New build floorplans - opinions welcome

[Mr Punter]

Deffo loads better than the basketweave brick / ashlar / mix.  It looks more cohesive in the monochrome.  I see the soffit depth is a fair bit deeper.  Why is that?

[Indy]

3 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

Deffo loads better than the basketweave brick / ashlar / mix.  It looks more cohesive in the monochrome.  I see the soffit depth is a fair bit deeper.  Why is that?

We wanted to fit some down lights, so it was made slightly bigger to accommodate those comfortably. 

[Indy]

50 minutes ago, CharlieKLP said:

That’s actually an improvement.

 

although I would make the porch smaller and make that stone to match the window bits.

The porch design is what took us the longest to finalise. Settled on having a double height porch with some sort of light feature in the entrance area.

 

Dropping it to a single height looked a bit odd to us in the renders so we decided to stick with it. 

[CharlieKLP]

47 minutes ago, Indy said:

The porch design is what took us the longest to finalise. Settled on having a double height porch with some sort of light feature in the entrance area.

 

Dropping it to a single height looked a bit odd to us in the renders so we decided to stick with it. 

 

It just makes no sense to me, I’m guessing it’s expensive; but you aren’t going to sit in there and it doesn’t bring light into the house as it leads into a dull corridor. To me that’s wasteful and not used well. If you had asked me for a stunning entrance porch, I’d have made that thing do all kinds of things. It would have been the focus of the house.

 

to me this looks like you are just displaying to people that you have a porch, it isn’t for you it’s for some random walking past.

[saveasteading]

I like the porch. It is such an unrecognised means of retaining heat in the house.

 

It is rather large, but so is the house. You could retain visitors in it if they fall between the 'go-away' and please come in' categories.

Yes it is expensive but this sort of house needs some 'wow' from outside and this is it.

 

A trick of architectural design is  that a building is usually favourably noted for one thing....and that may be a colour or the main front feature.

You will feel good every time you see it.

[freshy]

On 18/02/2022 at 15:44, Indy said:

 

 

 

 

Definitely looks better than the original design.

[CharlieKLP]

It has hardly changed from the original design?

[Indy]

No change since the last time I posted (couple of weeks ago), and no MAJOR change to the original design (apart from the brick exterior being changed to render to tie in with the contemporary design).

 

However, I do agree that the revised colour scheme lifts the design and makes it look fresher and lighter.

[7dayworker]

On 27/02/2022 at 18:39, Indy said:

No change since the last time I posted (couple of weeks ago), and no MAJOR change to the original design (apart from the brick exterior being changed to render to tie in with the contemporary design).

 

However, I do agree that the revised colour scheme lifts the design and makes it look fresher and lighter.

Our architect designed a very similar house with smaller porch making the house look taller . We aim to use light brick with some cladding below large windows . 
have you any photos of the build , please ?

[7dayworker]

On 31/01/2022 at 15:00, Indy said:

 

Thank you so much for this, eerily close to what we were going for and great to see a visual representation of a finished product. The only difference would have been the choice of external cladding where we're leaning towards bricks/brick slips rather than render/timber cladding. 

Our plans are like the picture . The central glazed atrium is narrower . 4000 sq ft with rooms in roof . Brick with some cladding below front windows . 

[7dayworker]

On 21/01/2022 at 09:02, Thorfun said:

we have one too from our bedroom overlooking the flat wildflower roof.

 

 

I love it already and can't wait to be sitting on it, drinking a beer and watching our existing house be demolished! may not get much use after that but who cares. looks great.

I think most houses here have balconies . Never used except on very hot days . Is that wildflower roof difficult or expensive as I have a similar design rear build ?

[Thorfun]

11 minutes ago, 7dayworker said:

I think most houses here have balconies . Never used except on very hot days . Is that wildflower roof difficult or expensive as I have a similar design rear build ?

Don’t think it’s too difficult but I paid someone to do it for me. It wasn’t cheap but it was a price we were happy to pay. Probably ended up around £100/m²

[saveasteading]

1 hour ago, 7dayworker said:

Is that wildflower roof difficult or expensive

Yes it is.

 

The roof has to be lined with a membrane that is root-proof.

There is some sort of crate structure to hold the medium and then the seeding.

 

All of that plus the fact that it hold rainwater adds a lot of weight which has to be supported by heavier joists.

 

That is  a practical design as you can do the gardening or collect dead birds/litter without being too close to the edge.

 

£20,000 extra at a guess.

 

[Indy]

17 hours ago, 7dayworker said:

Our architect designed a very similar house with smaller porch making the house look taller . We aim to use light brick with some cladding below large windows . 
have you any photos of the build , please ?

We're a long way off from spade in the ground or any build work. Application went in 2 weeks ago, and so far hasn't even been validated or registered on the council website yet(!)

 

[Indy]

So... still no update from council on whether our application has been registered or validated, and the idle mind being a devil's workshop and what not. Was looking through my document pack and the section plan gave me some ideas.

 

 

The height of the roof space above the 1st floor is 1888mm, which is too low for bedroom use. That's fine as I don't really need any more bedroom space but I was thinking whether it would be possible to create some entertainment space - cinema room, bar/whisky storage area or a games room. 

 

One option  would be either to drop the height of the current floors from 2400mm to say 2300mm each and 'donate' that space to the loft space. However, a quick chat with the architect indicates that plan is not so straightforward as the space of over 2m head height needs to exist for a space of at least 900mm width, which doesn't seem doable and would mean a drastic re-design including the location of the stairs.

 

The other option I was considering was whether we could start the house at lower than ground level by say 200mm or something similar which then gives us the internal space needed without raising the roof height, which would be what the planners would look at very closely? This would be somewhat of a compromise as I can't afford a full basement (too expensive) but wanted to see if others had done something similar and what the associated costs would be?

 

That can then help me decide using a cost/benefit analysis if the additional space would be worth the investment. 

[Iceverge]

Keep it for storage I would say. 

 

You could raise the first floor ceiling to something like 2700mm or even a vaulted ceiling for some extra wow factor. 

[Bitpipe]

We progressively reduced the ceiling height across floors as we could not exceed the ridge height of the house we were demolishing.

 

Basement is 2700mm, first floor 2400mm, second floor 2300mm and room in roof fills what's left but usable as bedrooms.

 

Minimising the floor buildup was key, GF was to be 2450mm original but we needed extra ply on floor for resin and additional battens in ceiling due to steel snafu so lost 50mm in the process. However it looks and feels fine.

[Indy]

10 hours ago, Iceverge said:

Keep it for storage I would say. 

 

You could raise the first floor ceiling to something like 2700mm or even a vaulted ceiling for some extra wow factor. 

That is an option but would it not be better to have usable floor area compared to vaulted ceilings?

[Indy]

1 hour ago, Bitpipe said:

Minimising the floor buildup was key, GF was to be 2450mm original but we needed extra ply on floor for resin and additional battens in ceiling due to steel snafu so lost 50mm in the process. However it looks and feels fine.

 

Can you advise what your floor buildup looks like? Completely new area for me and I'm looking into it, but thinking of block and beam/precast concrete floor slabs with UFH. Need to understand what thickness to aim for so I can work around that number.

[Bitpipe]

29 minutes ago, Indy said:

 

Can you advise what your floor buildup looks like? Completely new area for me and I'm looking into it, but thinking of block and beam/precast concrete floor slabs with UFH. Need to understand what thickness to aim for so I can work around that number.

 

I have timber web joists throughout with standard plasterboard & skim under and 18mm OSB deck on top plus whatever the floor finish is. On my GF (which sits over basement) the UFH is in spreader plates between the joists so under teh OSB. There is then a sandwich of 12mm and 9mm ply on top of which is about 10mm of resin floor system (rubber mat and resin itself).

 

I remember when considering ICF that the proposed hollow core flooring necessary for the spans plus screed on top, plus services void under would have given me too deep a build up on each floor.

 

With the web joists, services run through the webs - 110mm fouls being the largest and 75mm MVHR next biggest - this is only really an issue for your first floor as it will impinge on the ceiling height in the floor below.

 

For UFH you will need to allow for insulation etc. My basement slab is a passive raft so insulated underneath (it sits on 300mm EPS) and has no UFH, perfectly comfortable without it.

 

[Iceverge]

3 hours ago, Indy said:

That is an option but would it not be better to have usable floor area compared to vaulted ceilings?

 

Buyers choice. We have 2700mm throughout. I like it.

 

Do you need the space! Lofts often become dumping grounds for stuff that belongs in a skip in my experience. 

[7dayworker]

On 04/04/2022 at 23:23, Indy said:

So... still no update from council on whether our application has been registered or validated, and the idle mind being a devil's workshop and what not. Was looking through my document pack and the section plan gave me some ideas.

 

 

The height of the roof space above the 1st floor is 1888mm, which is too low for bedroom use. That's fine as I don't really need any more bedroom space but I was thinking whether it would be possible to create some entertainment space - cinema room, bar/whisky storage area or a games room. 

 

One option  would be either to drop the height of the current floors from 2400mm to say 2300mm each and 'donate' that space to the loft space. However, a quick chat with the architect indicates that plan is not so straightforward as the space of over 2m head height needs to exist for a space of at least 900mm width, which doesn't seem doable and would mean a drastic re-design including the location of the stairs.

 

The other option I was considering was whether we could start the house at lower than ground level by say 200mm or something similar which then gives us the internal space needed without raising the roof height, which would be what the planners would look at very closely? This would be somewhat of a compromise as I can't afford a full basement (too expensive) but wanted to see if others had done something similar and what the associated costs would be?

 

That can then help me decide using a cost/benefit analysis if the additional space would be worth the investment. 

I walked around the area and saw roofs with a flat square roof with sloping sides . That allowed room space , but nervous about the possible overheating  on the third floor 

[Indy]

On 04/04/2022 at 23:23, Indy said:

So... still no update from council on whether our application has been registered or validated, and the idle mind being a devil's workshop and what not. Was looking through my document pack and the section plan gave me some ideas.

 

 

The height of the roof space above the 1st floor is 1888mm, which is too low for bedroom use. That's fine as I don't really need any more bedroom space but I was thinking whether it would be possible to create some entertainment space - cinema room, bar/whisky storage area or a games room. 

 

One option  would be either to drop the height of the current floors from 2400mm to say 2300mm each and 'donate' that space to the loft space. However, a quick chat with the architect indicates that plan is not so straightforward as the space of over 2m head height needs to exist for a space of at least 900mm width, which doesn't seem doable and would mean a drastic re-design including the location of the stairs.

 

The other option I was considering was whether we could start the house at lower than ground level by say 200mm or something similar which then gives us the internal space needed without raising the roof height, which would be what the planners would look at very closely? This would be somewhat of a compromise as I can't afford a full basement (too expensive) but wanted to see if others had done something similar and what the associated costs would be?

 

That can then help me decide using a cost/benefit analysis if the additional space would be worth the investment. 

 

Any more views on lowering the overall floor of the house, or shall I take it that this is a bad and potentially expensive idea?

 

One thing I've discovered (naivety showing here) is that you don't dig the entire plot down for standard foundations, only at the edges. So my initial thoughts of just going another 200mm lower is not realistic. To actually remove 200mm across the entire space (say 165sq m in our case) would be a much chunkier job.

[Iceverge]

How would a wheelchair/pushchair get in? 

[Indy]

On 11/04/2022 at 11:36, Iceverge said:

How would a wheelchair/pushchair get in? 

 

Fair point, a ramp or something similar for a very small drop would probably be too impractical I guess.

 

Any comments on this idea:

Vaulted ceilings in the master bedroom and front 2 rooms (to give the idea of height and counteract the sloping roofs on either side)

Normal roof in the middle part of the house - this gives it a little bit of storage space (boxes, suitcases etc) and also space to vent the MVHR system

 

Or

 

Would you suggest going for vaulted ceilings throughout the 1st floor and using something like Posi-joists for the MVHR ducting system?