Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Jul 26, 2015 8:56 pm We are building a new 2 storey home. In the current plans there is an open plan kitchen / living/ dining downstairs. As you come up the stairs we have a rumpus area with an indoor balcony that overlooks the dining area. So basically above the dining area downstairs we have a void that goes up to the roof. This is approx 2.6m x 4.5m. I love the idea of this. It will have huge glass windows and the will bring in so much light. Aesthetically I love it! But I'm concerned that practically we will regret it due to the noise. The kids will have this as their rumpus/ TV area. Do you think the noise will be too bad? Or it's something we will live with? The rumpus area is 4.5m and 4 metres so our option is to scrap the void and just make a bigger rumpus? Thanks so much. I'm so confused! Re: Void above living- help 2Jul 27, 2015 11:26 am Noise definitely does travel up a void and impact the rooms above. As long as it's not a bedroom (that you'll require use of when the below is being used) I wouldn't be worried though. Void's add much more impact to a design that a bit of extra room in a rumpus does! Re: Void above living- help 3Jul 27, 2015 6:42 pm We are having a void above our living/dining area as well but never thought about noise at all. The things that we had to consider were: 1) Was it going to be safe for the kids since the balustrade is only going to be 1m. We got a quote to increase the balustrade to 1.2m but did not go ahead with it since it cost nearly double the price. So we only have it at 1m. FYI, it was a frameless glass balustrade. 2) Heating/Cooling issues. You are going to need more power to heat or cool the area with the void there, as it's like a massive hole. 3) Window treatments. We are going to be installing motorized blinds as we will be having windows that goes all the way up to the second storey and we feel that we need them for privacy reasons. 4) Lighting issues? How do you change lights without the need for scaffolding? We preferred LED lights and don't really like pendants. 5) Painting also requires scaffolding. So we got the builder to do it. I think there were other issues as well but that's all that I can think of at the moment. In the end we just decided that we will be willing to pay the price for it cause it just looks so much better and overall it makes the house look a lot bigger as well. Re: Void above living- help 4Jul 28, 2015 1:15 pm Hi Sarah, The glass balustrading is very safe, as children some stupid adults cannot climb on it. go fo it. and the noise I would worry about it later [mod edit - signature removed - no advertising!] Re: Void above living- help 5Aug 05, 2015 2:51 pm Hi there I'm interested in what mwccl came up with. I am planning to have a void above dining and void as well and am thinking about the issues mwccl raised. 1) Safety. We are thinking of having very high balustrades or maybe even feature wooden poles all the way up to the ceiling to protect the kids from climbing and falling. It was interesting to hear that the price difference between 1.2m and 1m balustrades is double. We haven't been quoted on balustrades yet so will see if we come up with the same result. 2) Heating/Cooling issues. We are putting in a gas fireplace to hopefully warm up that large space. 3) Window treatments. I'm going to start researching reflective film over the windows but will have a look into motorised blinds as well. 4) Lighting issues. No ideas yet but maybe lights that reach all the way down to ground so they can be changed without a ladder. Would love to hear from mwccl or anyone else who has thought further about these issues. Joyce Re: Void above living- help 6Aug 05, 2015 4:33 pm Mwccl totally agree. I would only look at floor plans with big voids. We have two. I think the visual impact is worth it having said that I have no plans to have kids however M Y C U S T O M C O R A L B R O N T E 43 ...............Kitchen! 16 Nov 2016 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=79581 Re: Void above living- help 7Aug 05, 2015 4:34 pm Re lighting issues we aren't putting down lights in about the voids. We will opt for pendants. Changing the globes will still be problematic. But I figure I'll just put LEDS in and worry about changing globes hopefully in 10 years! M Y C U S T O M C O R A L B R O N T E 43 ...............Kitchen! 16 Nov 2016 https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=79581 Re: Void above living- help 8Aug 07, 2015 3:03 am jtpn Hi there I'm interested in what mwccl came up with. I am planning to have a void above dining and void as well and am thinking about the issues mwccl raised. 1) Safety. We are thinking of having very high balustrades or maybe even feature wooden poles all the way up to the ceiling to protect the kids from climbing and falling. It was interesting to hear that the price difference between 1.2m and 1m balustrades is double. We haven't been quoted on balustrades yet so will see if we come up with the same result. 2) Heating/Cooling issues. We are putting in a gas fireplace to hopefully warm up that large space. 3) Window treatments. I'm going to start researching reflective film over the windows but will have a look into motorised blinds as well. 4) Lighting issues. No ideas yet but maybe lights that reach all the way down to ground so they can be changed without a ladder. Would love to hear from mwccl or anyone else who has thought further about these issues. Joyce We decided to go on with the void and these are our thoughts: 1) Safety - We decided to stick with the 1m balustrade since that is "standard" requirements. We will also not be having any furnitures near the balustrades to prevent kids from climbing. I think having wooden poles all the way up to the ceiling might not look as good and might not create as much of a space and wow factor that you'd expect from a void. 2) We are also putting a gas fireplace but we feel that the fireplace is most likely there for the looks more than for heating. Instead, we will probably rely more on our ducted reverse cycle heating. Also, since we have young kids, it might be a bit dangerous to keep the fireplace on since it can get really hot even with meshes around the glass piece. FYI, our fireplace is also 900mm off the ground, which might make it a bit safer? Other than that, we figured, there isn't much we can do unless we start spending more money on double glazing etc. Instead, we decided to go with a "premium" ducted reverse cycle system and hope that they are a lot more efficient when running. http://www.actronair.com.au/residential ... tinum-plus 3) My current house(living room) have reflective film and I have to say they work very well. However, I don't fancy them as they work too well making my living room really dark. The other thing that I don't like about them is, people can get a very clear view of the inside at night when the inside of the house is brighter than the outside. In this case, I am unsure if that is any better without the film but it does feel that with the film, it's a lot clearer at night. So, we will probably just stick with motorized blinds for now. FYI, we only went motorized blinds cause our windows go all the way up to the second storey or we would have just gone with normal blinds. 4) We do not fancy hanging lights mainly cause of the looks of the wires hanging all the way down. So we decided we would just go with some premium LEDs and hope that they last a long time. From what I gathered, most of the time, if there are issues with the LEDs, it's usually the drivers. So, you should be able to change the drivers from the roof cavity which should not require scaffolding. Hopefully this helps. FYI, I have also previously started a thread about voids - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67199 Re: Void above living- help 9Aug 07, 2015 3:12 am MrsJM Mwccl totally agree. I would only look at floor plans with big voids. We have two. I think the visual impact is worth it having said that I have no plans to have kids however Yup. I am hoping the visual impact is worth it as well once our build completes! Re: Void above living- help 10Aug 25, 2015 11:00 am We've got a massive two storey void in our house. I love it, it acts as a huge light well and really opens up the house. For lighting we opted for wall mounted lights - they light up the room really well, have a nice aesthetic wash of light up/down the wall as well, and they are really easy to change when they go - just a small step ladder is required. Had to look for just the right light for a while as they need to look nice from above when overlooking the lounge area from above, as well as look nice from below when you're in the room itself. Many wall lights look great from below but aren't designed to be seen from above. Thankfully we found something suitable. I have three - and have had to change the bulbs in all of them and was very thankful they were easily accessible. We thought about motorised blinds for the windows at the top but instead opted to just have long chains on the blinds to save some $$$. They work really well. It isn't great for heating/cooling issues as hot and cold air travels up and down the big space, however we do find that in winter we only need to have the downstairs zone running heating as it effectively ends up heating upstairs as well. The reverse applies for summer - we can pretty much have the upstairs zone running air-conditioning and it cools downstairs as well. We also intended to have a gas fireplace there (mostly for visual appeal) and opted to do it after the house was built. Have the gas line in the wall and power etc all ready for it - but have put it off again and again as other expenses keep coming up lol. Should have just got it done at the same time. Noise is a valid concern - it certainly carries sound throughout the house - but I still wouldn't change a thing. Completed a knock down and rebuild in northern Melbourne. Handover completed 27/09/2013 and now moved in. Not sure if that works? I was told the issue is the headspace clearance requirement on step 4. 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