Construction Planning

The cost of building a home can vary widely, depending on the size of your house, geographic location and interior finishes. However, we have a breakdown of average costs for you.

By Dave Roos

Many homes in rural parts of the U.S. rely on well water rather than city water. But well water has pros and cons that city people may never have considered.

By Nathan Chandler

If you study a brick wall, it looks simple enough. It's just a stack of bricks and some mortar to hold everything together, right? The job takes a bit more experience than you'd think.

By Jane McGrath

Sure, you can remove most walls, but if you try to remove a load-bearing wall, your entire house could come crashing down around you -- or will it?

By Allison Wachtel

More than just a couple nails here and a few screws there, a construction project is a complex commercial enterprise that draws on a variety of workers, tools and materials. At the helm is a construction project manager.

By Chris Opfer

Cleaning gutters is certainly no fun, but it's a job that has to be done. Unless you have gutter guards, and then it's a job that you have to do a lot less. We'll show you how to install them.

By Mark Boyer

The simplest ingredients -- stone, gravity, ingenuity -- still create, for some of us, the most perfect solution for building. Get ready to assemble your own long-lasting stone masterpiece.

By Jacob Clifton

Dreaming of busting up that large room you never use and turning it into two smaller ones? Here are some best practices for putting up an interior wall, no matter what sort of space you're starting out with.

By John Kelly

Home remodels can range from the extensive (can you say money pit?) to the everyday (a new roof, perhaps?). When fixing up your digs, do you always need to pull a permit? We'll explain why getting approval is prudent in this article.

By Gerlinda Grimes

If you've outgrown your home but don't want to (or can't) move, it may be time for a "renovation intervention." Here are some ways to expand your existing floor space.

By Colleen Cancio

Is your new home proceeding on schedule or is your contractor just blowing smoke at you? Here's how to tell.

By Becky Striepe

Is your contractor buying shoddy materials, then pocketing the remainder of the dough you gave him for quality materials? Yep, it's time to fire him.

By Garth Sundem

The identical ranks of cookie-cutter neighborhoods have been immortalized (and often satirized) in American pop culture, but who first came up with the idea for these "little boxes on the hillside?"

By Kate Kershner

These days, homeowners have add-on options that previous generations could only dream of. From integrated electronics to secret rooms, we'll scope out 10 of the best.

By Shanna Freeman

While some people use the terms "general contractor" and "construction manager" interchangeably, these are actually two different jobs. What specific role do construction managers play in building projects big and small?

By Melanie Radzicki McManus

It's tough to read house plans when they're thick with seemingly cryptic symbols. How can you interpret their mysterious language?

By Garth Sundem

Renovating your home is a big job. But making a mistake before or during construction can make the job even bigger. Here are 10 to avoid.

By Becky Striepe

Building permits are the way counties, towns and municipalities enforce their codes to ensure that all buildings meet minimum safety and structural standards. When do you need one, and what does the process of getting one entail?

By John Kelly

Before any major remodeling job, you have to accurately measure the work space. Learn about how to square a building in this article.

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

A prototype is like a model of an idea for a new product. Learn what prototypes are in this article.

By HowStuffWorks.com Contributors

More than two million homes were built at the height of the housing boom. That means that a lot of contractors had to construct a lot of homes -- and cut a few corners -- to fulfill an insatiable demand. Of course, some things went wrong. Here are five possible culprits.

By Dave Roos

Shotgun houses are modestly built and constructed in very close proximity to one another. Despite their simplicity, they are ornately decorated -- and culturally significant.

By Josh Clark

You may be sitting in your house this very second, but do you have any idea what it took to build it? From foundation to framing, these home construction pictures will show you the stages of building a house.

You meet with a contractor to go over the plans and budgets. He shows up to start the job, and he's got three different companies with him. So what are you paying him for?

By Heather Kolich

Today's log cabins can come equipped with polished hardwood floors, great rooms, cathedral ceilings, picture windows, two-car garages, septic-tank plumbing, solar panels and floor plans of up to 5,000 square feet.

By Eleanor Duse