How to Build Your House in Sketchup

Welcome to the ‘Building your House in Sketchup' tutorial. This is unlike most other Sketchup tutorials in that it takes you through building any standard house rather than one particular one.

Also please note that this tutorial only covers the exterior of the house and that more specific things like creating custom chimneys/windows are not included. If you would like specific info/tutorials on any more specific house components please leave me a comment. And finally all components used here are provided by Google with Sketchup Free.

1. Create a blank document then create a rectangle (using the rectangle tool) the size of the house and garden (Type values as you drag the rectangle to create precise sizes).
   
   
   
   Don't worry if the plot is not rectangular we will deal with this later. Then use the line tool to split the rectangle into a grid. This is not essential but you may find this helpful.
   
   
2. Now draw out the layout of your building on the rectangle as shown. In this example green is for garden, white is for 2 floors, dark gray is for 1 floor and light gray is a glass conservatory.
   
   
   
   I am only texturing them like this to show what I'm doing but you may also find it useful.
   
   
3. Then using the push/pull tool pull up the different sections to the correct height.
   
   
   
   Use the value typing system from Step 1 to get the height accurate.
   
   
4. Create a vertical rectangle coming up from the flat top of the cuboids to the desired height of the roof.
   
   
   
   Then create a line from the bottom corners to the centre of the top line.
   
   
5. Cut out the top of the roof rectangle leaving only a triangle as shown.
   
   
   
   Make sure the angle/size of the roof triangle is correct.
   
   
6. Use the push/pull tool to pull the roof triangle to the far side of the building or the point where you want the roof to come.
   
   
   
   
   
7. At this stage you can use the offset tool to add detail. In this example I used it to slightly push in (with push/pull tool) the ends of the roof.
   
   
   
   This little detail creates a much better model.
   
   
8. The next step is to texture your model using the paint bucket tool. In this example I just used the textures that Google provide, although you can download many more or even make your own.
   
   
   
   Note: Glass textures like the one I used can be found under transparent in the textures gallery.
   
   
9. Almost done! Use the components gallery (found in the windows menu) to find and add components (i.e. windows and doors).
   
   
   
   I find it helpful when adding windows to draw a line on the face and place all windows on the line.
   
   
10. You're basically finished now.
    
    
    
    Just get rid of any unwanted lines and make any final adjustments.

Congratulations - you just built your house in Sketchup!