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  • Published: 15 March 2006
  • ISBN: 9780091910839
  • Imprint: Ebury Press
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $135.00

Building Your Own Home 18th Edition



Expanded and updated, this is the first and the best book for anyone wanting to build their own home.

Hundreds of thousands of us renovate, convert, extend and improve our homes each year, and one-third of all new detached homes are self-built. If you're looking to build your own home from scratch or work on your existing property, this is the one and the only book that you really need.

Building Your Own Home has been updated and expanded by David Snell, acknowledged expert and guru in the field of self-build and it remains the best book on the subject. Packed with authoritative advice, charts, diagrams and photographs, this fully illustrated bible contains everything you need to know, from finding and buying a plot of land to explaining planning and building regulations, financing the project, buying materials and choosing the design. In addition, it also gives an insight into the costs and problems encountered by self-builders in a varied collection of case histories.

  • Published: 15 March 2006
  • ISBN: 9780091910839
  • Imprint: Ebury Press
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $135.00

About the author

David Snell

David Snell has been in the property and building industry for over four decades. He and his wife have undertaken ten self-builds, the last two of which, are featured in Building Your Own Home. He is a contributing editor to Homebuilding & Renovating magazine, an expert and columnist in the Daily Telegraph's Saturday Property Clinic, Bricks and Mortar and has been a consultant on various radio and television programmes. The co-author of The Home Plans Book and The New Home Plans Book, David was for many years a close friend and colleague of Murray Armor, the author of the first fifteen editions of Building Your Own Home. He now lives in a luxury self-built bungalow in Gloucester.

Praise for Building Your Own Home 18th Edition

Claiming to be the number one bible for self-builders everywhere, David Snell's Building Your Own Home [18th edition] is just that. His informative book manages to combine masses of information with a light touch...it's big draw is its usefulness to anyone doing up their existing home, since it gives details of new building regulations that came into force on 6 April 2006, plus up-to-date requirements for things such as boiling and rewiring. Hugely helpful and intelligent.

Evening Standard

[David Snell's] writing style is nicely accessible but reassuringly authoritative. He's like a dad who always knows best. The book covers every subject a self-builder needs to be aware of, from setting the budget to construction techniques. For practical advice I can't recommend this book enough.

Grand Designs

this is a book for the bedside table as well as the building site

Homebuilding and Renovating magazine

Updated and expanded this book is regarded as the `bible’ for self builders

Ulster Architect