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One house, opened up

How a house is built

The same house as the homepage drawing. Follow it from the ground up, open a part, or compare two ways of building. Written pages are finished. Anything still unnamed as a page is marked coming soon.

Arrow keys turn the house. Plus and minus, or the zoom buttons, change the zoom. A horizontal drag turns it after you tap the drawing. Reset view returns to the step camera.

Teaching sketch of this house. Not a structural design.

The drawing needs WebGL. The notes on the page still stand.

Build order Explore the house Why this, not that

Topics

Understanding the site

The lot, the soil, the pad, and the rain that falls on it.

  1. Leveling a sloping lot
  2. Digging and backfill
  3. What the house sits on
  4. How wide the concrete is
  5. Rooms on this drawing
  6. Rain in this region
  7. Reading a soils report Coming soon
  8. Roof water to the street Coming soon

Following loads

Where the weight goes, and what keeps the house from racking.

  1. Where the weight goes
  2. Posts you can see
  3. Beams over openings
  4. Two floors stacked
  5. The roof shape
  6. Triangles in the roof
  7. The plate at a joint
  8. Attic room or storage
  9. The flight of stairs
  10. Wind and earthquakes
  11. Why there is no arch
  12. Face versus structure
  13. Diaphragm nailing Coming soon

Keeping rain out

The layers that shed water, and how the wall dries.

  1. Layers of an outside wall
  2. Heat, leaks, and drying
  3. Window flashing Coming soon
  4. Roof edge Coming soon
  5. Sound between rooms Coming soon
  6. Daylight levels Coming soon

Coordinating services

Structure, water, heat, and power as one house.

  1. One house, four jobs
  2. Heat and cooling
  3. Water in and waste out
  4. Power from the meter
  5. Outdoor-air rates Coming soon

Changing an existing home

A second story loads walls and a foundation that are already there.

  1. Adding a story
  2. Finding rot Coming soon
  3. Seismic retrofit Coming soon

Building this house, in order

Nineteen steps. Scroll them, or open the full sequence.

  1. 01 What the survey has to settle
  2. 02 Corners that survive the dig
  3. 03 Trees and topsoil
  4. 04 The hole for a slab house
  5. 05 Concrete that spreads the walls
  6. 06 Drains the slab will bury
  7. 07 The floor you walk on
  8. 08 Water at the outside of the concrete
  9. 09 Soil back, sloping away
  10. 10 The first story of studs
  11. 11 The bedroom floor and the stair hole
  12. 12 Gable, hip, and the lower roofs
  13. 13 Brace it before it is covered
  14. 14 A roof that sheds
  15. 15 Open walls for the trades
  16. 16 The energy check
  17. 17 The rain coat
  18. 18 Rooms you can live in
  19. 19 Gutters and the final walk

The collection

  1. 01 The work, hold by hold
  2. 02 Leveling a sloping lot
  3. 03 Digging and backfill
  4. 04 What the house sits on
  5. 05 How wide the concrete is
  6. 06 Where the weight goes
  7. 07 Posts you can see
  8. 08 Beams over openings
  9. 09 Two floors stacked
  10. 10 The roof shape
  11. 11 Triangles in the roof
  12. 12 The plate at a joint
  13. 13 Attic room or storage
  14. 14 The flight of stairs
  15. 15 Wind and earthquakes
  16. 16 Why there is no arch
  17. 17 Face versus structure
  18. 18 Layers of an outside wall
  19. 19 One house, four jobs
  20. 20 Heat and cooling
  21. 21 Water in and waste out
  22. 22 Power from the meter