A book or website that will teach A-Z how house is built

[mrbodge]

I don't mean that it tells you how to do all the trades. I mean how it is constructed.

Where the foundation is, how deep it is, what it is made of, where DPC goes, how thick screeds are, how thick joists need to be, the way they are connected to the wall (if it's a good book both that old way where it sticks into the bricks and the new way with those horrible steel things) this sort of thing, a book I can read and understand pretty good if some crazy idea I've just had is going to make it fall down.

Understanding how it's all put together would be a great help.

This is probably a list of books too rather than one. I'm prepared to put quite a bit of reading into this.

 

[OwainDIYer]

I don't mean that it tells you how to do all the trades. I mean how it is constructed.

Understanding how it's all put together would be a great help.

This is probably a list of books too rather than one. I'm prepared to put quite a bit of reading into this.

Chudley & Greeno, Building Construction Handbook.

 

[mointainwalker]

I don't think the book you want exists. One reason for this is that people have become much more afraid of being sued and so have stopped giving out information that they used to e.g. timber merchants and joist sizes for spans.

A few years ago when I started a major renovation I bought Collins book of DIY as an introduction to help me start and allow me to see which areas were particularly difficult and where I needed most help/advice.

I found this quite good, covering everything in a house in varying degrees of detail and have since seen it is often recommended as a good DIY guide.

Although I wasn't building a new house, I also bought the Housebuilders Bible as it gives lots of costings for things per m2 and this helped me to guess (I'm not in UK) what things might cost me.

Beyond that I did lots of web-searches and read lots of forum articles. DIYNOT is one of the best I found.

Good Luck

Edit : Looks like I may well have been wrong Having seen the post above I will order the Chudley and Greeno book.

 

[Nickam]

Around 30 years ago I purchased a set of 'Mitchell's Building Construction' which has served me very well, although it's a bit out of date now. It comes as 5 volumes but I don't know if it's still in print. I recently acquired the 4 volumes of 'Stubbs Building Encyclopaedia' at a National Trust second hand bookshop for £20 which was a good find although as it was published in 1950 is more out of interest for the old building methods, particularly the post war era.

 

[Static]

But joking aside Chudley is a solid purchase for almost all levels..

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

So long as you ignore any reference to relevant Building Regs that will have changed since its last publication, Part L in particular.

 

[Northbeach]

I was going to post this very same question!
Cheers - will grab a copy (which seems to be at a very decent price considering). Might this book list a few of the basic 'how to's' (such as type of brickwork) for a rank amateur such as myself?

 

[Static]

I was going to post this very same question!
Cheers - will grab a copy (which seems to be at a very decent price considering). Might this book list a few of the basic 'how to's' (such as type of brickwork) for a rank amateur such as myself?

Rank amateur well no, the book is more for general information about building make up and design.. if you want a how to book then its not going to help too much.. but let me show you a for instance:..

Lets say you want to know about window sills..
View media item 22487This is taken from the 3rd edition so the updated version wont be much different..

 

[Northbeach]

I was going to post this very same question!
Cheers - will grab a copy (which seems to be at a very decent price considering). Might this book list a few of the basic 'how to's' (such as type of brickwork) for a rank amateur such as myself?

Rank amateur well no, the book is more for general information about building make up and design.. if you want a how to book then its not going to help too much.. but let me show you a for instance:..

Lets say you want to know about window sills..
View media item 22487This is taken from the 3rd edition so the updated version wont be much different..

Actually, (and having a quick scan through the 'virtual pages' of the book) that seems just the ticket. I'm sure it would be really useful (if a little over my head at times).
Thanks.

 

[Static]

Should probably add latest version of this is 8th ed
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Co...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273752469&sr=8-2