site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   3072 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 23, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Anyone here have experience custom building a house (in the US)? How was the process?

I'm starting to look at buying but the housing stock in areas where I'd want to buy is largely fugly, so I'm thinking of maybe just buying a plot of land and building something custom. I'm in California so I'm particularly concerned about permitting nightmares, but that varies a lot from city to city as far as I can tell.

The NAHB (National Association of Homebuilders) regularly conducts nationwide surveys on the cost of building a house. The latest such survey is available at this link. tl;dr: For the average 21,000-ft2 lot and 2600-ft2 house, the cost is 4.4 $ per ft2 of land plus 220 $ (including overhead and profit) per ft2 of structure.

Obviously, these numbers will vary very widely depending on your house's location and other specifics. Personally, within the past few months I have (1) purchased a 7600-ft2 lot in a small urban area in Pennsylvania for 3.9 $/ft2 and (2) obtained from an architect the following estimates (including overhead and profit) for a 940-ft2 one-story rectangular house in that area:

  • Slab: 190 $/ft2

  • Crawl space: 230 $/ft2

  • Basement: 270 $/ft2

That's helpful reading. Congrats on the purchase, hope your construction goes well!

Thoughts on slab vs crawlspace? Slab seems like a maintenance nightmare if you ever need to replace wiring or plumbing that's in the slab.

Have replaced plumbing in slab before. On the one hand, not fun. On the other hand, doable.

If you're running wiring through slab you really want electrical conduit - and also pullcords preinstalled, if possible.That being said, pay very close attention to electrical code.

Also, take far more photos than you think you need prior to pouring the slab, with measuring tapes in the shot. Yes, things do shift somewhat during the slab pour, but it's still a much better starting point than you'd otherwise have.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats