Split Level House Layout

[Pasty]

Hello,

 

We have plans to build a 3 bed split level house and would appreciate any feedback on the layout.  The original house is a ruin and will be demolished with the stonework reused.

 

Bedrooms 2/3 are positioned on the original footprint which is 60m2.  The total size is 250m2 including the garage.

 

Any thoughts would be helpful but in particular wondering about:

 

(i) Kitchen/dining/snug layout - have we divided the space sensibly between the 3?
(ii) Having a door between hall and kitchen (marked green)
(iii) Current thinking is half height wall to separate living room and dining room (marked purple)

(iv) We originally had a door from the kitchen but have replaced with a window/sink to provide more useable space

 

[JohnMo]

First remark, is you are obviously young and like stairs and steps, so won't be your "forever home" as many like to say, without a few changes.

 

I would consider making it a little more by wheelchair friendly, you never know what the future holds. Slopes outside instead of steps. Maybe somewhere on the ground floor for a bedroom.

 

Lots of wasted space with stairs also, something to think about.

 

Plant room and ground floor WC, I would possibly shift thing about there, to make the plant room part of the utility, then everything for the heat pump is just through the wall. Your planned position for heat pump may preclude a propane filled one due to the door being pretty close.

 

Assuming your plant room will house UVC, MVHR, hot and cold water manifolds, UFH manifold for ground floor, and even lower ground floor and not much else. Upper floor heating I would just do fan coil in bedroom and study (run same temp as UFH) and electric UFH towel rad in ensuite.

[Thorfun]

not sure you can consider it a snug if it's open planned! in my mind a snug is a cozy enclosed space. 😉 

 

lovely living room....where's the TV going?

[Markuz]

I love giant open spaces, so would move things around living room/diner/kitchen so that the stairs are not there.

 

You have a lot of stairs

[Bozza]

Nice house / design. My observations:

 

1.  You need built in wardrobes in the master bedroom.  Even better, walk in ones.  Plenty of room for that.

2.  You 100% need more storage and space inside you main front door, which opens onto a wall.  Make your main huge kitchen/living to accomdage this.

3.  Plant rooms can be noisy, don’t have it underneath your bedroom.  If you must put in specialist acoustic insulation including in ceiling.

[JohnMo]

6 minutes ago, Bozza said:

Plant rooms can be noisy,

Why are they noisy - what's noisy in yours?

[MikeSharp01]

1 minute ago, JohnMo said:

Why are they noisy - what's noisy in yours?

The coffee machine!

[JohnMo]

19 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

The coffee machine!

Makes sense now.

[garrymartin]

Doesn't the WC door need to open outward for Building Regulations (Approved Document M)?

[Mike]

An interesting design making good use of the slope. But:

 

• I'd keep the space between hall and kitchen open
• I'd make the eternal entrance door outward-opening
• You need a thicker wall between house and garage to boost the insulation levels
• Where will you run the drain pipes from the pair of upstairs bedrooms?
• The staircase to those bedrooms, between the en-suite walls, will feel rather confined, compared to the openness of much of the rest of the house
• The living room isn't overly generous in size if all the 3 bedrooms will be occupied. It would make a better snug than the chair in the corner of the dining room
• I'd have a full-height wall between living room and the rest, to enhance that snugness, instead of half-height
• I'd skip the fireplace (not required in a modern house) and put the TV there instead
• There's not much space around the kitchen island; it will get in the way. Consider a U-shaped kitchen with breakfast bar, which will then also act as your room divider.
• The dining room - too big for a dinning room, too small to use as a living room. I'd push the right wall out another couple of meters to allow space for a dining room / lounge space, if you can.
• Pushing out that right wall would provide space on the floor above for a more generous stairwell.
• You need wardrobe space in the main bedroom - it may mean moving the skylights.

[Conor]

How does a wheelchair user / pram get from the garage in to the house?

 

We were faced with a similarly sloping site. Any of the split level designs looked awkward. So we went full basement and lost all steps. Both ground and lower floor are accessible, and it's great. It might be too late for you, but consider changing the split levels. Digging down a bit more here or there is more money, but you recoup that through knock on effects.

[Pasty]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.  Very helpful to get a fresh set of eyes on our drawings.  Now for a chat with SWMBO....

I'll keep the forum posted as our project moves forward.

[Thorfun]

One more thing. The lounge looks like it has corner opening sliders. If so then they’re really expensive and hard to get good airtightness. We had them planned but after shopping around we put in a corner post and did away with the corner opening. Saved a lot of money!

[Pasty]

Thanks @Thorfun - good to know.  Plan at the moment is to have fixed glazing on the corners and a door off the "snug"