contractor to pour a concrete foundation. And a crane operator helped me to stand up the steel girders. I assembled my building [60' by 40' rectangle with 12' eaves and 14' peak], originally marketed as an airplane hanger. I did the plumbing and electric, built the floors, and sprayed urethane foam on the underside of the roof and on the walls [2" thick] then 9" of fiberglass batting, and finally wood-grain paneling and trim.

The original house is 2400 sq ft, all finished along with off-grid solar-power and battery bank, it cost around $29 per sq ft.

Later I extended the roof out 20' on one side [to provide a carport for three vehicles, plus a boat and tractor], and 8' on the other three sides. This extension brought my total footprint up to 5400 sq ft and cost an additional $5,000.

 

Nice one Forest. Simple and to the point.

 

When I first retired and moved onto my small ranch, I had crappy access (why land was cheap), no power, and no buildings. But I owned a tractor, a one ton 4wd pickup, and a ten ton flatbed trailer.

First, I bought poles, trusses, and steel roofing panels for $12k, and towed this heavy load to a semi cleared, semi level building site. Then with help from some neighbors, I built a 24x32 pole barn, than attached a 12x32 high bay roof on one side. I parked a used 5th wheel under the high bay roof, and my wife and I lived in this for three yrs. Adding in the concrete, power lines, ceiling and insulation, and the wood stove this building cost me around $20k.

Yrs later this became my shop building, and I sold the old 5th wheel, moved into the new house.

 

My BIL bought a kit similar to this and built it into a garage. Could easily have been a house

 

Something like this could have lots of potential

 

What is the source of this cover (company)?

 

In Iowa? No idea on the cost now but you might consider a passive solar insulated concrete form home for both the energy conservation and the preparedness/survival benefits of having a concrete home. We're a bit north of you but looking at the average temperature data for Des Moines it's similar to our area and ours works very well in this climate. Our winter temps average below yours and we heat 2200 sq ft with a single wood stove and about 4 cords of oak for a season, and like Iowa our average summer night time lows fall below comfortable room temperature so we don't need air conditioning - let the nighttime air cool the house and close the windows when the sun comes up. For internal mass we used 3" of concrete for the upper level floor and ceramic tile, it resists internal temperature swings by absorbing the heat and the heat it absorbs during the day is released and carried out of the house at night with the windows open. The inside temperature never goes above about 76 degrees even on days when the daytime highs reach into the 90's. With no air conditioning and no carpet to vacuum, plus some other energy saving practices, we only use about 4-5 kWh of electricity per day on average which even our relatively small solar power system can keep up with. More upfront cost maybe, but only requires a small solar setup and minimal winter heating costs, and near energy independence.

 

The stupid planning and zoning is getting ever more restrictive...

Used to be we could build cheaply and net zero over a period of time.

My previous house was pole constructed built one room at a time from salvage materials from old houses freely available for tear down.

With low windows in the north, high windows in the south, Open all for natural breeze...

Big south facing windows let heat in during the winter, but the sun was in a different place in summer... didn't shine in the house then.

Big kitchen with south facing roof, and solar array purchased one panel at a time...

And... water came from seep spring behind house...

Couldn't do any of that in current location... brought in old free house on a truck... they refused to orient the house in the direction I wanted when they took it off truck... So... no way to put up panels... planning and zoning sends out inspectors at tax time... can't start putting up additions without running into issues with the man...

 

With low windows in the north, high windows in the south, Open all for natural breeze...

Big south facing windows let heat in during the winter, but the sun was in a different place in summer... didn't shine in the house then.

And it costs exactly nothing if done during the construction, we just shifted the roof trusses to create the correct amount of roof overhang on the south side to keep the summer sun off the windows/glazing based on our latitude. North and south facing sides, respectively.

Free heat in the winter, and less heat in the house during the summer.

 

First and most important thing to do is find a place where they don't require inspections and occupancy permits. A metal building will require a lot of work just to pass the infiltration tests, for example. And most places will be overjoyed to hand out $500 per day fines if you try to live in a building without an OP.

Funny thing is, all our grandparents lived in houses that wouldn't pass a current inspection.

 

First and most important thing to do is find a place where they don't require inspections and occupancy permits.

In my area 'camps' are popular.

A 'residential dwelling' requires a permit, but a 'camp' does not.

The biggest distinction between a 'camp' and a 'dwelling' is over the foundation or slab. If the structure burns and in the ashes remains a stone or concrete foundation then such a structure must have a permit and will be taxed.

But a cabin on blocks, or on pontoons, or on skids does not require anything.

 

Hey folks. I would like to build a off the grid home, but not spend $200 a square foot to do so. Kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion.

Has there been a discussion, or is there another forum that discusses construction methods that don't cost so much it takes 30 years to recoup?

Knowing your location will help others to offer you suggestions. Net zero on the west coast is easier to meet than net zero in North Dakota.

 

If I were aiming for low cost nett zero I would look into strawbale construction. You could even go with double thick bale walls or walls made of the large square bales.

A bale house wont be airtight enough on its own. Adding a vapor barrier on the inside and a house wrap on the outside may get you close.

Then you still have to deal with insulating the roof.

 

If I were aiming for low cost nett zero I would look into strawbale construction. You could even go with double thick bale walls or walls made of the large square bales.

A bale house wont be airtight enough on its own. Adding a vapor barrier on the inside and a house wrap on the outside may get you close.

Then you still have to deal with insulating the roof.

In the '80s I helped with some strawbale homes. But that is a very specific climate, where I live today would never be able to support strawbale homes.

 

FYI : check and verify that zoning, building codes, ad valorem taxes, etc, only apply to "real estate" (held by qualified ownership) and NOT to private property (absolutely owned by an individual and constitutionally protected).
(Yeah, we've been punked)
. . .
As to the overall "best" construction material, I advocate anthropogenic stone, aka concrete. The trick is to get it to cure in the shape of a house. Not a trivial task! Even Thomas A. Edison's attempt was somewhat unsuccessful.
However, if you're successful, you will have a house that is going to last centuries, require little maintenance, resist nature's wrath, and protect you and yours.
. . .
Some concrete variations that have superior performance : SCIP (like Tri-D-Panels); Helix steel reinforcement; smog eating catalyst; tilt up cast in place; and slip form.
SCIP
Habitat For Humanity once built using SCIP panels. Even Jimmy Carter helped build them. But HfH stopped. They're back to building wood frame fire traps and termite feeding grounds.

TridiPanel - Home - Structural Concrete Insulated Panel

tridipanel.com

Hurricane resistance - photos of a house that endured a major hurricane

TridiPanel - Home - Structural Concrete Insulated Panel

tridipanel.com

https://www.pci.org/PCI_Docs/Publications/PCI%20Journal/2022/March-April/20-0024_Mashal_MA22.pdf

Better than rebar - - -

Home - Helix Steel

Proactive Concrete Reinforcement Technology

www.helixsteel.com

Titanium Dioxide catalyst also prevents ugly stains on your nice concrete wall.

What is Smog Eating Concrete Buildings? How it Can Save Our Cities from Pollution?

According to the World Health Organisation, eighty percent of the people living in the city are breathing polluted air. Air pollution levels are increasing faster than ever. Air pollution is one of…

theconstructor.org

. . .

The basics of Tilt-Up construction - The Korte Company

Tilt-Up construction combines the strength and durability of reinforced concrete with the precision and efficiency of the Design-Build methodology. This one-two punch delivers new buildings quickly and economically, which might explain why more than 650 million square feet of Tilt-Up buildings...

www.korteco.com

One of the benefits of tilt up cast in place panels is the ease at embossing textures via mats, form liners, stamps, etc.

Inspired Designs Using Tilt-up Concrete Construction - Concrete Decor

tilt-up contractors, advances in technology have put at their fingertips more design elements than ever before.

www.concretedecor.net

Stamped concrete: what it is, advantages, moulds, colours and price m2

Learn all about stamped concrete, one of the most widely used building materials. What it is, advantages, moulds, how it is applied, price, etc. We are specialists.

www.topciment.com

Insulated Concrete Roofs and Floors for Amazing Buildings

Easily build Insulated Concrete Roofs and Floors with Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) technology: Cozy, peaceful, safe & durable at LOWER total cost of ownership than traditional construction

www.quadlock.com

 

Hey thanks everyone. I should have mentioned my property is in the middle of nowhere in iowa county iowa which does not enforce building codes.

Utilities are over 300 bucks a month out there. But I wonder whether it's worth refurbishing the trailer and just going heavy on the solar panels and if I have too much electricity , I just sell it back to the power company. Or first refurbish the trailer and build a shop / house. Or forget the trailer and concentrate on the new building and solar.

 

Utilities are over 300 bucks a month out there.
But I wonder whether it's worth refurbishing the trailer...

Whoa!
I'm at like $60 / month... And feel like it's too much!
The worst stick built is always going to be superiour to trailer living.

It's easy to get a house mover to bring in a house... Especially when there's not a bunch of trees to work around.
Those houses that are freely offered to anyone that wants them each time a neighborhood is destroyed to make room for another shopping centre or other business district are a great value..;.

Although in Iowa?
Are you seeing new stuff going up in town there?

I would not choose to be in a trailer in iowa... I think I'd rather be in a tent.

 

Yikes 300/month, is that for everything or just electric & gas? What is your building budget? You've got great solar opportunity there with all that cleared land, and I bet there's a good amt of free firewood nearby.

 

You could make the existing trailer much more energy efficient for less cost than building a new net zero home.

A properly sized overhang on the south would shade the trailer in the summer and allow the sun to warm it in the winter.

If you make the overhang a porch you could wrap the porch in clear plastic or glaze it with glass(used patio door work well for this and are easy to find for free) The wrapped porch would collect solar energy during the day and help warm the trailer. And a night it would be a buffer zone between the heated trailer and the cold night air. Glass reflects IR, plastic lets it pass through so glass would be the better choice.

You could put a porch all the way around the trailer. The porch could be 3 season or wrapped in plastic for the winter. That would give you a buffer zone between the warm trailer and cold outside, it would also help block the cold wind from blowing directly on the trailer.

Good skirting makes a huge difference in keeping a trailer warmer in the summer. I assume Insulated skirting does an even better job.

If you are looking to go off grid, you can go off grid in a trailer nearly as easy as in a new home.

Going off grid won't save you any money unless you drastically cut your power needs.(assuming the trailer already has electric service run to it) But you could also drastically cut your power needs while on grid and still save a bunch of money.

To save money by going off grid reduce your load as much as possible, shift any heating/cooking/water heating load to wood or propane. Reduce your your water usage as much as possible(it takes a lot of electricity to pump water) or run your well on a gas generator to fill a large tank once a week instead of the pump running every time you use water.
You can cut your water use almost in half by switching to a composting toilet and being semi careful to take shorter showers and attempt to use less water when washing the dishes.
Refrigeration is another large power user when off grid. Only having a single fridge/freezer instead of a fridge/freezer AND a chest freezer will cut your power needs in half. To save even more look into super insulated fridges designed to run on solar, or convert a chest freezer into a chest fridge. Or look at a propane fridge.

Look into second hand panels. A new panel is over $1 a watt. Good used panels can be had for as little as $0.25 a watt.($0.30-$0.40 per watt is probably more common for used panels) Building your own mounting system and installing the panels yourself is another way to save money on switching to solar.

You can get by with less (expensive)battery if you put up extra (cheap)used panels and make sure to run all of your heavy electrical loads only when the sun is shining and the batteries are already charged.

I am in the process of building a very small off grid log home. It is going to have wrap around porches. The south porch is going to be glassed in help heat the house in the winter but have enough overhang to be shaded in the summer. The north porch will eventually be walled in with strawbales to become a cold storage area that protects the house from the cold wind. The entire thing will be wrapped in plastic in the winter to have a buffer between the warm house and cold winter air. Heating will be mostly wood with propane as a back up. It won't be net zero but it should be fairly cheap to heat.

 

You could make the existing trailer much more energy efficient for less cost than building a new net zero home.
A properly sized overhang on the south would shade the trailer in the summer and allow the sun to warm it in the winter.
You could put a porch all the way around the trailer. The porch could be 3 season or wrapped in plastic for the winter.

If I was going to do all this....
I'd go a more efficient route.
Building a post and beam structure over entire trailer accomplishes all the above... With the added benefit of gradually installing walls that can double as storage... while providing a shield from the weather... Eventually... Just pull the trailer out and live in the post and beam structure, after putting in a floor of some kind.
My floors were generally wood porch type structures on top of concrete block...
With plastic vapor barrier underneath.

Someone that liked concrete could certainly pour a floor after removing trailer...

 

I have no problem with the mobile home. .. I mean, it's there existing, solid 2x4 walls 3:12 trusses, and taxes are only 600 a year. Or do I break ground and build a passive-something that would be at least $4000 in taxes and $400,000. The difference between 600 and 4000 a year is about what utilities are costing me now, so wouldn't that be a wash lol? The majority of the utilities cost is propane (200) , and electric rates are reasonable at 13 cents a kWh.

In my circumstance, wouldn't it be worth installing solar panels and three mini split heat pumps in the mobile home just to keep the taxes low?

And even if I keep the mobile home, I definitely want to build a passive or PGH standard shop where the barn was.

I think the biggest efficiency loss of the trailer is the ductwork placed out of the building envelope. I was thinking about putting a upflow furnace in and running duct in the cathedral ceiling, but that wouldn't allow the water lines to be heated.

I think better, would be to install three heat pumps and save the old propane furnace for emergency heat

 

I have a trailer house we use as a cabin. It had constant issues with the water freezing up in the winter. If we continue to use it I may move the waterlines from under the trailer up to near the ceiling inside the trailer. I figure with a coat of paint it wont look too bad and as long as the trailer stays above freezing they will never freeze. The lines inside would also reduce how long it takes to get warm water into the kitchen sink.

 

CRETAN CUBE

Let us calculate the amount of concrete needed to build a six sided cube, from 36' x 36' x 0.33' panels.
36 x 36 x 0.33 = 16 cu yds.
6 panels (4 walls + 2 floor / ceiling) = 95.999
Roughly 96 cubic yards.
Check local concrete companies for prices.
Assume concrete is $130 cy, then the material cost for the concrete shell is $12,478.75.
(Each additional floor panel costs approx. $2080, add $6k for 3 panels to make (4) 8.75' stories)
Approx. $19,000 for the shell.
4 floors x 36 x 36 = 5,184 sq. ft. ; $3.67 per square foot enclosed

As always, the "trick" is to get the concrete to cure in the shape of a house.

Enhancing concrete:
Stamped, acid etched, textured, stained, varied aggregate, titanium dioxide catalyst, Helix steel reinforcement, etc.

 

Not sure if you're thinking of resale value but a piece of property with a mobile home surrounded by several DIY porches & greenhouses is going to be less attractive to buyers than a property with a simple 16 x 20 stick built small home, think elaborate shed. Perhaps there are parts of the mobile home which could be re-used in a new structure built with rescued materials, finished a little more nicely than a mobile home. I do have a brother and a BIL who live in mobiles, as well as several friends, and we inherited one but sold it. If your only interest is the next 5-10 yrs and you don't care about tornadoes or high winds then maybe DIY what you've got. But your efforts won't be "re-saleable". Count the costs and perhaps your efforts would be better spent, and saleable, on a different structure. Just my 2 cents and hope you find a solution that works for you, and your future sales plans if any.

 

I just bought a single wide mobile home in Iowa for my kid to live in while finishing college.

I was under it stripping out the old crap for insulation that had fallen down and was thin to begin with. I'll replace what I took out with plastic barrier R-25 and spray foam as needed to seal it and holes around ducting and piping. The piping was heat traced by a blind monkey. I'll trace that with a thermostat controled heat trace and insulate it properly.

The previous owner replaced the roof. I'll get in there next to make sure it's been insulated properly.

It's shaded by trees in the summer that drop leaves in the winter. So natural cooling and heating.

Insulation is one of the cheapest long term fixes if you do it yourself.

 

There was no barrier under 1/3rd of it. It had degraded and fallen down. The bottom of the floor was exposed.

What I put in will be far better than nothing. The previous owner put on a pitched steel roof. I may put on an steel skirt with foam board insulation behind it and paint it rather than the crappy plastic one with holes. Then vent it.

 

I bought 59 acres of raw land back in 2005. Sold 9 acres off for almost half of the entire price of the original 59 acres - leave 50 acres. 38 acres are in valuable timber and 12 acres in pasture. We cut timber in 2007 and aged it covered with old tin from the other farm for two years and began building in 2009 spring. I moved in late in 2009 and took three more years to finish. On the grid - did the wiring and plumbing ourselves. No septic =- good composting toilet. Harnessed beautiful spring water and run two Rife Rams from it pumping to the highest part of the farm where it goes into a 1700 gallon take so there's always fresh water. The rams run 24 -7 and get maybe 10 days off in the freeze of winter here. Built two oak sheds and an oak stable in 2010 and brought critters over from the other farm. Started a raised 9 bed garden - spring fed and dug a pond above it for great water to the garden. Did all of this fo4 $42K. Of course utilizing the Mennonite community for labor helped enormously.

 

Whatever you decide on, at least contact your planning & zoning and ask them first. If you want to sell electric back to the grid, they will want to inspect that connection. That's assuming your electric company will buy it, our local co-op does not allow net metering. For solar, it takes a long time to make your money back, in some ways not worth it. But you'll have it when the power goes out. And you lock in the cost in 2023 dollars, so you're protected from inflation.