Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 15, 2013 10:13 am Hi All, Will appreciate anyone's views on this. I am working on glendale 38 from Big M (Can I put the image here from this builder? Not Sure) and front of the house will be in North Direction. So Living area comes on the west. Just wondering as I have lot of open space on that side, do I need to have windows? If yes which kind of windows. I have taken glass window splashback in kitchen so we have sunlight coming through there. As my present rental place has a master bedroom in west and it just becomes like an oven in summer here in melbourne. This may be because lack of glazing. Should we have any window? PDH have put windows touching ground in their display homes, what do you guys think of that? Or two horizontal ones? With some kind of protection? With wooden tilted flaps? Re: Windows in West direction 2Apr 15, 2013 10:22 am You could opt for one of those windows that sits up a bit high so as to let the light in, but not too much surface area- you could get this kind of thing to pull down on hot days http://www.homeone.com.au/articles/outd ... r_shutters which we will be doing for our back west facing window Our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64705 Re: Windows in West direction 3Apr 15, 2013 2:20 pm Windows = natural light. Very useful in living space! Definitely check your glazing options; go low-e at least and preferably double-glazed+low-e. And plan for external blinds/shades/shutters of some sort to keep the direct sunlight off the glass - or else, put an alfresco there to shade the house wall. Well placed tall&narrow or short&wide (but up at head height) windows can maximise your view of the outside but minimise the glazed area; think about where you might place furniture, particularly chairs, and what the sight lines will be like. If you have room, deciduous trees are great too. HD Land settled May '14. Building the PD Hoffman39: 5/11=site start, 13/11=slab pour, 26/11=frame complete, 10/12=roof on, 12/12=bricking started. Blog: http://jyndeira.net/blog/ Re: Windows in West direction 4Apr 15, 2013 4:53 pm Windows on the west can be a real pain as its hard to provide external shade that doesn't block all light. This is because of the low afternoon evening sun which gets under most eaves and pergolas. If I were you with that block I would be inclined to swap the house round so most of the windows faced east which isn't quite as bad. Although low E glass works well with double glazing a highly reflective window film does stop about 70-80 of heat transmission on west facing windows. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Windows in West direction 5Apr 16, 2013 3:26 pm Thanks all for the views, I think I will have 2 horizontal Windows there which look a little stylish. I think we are far ahead in terms of changing a plan, as there were so many other important things we looked for in this plan. Well may still go over Big M's other Double Storey plans. On a side note do you guys have a view to always leave more room on the garage side or the other? Or have garage on extreme side to leave no gap between neighbour's wall and garage? Re: Windows in West direction 6Apr 16, 2013 4:45 pm I like to have the garage abutting the boundary, partly because I have a cat I want to keep contained with an enclosure, but I guess having most of the room on one side only makes sense- also saving money on needing a gate or fence there! Our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64705 Assuming you've modelled the TB8, TB10, TB12, TB2 & J1 joists/LVLs there, it appears as per drawing to me. There maybe should be an additional J1 between TB10 and T12 if… 3 31780 Pls help! The black marks show where our outdoor entertaining area would be along side of house as we have an irregular backyard and want to make use of the side as… 0 4348 Hi I live in a 100yr old semi and my neighbour added an additional floor last yr and our architect has advised that we can knock down our semi and build a free-standing… 0 37681 |