TIP:An efficient way to build houses(2x less material!)

[ABJ]

Hello all
I don't know if this is already on the forums or wiki (and you probably know what I'd say next :D ) So I'm not gonna brag, but here's a tip for efficient building. This tip may not work so well at the start, but with a little mining, (2 steel only to make screwdriver) and of course your building materials, it will work fine.
The trick is, make your house out of slabs. Now this may sound crazy at first, but if done right, it will let you build your house with 2x less wood (or a 2x bigger house whichever why you like :D) Heres how you do it.

METHOD 1: The Screwdriver
You have to first make slabs of whatever material block your using, and just build walls and ceiling out of it. Now use aforementioned screwdriver to rotate the slabs by rightclicking them with the screwdriver selected until they fit in and close the gaps.

METHOD 2: Standing on walls(If you don't have screwdriver)
In this method you stand on top of the walls you are building and place slabs while looking down. And to make ceiling, get inside the walls onto the ground, and elevate yourself using blocks placed underfoot (or /fly on servers that allow it)
until your eyes are aligned with the top of the walls, and aim at the top slab of the walls and start placing slabs. The reason why you have to make house this way is because otherwise the slabs tend to spawn in such a way that the walls and ceilings look like floating shelves. This method is actually the more complicated because of this, so the screwdriver method is actually recommended due to you simply being able to stand on the ground and built the whole thing.

Sorry if my post is a bit confusing or unstructured because I'm not used to posting stuff like this

Feel free to correct mistakes in my post as I am a bit of a noob and have just discovered this.

If you don't understand, tell me and I will try to post a photo/video of this being done (or can someone else try too who can maybe do voiceovers using mike because I can't as I have no mike (and also I probably wouldn't want to if I did :D )). :)

[12Me21]

Cool. the only problems are:
-corners. in some cases you can use stairs, but you would also need a different shaped block, shaped like the empty space in a stair block.
-not really worth it. with the time spent building like this, you could have gotten more materials.
and
-you can't build right next to the wall on one of the sides.
-you can only use materials that can be made into slabs

Also, I have another way: You could build a box out of dirt, and place the slabs on the outside.

[Sokomine]

The reason why I often use slabs for my houses is not saving materials. Thinner walls sometimes make houses look far more intresting than one node thick ones. As for floors and ceilings, make sure that you put the slabs from below on the underside of a node so that they'll form a surface you can build on. Else it does get very challenging.
And: Big houses are not the best :-) Build in size according to your capabilities. Huge houses take far more time to complete than smaller ones. But using slabs is a good start!

[ABJ]

Sokomine yes I also think thinner walls look more interesting that's why I experimented with this in the first place :D

[ABJ]

Cool. the only problems are:
-corners. in some cases you can use stairs, but you would also need a different shaped block, shaped like the empty space in a stair block.
-not really worth it. with the time spent building like this, you could have gotten more materials.
and
-you can't build right next to the wall on one of the sides.
-you can only use materials that can be made into slabs

Also, I have another way: You could build a box out of dirt, and place the slabs on the outside.

-Corners can be made using slabs. You don't need stairs, but wait!!! It's just struck me that making corners with stairs is an EXCELLENT way of doing things efficiently (2 slab vs 8 stair) you could just screwdriver them to fit in :D :thumbup: :D
-Maybe I'm not making sense but If you are building with precious minables, making and screwdriving slabs will take LESS time to do than mine them (though I know you're thinking "If ur that rich dan why not just go block?"
-=^.^=
-Well there are many precious-ish things that can be slabbed. And also, this method was SPECIFICALLY aimed for starters doing wood towers! (YES I built a 5 story wooden building with a bridge going to a floating portion :D) And also it's not THAT big of a deal to mine just 2 iron no? Definitely not like 9 dozen dozens of them.
-Wow......................That's one thing I came close enough to thinking but never thought of! :D :thumbup: I KNEW something different would come along especially considering I'm n890b and not THAT educated yet on tricks n' techniques :) :thumbup: :D