Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Comment on floor plans 3Aug 08, 2019 5:58 pm Hi, Nice looking house plan from a functional living perspective. From an energy efficient perspective, the main challenges I can see are:
Possibly simple improvements:
The other things to consider are how you want to heat/cool and what type of glazing you want? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Check our Homeone build blog here Re: Comment on floor plans 4Aug 08, 2019 7:17 pm Steve4216 That's an impressive sized house! Looks good to me, unfortunately your block orientation isn't that great and you can't do much about it. There's a massive window on your theatre room facing directly west, that rooms going to be a hotbox in Summer. You'd want to upgrade those windows on that western side. thanks for your comment. I am aware of the afternoon sun. when placing a big window here, I do have a big question mark. the theatre is only about 3.8 meter to rear boundary. As shown in the picture, there are mature trees on my rear boundary ( I want to keep them), and my neighbour next to my backyard also got quite few tall trees (see the google screenshot). Is this making any difference? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Comment on floor plans 5Aug 08, 2019 8:00 pm I think it’s a good design. It’s nice that the grandparents have a northfacing courtyard. Ideally garage wouldn’t take up north side, but I can see why you’ve put it there. Bit of separation from the grandparents! The trees in the backyard will shade from the west sun nicely. Have you decided what sort of glazing you will be having? Is the theatre room actually going to be used for that or have you another purpose? If it’s just for tv/movie watching do you really need so much glass? Maybe a smaller window for energy efficiency? Re: Comment on floor plans 6Aug 08, 2019 8:47 pm darb74 Hi, Nice looking house plan from a functional living perspective. From an energy efficient perspective, the main challenges I can see are:
Possibly simple improvements:
The other things to consider are how you want to heat/cool and what type of glazing you want? Thanks for the comment. I want to use double glazing windows. The neighbours on my North pretty much block the Winter Sun due to their 3.4m wall and only 0.9m to boundary. There is one of the reason I didn't relocate the garage to south side. " Door off to create air lock" which door off? Re: Comment on floor plans 7Aug 08, 2019 8:50 pm Hillsbuilds I think it’s a good design. It’s nice that the grandparents have a northfacing courtyard. Ideally garage wouldn’t take up north side, but I can see why you’ve put it there. Bit of separation from the grandparents! The trees in the backyard will shade from the west sun nicely. Have you decided what sort of glazing you will be having? Is the theatre room actually going to be used for that or have you another purpose? If it’s just for tv/movie watching do you really need so much glass? Maybe a smaller window for energy efficiency? For windows facing west, I might use double glazing with low E. The theatre is not just tv watching, will be multi- purpose room Re: Comment on floor plans 8Aug 08, 2019 9:06 pm Hi Good design, very well considered layout of space. A few comments: - Grandparents bedroom looks too small if they are going to be living there 24/7. Assuming there will be a QS bed, two bed side tables and a chest of drawers the remaining available floor space may be a bit tight esp if they are more senior in age and are a bit unsteady on their feet. Suggest you mock up a floorplan to scale showing location of bed and furniture and see if it works. - change door from Grandparents bedroom into en-suite 2 to a cavity slider, will not intrude on the bathroom space. - if you plan on using the exterior doors from the Theatre into the garden, it’s likely that the double doors from the dining room will remain open most of the time and therefore intrude into the Theatre space. Suggest you consider a sliding barn door or cavity sliding doors instead. - Powder room - does it have a hand basin? Will save guests having to go into the kids bathroom. - kids bathroom have recessed sinks or your little ones won’t be able to wash their hands or brush their teeth if you choose an above counter style. Good luck with your build. 😀 Re: Comment on floor plans 9Aug 09, 2019 11:41 am Bebbsy Hi Good design, very well considered layout of space. A few comments: - Grandparents bedroom looks too small if they are going to be living there 24/7. Assuming there will be a QS bed, two bed side tables and a chest of drawers the remaining available floor space may be a bit tight esp if they are more senior in age and are a bit unsteady on their feet. Suggest you mock up a floorplan to scale showing location of bed and furniture and see if it works. - change door from Grandparents bedroom into en-suite 2 to a cavity slider, will not intrude on the bathroom space. - if you plan on using the exterior doors from the Theatre into the garden, it’s likely that the double doors from the dining room will remain open most of the time and therefore intrude into the Theatre space. Suggest you consider a sliding barn door or cavity sliding doors instead. - Powder room - does it have a hand basin? Will save guests having to go into the kids bathroom. - kids bathroom have recessed sinks or your little ones won’t be able to wash their hands or brush their teeth if you choose an above counter style. Good luck with your build. 😀 Thanks a lot. All good suggestions. Re: Comment on floor plans 10Aug 09, 2019 12:58 pm I think your floorplan works really well. Do you need 2 door into the guest ensuite as it doesn't leave anywhere for a towel rail. One thing I would suggest is to tile to the edge of the gutter under your alfresco. It basically adds an extra half metre of useable space to the outdoor area (and grass doesn't grow very well under the gutter) Re: Comment on floor plans 11Aug 09, 2019 2:50 pm You don't have much garden at the back. Assume double story is not an option to give you a smaller footprint and some garden at the back? Re: Comment on floor plans 12Aug 09, 2019 4:21 pm bestspecials I think your floorplan works really well. Do you need 2 door into the guest ensuite as it doesn't leave anywhere for a towel rail. One thing I would suggest is to tile to the edge of the gutter under your alfresco. It basically adds an extra half metre of useable space to the outdoor area (and grass doesn't grow very well under the gutter) Good suggestion on the towel rail. Tile to edge of gutter is good idea also Re: Comment on floor plans 13Aug 09, 2019 4:23 pm brokenstick You don't have much garden at the back. Assume double story is not an option to give you a smaller footprint and some garden at the back? I wanted to do double story at beginning but change to single now. few reasons: 1, council only allows to build the second story at back; 2, all single storey at that area; 3, no view if I build the second story at back. I know the backyard becomes very small now. There is a small part in front of my block. Re: Comment on floor plans 14Aug 09, 2019 6:56 pm Guys, Can I ask some specific advice? 1. About FFL? The old house: The survey shows that the floor level FFL 11.47; backyard 11.50; (the neighbor on my west, next my backyard 11.80) front yard is about 11.60 The driving way starting from 10.43 to 10.83 along 8 meters ( a little slope; there is 0.65m difference between house floor and the car port floor; Overall, the front yard looks level ( or I can say minor slope on the driving way). The new house: Designer proposed finished floor level ( FFL) 11.5 initially, and the garage FFL 11.414. By keeping the garage floor same level with house floor, this results in a big slope ( 1:6) in front of the garage. I thought 1:6 slope is too steep. Then he changed the new house FFL to 11.3, garage FFL11.214 and the slope in front of garage 1:7 My question is: - Is that driving way slope 1:7 still steep? - What is the best way to arrange my garage FFL? Do I need to keep house FFL11.3, then drop garage FFL to 10.9 ( so need 2 steps from garage to house), after that the slope in front of garage will be reduced significantly. I need some advice here. Much appreciated. Re: Comment on floor plans 15Aug 09, 2019 7:16 pm Another one will be the Living/Dinning ceiling height, windows on north and eaves. Currently it is 37C (3.18m), window for living/dinning 34C ( 2.92m), all eaves 450mm. any experience/advice to share here. I am not sure about the height, window and eaves ( I thought the eaves on north should be a bit longer but builder will usually do same wide across the whole house. CDC Housing Code 3 When to apply Floor Area external face of wall vs Gross Floor Area internal face of wall. Reading thru CDC Housing Code 3, lets take a lot 915sqm.… 0 16538 isn't a garage level with the rest of the house a given? pretty sure they 'came around' long time ago. if you have a flat block, the garage is usually level with the rest… 1 17511 6 11528 |