Any good build-related books?

[Mulberry View]

The missus is nagging me to buy books as we consider kicking off our self-build project.

 

Any suggestions?

[Declan52]

The main one would be this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Housebuilders-Bible-13-Mark-Brinkley/dp/1916016804

But it all depends on how much knowledge and experience you already have. To be honest if you read each blog here you would pick up as much info as in that book plus some of it might be more specific to your own type of build.

[Onoff]

37 minutes ago, christianbeccy said:

The missus is nagging me to buy books as we consider kicking off our self-build project.

 

Any suggestions?

 

I can recommend the Steve Jobs biography. Sit back and have a read and let her do everything! ?

[Gone West]

48 minutes ago, christianbeccy said:

Any suggestions?

These are some I've collected over the last 40 years.

 

[Ferdinand]

The two that I have found most enjoyable in the last year or six have been garden creation ones, not self-build. But then I have seen the size of your garden ? .

 

A Garden and Three Houses, which is about an architect and partner (who did most of the roof) who built their very modest house in about 1965, and still live there, and their developing pattern of life over the time. A couple of years ago I asked him how he dealt with the current planning system. Came the reply: "I got out of that side in the 1980s".

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Garden-Three-Houses-Architect-Aldingtons/dp/0956495303

 

And

Gardens of a Golden Afternoon, which is about the collaboration between Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gardens-Golden-Afternoon-Partnership-Gertrude/dp/014008021X

 

Both very very good on the art of combining indoor and outdoor living, and the littoral zone in between.

 

Not sure if all my arch. books are in one shelf, or would fit in one.

 

F

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, christianbeccy said:

The missus is nagging me to...

 

Delegate.

[Ferdinand]

2 minutes ago, ToughButterCup said:

 

Delegate.

Or obey.

[Thorfun]

1 hour ago, PeterStarck said:

These are some I've collected over the last 40 years.

 

what was that David Snell book like?

 

and can you give us your top 5 (or top X) of those books?

[Gone West]

14 hours ago, Thorfun said:

what was that David Snell book like?

 

and can you give us your top 5 (or top X) of those books?

The David Snell book covers all aspects of a self build from sourcing a plot onwards but doesn't specialise in any particular type of build. The Green Building Bible covers all aspects of low energy type builds. The Green Self Build Book covers the same area as GBB but in less detail and it also covers the Segal Build Method and gives examples of individual builds. Some books provide inspiration rather than technical knowledge but for me those three were the most useful.

[Thorfun]

40 minutes ago, PeterStarck said:

The David Snell book covers all aspects of a self build from sourcing a plot onwards but doesn't specialise in any particular type of build. The Green Building Bible covers all aspects of low energy type builds. The Green Self Build Book covers the same area as GBB but in less detail and it also covers the Segal Build Method and gives examples of individual builds. Some books provide inspiration rather than technical knowledge but for me those three were the most useful.

thanks. I've read Brinkley's HBB a few times and also Tim Pullen's Sustainable building bible for the green side. both were really good and I found them very useful. I've just been wondering if it would be worth getting another perspective on some more of the technical side of things but, tbh, this forum is giving me most of what I need now.