Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 13, 2017 3:39 pm Hi everyone! Been a long time stalker and have really appreciated all the information and help on these forums My partner and I have finally gotten to the council approval stage after a long year of designing and switching builders. Turns out there's a watercorp manhole/pipe right where our driveway is supposed to be.. (ugh.. long story about how this ended up happening, and I'm trying not to think about it anymore!) We were given two options: 1) Fork out some dough to get the watercorp pipes lowered (no idea how much this is going to cost yet...) 2) Flip our house so the driveway is on the other side Our plan is a custom plan.. many of the elements were my own ideas.. and one of my main priorities in designing it was to try take advantage of the solar orientation (as a beginner I tried my best..). Now my question is... how would the house fare in terms of lighting and energy if we flipped it so that the garage is on the right? e.g. would the living areas be dark and cold? Any opinions or advice is very much appreciated! Thanks in advance! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: (WA) Flipping house - need advice!!! 2Feb 13, 2017 4:29 pm Given that north is basically to the rear, simply flipping it isn't going to have that much difference on general lighting levels. More significant for you would be the east-west difference for heat loads. Having a garage on the west provides a nice 'heat shield' for the hot afternoon sun, and it'd be a bit of a shame to lose it - and having beds 2 and 3 on the west means no morning sun and a lot of hot afternoon sun for them - definitely not ideal for bedrooms, and ditto for the study/activity area. Overall, I think that your plan works better the way it is for those reasons. All that assumes direct solar access east and west, though - if you're overshadowed to the west (slope and/or neighbouring building) then it might not be such an issue. Re: (WA) Flipping house - need advice!!! 3Feb 13, 2017 4:39 pm Thanks for the advice algernon! You have a good point! We do have a large double story neighbour on our west, which makes the situation better.. But I suspect the house will be demo'd and subdivided in 1-3 years.. so we might have to take our chances. Re: (WA) Flipping house - need advice!!! 4Feb 13, 2017 7:08 pm Maybe plant some trees on the west side now. By the time the neighbour is demolished they'll have grown enough to provide shade (and privacy from the new neighbours!). Re: (WA) Flipping house - need advice!!! 5Feb 13, 2017 8:16 pm Trees are a good idea - a tall hedge along the boundary line would also help quite a lot. As an alternative to flipping the entire plan, you might be able to modify it - you could: 1. Move the garage to where the bedrooms are now 2. Move the bedrooms north to where the bath/laundry area is now 3. Move the bath/laundry area to where the garage is now Easier said than done, of course, and there'd be a lot of factors to consider. Thank you so much for the effort. We will use it to talk with builder. We also had idea of building duplex instead and seeking suggest ions. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106744 11 13830 Levelling compound Ardit is the best but buy a bag of sand and make sand dam to protect your wood floor 2 15250 XCEM Alpha flooring seems to relatively new and I could not found any reviews. Have you or someone you know have used it and would recommend over other subfloor options?… 2 7586 |