# cabin for under $10,000?



## moonspinner

I am considering a piece of property to have a cabin built on. Is it realistic to build a year-round, insulated cabin around 700 square feet - one bedroom, small kitchen and bath for under 10K?


----------



## bignugly

If you include septic system and a well for water, you probably can't unless you do work yourself and find cheap(low cost) building materials.


----------



## AVanarts

Our well cost $10,000 and that didn't include the pump or pipes.

Our cabin is 720 sq ft on the main floor with a loft about half that size. Just the materials came to a lot more than $10,000.

If you don't have to build to code and put up with inspections and such you may get the cost down.


----------



## HermitJohn

Used single wide mobile cheapest per square foot you are going to find. Many places will pay you to take them since mobile home courts dont want them and govts now ban them. You cant buy conventional construction materials to build house cheaper. You might dry in a concrete block shell for money you have if you do all labor. People have, for decades, built concrete block basements and just put roof over them to live in until they had money. Lot easier to heat than above ground block buildings. Or metal prefab building. Now if you have loads of time and native materials like logs and stone, and you do all labor, sure. People have built homes from native materials and sweat labor for eons. Without any cash!

Wells vary greatly in cost depending where and how deep. You can get kits and drill your own, most likely need well to be under 100 foot to make it practical. Going deeper pretty much requires a professional with professional equipment. or if you find water fairly shallow, you can hand dig a well or drive a sand point.....


----------



## jwal10

It costs me about $16,000 to build 400 sq ft. with heat, hot water, bathroom and electrical. Built on concrete foundation. I reuse what I can and buy closouts. I do all the work myself except my Nephew helps me set the trusses and lay sheathing and he does the roofing....James


----------



## francismilker

I think your question has a lot of variables. If you have most of the building materials on the property and want to build a plain home without central heat and air and a hot tub in the bathroom I think it can be done. (Especially if you're willing to rummage and look for items to be recycled)


----------



## vicker

I built my 16x16' cabin for around under $2000. That included most of the materials for a 12x16 addition. No wiring or plumbing, no well. I bought most of the lumber at the hardwood tie mill I where I worked.


----------



## Qhorseman

I built the 16X24 main cabin in 2003 for $800. I used alot of salvage materials from a house I tore down. I am now at 860 sq.ft and about $25,000.


----------



## kvr28

I am currently building a 16x18 earthbag building, I'll give you total price when done


----------



## clovis

I agree...lots of variables.


----------



## Helena

Ever consider putting up a ..Yurt...Granddaughter is looking forward to getting hers.. I think they are a wonderful home and since you don't need a foundation you can consider them without a permit and inspections. Look into them...


----------



## rsbhunter

I am interested in this as well...i have been on a home improvments store website, and placing lumber in cart to see how it adds up...i am building a 20x30 cabin (minimum sq ft allowed) and need to keep it as cheap as possible. I am considering building on concrete piers, poured by myself, as a pad would probably run $2000.00 by itself. I have bought a generator, small air compressor, and a framing nail gun, as i am building this by myself. My land is located at 10,000 ft, and having ANYTHING done is expensive, as i am not close to any good size town......but i am considering doing the form myself IF i go with a floating slab.....A whole lot of options!!!!!!!! Iv'e already invested almost $10,000 in a solar system, less batteries, which i'll buy when i'm ready to move on to the place.....so far, just lumber for base, walls, and part of roofing is at $2500.00 i thought it would be higher, but it does not include any windows, doors, elec, or inside finish.......rsbhunter


----------



## Qhorseman

rsbhunter, is it legal to build on treated posts in your area? I used CCA treated posts for my foundation. Its 6X6's set in the ground with built up girders on top. Then just frame the floor as normal on top of them. I used treated lumber for my floor joists also. I insulated the floor with R13 then covered that with house wrap. I then used treated fence boards for skirting in a board and batten patttern. Its has worked fine for me with no settling to date. I was able to do this without any outside help. A neighbor kindly dug the post holes with his fence post auger, they are set 4' deep on a quick-crete footing then back filled with gravel to keep water away from the post. 

Lowes has decently priced stock windows.


----------



## Esteban29304

HermitJohn said:


> Used single wide mobile cheapest per square foot you are going to find. Many places will pay you to take them since mobile home courts dont want them and govts now ban them. You cant buy conventional construction materials to build house cheaper. You might dry in a concrete block shell for money you have if you do all labor. People have, for decades, built concrete block basements and just put roof over them to live in until they had money. Lot easier to heat than above ground block buildings. Or metal prefab building. Now if you have loads of time and native materials like logs and stone, and you do all labor, sure. People have built homes from native materials and sweat labor for eons. Without any cash!
> 
> Wells vary greatly in cost depending where and how deep. You can get kits and drill your own, most likely need well to be under 100 foot to make it practical. Going deeper pretty much requires a professional with professional equipment. or if you find water fairly shallow, you can hand dig a well or drive a sand point.....


 Hard to beat for cheap living,,


----------



## Adamb

Check out the store called "Restore" run by "Habitat for Humanity", they sell leftover/extra/unneeded household goods & building materials for between 5~20Â¢ on the dollar. Everything basically brand new good quality stuff & the profits go to support "Habitat for Humanity" (they build housing for people in need, they're a good group). Yeah you need to be flexible, building around finds & you don't know what will be in stock at that point but for the price its certainly worth any extra hassle. Originally I was going to buy most of my purchased goods from them but I can't now. Still that does not mean you can't use the resource.

Adamb


----------



## doc66

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qghZ2ao7GKM]How to build a 14x14 solar cabin - YouTube[/ame]

Also, check out Home - Simple Solar Homesteading

He has a book about how he built his cabin and a video walk through of the cabin as well. It was built for $2000. 

You can cut the water cost by capturing rain water, and depending on your water usage (cut back on those frivolous things like long showers and high flush toilets) you can dispense with a well, depending on the rainfall in your area and the square footage of your catchment system.


----------



## old school

I looked at a few yurts they seem nice but don't know how durable they are in the long run.


----------



## bignugly

doc66 said:


> How to build a 14x14 solar cabin - YouTube
> 
> Also, check out Home - Simple Solar Homesteading
> 
> He has a book about how he built his cabin and a video walk through of the cabin as well. It was built for $2000.
> 
> You can cut the water cost by capturing rain water, and depending on your water usage (cut back on those frivolous things like long showers and high flush toilets) you can dispense with a well, depending on the rainfall in your area and the square footage of your catchment system.


He was talking about 700 square foot cabin and this is only 196 s.f. So if he is building a 196 sf cabin for $2000 then a 700 sf house would cost roughly $7150.


----------



## janetn

You could get the shell and slab foundation done for that. But wiring and plumbing - no . Im not even considering the cost of a well and septic, just the plumbing and wiring inside the house. That stuff aint cheap. Been there and done that. We built a 768 square ft house and have lots more than that in it. Also we did it 17 years ago before the increased costs hit copper and cement among other things.


----------



## fishhead

If your code allows it people have built some nice well insulated homes out of straw bales and cob. We have some commercial buildings in the area built from those 400 lb bales. They get most of their heat from solar collectors.


----------



## KMA1

There is no single correct answer to your question. You have to define who will be building it, what is included, what the design is, what materials you are willing to use and where you are going to be building, and what the actually site looks like. Unless you define these things, its anybody's guess.


----------



## Plowpoint

My house started out as a single floor 24 x 24 (576 sq feet) garage on a concrete slab, and was living in it with a well and septic for 5 grand. I did everything myself, from pouring the concrete to putting in my septic, but the biggest cost savings was using my own wood to provide the lumber. Here you can have lumber sawn out for 18 cents a board foot, so it would only cost a person about $630 to have enough lumber sawn out to build a 700 square foot home...If you have the trees to work with. (Roughly 3500 board feet)

My home had some humble beginnings that is for sure, and people laughed at my little house, but it has grown to a whopping 2400 square feet, and by the time I am done, it will probably be around 3200 square feet. I would say 90% of the wood in this house came from the woodlot here, and by cutting pulpwood and selling it to the papermills for the non-wood related stuff like shingles, propane boilers, etc, I've done a lot for very little.

People are not laughing now. While they have been stuck in the same sized home, with outdated home styles, and paying a mortgage payment, I got the freedom to add and change as I want. It has taken a lot of hard work, but its been rewarding.


----------



## Esteban29304

HermitJohn said:


> Used single wide mobile cheapest per square foot you are going to find. Many places will pay you to take them since mobile home courts dont want them and govts now ban them. You cant buy conventional construction materials to build house cheaper. You might dry in a concrete block shell for money you have if you do all labor. People have, for decades, built concrete block basements and just put roof over them to live in until they had money. Lot easier to heat than above ground block buildings. Or metal prefab building. Now if you have loads of time and native materials like logs and stone, and you do all labor, sure. People have built homes from native materials and sweat labor for eons. Without any cash!
> 
> Wells vary greatly in cost depending where and how deep. You can get kits and drill your own, most likely need well to be under 100 foot to make it practical. Going deeper pretty much requires a professional with professional equipment. or if you find water fairly shallow, you can hand dig a well or drive a sand point.....


 +1. 
I recently saw a pretty well built , new , smaller single wide for $15,000, delivered, set up, with a heat pump. Hard to beat that price. 2 bedrooms, nice living area, kitchen, & 1 bathroom. Even much cheaper if you get an older used one.


----------



## Batt

I am in the process (ongoing) of building a 900 s/f cabin with a 30'x10' front porch. So far the materials have cost less than $10,000. Outside is complete and I'm ready for the wiring (purchased yesterday), insulation and drywall. This should put me just over $11,000. I used free take-out windows from a contractor friend. Community water well and sewer were already in when land was purchased. Electric was already on site, just needed to run the last 50' or so. I figure $13,000 total by the time I add drywall finishing, kitchen furnishing, light fixtures and cheap flooring. No inspections, no permits no engineering drawings. BTWurchased a lot of the materials at Lowe's using 10% discount.


----------



## MushCreek

Just to give you an idea of what effect location can have- A friend of mine in CT is currently building a house for a customer. It is on wetlands, and the permits and fees have run to $66,000 so far. That's Sixty-six THOUSAND dollars! By contrast, my fully inspected house here in SC cost $480 for permits. There's no way you could build it for $10K and pass all of our inspections, though. You'd have to be in a non-inspection area for that.


----------



## jwal10

xxxxxxxxx


----------



## clovis

I think much of it has to do with where you are building, how much material you can salvage or get for free, how much work you need to hire, and how quickly you need to move in.


----------



## gobug

Ditto to a lot of the comments above.

I add time to the list. 

If you have an abundance of free time and free materials and you do not care about the value when you are finished, of course you can do it for $10K. If you are in a hurry, and want the value to improve as you invest time and money, you will not be able to do it for $10K.

What is your time worth? How long must that $10K last. Can it be refunded as needed?

Then add resale value. If you must, for whatever reason, relocate, what would you do with something you can't sell. If you do it off the record (permits etc) you will get nothing for your time except a place to sleep.


----------

