Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 09, 2013 7:18 pm I am happy to just discover this forum I have recently bought a block in Perth Metro. Can anyone suggest the best way to find a builders floor plan that will suit the size, shape and orientation of the block? Trawling builders web sites and the newspaper is very time consuming and hit and miss.... What is the approach that others have taken? Is there a better way to find and compare home designs from builders? It's easy to compare mortgages but not house plans! Thanks, Ben Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 2Oct 09, 2013 7:27 pm Hmmm, that's a tricky one, Ben. I don't really have an answer for that, I just wanted to say Hi and welcome to the forum! I'm very sure that one of the many helpful people on this site will have a solution. For our experience with both of our builds, it was a matter of doing the trawling around and comparing the different designs of the different builders. Sorry, probably not what you want to hear! Our thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64272 Purchased land August '12 Titles Jan 27 '13 Prestart - Jan '13 Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 3Oct 09, 2013 7:46 pm Hmm I think there is definitely a lot of hours involved really, I don't think of any way to avoid that. But to make it easier I would write a list of your must-haves in a floor plan (if you have decided what those are yet!), basic dimensions of the footprint where you'd like the house to fit on the land. Also I'd suggest writing down builders and floor plans you've seen as you go, crossing off ones you've decided against. We had a very fixed idea of what we wanted from our floorplan but it still took a couple of months of searching websites and visiting displays before we found the one. Early in our search I would forget that I had been through an entire builder's webcatalogue before and only realise after looking at it for an hour. So mentally draining. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 4Oct 09, 2013 8:14 pm My main concern is finding a plan that has basic solar passive design. Ie. living spaces to the north, sleeping in the south. It seems most plans ignore this basic requirement! What else should I be looking for? Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 5Oct 09, 2013 9:12 pm Firstly, welcome ben. All new builds in WA must meet 6 star energy rating and one of the easiest ways to do that is solar passive design. Most builders are able to flip their designs or rearrange rooms (to some extent) to suit but it depends on the layout and dimensions of your block. The best way to get a design you really want is to go custom design which will cost a fair bit more, otherwise your stuck with project builders. EmyN is right. Make a list of must-haves first and then it's a case of slogging round builders websites and show homes until you find the best compromise. Some builders will happily let you change around designs, some actively discourage it and, until you approach them, you can't tell which is which. Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 6Oct 09, 2013 9:33 pm Thanks for your advice everyone. I think I need to be more systematic about how I search and keep track of the plans I have viewed. I was really looking for a shortcut but it seems non existant! Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 7Oct 09, 2013 9:45 pm Hi Ben and congrats on your land purchase. We were in a very similar position. Building a house that was more than the minimum energy rating and incorporating good passive solar design was our number one requirement, however our budget is very tight so going custom was out of the question. We did our best to educate ourselves on the design principles. If you're able take a visit to the Mandurah Sustainable House it was so educational and helpful. I know there's also one up in Banksia Grove but I haven't been yet, maybe this weekend:) And this website has been excellent http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs41.html Anyway, we knew going with a project builder would be the best for our budget so we pretty much figured out what we wanted in a house, knew which side of the house our living spaces would be in, etc and then just looked at various builders floor plans. It does take lots of time and I don't think there's anyway around that really. Having looked at a few display homes and getting recommendations from friends we narrowed down our list of builders and then we looked at each of their plans to see what met our basic layout criteria. Most of the time they can successfully flip the garage or switch a room around at no extra charge. As long as you don't change the outside perimeter there shouldn't really be extra costs. Then we added windows in various places for cross ventilation and doors to help zone the heating/cooling. Windows don't usually cost extra, unless they're fancy ones, but doors are expensive. We'll add trees, pergola etc afterwards. I found a sustainable design group that charges a fairly nominal amount and they'll perform a solar passive assessment on your plan and make recommendations. I can't vouch for them yet as I haven't received the report but I should have it next week and will keep you posted. Good luck! Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 8Oct 09, 2013 9:53 pm We started by trawling through countless display homes until we found a design that was close to what we wanted , then told the salesperson what we did and didn't like about it and she went away and designed something to fit our needs. I have no sense of scale so found it easier to look at actual houses rather than plans . Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 9Oct 09, 2013 10:25 pm How many home designs do you think it is reasonable to shortlist before spending time following up with builders to get their pricing? I would have thought it made sense to get prices from 3 builders to start with. What has been your experience? Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 10Oct 10, 2013 9:11 am You really have to find the design that best suits you. The shortlist is however many you want a price on. If you don't really want to live in a house, don't get it priced. I think the best way is to design your ideal house plan yourself. It's really not that hard, there are some great programs and apps that could help you. Then either find a builder who will build that. Or find a plan that is the most similar to your ideal design. That's how I'd do it anyway. But usually once you have your design 3 quotes is usually what you should look for to make sure you're getting the right deal and you have to look at inclusions too. Blog http://tobuildahomeimprobable.blogspot.com.au/ Settlement Apr Council Jul Contracts Dec Earthworks Dec Frames Jan Trusses Feb Roof Feb Windows Mar Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 11Oct 10, 2013 1:56 pm Meant to also mention that it'd be worth contacting Solar Dwellings. Depending on your budget they can design a custom passive solar design or help you find an existing plan that suits your block. Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 12Oct 10, 2013 2:34 pm Nothing beats going to look at display homes to figure out what you want. My wife and I would alternate on weekends doing a North of the river area on Saturdays (eg Alkimos/Burns Beach/etc) then a South of the river area on Sundays (Harrisdale/Wandi/Baldivis/etc). We had some ideas on what we wanted but still took 2-3 weeks of looking at display homes to refine it to a point that it was worth getting some figures. We ended up getting quotes from four different builders. This thread - although two storey specific - has a couple of comments about the sort of approach to take for identifying who to build with. In terms of passive solar design - this is going to depend entirely on your block. There is no point builders saying "hey, we have this design but you can only use it on pure east/west facing blocks" since they just aren't that consistent. However most builders will allow some variations to customise their design to better fit your block - or you can specifically request it. If you are looking to use a project builder, then be prepared to need to drive what you consider to be good design yourself. If it is really important to you, then you might need to consider using a boutique builder and work with their designers to find something you want - again, expect that you will need to drive it. ben_c Thanks for your advice everyone. I think I need to be more systematic about how I search and keep track of the plans I have viewed. I was really looking for a shortcut but it seems non existant! There is absolutely no shortcut for this My wife and I shared spreadsheets on google docs to track the display homes we visited - along with grabbing brochures from everywhere (including places you know you won't go for). But I was more than happy to invest the time up front to make sure we got what we wanted. Small cost really given how much we are spending to build. Demo + Build in Rivervale, Western Australia Moved in June 2014 http://rivervale.tumblr.com/ Building Thread Re: House plans - How to choose the best design for my block 13Oct 11, 2013 10:24 pm Hi Ben I agree, getting 3 different builders to quote would be the way to go. We knew what type of design we wanted from the start and basically went through almost all WA builders websites to find it. We narrowed it down to about 5 builders with extremely similar designs and then started eliminating by visiting the various displays. This part is a must as design and the real thing is such a different thing. The travel is a pain but so worth it. There's also the relationship between you and the rep, that so important to know know that they understand your wants and needs. As for solar passive, as peeps are mentioning on here, rules are quite strict now across the board. Good luck. dimensions on your original plan are inconsistent and with accurate dimensions (including site plan, upstairs and down) i could make a proper scale drawing with furniture… 3 7521 Really tight at the top of the stairs- how to get furniture into those rooms? Study books - does anyone really use them these days? Large storage closet would be more functional. 2 6894 Ask the council if there is a chance of getting build over easement exemption. Sometimes easements are unused and 24cm is not all that much. Good luck. And yes any builder… 2 13781 |