How to Design, Build, Remodel & Maintain Your Home

With this comprehensive book, you will learn enough about construction materials and labor to save up to 70 percent on the cost of your home and still have a house mare sound than any ready-built structure. You will learn enough about creating a plan so that you or a professional builder can translate your dream into a reality. You will learn enough about good building methods to avoid the "high cost of cheap construction." Included in this volume is complete and detailed information on all the following topics: Basic Tools and Use * Doors and Windows * Site Selection * Exterior Finishes * Building and Zoning Laws * Interior Non-Bearing Partitions * How to Read Plans * Soundproofing * Preliminary Design Studies * Plumbing * Designing for the Physically Handicapped * Heating * Air Conditioning * Dangerproofing * Electricity * Cost Control * Solar Energy * Staking Out * Fire Stops * Introduction to Construction * Insulation and Energy-Saving Techniques * Foundations * Termites and Carpenter Ants * Ceiling Finishes * Floor Framing * Interior Wall Finishes * Wall Framing * Floor Finishes * Ceiling Framing * Interior Finishes * Roof Framing * Saunas * Plank and Beam Framing * Site Work * Sheathing * High Cost of Cheap Construction * Roof Covering * Construction Forms and Contracts Written simply enough for the layman to understand, with enough sophisticated knowledge and creative ideas for the professional, here's a book no home builder should be without.