Building

Tips and advice on creating your own custom builds, modifying a pre-existing structure or decorating.

Building Menu

Access building options by one of three methods:

Right-click on the ground and select Building Menu for a shortcut to Compact Mode (toggled with the top-right arrow) for the Knox Buildworks mod. Hover over the magnifying glass icon top-right to see build requirements.
Press F7.
Use Building on the left menu to access either vanilla Building or Knox Buildworks mod.

Customisation

Use the cog icon top right of Knox Buildworks to change the background behind icons, increase icon size, disable fading of objects missing build requirements, amongst other aspects.

Gathering Resources

Industrial buildings can have nails, screws and other construction materials.
Blacksmithing allows you to craft nails or sledgehammers at a certain level.
Gardening supply stores are a good source of bricks, bags of gravel or sand.
Some towns have shops catering to specific resources such as a Paint Store.
Dismantling car wrecks is a good source of various metals.
Post offices can have some appliances in the mail bags or parcels.
Glassmaking and Pottery lets you create glass panes for windows or ceramic tiles.
Some resources can be bought from the Survivor Shop.

Struggling for loot?

See information on how to loot cycle.

Getting started

Make sure you have sufficient light to build.

Most walls require a Wood Frame built first.

Some objects built using mods cannot be disassembled with a hammer, so have a sledgehammer ready to remove them.

Blueprints

Lets you design before spending materials and more easily collaborate with other players to construct a project.

Check the documentation for a full guide on how to plan your project.

Wall finishes

Mix a Bucket of Water with a Bag of Plastering Powder.
Obtain a tool such as a Plastering Trowel.
Right-click on the Wood Frame wall and Plaster.

To apply paint:

Tools Required: Paintbrush, Bucket of Paint

Right-click on the plastered wall and apply your choice of colour.

To add wallpaper:

Tools Required: Paintbrush, Roll of Wallpaper, Bucket of Paste

Mix a Bucker of Water with a Bag of Wallpaper Paste Powder
Right-click on a wall with a Paintbrush in your inventory to apply paste
With a roll of wallpaper and scissors in inventory, right-click the wall to apply wallpaper.

Flooring & road works

Build 42 added the ability to make cement from grass and clay. This can also be used as an alternative to finding Bag of Concrete Powder.

Collect clay from deposits near water (lighter coloured tiles on dirt), using a sack and shovel. Or by Foraging with Stone as the Search Focus.
Collect grass in large quantities using a Scythe by right-clicking on the grassy ground, selecting Gardening and Scythe Grass.
Right-click on a Bucket of Water to Mix Cement.

Room Definition Issues

Firstly, a room must have the following:

Enclosed walls
Flooring
A roof

However even with all of this in place, Project Zomboid can still consider this not 'indoors'. You can tell if a room is outdoors by checking the temperature on a digital watch, or by the ambient sounds you can hear.

Common causes can include:

Stairs: Enclose staircases connecting floors with walls and a door.
Corner Pillars: Check corners for pillars and remove them, as they can create leaks.
Garage Doors: Multi-tile doors can improperly register as having gaps, rebuilding the door can help.
House Extensions: Pre-existing buildings and player-made buildings are considered separate entities. If you have a wall connecting to a pre-existing building, try to destroy and rebuild it.

If none of these solve your problem, create a support ticket with In-Game Help as the category so a staff member can track down the issue.

Roofing

To build on an upper level, your character needs to be standing on the same layer. Therefore stairs may need to be built.
Flooring works as a roof.
Due to the perspective of the game, sloped roof tiles are an illusion purely for aesthetics.