Have you ever dreamt about building your own home? This is a dream that thousands of Americans share, but the task itself can seem pretty daunting. Where do you begin and how on earth do you get the roof to stand up? George Nash answers all of these questions in his book, The Complete House Building Book. This is a must read for anyone interested in learning more about how homes are built or for those that may want to try to tackle this project on their own some day.

By keeping everything very simple and using incredibly detailed graphics, Nash literally walks the reader, step-by-step, through everything they will need to do to build their own home. Before we go any further, it is important to note that the book is geared towards those interested in building a frame home, as it does not cover other construction methods. You’re not going to find how-tos on fancy architectural elements here – just your standard home. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it is important to state the audience that this book is geared for.

All of that aside, this 704 page book has more than 1800 illustrations that clearly detail what you need to have and what you need to do to build a frame house. Although the pictures are in black and white, they are very well done and most are very clear. You will find a few that are in poor contrast, but that is most likely the fault of the publisher and not the author, so we really couldn’t find any fault in that.

Literally every aspect of building a home is covered here, from the initial stages of picking the right site, to making your own plan, to put the finishing touches on your landscaping, this is really the end all and be all of house building books. So many focus on only one area, but we were very happy to see that this was really a comprehensive guide.

This book is so useful that even carpenters take it along with them to job sites. You’ll learn how to frame out the house, build complex staircases as well as handling mistakes. We really appreciated the photos that detailed common errors as well as the advice on how to avoid those errors.

Overall, if you are looking to build your own frame house or if this is a dream you’d like to know more about, we highly recommend this book. It’s earned its place on the bookshelf of any builder or want-to-be builder and it is one that you will likely turn to again and again. We’ve got nothing but praise for this well written and informative book. Not only did it make it sound easy to build your own home, we found that it was very inspiring. People all over the United States have already put this book to good use, and we have to admit, we’re seriously considering building our own house now.

Originally posted 2008-12-07 09:10:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Book Review, Handy Man

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architectural elements, audience, building a home, building books, building your own home, carpenters, comprehensive guide, construction methods, earth, finishing touches, frame house, george nash, how tos, illustrations, initial stages, job, poor contrast, staircases