Time in hours for DIY home
The time in hours for DIY home construction depends greatly on the size of the home and the experience of the builder. I can certainly tell you how many hours my own home took me to finish. That number was around 2500 hours. It took me about three and a half years. It could have taken longer, but I hired out the cabinetry and some finish work.
Each part of your home project will take time, but it will be very much worth it. You may have to work out in the rain or snow like I did.
That's a common problem if you want to build as you go along as time and money can afford.
I built the flooring with the hopes that winter was finished, but it seemed to have other plans and I ended up eventually replacing some of my flooring. My inexperience over the years taught me a few lessons such as, only install the subfloor plywood, but not the particle board top floor.
The walls went up pretty easily after I learned how to frame six inch walls and stand them up. Winter still persisted to my dismay. I probably started too early, but I had saved enough to complete all the framing so I wanted to get it done before the next winter struck again.
If you choose to build your own home on weekends and evenings, the progress can seem painfully slow, but it's also rewarding. I tried really hard to get to dry-in before rain and snow season crept up. I almost made it. I got laid off from my job and had to go get vocational retraining which took a long time. I guess sometimes we get curve balls in life. It slowed me down, but it didn't stop me entirely.
Because I lost my job due to The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, I was given the option to go to vocational school and learn a new trade while drawing unemployment. I used up the last bit of money I had saved up and installed windows, doors and a metal roof because I thought I might need to leave it unfinished for awhile. Fortunately, I was able to work on inexpensive things that take a long time to install. That was perfect because I didn't have much money
I did get some time to work on weekends so I spent all that time working on fun indoor things like this master bathroom shower upstairs.
Over the space of one and a half years, I was able to install most of the electrical and plumbing along with the inspections.
So much of the work was labor intensive, yet very cheap. I enjoyed my time working on the house after I was finished with my school work.
While I was finishing up the drywall and sheetrock on the walls, I was trying to get a construction loan to complete all the big, expensive things like siding, fixtures, cabinets and appliances. The value of the home was at least twice the amount needed to finish it.
With the construction loan, I was able to put finishing touches on everything in just a couple of months. The finish work went really fast.
The siding made a huge difference to the house. It was easy to install. I opted to put redwood decking which made also made a big difference in the appearance of the finished home. I was able to convert the construction into a home mortgage loan.
So the time in hours for DIY home for me was 2500
So because it takes so long to finish the home, you might have to apply for extensions on certain permits which is normal. This is also something to bring up with the inspectors and find out what the timeframe for completion is and ask how to extend the finish date in case you need more time. The inspectors are usually very accomodating.