How many months, working alone, did I build the walls of a two-story house? Chronology of each stage

Roofing work has begun and the results of the construction of the walls of the house can be summed up. I wrote about the cost of their construction in this article: House for a million. I tell you at what stage of construction I ended this amount. And what about the construction time, how long did the construction take? I built it myself, only in some nodes I resorted to the help of a construction team for a couple of hours.

I think this information will be useful for those who want to start building with their own hands. But first I will answer the question: why did I start building on my own, and not hiring builders? The first is, of course, savings. During the winter period you collect funds and spend them during the season. No credits. Second: if you want to do well, do it yourself (if you know how and you like it). The brigades in their eternal haste make no fewer, if not more, mistakes.

So, the slab foundation was poured in 2018. According to the technology of insulated fixed formwork with stiffeners and blind area. It took three months, working evenings and weekends. For a long time I cast formwork slabs.

The beginning of the construction of the walls - May 15, 2020 Two weeks before that, I was making a machine for cutting aerated concrete. It took several days to lay the first row and reinforce it. Further - faster. For the evening I laid out half a row.

I came to the window lintels only at the end of June. Construction from 400 mm aerated concrete blocks turned out to be not so quick and easy. A lot of invisible work: grouting of each row, gutting for reinforcement of every fourth row, dust removal, etc.

He poured lintels using fixed formwork technology into homemade U-blocks only by mid-July.

Filled the armopoyas by August 22. There was also a lot of work: to insulate the contour of the permanent formwork from blocks 100 mm wide, to tie and raise the reinforced frames, to install the formwork.

The overlapping of slabs was installed by the PC by the end of August. And their fine-tuning: anchoring, filling the openings between them - was completed by September 10. The program was completed for at least a season. But the construction continued further, as long as the weather permitted.

End of September. The blocks were immediately lifted onto the floors by the manipulator of the truck.

The season ended on October 30th, when temperatures began to be sustained below zero. Although I worked with winter glue, the work itself was not at all comfortable at all.

Season 2021 started as early as possible. There was still snow in some places. He poured a lintel in the load-bearing wall, began laying the internal partition walls.

To speed up the process, I purchased factory window lintels for the rest of the openings and, with the help of three workers, installed them (early May).

Completed the outer walls by 10 May. Further, throughout May, he was engaged in laying the internal walls (with ventilation ducts) and made the pouring of a monolithic section between the slabs (the opening for the chimney).

In early June, he started the installation of a monolithic floor using the MARCO technology.

An article about it here

The whole June took this editing, I did everything myself. Only in one place did the builders help to put the formwork. Filled overlap on July 4th. The roof is made by builders. Working with wood is not mine. Yes, and it's hard, for a long time, to build a roof alone.

It took me ten calendar months to work on the construction of the walls of the house with ceilings, working in the evenings (of course, not every evening) and on weekends. I also keep track of costs and even enter the number of trips (to understand the approximate cost of gasoline). In 2020 there were 177 trips to the site during the season.

Before starting to build with your own hands, you need to weigh not only the financial issue, but the issue of time, motivation and even your physical strength. And when building materials become more expensive every month (in 2021), it happens and demotivates. I wish you all strength if you decided on this.

© Author's photos