| Everything is as close to code as possible. I wouldn't wire a range 12-2 willingly but then again I wouldn't hesitate to use one on a 12-2 and then put a 20 amp breaker on it if I had to, and only use one or two burners at a time until I figured out what I could get away with without tripping the breaker :) The NM-B I use is rated for temps well above the steady-state temp at the breaking amperage so the normal 20% derate wouldn't be much a concern. Not having plans meant I was able to figure out how to do everything, including framing etc on the fly. This made it possible to do the project without having to know everything up front which in my mind would be pretty much impossible for a newcomer. I did not even know how I was going to frame the roof until the walls were already framed. I believe pretty much everything on my house meets code but it was almost entirely built to the absolute IRC minimum. I believe part of the savings are the fact I took a lot of risks a builder would never take or at least not without a premium, including buying an unproven well share that worked out perfectly and saved me $~50k over havign to drill my own, doing all my own utility extensions ( DIY underground 200 amp power extension and water main are big ones), and buying unproven land without utilities. It took me 6 months to even get electric connected and it was fortunate I was an electrical engineer who was able to work with the power engineers to get a solution to get power for cheap. I worked with the utility to get exempted from their inspections too so they let me wire the secondary side service entry myself and install the service entry hardware myself. The lack of inspections though are what made it all possible, because I was able to work a day job and do work on the house on nights/weekends and not have to quit my job to be around during the day for a bunch of inspections. Square footage definitely a big one. The width of the house was the max size of off-the-shelf dimensional lumber so I was able to build the entire house with no engineered lumber and no load bearing structures anywhere in the interior of the perimeter of the house. I also used 6" grouted cmu foundation which is extremely rare (well normal in latin america) but meets code. But the biggest savigns were probably just that I was able to do everything DIY without worrying about it getting inspected and then having to do it all over again because an inspector disagreed with something. If it were inspected I probably would have had to hire someone to help me. |