Building an Affordable House: Trade Secrets to High-Value, Low-Cost Construction

by Fernando Pages Ruiz and Fernando Pages-Ruiz

Book Overview

Building an Affordable House: Trade Secrets to High-Value, Low-Cost Construction by Fernando Pages Ruiz is the essential guide for builders, developers, and homeowners looking to maximize their... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561585963
• Release Date: February 2005
• Publisher: Taunton Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.9" x 0.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Not just for home owners!

I always take a risk buying construction books on line. Half the time they are written for the first timer, or home owner, and I get a bunch of info that I already know. This book, however, was labeled for the home owner type, but turned out to be on a builders level! I learned several new techniqes that I did not know, this has saved me untold thousands of dollars on my up coming projects. I would like to see a book from the same guy that would go into even more detail, like an advanced level of the same. The author had to do this first one to appeal to the most people, but I know he has tons of more detail he could put in a book twice as thick as this one. Still, this is a great help in building a good house cheep!

Best construction book on the market

As a residential designer of green homes I am always struggling with showing my clients how building green is a good investment. This book gives you the information you need to make a strong resource efficient home that saves the client money. I will be using the information in this book for the rest of my career. Everyone in the building trades owes it to themselves, their clients and the planet to read this book and implement its techniques. With any luck this book will also help to change the archaic building codes which infest the building department of every county and city in the US. Buy it and encourage your building associates to buy it too! You will be so glad you did.

Readable, informative and revealing

As a builder, I have often looked at a set of drawings, or a budget versus job cost report, and thought to myself, "There has got to be a better way." I could only wonder how much time and money the inevitable scheduling problems, subcontractor conflicts, and ever-growing trash pile was costing me. I knew that our practices were wasting time, money, materials, and resources, and that ultimately we would all pay for it. But understanding that there is a problem is a long way from knowing what to do about it. Earlier in my career, I would have paid dearly for the knowledge contained in this book. Come to think of it, I did. Architect, designer, builder, subcontractor, or prospective homeowner -- you owe it to yourself to read Building An Affordable House. The modest price of this book is the only way I know of in construction that you can easily get a 100 to 1 return on your investment. Although this book is easy to understand and conveniently organized, it is not just a collection of tips and tricks. It is a comprehensive examination of the residential construction process from foundation to roof, with practical techniques that you can take to work with you tomorrow, and philosophy you can consider for the rest of your career. It is the unusual builder who can simultaneously cut the price while improving quality, but Fernando Pages Ruiz shares decades of diligent study and hard-won professional experience to teach anyone how to do just that. I have used many of the ideas and techniques described in this book, and many more were new to me. Every one of them contributes to the process of building a comfortable, durable, and more enjoyable home at a lower cost. The importance of high-quality affordable housing for the health and happiness of families and communities cannot be overestimated, and this book makes a significant contribution toward that goal. Dave Crosby builds affordable, green-built houses in New Mexico and writes for the Taunton Press and Hanely-Wood

Easy to Understand, Conveniently Organized

As a builder, I have often looked at a set of drawings, or a budget versus job cost report, and thought to myself, "There has got to be a better way." I could only wonder how much time and money the inevitable scheduling problems, subcontractor conflicts, and ever-growing trash pile was costing me. I knew that our practices were wasting time, money, materials, and resources, and that ultimately we would all pay for it. But understanding that there is a problem is a long way from knowing what to do about it. Earlier in my career, I would have paid dearly for the knowledge contained in this book. Come to think of it, I did. Architect, designer, builder, subcontractor, or prospective homeowner -- you owe it to yourself to read Building An Affordable House. The modest price of this book is the only way I know of in construction that you can easily get a 100 to 1 return on your investment. Although this book is easy to understand and conveniently organized, it is not just a collection of tips and tricks. It is a comprehensive examination of the residential construction process from foundation to roof, with practical techniques that you can take to work with you tomorrow, and philosophy you can consider for the rest of your career. It is the unusual builder who can simultaneously cut the price while improving quality, but Fernando Pages Ruiz shares decades of diligent study and hard-won professional experience to teach anyone how to do just that. I have used many of the ideas and techniques described in this book, and many more were new to me. Every one of them contributes to the process of building a comfortable, durable, and more enjoyable home at a lower cost. The importance of high-quality affordable housing for the health and happiness of families and communities cannot be overestimated, and this book makes a significant contribution toward that goal. Dave Crosby builds affordable, green-built houses in New Mexico and writes for the Taunton Press and Hanely-Wood