Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Mar 03, 2021 3:11 pm Hi All, I've been reading and following lots here over the past year as we work towards a knockdown and rebuild - we are moving along with the design planning and wanted to get some opinions and thoughts. We have an existing duplex half in Perth. It's an odd shape block. The house is on the left (north) of the block and there is a small park (with no equipment, closer to grass and trees) to the right (south). The back of the block (east) has some overlap with property in the cul de sac behind us. The front of the house faces west. We have survey strata'd with the neighbour to separate our block from theirs. Our block is 498 square metres, R30, with a truncation on the SW corner that is around 17 square metres. The common wall with the neighbour is around 3m so not too bad. The existing house is 86 square metres - we bought it for the land knowing we would knock down eventually. It was fine for my wife and I, manageable with a baby (and getting harder as she gets older) and we don't want to tackle two kids in the house. We have been working through what we want design wise, and I've been drawing up plans progressively over the past 6 months. I've done some plans up but they currently haven't sent for a proper design, but we have run them by builders in the family for feedback and ideas. The designer should tidy up most things and help with some of the issues below hopefully! Hopefully the upload has worked and you can view the current plans here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ypmeij7cahdoa ... p.pdf?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/6h9u9nggqtbno ... G.pdf?dl=0 Two features have dictated the design of the house. 1. We love raked roof and long connected living/dining/alfresco area. See example https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e3/ed/ba ... a1af8b.jpg 2. With the shape of the block want to build to open up to the southern side, basically house on the left of the block and yard on the right. The orientation isnt ideal based on sun direction summer v winter. In general I think the walls need to be parallel to the nearest boundary. That puts some odd shapes in the house (storeroom, study and ensuite shower). On top of any general thoughts there are a few aspects I'd like opinions and thoughts on: 1. Window arrangement for North side wall (which will be one end of the raked roof). Want to get sun in to the living/dining room for winter but also would like a window setup that can have window coverings (so the triangle top bit probably wont work - would prefer rectangular). How much window area? Would you go from the floor to the 30C height? With offset to the side fence thoughts for window style? 2. The alfresco design is mostly only open on one side (facing the yard). Is there any rule against that? The only one I can find is R-Codes 7.3 has 45% open space. If the Alfresco isn't open on 2 sides I assume I can't count it as open space (ie it contributes to the building area)? Can I still have it like that as long as the building area falls within the requirements? 3. My wife has concerns the alfresco area will feel too much like a room and not enough like being outside due to being walled on both sides. What's everyone thoughts? I admit I didn't think of it that way, but most examples I find are open on 2 sides. Has anyone seen this style in use? Any ideas for the general design and layout of it? When I search for enclosed alfresco areas it seems to find more of the café style doors for weather protection (that is opened when required) rather than the style I am considering. If anyone has photos or something similar happy to hear thoughts? 4. What is the general thought on rake angle vs. room width. We looked at some existing raked roofs and found the summit display home (The Viewpoint) felt like too much angle for the room width. I took the disto and got 55C roof height in the middle and a room width of 4.8m. I think the fully glassed room didn't help either? I feel the wider the better (we also looked at Dale Alcock Essense and Smart Homes Grand Madelaine), but with the current design we don't have that much scope - we have gone 5.1m side and 52C. https://smarthomesforliving.com.au/disp ... madeleine/ https://www.summithomes.com.au/en_pm/ho ... ve-aveley/ https://www.dalealcock.com.au/display-home/essence/ Re: Custom (Self) Design feedback - KDR Perth 3Mar 05, 2021 8:43 pm You won't get much feedback on raked roofs on difficulted blocks as most of the contributors are from the east they tend to use simple Double hipper truss roofs east.. ironically even then then they are more expensive than our coupled pitched roof BTW drawing floor plans is easy, Putting a roof on them on site takes skill. Refer residential codes 3.1 blah, blah, blah basically, If its not open on 2 sides the area becomes house area I hope you have a healthy budget as raked roofs require Beams as rafters rather than 4x2's Cheers Chris Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Custom (Self) Design feedback - KDR Perth 4Mar 06, 2021 10:07 am Hi Budapest, Sorry I can't offer any advice on the technical side of things, but the design looks like you're accommodating the shape of the block quite well. With regard to the closed in alfresco, my brother's house has that feature and it feels great - though his alfresco is 12m wide. Perhaps to make it feel more open you could go for a high ceiling? I think that's about one of the best investments you can make in a home; going for the 2.7m or greater ceiling height (increasing the door/window heights as well). It really makes a room feel spacious. If you don't put an external door on the living room, I'd put some mega windows in, but not a picture window. Something you can open and make the most of cross ventilation through to the alfresco. The hallway might get a bit dark, so consider a skylight/light tunnel etc. The only thing I'd contemplate with the layout would be perhaps flipping the bedroom/laundry/bathroom section - purely over a personal preference of mine. I hate houses that have the toilet next to a living area. If someone has an iffy stomach, the last thing they want is to be going poopy next to where everyone else is sitting and can hear everything ![]() Excellent idea having the powder room with a sink - something that isn't done enough unfortunately. Re: Custom (Self) Design feedback - KDR Perth 5Mar 09, 2021 10:24 pm Thanks for the feedback! The alfresco will have the raked roof as well - so ceiling height will be around 52C in the centre, 30C at the wall. I am conscious of the width like you say - don't want it to look like a cathedral! I see your point about the toilet location. It's geared towards being easily accessible to the alfresco, especially as we plan on putting a pool in the SE corner of the block so want to be able to get to the bathroom and toilet without going through the house. Hopefully two doors (sliding from main to hallway, toilet door itself) can dull the sound of any waterworks! When you say external door on the living room, do you mean the northern end? I'm not sure what I am doing there, but wouldn't think it would be a door. Definitely a window, size and shape unknown. Good point about ventilation! Not sure if we should put flyscreen on the stacking doors between the house and alfresco. Would be good to be able to get ventilation, but haven't seen how they look. Hi, I am looking into doing a KDR in Melbourne and am contemplating using Kialla Homes. I am looking for feedback on them from others who have built with them. 0 13443 ![]() 6 55346 |