Books

DON’T MISS MY ARCHITECTURAL SPECIFICATION GUIDE FOR VINYL SIDING (FREE!)

By putting the power of good design details and recommended installation practices within your aesthetic control, you can take advantage of the cost benefits of Architectural Polymers without compromising your architectural intent. This book offers you downloadable CAD and SketchUp models to use as well as specification templates and even a neighborhood design code in editable formats.

Library of Cost-Effective Building Solutions

Building An Affordable House (Second Edition)

The book Building an Affordable House (Second Edition) originated from a landmark article two decades ago, evolving into a bestselling guide due to its popularity. The upcoming second edition addresses cost-effective building in today’s economic climate, providing updated insights and practical advice for both new constructions and renovations. After 17 years, this update includes new code information, sustainable building techniques, and safe, effective cost-saving methods. It aims to help homeowners build better for less by balancing marketability, quality, and price.

Affordable Remodel: How to Get Custom Results on a Penny-Pincher Budget

Affordable Remodel is designed to simplify the remodeling process, helping you make the right decisions and avoid costly pitfalls, even on a tight budget. This guide reveals how to save money without compromising on quality, offering the know-how to achieve your ideal home updates while staying within budget. Whether your home needs a minor refresh or a major overhaul, “Affordable Remodel” provides practical advice to help you complete your projects with change to spare.

Housing the Nation: Social Equity, Architecture, and the Future of Affordable Housing

This book addresses America’s affordable housing crisis with insights from scholars, advocates, and architects. It features images of recent affordable housing projects and essays exploring the history and extent of the crisis, community housing solutions, links between housing and climate change, and the impact of racial discrimination. Highlighting diverse strategies and potential solutions, the book includes contributions from experts like Dean Baker, Richard Florida, Rosanne Haggerty, and more.

Building an Affordable House: Trade Secrets to High-Value, Low-Cost Construction

“Building An Affordable House” is essential for builders, developers, and homeowners looking to maximize their construction or remodel budget. The book offers insider techniques used by top homebuilders to save thousands on each project. It helps you add curb appeal on a budget, cut costs while maintaining quality, build savings into blueprints, reduce material costs, and get subcontractors on board early.

Architectural Design for Traditional Neighborhoods

Our nation’s sixty-some years of experimentation with conventional suburban development – by which we mean large tracts of low-density, car-dependent, singlefamily houses – have been proven socially, culturally, and environmentally destructive. It is also an expensive way to build. To provide a better alternative, we offer builders this book, Architectural Design for Traditional Neighborhoods, focusing on the design elements needed to create compact, diverse, and walkable neighborhoods – places where healthy communities can thrive. Also, to ensure high-quality aesthetic standards, we suggest how to develop a harmonious architecture for traditional neighborhoods.

Shallow Foundation Design, Construction, and Repair

SAVE MONEY USING SHALLOW FROST PROTECTED FOUNDATIONS AND OTHER ADVANCED METHODS
A step-by-step guide to shallow foundation design, construction, and repair by someone who has built many.