Critique our design please

[Jvh2012]

Hoping for some advice from experience here please. The original plan that was drawn we couldn’t fit a wc under the stairs because of the headroom, so the architect has moved the stairs forward to fit a wc but I’m really worried the stairs will feel enclosed now, o originally had a glass balustrade idea for the top but I also want a wc under the stairs. Any ideas what we could do or any alternative designs you would think would work better? 
 

the back room I want to stay the same size if we can I want a large area at the back of the house. 
 

thank you 

[ProDave]

The stairs are always going to be enclosed between the 2 walls upstairs, no matter how much you move them forwards or backwards to accommodate the downstairs WC

 

If you want to retain more open downstairs, how about taking a bite off the utility room for the WC, still accessed by a door under the stairs, but no headroom issues.

[Jvh2012]

That was what I was thinking, so glad that’s what you recommend. Do you think the stairs will feel enclosed with that design? Do you think the stairs need to come forward to have the balustrades as a bit of a feature or would you not bother? 

[joth]

Bed 2 seems very generously appointed with wardrobes? If they're not all needed, you could allocate a bit more of that double wardrobe space into Master bedroom, moving it's entrance up onto that wall (maybe making a dressing room, if you like) and in exchange give up some of the top-left side of master bedroom to open up the stairwell over the hallway below, possibly even vaulting it up to the roofline (depending what your doing with the roof, and your appetite for inaccessible skylights)

It's a trade off of useful floor area vs an element of wow factor.

 

btw I'm always impressed when architects use 'up' and 'dn' to label stairs, given their rotational symmetry

 

[Jvh2012]

Bedroom 2 shouldn’t have had the wardrobes there the architect put them in my mistake backing on to the master. Do you think taking that space and using it as a dressing room would be enough room? Incase you can’t tell I’m really struggling with understanding where things will and won’t work, first timer! 

[MikeGrahamT21]

You may have an opportunity for a double height space for the stair too.

 

If no wardrobes in bedroom 2, move that wall back flush with doorway to give more space to bed 1, put en-suite on the wardrobe wall in bed 1, and wardrobes on the stair wall. Appreciate that would likely mean moving the stack to another location, but just something to think about. Seems to be what most architects go for these days to really open the stair up.

[oldkettle]

Looking at the en-suite, it has a width of 1500mm. Thus the shower will be limited to maybe 800? Feels quite tight. 

[puntloos]

FWIW you need to give us some more data:
 

- How high are your ceilings? 2400?

- How steep are your stairs? Can you put a ruler next to it for us?

- Do you care about crampedness? (I don't, really.. within certain reason.. but some people feel they need (to show off a) throne(room)

- Do you care about noise? (that toilet is close to your living room..)

 

If anything I'd sacrifice some of your lounge for the toilet..

[DevilDamo]

Generally speaking, the layout works well.

 

You could increase the width (and depth) of the W.C. by pushing into the Utility slightly, say another 300mm as the Utility would still be a decent size.

 

You could pull the doors to the front Bedrooms down to (for example) the line of the wardrobe to Bedroom 3 and still utilise glass balustrading where those partitions are no more.

 

If you wanted to make the staircase look and feel more grand, you could have an 1800mm wide opening at the top, which would also increase the width of the Master En-suite. This would obviously slightly reduce the width of the Bedrooms on the right hand side including their wardrobe space.

 

Not entirely sure on the questioning or reasoning behind @puntloos comments though, irrespective if the floor to ceiling heights were 2.4m and the max. angle of the stair being 42 degrees!?! The W.C. concern is a new one to me as well because aren’t the majority of new build W.C’s located within the Hall that is near or opposite to a Living/Lounge area?

[puntloos]

2 minutes ago, DevilDamo said:

Generally speaking, the layout works well.

 

You could increase the width (and depth) of the W.C. by pushing into the Utility slightly, say another 300mm as the Utility would still be a decent size.

 

You could pull the doors to the front Bedrooms down to (for example) the line of the wardrobe to Bedroom 3 and still utilise glass balustrading where those partitions are no more.

 

If you wanted to make the staircase look and feel more grand, you could have an 1800mm wide opening at the top, which would also increase the width of the Master En-suite. This would obviously slightly reduce the width of the Bedrooms on the right hand side including their wardrobe space.

 

Not entirely sure on the questioning or reasoning behind @puntloos comments though, irrespective if the floor to ceiling heights were 2.4m and the max. angle of the stair being 42 degrees!?! The W.C. concern is a new one to me as well because aren’t the majority of new build W.C’s located within the Hall that is near or opposite to a Living/Lounge area?

 

The angle of the stairs impacts the space under them of course. I didn't feel like measuring the sketch, even assuming the image is actually to scale..

And well, if you don't care hearing the toilet being flushed and other... noises.. sure, put the WC there. Of course depends on sound insulation and overall noise levels in the house too, but I'd rather not risk it. 

 

 

[DevilDamo]

The angle of the stairs cannot be anymore than 42 degrees though hence why I wasn’t sure why you asked the question?

 

The W.C. pan is positioned on the stair side so not sure how much noise you’d expect to hear through a W.C. door and block partitions unless

somebody shouting when they have run out of toilet roll is what you’re referring to? ?

[puntloos]

1 minute ago, DevilDamo said:

The angle of the stairs cannot be anymore than 42 degrees though hence why I wasn’t sure why you asked the question?

 

Like I said, I didn't take the actual measurments so I figured I'd let him/her come back with some actual dimensions of the toilet as it is.

 

1 minute ago, DevilDamo said:

The W.C. pan is positioned on the stair side so not sure how much noise you’d expect to hear through a W.C. door and block partitions unless

somebody shouting when they have run out of toilet roll is what you’re referring to? ?

 

Well, I'm not sure where you live, but where I live I would hear everything loud and clear in this design. Again, it all depends on how noisy your house is by default. 

 

[Jvh2012]

Thank you for your comments. The architect has now come back with a new design which I will attach now, do you think this works better? We lose more of the utility than I would have liked but that was how he has redesigned it for now! There was a concern about head height in the wc that’s why he has moved it into the utility to give us the balustrade at the top. We lose some of the space going into the bedrooms now though, is this the best compromise?

[DevilDamo]

Not knowing where you’re located, I’d ask your architect to check and make sure the W.C. complies with AD M as it looks too tight for me.

 

As you come up the stairs to the Landing, why is the stud wall to the Master Bedroom shown on the line of the return handrail and not the stair string like the other side? Doesn’t appear to serve any real purpose apart from having a small void down to the floor below and a very slightly wider ‘openness’ feel to the stair. As the doors to the front Bedrooms have been pulled down and glass balustrading introduced, this could then do away with that gap.

[DevilDamo]

To give you a little more depth in the porch, the wall between the Porch and Hall does not need to be a cavity wall. You could therefore loose approx. 200mm from the porch side of that wall and have it just as an internal block wall. This is assuming the door between the Porch and Hall would be an internal and not external type/quality door.

Edited May 31, 2020 by DevilDamo