Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Aug 12, 2009 6:48 pm My partner and I have recently bought an old house on a block of land a few streets back from the water front. Eventually we will knock down the house and re-build. We have been told that the highest point of the house can be no higher than 9 meters. We are considering building a flat roofed house with internal or external stairs leading to the roof in order to turn it into a veiwing deck to obtain water views as we will not be able to see the water just from the second floor. Can anyone tell me what the advantages and disadvanrtages of flat roofed houses are. Does it add a lot to the build cost? We have noticed a lot of houses in the area with small viewing platforms attached to the sides of houses, but almost no flat roofed houses which leaves us wondering why? Re: Building a flat roofed house. 2Aug 12, 2009 6:50 pm If you want the roof to be a useable area, you could look at a house built out of pre-cast concrete similar to how factories etc are put up. Re: Building a flat roofed house. 3Aug 12, 2009 7:28 pm other may have not done it because local council may not allow it - check out the regulations on requirements for pitch of roof (eg in my local council I not sure if they would allow it, partly being out of character of the area), and then also for dual purpose of the roof Re: Building a flat roofed house. 4Aug 12, 2009 8:20 pm We have just built a flat roofed house, I don't see any advantages or disadvantages, it was just the design we went with. We don't need a viewing platform because we do have views from the top level. I would imagine it may be more costly if your house is an architect designed home. Absolutely no help I know Re: Building a flat roofed house. 5Aug 12, 2009 9:05 pm I've lived in a few flat roofed houses before and they all leaked! Trying this building gig one more time. Re: Building a flat roofed house. 7Aug 13, 2009 10:12 am Just a quick note: There is no such thing as a flat roof, your roof will have a fall to it to drain water away. So really you would be looking at maybe 2 degree fall. Secondly, careful attention needs to be given to the final surface treatment. Flat roofs are usually finished with a waterproof membrane, this will have to be pretty high spec. You will be walking on it, and it will be copping sun all year long. Also you need to consider where your going to be putting you insulation, will it be on top of the slab, when the membrane on top of that, or underneath the slab. Just a thought. Pat. Re: Building a flat roofed house. 8Aug 13, 2009 11:22 am SuH I would imagine it may be more costly if your house is an architect designed home. It's not necessarily more expensive to use an architect, because an architect can help you get efficient use out of a small space. (Some project homes have wasted space all over the place.) But an architect can also come up with some snazzy ideas that you had never dreamed of before but now just "have to have" LOL! I would think that if you're going to have water views any costs associated with using an architect will come back to you - with cost-saving designs, maximizing the orientation and room locations for both views and catching breezes and sun, and on resale - the ability to add "architect-designed" to your sales rap. You don't necessarily have to go concrete factory look with a flat roof: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Building a flat roofed house. 9Aug 13, 2009 12:25 pm kb46 SuH I would imagine it may be more costly if your house is an architect designed home. It's not necessarily more expensive to use an architect, because an architect can help you get efficient use out of a small space. (Some project homes have wasted space all over the place.) But an architect can also come up with some snazzy ideas that you had never dreamed of before but now just "have to have" LOL! I would think that if you're going to have water views any costs associated with using an architect will come back to you - with cost-saving designs, maximizing the orientation and room locations for both views and catching breezes and sun, and on resale - the ability to add "architect-designed" to your sales rap. You don't necessarily have to go concrete factory look with a flat roof: Two of the pictures don't have a balcony over the roof and the one picture that does doesn't show the balcony over the living area. Putting a balcony over a living area is much more complex. What those pictures also show is box gutters that run large margins of the house, I have worked on those designs before and a lot of architects seem to like the idea of having box gutters over the middle of living area's which spells disaster further down the track. Whilst you may be right with the architect statement from my experience architects often draw very unconventional ways to do something that could be done a lot easier. Whilst they might draw some snazzy unique designs they sometimes don't have a clue how it is formed structurally. The other thing with getting an architectural designed house is you cant shop around for bottom $ builders as you need a good one who can interpret the unique style of house. Those builders normally aren't on the cheap side. I'm working on an architects plan at the moment, there are curved walls everywhere, there are circles that have a moving radius, that is the radius alters throughout the circle . What would possibly make someone draw that is beyond me, I'd like to see the architect try and box up the slab. Re: Building a flat roofed house. 11Aug 13, 2009 3:03 pm nomad I'd like to see the architect try and box up the slab. I hear you nomad Look as far as box gutters go,... and as with anything else in life these things need to be maintained Lots of flat roof houses have a parapet wall boxing in the roof. This is all fine and Dandy so long as there are NO blockages and NO breaches in the guttering or downpipes. A flat roof normally means no ridges, hips and valleys but sometimes what is referred to as flat with some degree of angle are skillion roofs. A very (well should be) inexpensive way to roof. onc_artisan Where you are coming from is where you are going to... Re: Building a flat roofed house. 12Aug 13, 2009 4:57 pm A skillion roof needs to be 1 degree minimum for fall. 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