Falesh

I like the idea of the strip for the evening lights. Thanks for the ideas.

It's the colour temperature primarily due to its affect on the circadian rhythm. I'm not sure whether the brightness of a light has the same impact as colour temperature does, I should look into that. This is for one room; I spend the vast majority of my time in my bedroom/office.

During the day I like a colour temperature of about 6000-6500K, but I would like to change it to 3000K in the evening to help me get to sleep. Is there a way to do this economically or do I need to buy expensive bulbs/double the number of lights in the room and switch between them?

I appreciate your detailed thoughts on this Ferdinand. There are a couple of slight misunderstandings though, I don't use a wheelchair and am as physically able in short bursts as an everage person. It's just that the energy I have to spend on moving about is very limited, imagine that my body is the same as yours except it is powered by a watch battery whereas yours is powered by a car battery. It is a very confusing illness, it took me years to understand it and I've got the bloody thing. I have also given up on the idea of the empty garden space between the bedrooms. Moonshine and further research has shown up my previous understanding about soundproofing as more of a misunderstanding. Now I will be doing the next redesign using double stud walls between my room and others. Having said that you make a very good point about considering how someone can use a wheelchair in the house. Even though I don't see myself using a wheelchair, I am more vulnerable to being forced into one then a healthy person. If the building regs requires at least one bathroom that has wheelchair access it might as well be mine. Building a good document for the architect is something I am working on. Right now we are still waiting to see if the council will sell us the land, the probability is very high, but it will take some time for them to reach a decision. During that time I aim to learn as much as possible and refine/redesign the plan so that I can deliver something that either works as is, or at least explicitly shows what we want out of the building. Even if the design changes a lot from the ones I post, these threads have been a huge help as I always have valuable takaways from them. The two guest bedrooms are important as my niece and nephew are frequent visitors and will use the one with the sofa bed for a computer gaming room and one or both for staying overnight. There is also the possibility that either my niece or nephew could live with us when they reach adulthood and so having two means one could be used for that and still have one left over for other guests. The reason the bedrooms are right off the living area is simply to get the most use out of the house size as possible. We need to save as much as possible and cutting out corridors is one way to get the most bang for our buck. I am planning on the bedrooms having staggered stud walls filled with Rockwool and solid well sealed doors, so sound shouldn't be a terrible issue.

Yeah, on that same site it shows a possible option for that. I never even thought about simply having the wall go all the way to the roof. If both work then I guess it's down to whichever is the cheapest. I would like low frequency protection too, which is what drew my thoughts to the ICF. The other is that with the ICF it's a simple single wall rather then having to build multiple ones with gaps inbetween. Having said that since I have, as yet, not found data to compare the different solutions it may or may not work.

I haven't decided that yet, the answer to this might be another thing that helps me decide one way or another.

I am researching how to soundproof two rooms that share a wall. One method is using a double stud wall as seen here. The other would be using an ICF party wall and then using clips to decouple the drywall, as shown here. In the links the double stud is preferable as the single one is also using a stud wall. But I am wondering how well a thick ICF wall would work due to its very large mass and great airtightness. Anyone have any ideas?

I'm not closed to other idea, it's just that I place a high bar on something that is very important to get right. That is why Moonshine's input is very valueable as his credentials in this field are very reassuring. I appreciate the comment, that is the sort of thing that could catch someone out. Thankfully I don't have mobility issues with regards to how I get from A to B, it's just that I don't have the energy to move around repeatedly or very far.

The current extension I live in has a heavy firedoor that was bought for soundproofing, but it only does so much as I don't think it forms as perfect a seal as neccasary. For this house both the doors and frames will be bought to make sure they seal properly. It's good to know that you can do a soundproof wall, I have found getting good information on this aspect of the build very difficult. The window would need to be pretty good, though the noises from outside tend to be less of an issue for me. Birdsong and well damped general noise I can ignore, but even very quiet talking or music involentarily gets my attention making me wake up. I'll make up a plan without the gap and see how it works out.

Both myself and my father would like en suite private bathrooms rather then shared ones. This is also for soundproofing as the bathrooms form a buffer room between the bedrooms and the rest of the house.

You have a point, but it is easier to buy chunky airtight external doors then getting good soundproofed indoor ones. I definintly agree that the gap is, odd, but all my research on soundproofing has shown that if you want to soundproof a room you either can't share a wall or you have to spend more then it would cost to build a room within a room to do it. Having said that, I am by no means an expert on acoustics so there may be a way of doing things differntly. This is one thing I can't gamble on though, it has to work.

The gap also lets the rooms have outside access. For me this is important as I can wheel my office chair over to let the dog out, or just have a shorter talk to get into the garden. Since the door is next to the other one it lets me retain as much wall area inside the room for storage, desk space, etc. Having a the room share a wall would hurt the soundproofing and that is just too important, any loss of sleep has a really big impact on me. The lobbies are for sound proofing. Doors are a real weak point for sound, so that design lets the first door reduce the sound and the second eliminate it.

My earlier plans had the two spare bedrooms and guest bathroom upstairs, but having them downstairs means I can help keep them tidy as stairs are very tiring for me. With regards to the roof that was something I was going to leave to the architect as I don't really mind what type it is as long as it meets the passive house spec, if we can do that, and is as cheap, but durable, as possible. The one other thought I had was that having a loft could be useful for storage and possible conversion down the road. I can't see that we will want a loft conversion, but all things being equal, having the option is better then not.

I've gone through a lot of different plans and have homed in on one that seems to tick all our boxes for the smallest amount of space. This plan is one I will be taking to an architect to finalize, so it isn't meant to be perfect. What would be useful is if anyone can point out stuff that obviously won't work or things I have forgotten. I have ME so I sleep lightly till midday or later and as such I need a very soundproof bedroom. That means it can’t share a wall with rooms other people will use. I also spend most of my time in my bedroom as I can’t walk much so it is more a bedroom flat than anything else. Since I can’t get out much I want to bring as much of the outdoors in, hence the large window facing what will be a wildlife garden. My father will be living in the other large bedroom and also wants it to be fairly self contained and soundproof so that we can both have our own guests without bothering the other. The gap between these two rooms is slightly awkward, but there has to be some gap for soundproofing and so making it 1.95m lets it have uses like for hanging washing to dry, storing bikes, etc. For the rest of the house, we need 2 spare bedrooms and a living room big enough to host family get togethers. The table is a dining/pool table so room around that for cueing is important. I would like this to be a passive house if that is affordable.

Is factory built timber frame faster even considering how long it takes in the factory as well as any weather delays? I'm surprised you say ICF isn't fast, from what I have read one of the consistent plus points is that it is a, relatively, quick building system.

Either turn key or my father will help as much as someone without specialist knowledge can without screwing things up. Painting, flooring and such like will probably be done by us. The things that have drawn us to SIPs and ICF is the build speed but also the intrinsic air tightness of both systems. We would like to have a very energy efficient home to keep the upkeep down, maybe to the point of Passive House, but we are not wedded to that. The other great thing with air tightness is the soundproofing.

I am having trouble deciding between SIPs and ICF for the walls of our planned house. The image below shows a possible layout, but please note that this is a work in progress and more an indication of our needs rather then a finalized plan. This house will be built in York in case my region has an impact. The main considerations are as follows: Sound Proofing The two bedrooms need to be very well soundproofed. The bedroom at the top right is going to be mine and I sleep till midday or later due to my disability. That means I need a very quiet room both from external and internal noise. My father will be having the other bedroom and would also like to have reasonable internal soundproofing so we can have our own guests and not disturb each other too much. Durability Because I am unable to work and my father is retired we need to make sure this house will last without needing costly repairs down the line. This is where my concern for SIPs comes in due to the possiblity of panel degredation. My other concern with regards to this is that SIPs seem reletivly new and I worry that local builders may not have the skills to build with SIPs in a way that promotes longevity. Cost Obviously cost is a big factor too. We will be selling our current house before we start the build so how quickly the house can be built once the money becomes availible will have an impact due to less time we need to rent. Any extra soundproofing that one system needs will have to be added to its cost. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for the suggestions. I should have filled out my initial post as our requirements are somewhat unique. I kept the plan fairly simple mainly to show our needs, enough seating and dining for a family christmas and our unique bedrooms, rather then the specifics. So long as those are met the rest can be designed in as cost effective manner as possible. We aren't after anything fancy finish wise, just something that will last. The only two windows we really care about keeping large are the ones in the two bedrooms that look to the right on the picture as they will give a wonderful view of our garden.

I should have said that the plan is not by any means final, especially the windows, it is just something we have made in Live Home 3D and is shown mainly for the room size and rough shape. The general layout is for a specific reason though. I have ME and sleep lightly til the early afternoon. So I need ground floor accommodation that can be sound proofed from the living area. The other bedroom is for my father who also wants a somewhat separated ground floor living area so we can both have our own guests. The bedrooms have outside doors so my father can have seperate access and so I can get into the garden, and let the dog out, with the minimum of walking (I spend the vast majority of my time in my bedroom). As it happens our current house has a very similar layout, both ground floor bedrooms are pretty much the same, including the external doors, and it works perfectly for us. The reason we wish to build a new house is that our current one is also way too big, with too many extra bedrooms including a 3rd story loft conversion. We wish to downsize while retaining the layout that has worked so well for us.

We're planning on building a dormer bungalow with the first story as shown in the attachment and then a bathroom and two bedrooms upstairs. Ideally it would be build to the passive house standard, but if costs are too high we can drop that. We can also reduce the number of windows based on price. Does anyone have any ideas of the cost of such a project, excluding land value, when using a main contractor in York? Cheers!