How To Build an A-frame House Step-By-Step

Buying a house is something relatively easy to do. Anyone with some money in the bank and a good credit score can do that.

Building one is entirely a different story.

Building a house from scratch is an endurance game. It requires passion, vision and, in most cases, a real necessity.

A-frame houses are relatively easy to build if you buy a construction kit. However, the process requires commitment and good skills.

In this article, I want to make it very simple for you and put in your hands a list of practical steps to follow to make your house happen.

1. Know what you need

The first step would be to pick a model and start to plan with that in mind.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to pick a model if you do not have a crystal clear idea of what you want to do with it and what you need it for.

We stress a lot on the need to create your own vision first. We mean it. that’s how you should start.

2. Pick a model and set a figure

Once you know what you want to build, pick a house kit model.
Note we do not recommend to build the house from scratch (that’d be a suicidal mission). You need to start with a ready-made solution, a house kit, which has been designed and tested.
A home kit comes with no surprises.

If you use one of our kits, you can pick your model and get a quote.

The number you get is for the house kit only and, usually, you need to account double that number to get the house finished.
NB: to this number you have to add the cost of the land.

This is just to give you a ballpark figure of the budget you need to have in order to pull this off.

Before you start the project you’ll need to get into the fine details of the budget and account for everything you are gonna have to buy to finish up the house (more about this in a moment).

3. Can you afford it?

4. Pick a land

Needless to say, to build a house you need a piece of land.
If you have it already, good. If you don’t, now it is time to go looking for one. See the next points for tips on what to keep in mind.

5. Download drawings

Get the drawings for the particular model you chose and print them out.
You’ll need them in the next step when you go seek for preliminary approval.

6. Get a preliminary approval

To build a house you need permission from the Municipality.
It is a good idea to get a preliminary permission BEFORE you make any other move.

If you own a land already, you want to make sure you can build an A-frame house on it.

Despite being a very old type of construction, A-frame houses are seen sometimes as a novelty and they are not welcomed by approval authorities.

One of the biggest obstacles to approval is the slope fo the roof. Make sure your municipality is fine with it and that they are ready to give you approval on the particular piece of land you own.

If you do not own any land yet, you have the luxury to iterate the process until you find a location where they allow you to build your dream home.

Countryside locations tend to have less constrains in terms of what one can build.

7. Plan everything in detail

If you get this far you are in the 1% of people who stand by their desires and take action to shape their reality.

At this point, you need to start planning the works, get a clear idea of all the material and services you need to order and how much it will all cost.

To help you with this, we have two guides:

• the 100 Questions Guide (44 pages), which deals with the mindset of building a home from scratch and teaches you 100+ important things you should pay attention to.
• the Budgeting Guide (30 pages + spreadsheet), which helps you to figure out the total cost for your build.

Both guides are useful tools that can be used to build any type of house (not just A-frames).

Do not be overwhelmed by the homework you have to do in this step. It is totally feasible and we are willing to help.

8. Get your finances straight

With the full budget you prepared, go meet your bank and secure a loan for the construction.

In case you don’t need one. congratulations, you can jump to the next step.

Note that banks appreciate details and they’ll love the budget you’ll prepare using our budgeting guide.

Also, the more detailed the budget, the fewer surprises you’ll have to face during construction.

9. Order the kit

Time to order the house kit and to book all the other services you’ll need to finish up the house.

If you wonder what those other services would be, the 100 Questions Guide is a good place to start to shed clarity on that.

10. Build the foundation

The foundation must be ready before the kit arrives on your property.

You need to prepare the property of the works, to arrange groundworks and build the foundation properly.

You can find some tips in this article.

11. Assemble the structure

Once you get the kit, you need to put it together on the foundation you already built.

The assembly work can be done by you and your family (or friends) or by local carpenters.
A combination of both will also work. Ultimately it is up to you how to set up this phase of the work.

12. Make it weathertight

Getting the house weatherproof is your number one priority at this point.

With the kit, you’ll get the windproofing membrane, the roof cover, the windows. With those components you can quickly close the house, so you can start working «indoor».

13. Install the insulation

Then next thing you want to do is to install the insulation material in the roof and in the front and back walls.

Insulation takes a lot of space. For this reason, it is not delivered with the kit. You have to source it locally.

Insulation shall be installed properly since it has the important function to keep your house warm. There is no room for error here.

14. Install the air-tight layer

The insulation needs to be protected from the inside with a vapor membrane that shields the insulation material from the humid indoor air.

Failure to shield the insulation properly will cause vapor to penetrate into the insulation and to condensate.
Wet insulation loses its thermal properties and, over time, it will rot and generate mold.

Getting the house air-tight is a must.
You should plan to make a door-blower test to check how air-tight you managed to make it.

15. Finish the exterior

16. Technical installations

Next, you can now start working inside. It is time to take care of:

• electricity
• plumbing
• ventilation
• heating
• eventual fireplace or stove

Some of these technical installations need special licenses to be put together. You should check with your municipality on what you are allowed to do yourself and what you must contract to a specialized company.

In any case, those things should be planned well in advance and budgeted to the finest detail.

17. Finish the interiors

Interior finishing works include:

• closing up everything with wooden boards (or gypsum boards if that’s your wish)
• installing stairs
• installing flooring material
• installing window and floor trims
• painting the interiors
• tiling the bathroom and the kitchen
• installing bathroom-ware
• installing kitchen-ware

18. Furnish it up

When you get here, most of the work is done.

It is time to give some personality to your new home.

Buy the stuff you want to have inside and turn the empty space into a cozy nest for your family.

19. Clean up the site

No, you are not done yet.
Outside everything is a mess. You need to clean it up.

Wood scraps, board cuts, wiring, stones.

It usually takes more than one season to clean the site properly. unless you order this as a service.

20. Landscaping works

Once the house is done and the property is cleaned up, you should still have some space in your budget to plant some trees and make your piece of land look like a small paradise.

Conclusions

Congratulations!
You made it to the very end of this article and you should now have a better picture of all the steps you need to take to build an A-frame house. or any kind of kit home for that matter.

It is a lot of work and there are a lot of details you should not overlook.

Building a house from scratch is not something you can do without preparation. so make sure you allocate enough time to get proper knowledge.

To learn and try out DIY building, we have released detailed drawings of our smallest house Solo Hobby. It includes list of all materials and tools it is needed to build this house. It is available in our E-store. The link to that can be found here.

What next?

You can go and browse our energy and cost-efficient A-frame models or get useful knowledge about building your own home (hassle-free) by getting our Self-building Guides.

How to Build a House

Last Updated: September 28, 2020 References Approved

This article was co-authored by Steve Linton. Steve Linton is the President of Deltec Homes, a custom home building company in Asheville, North Carolina. With nearly 20 years of experience, he oversees all home building projects for Deltec Homes. He specializes in hurricane-resistant homes, green home design, and sustainable building. Steve holds a BS in Structural Engineering from Cornell University and is a LEED Accredited Professional.

wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article has 39 testimonials from our readers, earning it our reader-approved status.

This article has been viewed 2,369,261 times.

Building your dream home can be one of the most exciting and rewarding projects you can undertake. Getting the opportunity to plan out each step of the process and make the decisions about your building project is a big responsibility, and can be overwhelming for even the most experienced do-it-yourselfers. Taking the scope of the project into account before you get started can help make the process go a lot more smoothly. Learn the proper ways to find the right location, design your home, acquire the correct permits, and breaking ground. See Step 1 to learn how to get started building your own house.

Steve Linton
Custom Home Builder Expert Interview. 16 September 2020.

Before you hire or consult an architect, find out what management services the firm may or may not provide. Some architecture firms will help hire contractors they know and trust, as well as consult and inspect the contractor’s work as it progresses, making necessary revisions and additions as the work progresses. This can be a significant headache relief in the process. [3] X Research source

Before building, you’ll need to submit plans to the city or county building commission for approval. Unless you’re an experienced architect, it’ll be very difficult to produce the necessary to-scale production drawings and engineering specs necessary for approval. To save time, energy, and money, it’s recommended that you consult a professional and work alongside them to design the home you want.

Steve Linton
Custom Home Builder Expert Interview. 16 September 2020.

Kitchens may benefit the most from exterior light, so think about what time a ray of sunshine in the kitchen will offer the best results. Late afternoon may be cooking and dish washing time, so it may be best to orient the kitchen towards the west to take advantage. Larger windows on the north/south face of your house will also help heat the house through solar gain in colder climates.

If you live on the northern hemisphere, build your windows facing the south. If you live on the southern hemisphere, build your windows facing the north.

How to build a house step by step

Many residents of big cities are now increasingly thinking about buying or building a private home away from the bustle and closer to nature. Some people will use it solely for relaxation, and others want to move there forever. How to build a house step by step? What are the main home construction tips?
The house building is not so simple, and in order to the implementation of this process may not be seemed as something too distant and impossible, it should be divided into stages and carefully analyzed. Before the learning how to build a house you need to select the building plot and create a project for the construction.

Special companies will always help to make a project that needs a specific customer. If you have special skills and knowledge, you can create a project on your own, and this will be the most effective solution. But remember that it is better to play it safe and entrust this work to professionals rather than later to fail when the construction is almost completed. If all the preparations are completed, you can start the building process.
Following building materials for the house construction are especially popular today:

1. Wood. Wooden houses are now in fashion again. This type of homes is built fast and it is environmentally friendly. Its downside is a fire hazard and readily combustible material type. However, this problem can be easily solved with the help of special fire-fighting equipment.
2. Brick. It is the most reliable material for a house, but also one of the most expensive. A brick is resistant to fire and incredibly durable. This material will serve faithfully for decades.
3. Concrete blocks. Their heat insulating characteristics are much lower than the brick ones, but also their price is lower. Overall, it is a good option for those who prefer to make a strong and reliable house and still save some extra money. Buildings made of concrete blocks look great over the years and are quite reliable, but need additional insulation.

Foundation installation

A house cannot be created without the foundation that is its base. The foundation should be designed by experts who take into account types, sizes, materials of a construction, especially soil and the depth of its frost penetration, regional terrain.
Types of foundation:

The foundation construction starts with the excavation. It also includes the installation of a sand cushion. The next step is the formwork installation that is the carcass of the future foundation. For durability and perfect connection in a formwork there should be used an armature carcass. The finished construction is filled with concrete. After concrete hardening this formwork is removed.

Walling

Wall covering can be:

1. Wooden
2. Monolithic
3. Reinforced concrete slabs.

It is enough to lay wooden plank beams in a single-storey home. Two or more storey houses require concrete beams. Speaking about concrete slabs the using of concrete slabs is the easiest way to make this work quickly. Monolithic slabs are more complicated and labor-intensive constructions, but some interesting projects because of their features need exactly them.

Roofing ways

A roof is constructed in two phases: the installation of carcass and then a roof. The roof carcass is made of wooden beams. The roof itself resembles a real layer cake.
As roofing materials there can be used:

• metal tiles;
• roof decking;
• flexible tiles;
• composite tiles;
• natural tiles;
• onduline;
• onduvilla
• seam roof;
• soft roof.

Windows and doors installation

Window openings are placed with plastic or aluminum prepared products in a complete set with sills and flows. Doorways are installed with metal, aluminum or metal and plastic doors. Now up-and-sliding aluminum doors or portals are very popular for cottages and private houses. They look stylish, expensive and they are very reliable and functional.

Finishing choice

A great choice for facade finishing and decorating can be siding – wood, vinyl or simulated beams, cement, stone and other materials. The next step is mandatory lathing coverage with refractory and antiseptic compositions. Then, the façade decorative finishing should to be performed. The technology of this process depends on selected materials.

House insulation

So you are almost aware of how to build a house. Now you need to qualitatively insulate all parts: a roof, floors, walls. The insulation is inserted between beams and covered with foil for waterproofing.