New build design & floorplan - Comments please!

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, jimmyharris80 said:

Thanks all, looks like what you have on your island is down to personal preference, my wife is also a big fan of keeping the island clean so looks like we'll be keeping the hob and the sink off of it!

 

We'll be piping into a sewage treatment plant so anything other that liquid down the plug is a no no unless we want a nasty shock down the line.

 

As the doors will be to the plant room I don't envisage it being a highly used space or one we'll travel through with our hands full so a double door solution would work I think.

 

@Ferdinand Overheating is something we are very much aware of, this was flagged up on our previous scheme due to the large SW glazed gable end.  We will be looking to put in MVHR as well as an ASHP as we are off grid for mains gas.  Is there any area of concern you see on this design in terms of overheating?  The lounge with the two large picture windows on SE & SW elevations, the SE window is covered by a canopy, would that be enough shading or is overheating is this room still a risk do you think?

 

There are umpteen fixes available (Sageglass, anti-solar film, reversible single-room heatpump, ability to circulate water around the ufh to spread heat around, outdoor blinds, careful design of penetration rate of the wall (decrement delay), and many more.

 

You can also solar heat model the structure.

Experience here is that MVHRs move very little heat, and that it is important to consider autumn and spring sun angles when designing the depth of the canopy.

 

I am currently planning a veranda partly to shelter my 2 south facing windows where the rooms overheat, and I am planning a front to back depth of 4-5m at a height of around 3m.

 

F

[Bozza]

@jimmyharris80can I just advocate a couple of design ideas for you to consider/further feedback.

 

If you were able to compromise on the seating area at top of staircase, you could vault you ceiling there from ground floor.  That would be a wow factor.   Yes you’d lose your library / seating area but you have a massive study in a big house.  We have a seating area at top of our staircase and nobody sits there.  Stuff just gets dumped on the chairs eg laundry basket.  Also keep your downstairs hallway large, you won’t regret that in a busy family home.  Sometimes creating space, as opposed to more rooms, can make a house feel bigger.  Make sure you put the best staircase joinery in that you can afford.

 

Re your brickwork.   Have attached a pic.  You have big gables/lots of wall, that could easy take a bit of contemporary brickwork design.  Cheap to do I presume and could add a real top end design feel, if you like it.  Don’t go high with protruding bricks though, if you have kids

 

Wire the three downstairs rooms D,F & G for future interchangeability as offices, lounges etc.  if you do change uses makes things much easier.  Just swap furniture depending on future need.
 

I’ve had a wee look at your original house design you mentioned.  Though you changed design for budgetary reasons, personally I think the new design is much, much stronger.  
 

I took forward to see how your project progresses.good luck.

 

 

[jimmyharris80]

3 hours ago, Adsibob said:

Very nice and considerate design. I like it.
Not sure if this has already been covered but:

• How small are your kids? If small, I'd consider moving the playroom somewhere else, where they can play in sight of adults.
• Where is your hot water tank going? It's important to place this close to the taps you want near-instant hot water for. A secondary loop is another option.
• Do you need a playroom, an open plan lounge and another lounge? Could you make these spaces more adaptable so that their use changes as the kids grow older? E.g. any benefit in making the wall between the lounge and playroom collapsible? 
• I agree you should link the utility room to the kitchen. Why does the study need to be where it is. If you're staring at a PC screen, it surely doesn't matter what the view is like out the window. Switch it with the utility room.

 

Hi Adsibob,

 

Kids are currently 6 & 8, the idea was to create a separate space for them for now (for toys, tv and such) then a place for them and their mates as they get older (gaming, smooching and what not!)

 

Plan was for the water tank to either go in the plant room, another option could be the cupboard on the landing, but thinking is to situate it as close to the ASHP as possible which will likely go on the NW or SW wall near the utility/plant.

 

I agree the lounges and playroom are a bit of a luxury, we see the open plan area as the day to day and entertaining space, with the lounge and playroom more evening spaces, we are keen to have a separate areas for the kids as they grow older to give them a sense of privacy and a safe space for them at home.

 

We both spend a lot of time in our existing study (me 3 days a week, mostly screen time) and my wife (2.5-3 days a week, non-screen work), work from home is a big part of our lives and is likely to be for the foreseeable so we wanted the room to have one of the better outlooks that our site provides.

[jimmyharris80]

2 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

I am currently planning a veranda partly to shelter my 2 south facing windows where the rooms overheat, and I am planning a front to back depth of 4-5m at a height of around 3m.

 

Thanks Ferdinand - Wow, that veranda sounds huge!  If you did things all again what would you do differently?  Reduce number/size of windows, modified glazing? Or a combination of all/most of the solutions you mentioned above?

[jimmyharris80]

3 hours ago, CharlieKLP said:

Over your dining table, you have about 5m span of brickwork that will need to be supported. How are you doing that.

 

There will need to be a steel there for sure.  We have discussed cladding that elevation in standing steel following it down from the roof instead of the brickwork as drawn, this will reduce the load and hopefully the amount of steel required to support.

[jimmyharris80]

Hi again all, it's been a good few weeks and we've been through a few iterations since I last posted and I feel like we're pretty much there and have landed on a design and configuration that we're really happy with.  A summary of the changes we've made:

 

- Tidied up the windows to make them more consistent across all elevations

- Switched out the kitchen slider for a large picture window (this elevation benefits from the best views to the rear garden)

- Increased the downstairs hall space to remove the pinch point at the bottom of the stairs

- Reconfigured the master suite walk-in wardrobe and access to bathroom

- Reconfigured the utility/plant room to improve the amount of units that can be housed

- Increased canopy size so it now covers the front door porch (this isn't obvious from the drawings)

- Shaved c400mm from the back of the house as those rooms could accomodate it

- Added solar to the standing seam roof (this is an area we are now looking at in terms of viability and whether we will need to install Solar PV to meet the revised SAP calcs under new BRs)

- Updated material finiahes: Roof & East elevation - Standing Seam; Main house - Brick; Pop-out extensions - vertical larch/thermopine; Canopy - render

- Various tweaks to window placements to even up elevations

 

I think that just about covers it.  We'll be looking to submit to planning shortly, just drafting the other supporting documents on materials, design and access.

 

Interested to know peoples thoughts on the (almost) final design:

 

 

 

 

[jimmyharris80]

Missed off the site plan:

 

[Mr Punter]

Good job.  I really like it.  Another ensuite may be useful for when the sprogs get older.  Quite a few trees proposed close to the house, which may get a bit oppressive in 10 years.

 

Have you had it priced for construction?

[AliG]

Looks great.

 

A couple of minor points, which are probably just details that haven't been finalised yet.

 

1. I would have the shower in the en suite the same as the large one in  the main bathroom. those little corner showers are only for circumstances where nothing else better fits.

 

2. The front door shown on the elevations looks totally wrong for the style of house. I suspect this is just a standard one stuck on the drawing.

 

3. The hall cupboard is probably still too small. Maybe it could go under the stairs depending on the stair design.

[jimmyharris80]

Thanks Mr Punter & AliG,

 

We did discuss another ensuite but it felt a bit excessive to have 4 bathrooms in a 4 bed house, the placement of the bathroom between and easily accessible from three bedrooms is an adequate solution here we feel.

 

Noted on the trees, we'll ensure we don't pick anything too imposing or that's going to grow to a unreasonable height or width.

 

Agreed on point 1 on the shower, we will look to tweak this.

 

The front door we'd assumed was notional, we'll certainly be looking at a more modern design so will get them to tweak as part of planning app.

 

For the stairs we were looking at open tread (something like the below), the in-laws have a piano that my wife has plans to put under the stairs!  We can increase the size of the exisiting cupboard toward the living room door and put a bench seat between the living room and snug (kid's room) doorways, we do have a fair amount of space to play with in the hallway.

 

[puntloos]

On 30/09/2022 at 11:06, jimmyharris80 said:

 

Sink on an island is a definite no for me, it just becomes a dumping ground for dirty washing, hob I can see the appeal, but remain unconvinced!

I've done both, but the sink is intentionally tiny. It has an insinkerator (waste disposal) so basically I can prep on the island and shove waste into the sink. Can't fit any plates (that's what the second big sink is for)

 

Also I find the dead end in the stairs somewhat strange. No idea what to do about it at a glance but I would try to incorporate it into the master. Would make a decent walk-in?

 

Finally I guess this is mostly personal but this feels like a house for a 10-head family. So many individual living spaces downstairs that are each small. And the space facing the sun is somewhat limited. I know this point would require a major redesign to 'fix' but have you outlined your daily routines? Do you have a bunch of people that come together in dining but then all want to retreat to their own spot? Again, personal choice really but I myself created a huge living space where everybody is during the day, with one big office/secondary seating (if you're fighting or hate the movie is playing ) and other than that good upstairs amenities.

Edited November 26, 2022 by puntloos

[Adsibob]

I would look at the position of the toilets in each of the bathrooms on the first floor. Ideally toilets should be mounted on external walls. It makes them much quieter than having them on internal walls, particularly if the other side of the internal wall is a bedroom, as is the case with most of your toilets. Sometimes having them on an external wall can also make the waste plumbing easier.

[Dave Jones]

not a fan of doors on the outside walls upstairs opening to nowhere.

 

Most of your window sizes dont work brick, spend 15 mins with the builder and adjust them all to work. saves him time, you money and no crap cuts to look at forever!

 

lot of wasted space on the landing. Stairs need more thought.

 

Fireplace would make a nice feature.

[joe90]

4 minutes ago, Dave Jones said:

Most of your window sizes dont work brick, spend 15 mins with the builder and adjust them all to work. saves him time, you money and no crap cuts to look at forever!

+1, I had my brick Layer use whole or half bricks only then got windows and doors made to fit the openings. Looks far superior 👍

[Dave Jones]

also swing the toilet doors to open out not in, wont have hassle with disabled regs and spacing.

 

ref openings, quite easy to do.  for example you have a 600 window on the plan, architects do this as they are clueless on how to build normally. 

 

600 / 225 (brick + joint) = 2.66666 bricks. result = looks crap. yes some runs the joints can all be stretched etc etc but just make the window 3 bricks and its 675mm then the cuts are exactly half.

 

 

[Hilldes]

GF plant room may be a bit cosy depending on what is going in there. Our is 1.8m x 1.7m with MVHR, home automation cabinet, UFH manifold, gas boiler, soil stack, BT fibre. I wish I had made it larger as some of the electronics ended up in an airing cupboard upstairs (Sonos amp, LAN switch, NAS drive, CCTV kit). The MVHR unit and associated ducting being the largest item by some way in the GF plant room.

[Bozza]

Couple of things:

 

1.  Huge mistake not to have far more storage, or vestibule, near front door UNLESS you and your family will be using the back door and front door will only used by visitors and is effectively a decorative entrance.  You are making exactly same mistake I did, by not having vestibule and sufficient storage near front door.  It will look great on plans & when you move in but unless you have somebody on hallway patrol and very disciplined children, you’ll find stuff piles up in a real living scenario.  I’d put more hallway storage from hallway by using some of the cupboard space in the snug.  Unless you like the lived in messy look which I suspect you don’t.  If you have visitors where will their coats and shoes go ?   Please see my attachment photo - this is tidy for us

 

2.  Agree 100% about putting large walk in shower in master en suite, like the main bathroom  Especially if you are likely to shower a lot.   You have a big en-suite and a corner shower in there would look naff and function even worse.  A lovely big walk in shower is one of the decisions I got right in our house.

 

3.  Plant room store.  The pumps and internal grubbings of an ASHP system can be quite noisy.  Yours is underneath bedroom 3 .  Ours is under our master bedroom.  If you can’t move the plant room to underneath non bedroom, please put proper designed acoustic insulation in the plant room and ceiling/floor area.   
 

I like your design as I’ve previously stated, and I think your trying to build something with similar to us in terms of use,  and design “sharp and neat”,  but just wanted to let you know your are likely to be making a couple of layout errors that I definitely made -  if you decide to progress exactly as is. 

 

 

[Kelvin]

Agree on point 1 above. We had this exact problem in the previous house. Very annoying. Tried to design it out in the self-build but the best we’ve managed is this. I originally had two front doors, one into the utility room and one into the lobby. The plan was to ‘hide’ the door into the utility room somehow. Ditched that idea so have arranged the front door and util door so that shoes and jackets are kept in here. Our kids have grown up moved out now so no more piles of stuff inside the front door. 
 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2022 by Kelvin

[Iceverge]

On 23/11/2022 at 12:39, Mr Punter said:

Another ensuite may be useful for when the sprogs get older.  Quite a few trees proposed close to the house, which may get a bit oppressive in 10 years

 

I think 3 x bathrooms is fine. You could segregate the shower + Lav in a small room off one of the bathrooms if you want to get more utility. Re trees, agree completely. Plant fast (10 years), medium (20 years) and long growing species concurrently and hack them down at appropriate intervals before they get too large. 

 

On 23/11/2022 at 13:32, AliG said:

1. I would have the shower in the en suite the same as the large one in the main bathroom.

 

With this I've narrowed it down to elbow space as the only real requirement. 1100mm for me. We have 2 x 1400x900mm showers. One with the shower on the short side, one on the long. Worlds apart in terms of comfort. A 900mm corner shower is fine if you can stand in the diagonal. 

 

2 hours ago, Bozza said:

Huge mistake not to have far more storage, or vestibule, near front door

 

Completely agree, we have a dressing room style bench for boots underneath and hooks on the wall in our utility adjacent the front door. Beside it are pigeonholes for shoes. It is about 3m wide. It should have been 10m. Every outdoor coat gets hung up. Schoolbags similarly. I was determined to not be a Nazi "shoes off house" but yet because the floors are warm everyone naturally dumps their shoes. You need storage here for EVERY shoe and coat in the house IMO.

 

A proper area for indoor drying of cloths + bedsheets etc is very handy. I'm typing beside a banister covered in various drying garments as we speak. A pull up rack of maybe 6m2 would have been excellent. 

 

A vaulted ceiling over the entrance might be a good option to avoid the dead end cupboard. 

 

I don't know your position re kids, but I wish we could have built a carport avoid the rain when bringing kids into and out of the car. 

 

Good on you for sharing. Gives us something to keep the mind active on a Sunday. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Adsibob]

11 hours ago, Dave Jones said:

also swing the toilet doors to open out not in,

Surely this is dangerous. Somebody in the corridor can get knocked out by an opening door.

[dpmiller]

and someone on the inside who has for the sake of argument collapsed against the door, can be accessed and assisted.

[ETC]

3 hours ago, dpmiller said:

and someone on the inside who has for the sake of argument collapsed against the door, can be accessed and assisted.

You can get stops that allow a door opening in to be opened from the outside. This is a commercial requirement not a domestic requirement. A door ti an accessible WC should open out if the door opens across the Clear Space inside the room.

[jimmyharris80]

 

Thanks for the feedback all, appreciate it, give us a fair bit to think about and continue to refine.

 

On 26/11/2022 at 23:02, puntloos said:

So many individual living spaces downstairs that are each small. And the space facing the sun is somewhat limited. I know this point would require a major redesign to 'fix' but have you outlined your daily routines? Do you have a bunch of people that come together in dining but then all want to retreat to their own spot? Again, personal choice really but I myself created a huge living space where everybody is during the day, with one big office/secondary seating (if you're fighting or hate the movie is playing ) and other than that good upstairs amenities.

 

We've put a fair bit of thought into how we'll use each space and when.  Kitchen/diner/lounge is the main day space when all at home together, Snug is the kids room for when they want their own space to watch TV/game or spend time just with their mates as they grow older, lounge is the more cosy adult evening space.  The study/office doubles as my wife's workshop for her interiors business and my wfh office so needs to be of a decent size to accommodate us both and all the stock she holds.

 

The south/east elevation does have a public bridle way running across the front of our plot so we haven't been able to open this up as much as we'd like in order to keep things a little more private.  The house is in an elevated position so not so easy to shield using planting/fencing

 

On 27/11/2022 at 08:41, Adsibob said:

I would look at the position of the toilets in each of the bathrooms on the first floor. Ideally toilets should be mounted on external walls. It makes them much quieter than having them on internal walls, particularly if the other side of the internal wall is a bedroom, as is the case with most of your toilets. Sometimes having them on an external wall can also make the waste plumbing easier.

 

That's helpful, thanks.  I'll have a play around with the configurations in RoomSketcher to make that work, should be doable.

 

On 27/11/2022 at 08:52, Dave Jones said:

Most of your window sizes dont work brick, spend 15 mins with the builder and adjust them all to work. saves him time, you money and no crap cuts to look at forever!

 

lot of wasted space on the landing. Stairs need more thought.

 

Fireplace would make a nice feature.

 

In the latest iteration and floorplans above the windows are 460mm, 685mm, 910mm, 2485mm wide and 2100mm tall, which are designed to work with brick.  I understood the opening calc to be height = n x (65+10)mm plus 10mm and width is n x (215+10) plus 10mm?

 

Will take a look at the landing, the idea for this space was for it to house a 'library' and small seating area by the window, I like the idea of removing the cupboard to make that a vaulted to bring in a little more light to the hallway, so will explore that.

 

We did consider a fireplace/woodburner but discounted it due to cost.

 

23 hours ago, Hilldes said:

GF plant room may be a bit cosy depending on what is going in there. Our is 1.8m x 1.7m with MVHR, home automation cabinet, UFH manifold, gas boiler, soil stack, BT fibre. I wish I had made it larger as some of the electronics ended up in an airing cupboard upstairs (Sonos amp, LAN switch, NAS drive, CCTV kit). The MVHR unit and associated ducting being the largest item by some way in the GF plant room.

 

We do also have the loft space where we could place an MVHR unit, accessed via the landing.  For the plant room we'll need space to house HW Cylinder, UFH manifold, home automation, alarm, electrics.  I'll plan out the sizes of each item and see whether the space is adequate.

 

We are looking an re configuring the utility a little as not sure the current config gives us the space we need for units, WM & TD, may need to remove the window to free up space and just keep a glazed back door for light.

 

19 hours ago, Bozza said:

1.  Huge mistake not to have far more storage, or vestibule, near front door UNLESS you and your family will be using the back door and front door will only used by visitors and is effectively a decorative entrance.  You are making exactly same mistake I did, by not having vestibule and sufficient storage near front door.  It will look great on plans & when you move in but unless you have somebody on hallway patrol and very disciplined children, you’ll find stuff piles up in a real living scenario.  I’d put more hallway storage from hallway by using some of the cupboard space in the snug.  Unless you like the lived in messy look which I suspect you don’t.  If you have visitors where will their coats and shoes go ?   Please see my attachment photo - this is tidy for us

 

17 hours ago, Iceverge said:

Completely agree, we have a dressing room style bench for boots underneath and hooks on the wall in our utility adjacent the front door. Beside it are pigeonholes for shoes. It is about 3m wide. It should have been 10m. Every outdoor coat gets hung up. Schoolbags similarly. I was determined to not be a Nazi "shoes off house" but yet because the floors are warm everyone naturally dumps their shoes. You need storage here for EVERY shoe and coat in the house IMO.

 

Point taken!  We have already shifted the front door to the right and included some storage at the side of the door and a small bench seat.  We do have the option to pinch some more cupboard space from the snug and/or utility so will look at this also.  I've just looked out in our current hallway and we seemingly need space for about 25 pairs of shoes and 15 jackets, that's before any guests turn up!

 

16 hours ago, Iceverge said:

A vaulted ceiling over the entrance might be a good option to avoid the dead end cupboard. 

 

Thanks, I like the vaulted suggestion to remove the cupboard and also bring more light into the downstairs hallway.

 

17 hours ago, Iceverge said:

Good on you for sharing. Gives us something to keep the mind active on a Sunday. 

 

No probs, glad to be of service!  It's great to get other peoples views that have been here before.

[Dave Jones]

On 27/11/2022 at 08:41, Adsibob said:

I would look at the position of the toilets in each of the bathrooms on the first floor. Ideally toilets should be mounted on external walls. It makes them much quieter than having them on internal walls, particularly if the other side of the internal wall is a bedroom, as is the case with most of your toilets. Sometimes having them on an external wall can also make the waste plumbing easier.

 

dont do this. will mean loads of crap boxing in. Hang them off studwork and lose the pipework in the stud.

[Amateur bob]

interesting design, im looking to build a barn style house myself as this should help me get through planning can i ask roughly how much this building will cost all in? is the metal roof more cost effective than tile?

 

thanks