Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!!

Lena have you thought about changing the pantry/laundry to run at a 90degree angle to what you currently have now? The pantry would run along the dining area and the laundry would then utilise the walkway between the washroom and current laundry.

That is a better idea. Off to change it around. This is why I ask sometimes you just don't see things others do.
Thanks

I am looking for suggestions for the plan. Finally the subdivision is at the council, hope to get the title in mid Sep.
This is a Battle axe block 20M wide
Below is the first design by the architect, any thoughts? I was thinking of the garage being on the side rather than straight. I would prefer the house wide if possible to get more light into the house.

Hi

I'm new to this and looking for some suggestions on my custom plans.

Firsthome2 - your ensuite seems quite small and the breeze way to the toilet upstairs seems a waste of space. Are you having a laundry chute? We live in a two storey house now and get sick of lugging washing up and down. I have read that living areas should be facing north. Can your living area upstairs be swapped around with some of the bedrooms?

Our preliminary plans are below.

I wanted a small ensuite to cut down the total area. the Breeze way supposed to be a IT Nook/prayer area but did not come as good. We did not think about the laundry chute.
Yes it is better to have the living areas facing north, but the land is sloping front and have bit of a view facing south.

Hi firsthome2,

Yeah AJB is right, a correctly orientated house will have living areas facing north. But as you say, if you have views & slopes, these must be taken into account. You said the land slopes down at the front, to the south. Does it slope up badly from the rear northern boundary, will you have shading issues?

You are very lucky in one sense, a southern frontage on a wide 20m block should give you a sunny backyard, & great scope to design a house with "passive design principles". That is, a house with a large proportion of living areas (& glazing) facing north, with appropriate length eaves. This will allow winter sunlight to enter the house, & block out summer sun, so will be more comfortable to live in, with lower heating & cooling costs. You are right, in wanting to stretch the house out as wide as possible, however this is not the case with you current plans, particularly upstairs, where the house is elongated along the wrong axis. Stretching the house towards the side boundaries would mean a higher proportion of wall area (& glazing) facing north - for winter heating by the sun, & south - for the views, & will reduce the wall area & glazing facing west & east, which are greatly affected by hot summer sunshine.

For more information, see,
http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation

It is a good idea to have rooms that are not used very much to face west, to block the sun's heat. That is, bathrooms & the laundry. This has been done well upstairs, with the ensuite, WIR, & main bathroom all facing west. I would recommend having the garage on the SW corner, to block westerly sun. I wouldn't recommend having the family room & kitchen facing west. Also a north facing alfresco area will greatly reduce the amount of sunlight entering the house in winter. Much better to have it to the east or west, to shade summer sunshine.

Of course views, land contours & privacy issues (particularly for a battle axe block) will affect the layout chosen, so these principles are all generalisations. But trying to incorporate some of them should result in increased comfort & reduced bills.

ps. I know it's popular, but I HATE staircases attatched to open planned areas, think of a giant chimney sucking all you winter heat upstairs.

thanks ddarroch, the slope is from NW to SE 3M drop, for the building area probably about 2M drop. Drop Edge beams will be needed, not sure how much additional cost I will incur.
I need to go back to the architect with the changes I would like to make to this plan, as you suggested, I would like the garage to be in SW area, but I am unable to come up with any idea with the layout. Alfresco in NW corner would be nice.

Do you have accurate costings for the ground works? I hear these costs can be very expensive for sloping blocks, & a drop of 2m over the building envelope seems quite substantial. Note that an architect may not be the right place to get advice on site costs, as I hear many low-ball their predictions. I'm no expert, I actually had to use google to find out what a "drop edge beam" was :/ Incidently, the first entry for that search was from,

http://www.anewhouse.com.au/2013/07/drop-edge-beams/

That site is from Brian Ashworth, who is on homeone, & very helpful. Quoting from his site "Typically costs are in the order of $500-$700/sqm of beam, plus the cost of the fill under the slab". Have you considered split level? I think this tends to reduce the costs of ground works on sloping blocks. Though again, I'm no expert.

One other thing, about the overall shape of the building footprint. As I mentioned, elongating the house along the E-W axis will allow more northerly winter sunshine to enter the house, making for a more energy efficient house. It is also a good idea to keep the overall shape quite rectangular. Once you start putting nooks & crannies in the footprint you increase the surface area of exterior walls. This makes the building less thermally efficient, as more external walls leak heat in winter, & gain heat in summer, increasing heating & cooling costs. More exterior walls & more corners also increase the building costs. Nooks & crannies on the northern side of the house will increase morning & afternoon shading, limiting the effect of winter passive heating by the sun.

But some people may not find a rectangular house that architecturally pleasing. I'd recommend having the rear, northern side of your house, something close to straight, to minimise winter shading on the glazing. You may want the southern frontage to have a bit more shape, for street appeal. No shading issues here, as this side will not receive direct sunlight anyway, except very early & late in the day, in summertime. Though as I said, more "shape" will decrease thermal efficiency, & increase costs.

+1
Join the club. Just about every display home has this and while it might look grand so will the heating bills.

Stewie

Nice one Stewie, I'm going to have to remember that!

Oo oo oo! Here's our custom design!!! Would love to hear your thoughts! (We've changed a few minor things on this one, just waiting for new pics)

Hi

I like your plans nmcl. I would swap the living and meals area around. I think the meals area should be closest to the kitchen.

Does anyone have any comments or thoughts on my plans that I posted a couple of days ago?

Hi all.

We have just received our drawings for our house we are building at Harrington Grove. There are a few changes that we have in mind already (extend the eastern facing wall upstairs to make bedrooms 2,3 and 4 a bit bigger, extend the alfresco out and make the upstairs balcony off the master bigger, maybe add a rumpus downstairs, drive through the 3rd garage) but wanted to get some opinions from others before we go back to the draftsman.

Any opinions on what you would personally change to give us some ideas would be greatly appreciated.

alfresco is going to block the winter sun. may want to move it to East side.

Totally agree with this, move it to the east. Allowing northern sunlight into the house will be much warmer in winter. Appropriate length eaves will block these windows from summer sunshine.

You have quite a few western facing windows, which if possible should be eliminated, as they make for a hot house in summer. I'd remove the W facing window in the meals area, & have it facing N. Same with the master, could get very hot in summer, scrap the W facing window, sticking with northern windows, & maybe a small E facing window if you like.

You could also consider flipping the whole plan. Having the garage in the SW corner. That moved alfresco would not face W, protecting the house from harsh afternoon sunshine. Only problem would be all the minor bedrooms would be along the W wall of the house. Bedooms 3 & 4 could have there windows facing S & N respectively, but bedroom 2 would be stuck with a W facing window, so could get hot.

You're blessed to have a pretty wide block with a NNE facing backyard, the best aspect to have. If it was me I'd take advantage of it, & build a house with a footprint that was long along the northern side, & shorter along the eastern & western sides. This will make for a more comfortable house, light & airy, warmer in winter, & cooler in summer.

Good luck with the build.

Any comments?

Bigger photo than above.

Nice Plan AJB I love the verandah .

Just one query why the robe in the study? Its probably too small to get away as another bedroom and the robe area would make a nice area for built in desk et al.

Also are you need the second cupboard in the laundry that steals from the ensuite WIR?

Thanks for replying AKB.

We were thinking we would move the robe from the current position in the study to the northern wall of the study which would give a bit more width in the room. So it could have a single bed in it if needed (for eventual resale). Also, I like to have storage in a study.

I think the second cupboard in the laundry will be handy. We don't have heaps of clothes so I'm happy with the extra space.

Thanks again for your thoughts and you have done an amazing job on your house.

Very good points thanks Firsthome2 & ddarroch.

Originally the plan was going to be flipped with the garage in the S/W corner but due to an easement running down that side which we need to be 1500mm away from, and Harrington Grove's building guidelines that state your side set backs need to be 2000mm from the boundary (1100mm garage) for two story houses, I wouldn't have been able to fit my 3rd garage unless we set the house WAY back from the street.

Will definitely move the W facing window in the meals room to the North. The W facing window in the master B/R can be deleted as there is a sliding door to the balcony to the north of it. Not sure how to move the position of the alfresco and still have a balcony off the master. Might need to re-arrange some of the upstairs layout...

Hi AJB,

Yeah, I was going to mention that the picture of your floorplan was very small, & hard to make out. Very nice floorplan though.

I had guessed the bottom of the picture faced north, so was concerned about shading from the north facing verandah. I see you've alleviated much of this problem with clerestory windows. Nice one, I really like these! Just be aware that clerestory windows & cathedral ceiling can lead to significant heat loss. So for anything other than warm climates I'd recommend double glazing the clerestory windows & having very high levels of insulation in your ceiling. Whether you are going for a traditional build method for the roof, or a SIP, as there's no roof space it's extremely difficult or next to impossible to upgrade this insulation at a later date. Having motorised operable clerestories would be very nice to dump heat in the summer time. Having ceiling fans could help with this, while running them slowly in reverse in winter could help bring down hot air to floor level from your high ceilings.

If you are in quite a cool climate, even with the clerestories, I probably wouldn't recommend such a large north facing verandah though. Reason being, you do have a LOT or north facing glazing that won't receive any sunshine, & will leak a lot of winter heat. If you're in a warm climte though, I think it makes for a great design, lots of cross ventilation too!

I see you have a large veranda protecting the master from the westerly sun, great idea! You may also consider adding sisalation (Reflective Foil Insulation) to this western wall, which has a great effect at cutting down the radiant heat from the sun (which bulk insulation will not do). Also you could tint, or use low-e glass in the westerly windows in the master.

I have to admit, I tend focus on the energy efficiency of a house, & am not very good at seeing how a building will be lived in & how it will flow. So I think the suggestion to widen the study by moving the robe it a great one, & something I missed.