Design Critique/Advice Requested

[Jamie998]

Afternoon all,

 

I have been meaning to post floor plans on here for a while now to get some feedback/ideas from my fellow self build members. 

 

Ground Floor:

1.  The ground floor is fairly easy, the downstairs shower and toilet at the left will go, this room will be combined with what's left of the utility to form a larger utility/plant room. 

2.  The wine cellar is going, and the office will be a home cinema.

3.  The front door is going to have an additional side panel on the left so there will be one each side, this will move the cloak cupboard and downstairs toilet to the left, eating into the current utility, hence why what is left will join to the shower mentioned in 1.

4.  The sitting room and snug will swap round, the snug will become a formal dining room with pocket doors joining it to the kitchen.

5.  A partial wall will built to slight section off the family room from the rest of the kitchen diner.

6.  The French doors in the family room at the bottom and the right will be swapped for large windows.  The one to the left of the family room will remain, opening up onto the patio area.

 

First Floor:

1.  Bedroom two will shrink to be a guest room with En-suite, just large enough to accommodate double bed, bedside tables and a wardrobe pretty much.

2.  Bedroom 3 will move to the left to take up the space vacated by the shrinking of bedroom 2.

3.  The area currently occupied by bedroom 3 will become a Jack and Jill bathroom for bedrooms 3 & 4 (bedrooms 3 & 4 are the kids rooms).

4.  Master bedroom will remain largely unchanged, a Juliet balcony will be added and I want to reshuffle the En-suite and dressing room - not sure how yet.

 

 

The issues are with the first floor, I am not entirely happy with how it is in my head yet.  There is a Catslide roof creating a dormer effect that restricts how showers etc. can be placed in the bathrooms.  Where each window is on the first floor the ceiling height is about 2.2m, but to the left and right of the windows the cat slide drops it down to 1.34m:

 

 

The ground floor is 144m² of GIFA and the first floor is 105m².  I look forward to hearing any useful suggestions/advice that any of you may have,

 

TIA

 

Jamie

 

 

 

 

 

[epsilonGreedy]

Some how you have created a 2800 sq ft design without any wow features. I would incorporate a grand glazed connection between the hall and sitting room which would then draw the eye through to the rear garden and then ditch the current door. You need a statement bathroom upstairs, 3 utilitarian bathrooms in such a grand house is wrong and this will cost you when selling. The biggest problem is the tunnel like kitchen dining day area, the island and dining table linear arrangement amplifies this problem. With oodles of space to play with some interior design tricks of the eye will break up this space.

 

Model the bedrooms with proper sized beds, those depicted look like 4ft 6 doubles.

[Jamie998]

Ha ha @epsilonGreedy all criticism and advice is welcomed and encouraged.  The drawing is as per what was submitted by the vendor.

 

The footprint exterior is something I am content with....the interior I am working on.

 

I am currently knocking a model up in skerchup so I can introduce furniture to get a feel for the space.

 

I plan to get rid of the upstairs airing cupboard and make a massive bathroom which will only have a 4/5 person sauna and bath in, maybe a shower to rinse off after using the sauna (we like saunas so this is a must have - although maybe not everyone's cup of tea).

 

The kitchen area needs to be jogged about...still trying to figure it out at the minute.

 

We plan to spin the island around and add a couple of floor to ceiling columns to the left and right of it so it's a bit of a quasi wall type look which will break up that bit of the room a bit.

 

We are thinking of a partial wall coming out where the sun room starts to break that up a bit....with potentially a dual aspect fire incorporated into it as a bit of a feature.  Both of those should break the tunnel up somewhat.

 

 

[AliG]

A few general design/layout thoughts.

 

As you appear to be working on it and have already changed the plan somewhat then I think it might be better to wait for plan mark 2.

 

1. The downstairs ceiling height is too low. Generally this size of house will now have a 2.7m downstairs ceiling.

 

2. Only the master bedroom has a wardrobe at the moment. The house is severely lacking in cupboard space. Think of how many cupboards you currently have and all the stuff you need to store and then decide how much space you need.

 

3. Be careful of putting so many floor to ceiling windows in a room as you have in the family room area, where would you put a TV for example. There is virtually no wall space to put furniture against.

 

4. The lowered ceiling areas in the bedrooms will encroach a lot, when looking at the floorspace you have be careful of the use of any space with less than 2m ceiling height. They are good for wardrobes and WC cisterns in ensuites, less good inside rooms. I don't see how you could fit bedroom 2 and 3 into the same space for example.

 

The downstairs changes you suggest sound like a big improvement, but I agree with the idea of double doors to the hall allowing you to see through to the garden.

 

Upstairs needs more work, maybe lose the linen cupboard in exchange for wardrobes, depends which you would use most.

 

Does the bathroom need a bath and a bidet, would the get used?

 

I'm not a fan of jack and jill en suites, but I can see the use if you are occupying all 4 bedrooms. If all bedrooms have an ensuite do you need a family bathroom at all, maybe a showroom. Is there one person who likes baths? Maybe put a bath in their en suite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jamie998]

Morning all,

 

I have now finished creating my Sketchup Free model and have just noticed it has sucked up 37 days of my life....many mistakes were made but I got there in the end!  Attached are various views of the house, the furniture is there just as an aide to understanding what we can put in and where.

 

North is in the direction of the fence which runs between our property and the neighbours green house.  The house is approx. 260m2, the garage is a large double, with a store to the left and then a car port type cover to the left of that to accommodate the motorhome (not quite big enough but better than a massive white vehicle creating an obvious eye sore!). 

 

The two rear bedrooms with just a bed in are for our girls, the room in the middle is going to be a shared walk in wardrobe/dressing room with a shared en-suite accessed from there.  For an idea of scale, the three beds to the left are standard double and the larger one is a super king.  

 

The main bathroom has a bath in the centre, along one side is a shower and a steam room, along the other is a sauna.

 

Ground floor - the room on the far left will be a cinema room, at the top of that (nothing in it at the minute) will be the plant room and the utility is just to the right of that.

 

All critique good or bad is welcome and encouraged, even where I may disagree with comments, it is still useful to have received them as they prompt me to consider my approach from another perspective and either reaffirms in my mind the approach we are taking or leads me to amend the plan.

 

TIA.

[le-cerveau]

Initial thoughts:

1. Have you increased the Ground floor ceiling (as mentioned by @AliG)?  We went for 2750mm + we have a 100mm suspended ceiling (service void) above that.
2. Have you considered opening up the dining area into a large open plan main living area, with it closed off and a table in the kitchen area, chances are it will never get used, but if one large space then it become the main dining area, you lose the smaller table and gain space (more for the kitchen).
3. Plant room, whatever you plan it won't be big enough!  DHW storage, Boiler/ASHP, MVHR, Consumer Unit, Node Zero (Data/AV distribution) it all adds up and contractors never put it exactly where you planned eating into other space.
4. Large window behind cinema screen will cause problems when you need to blackout the room for use!
5. Storage for everyday things, Vacuum cleaner, Ironing board,.....  Then the coats, hats, gloves, shoes/boots, not much space in the entry hall cupboard.
6. What will the store between the garage-carport be used for?  Garden type equipment, if so where does the general household storage go, the boxes of stuff you have but don't use?  We have a massive attic and it is amazing how much has already made it's way up there and out house is over 400m²!
7. If you can plan bedrooms for Superkings do so, even if not installed otherwise you are limited and a bed with a standard (Queen 4'6") and just space around it is cramped!
8. If bed 4 (top left I think) is just for guests I would loose the en-suite, visitors use the main bathroom, and gain mose space.
9. Plant room (again) ideally, it wants to be close to the main DHW users (Kitchen, Bath, en-suites), best place would be where the WC is (complete re-arrange).

 

[ProDave]

Ditch the cat slide dormers. I think they look horrible, and create a very difficult edge detail to both get right initially, and then to maintain.  Put proper little gable end dormers instead, look much nicer.

[Mr Punter]

I don't think it looks attractive.  What is behind the design?  Is it to follow a local vernacular or a certain style or look that you aim to achieve?  You will be spending a lot of money and time building this, so it will be worth paying to get a couple of professionals to come up with some ideas, as you risk it looking a bit "nothing".  As with @ProDave the dormers are a no-no, as is the arched window and the Georgian windows.  The outside needs to be properly resolved.

[epsilonGreedy]

I can see some improvements on your first proposed design in particular I think you have resolved the problem of the linear tunnel in the kitchen/day room wing of the house. I am not reacting as adversely to the roof details as some here, it might be a regional thing, are the dormers inspired by a local Suffolk design? However there lingers a hint of Pennsylvania farmstead about it.

 

Plonk the beds in sensible positions as it is a shame to waste design feedback bandwidth on rookie errors, have you upgraded the bed sizes in all rooms as I queried a few weeks ago?

 

Move the large window in the formal sitting rooms to be aligned with the furniture that is orientated around the fireplace. The undersized door connection between hall and format sitting room still stands out as a design error in such a grand house. Likewise I feel your V2 design has further disconnected the hall from the kitchen/day room wing, is the front door to kitchen people flow the primary daily entrance experience?

[AliG]

I actually think that this is the most important comment before doing anything else and I'm sorry we didn't ask this before you started. It seems that you have plenty of land. Is there any particular reasons that the house is oriented the way it is? The lounge, dining room and kitchen face east and north, only the family room benefits from a south facing window and even this will be shaded by the house. The cinema room where you wouldn't want light is on the south side. Indeed from a light perspective it would be much better to turn the house 180 degrees.

 

As the kitchen has a dining area, I would have a single door from there to the dining room and a door into the dining room from the hall. If it is a formal dining room it shouldn't be open to the kitchen.

 

Do you want a through the wall fire between the dining room and the lounge? If not move the fire to the other end of the lounge and have a double door to the lounge closer to the front door.

 

I wouldn't put a window in a plant room, it will make it difficult to place equipment inside and you will be able to see into the worst looking room in the house.

 

Why does the cinema room have three windows? We have one and it is a pain in the neck. If you want a window in case you change the use of the room, the reason we have one, put it to the side.

 

You have bathrooms upstairs above the middle of rooms downstairs. This is doable, but you will need to lose the waste in the ceiling which might encroach on the ceiling height. Plus you then have to route the waste somewhere downstairs. Instead try to keep rooms with plumbing above each other or have toilets close to corners (although I personally hate boxed out wastes in downstairs corners)

 

How high is the interior wall height at the eaves? You have drawn the upstairs rooms out to the outside wall, but it is not clear how high the ceiling will be at this point, maybe only 1.2m?

 

I applaud the effort you have made, it seems like you have put in a lot of work.

 

 

 

 

[Jamie998]

Morning all,

 

I appreciate the feedback, it has provoked some thought and its always good to get another perspective on what we are trying to do.

 

@le-cerveau

1. Have you increased the Ground floor ceiling (as mentioned by @AliG)?  We went for 2750mm + we have a 100mm suspended ceiling (service void) above that.  I haven't properly looked into this yet, my initial feeling is that raising the ground floor ceiling will push the first floor up causing the steep Catslide sections of the roof to further eat into the useable room space. 
2. Have you considered opening up the dining area into a large open plan main living area, with it closed off and a table in the kitchen area, chances are it will never get used, but if one large space then it become the main dining area, you lose the smaller table and gain space (more for the kitchen).          It has become habitual over the years that we eat all of our meals as a family at the kitchen table.  We have always had a 4 seater which is a PITA when family visit - which is often as we have always lived away from them.  We intend to only have four seats in the kitchen which will naturally push us into the main dining area when we have visitors.
3. Plant room, whatever you plan it won't be big enough!  DHW storage, Boiler/ASHP, MVHR, Consumer Unit, Node Zero (Data/AV distribution) it all adds up and contractors never put it exactly where you planned eating into other space.  Must admit I haven't 'sized'up this room yet for its contents, it is on my to do list and I am sure you will no doubt be proven correct in this regard!
4. Large window behind cinema screen will cause problems when you need to blackout the room for use!  SWMBO wanted windows in this room so that the kids can use it double up as space for the kids to use when friends etc come around, the plan is to go to town with black out blinds, thick heavy curtains which will hopefully negate the issue.
5. Storage for everyday things, Vacuum cleaner, Ironing board,.....  Then the coats, hats, gloves, shoes/boots, not much space in the entry hall cupboard.  After buying a dyson handheld I am a convert - no more uprights for this callsign!  That being said, the utility has sufficient space to store the usual household cleaning products, iron, board, dyson etc.  I intend to buy a second Dyson (in leiu of a central vac system which was the original plan) and will stick it out of the way upstairs - in a place yet to be determined!
6. What will the store between the garage-carport be used for?  Garden type equipment, if so where does the general household storage go, the boxes of stuff you have but don't use?  We have a massive attic and it is amazing how much has already made it's way up there and out house is over 400m²!  We don't have a lot of stuff, we have moved 5 times in 8 years so we habitually purge every time.  That being said, we are nearly tripling our space with this house, the initial problem may be not having enough stuff to fill it!
7. If you can plan bedrooms for Superkings do so, even if not installed otherwise you are limited and a bed with a standard (Queen 4'6") and just space around it is cramped!  Noted - added to my to do list.  I kind of threw stuff onto the model just to give us some perspective on what we can actually do with the room sizes as they are.
8. If bed 4 (top left I think) is just for guests I would loose the en-suite, visitors use the main bathroom, and gain mose space.  I understand your point, this comes from our own experience of continually being in the 'guest' room when visiting family.  Over the years we have naturally gravitated towards residing at my in-laws during visits, simply because they had a spare room with a double and en-suite making it more comfortable and convenient.  The other side of that coin is that when the in-laws etc visit, they 'spread'.  This is also to keep their stuff contained within one area - I am a bit OCD when it comes to clutter!
9. Plant room (again) ideally, it wants to be close to the main DHW users (Kitchen, Bath, en-suites), best place would be where the WC is (complete re-arrange).  I think I did look at this but couldn't get it to 'work'.  If i remember rightly it forced me to reposition the front door which at the moment is roughly central to the front of the house.  I will look again but I think this was ascetically driven rather than about the practicalities.

 

 

@ProDave  Ditch the cat slide dormers. I think they look horrible, and create a very difficult edge detail to both get right initially, and then to maintain.  Put proper little gable end dormers instead, look much nicer. I hear what you are saying, Catslide are very much a marmite design.  Unfortunately, the vernacular of the surrounding properties is Catslide and it is something we have to accept as necessary.  The surrounding properties are predominantly dormer bungalows with Catslide roofs, as such they are significantly smaller than our property, the design of ours is such that it lessens the visual impact and prevents ours from becoming overbearing with regards to the surrounding properties.

 

Although we initially felt the same as you, time has softened our opinion and we actually quite like them now!  What I am learning is that the self build dream is a compromise against what you want, what you can have and what you can afford.  The Catslide are something we can happily live with I think.

 

@Mr PunterI don't think it looks attractive.  What is behind the design?  Is it to follow a local vernacular or a certain style or look that you aim to achieve?  You will be spending a lot of money and time building this, so it will be worth paying to get a couple of professionals to come up with some ideas, as you risk it looking a bit "nothing".  As with @ProDave the dormers are a no-no, as is the arched window and the Georgian windows.  The outside needs to be properly resolved. Yep, as you say the vernacular of the nearest couple of streets is Catslide roofs with Lincolnshire Pantile tiles.  The initial design wasn't ours, its what we are willing to work with though.  I hated the Catslides to at first but have now grown to like them.  Arched window is SWMBO idea, she wants a big feature window there, the design may change slightly but i expect she will not change her mind in that regard.  The look of the windows is something we haven't 'settled' on yet - plain windows we don't like so trying to work out what we do like in that regard.  I think overall in terms of street appeal, we aren't looking for anything radical, we want a look that is low key, fits in with the village etc. The important aspect for us is the internal layout/space but I understand that this will not be everyone's cup of tea.

 

@epsilonGreedyI can see some improvements on your first proposed design in particular I think you have resolved the problem of the linear tunnel in the kitchen/day room wing of the house. I am not reacting as adversely to the roof details as some here, it might be a regional thing, are the dormers inspired by a local Suffolk design? However there lingers a hint of Pennsylvania farmstead about it. I will have to look the farmsteads up!

 

Plonk the beds in sensible positions as it is a shame to waste design feedback bandwidth on rookie errors, have you upgraded the bed sizes in all rooms as I queried a few weeks ago? I was a bit jaded with sketchup when I did them but I take your point.  The beds in three of the rooms are standard doubles but looking at the kids rooms they can be upsized if necessary but at 7 & 8 years old I think doubles will be a lot more than most their age have.  The master room is super king - with a clear delineation to be added so no encroachment on my space occurs!!

 

Move the large window in the formal sitting rooms to be aligned with the furniture that is orientated around the fireplace. The undersized door connection between hall and format sitting room still stands out as a design error in such a grand house. Likewise I feel your V2 design has further disconnected the hall from the kitchen/day room wing, is the front door to kitchen people flow the primary daily entrance experience?  Makes sense, i think I had it like that originally but then SWMBO decided it needed moving so it lined up with the window above it  - I think the external look trumped internal look here!

 

@AliG

I actually think that this is the most important comment before doing anything else and I'm sorry we didn't ask this before you started. It seems that you have plenty of land. Is there any particular reasons that the house is oriented the way it is? The lounge, dining room and kitchen face east and north, only the family room benefits from a south facing window and even this will be shaded by the house. The cinema room where you wouldn't want light is on the south side. Indeed from a light perspective it would be much better to turn the house 180 degrees.  I think I wasn't very clear, my fault!  The property is 180 degrees to what you think, all of the sun is hitting the family room, lounge etc. It is the front of the house, i.e. entrance, toilet, utility etc that will be in shade.

 

As the kitchen has a dining area, I would have a single door from there to the dining room and a door into the dining room from the hall. If it is a formal dining room it shouldn't be open to the kitchen.  I will discuss this further with SWMBO.

 

Do you want a through the wall fire between the dining room and the lounge? If not move the fire to the other end of the lounge and have a double door to the lounge closer to the front door.  I did consider this but never actually modelled it - I think I will revisit this.

 

I wouldn't put a window in a plant room, it will make it difficult to place equipment inside and you will be able to see into the worst looking room in the house. I think the window was included to enhance the look of the house from the front, so it doesn't go from a wall riddled with windows to a solid wall, I will discuss with SWMBO.

 

Why does the cinema room have three windows? We have one and it is a pain in the neck. If you want a window in case you change the use of the room, the reason we have one, put it to the side.Again, SWMBO.  The idea is that the room can double as a space for the kids to chill with mates, rather than retreating to their bedrooms.  In practical terms it may be that they will still retreat back to their rooms, time will tell.  To mitigate we intend to get blackout blinds and thick heavy curtains fitted, hopefully negates the issue somewhat.

 

You have bathrooms upstairs above the middle of rooms downstairs. This is doable, but you will need to lose the waste in the ceiling which might encroach on the ceiling height. Plus you then have to route the waste somewhere downstairs. Instead try to keep rooms with plumbing above each other or have toilets close to corners (although I personally hate boxed out wastes in downstairs corners) I need to investigate this further. The intention is to make use of Geberit frames to keep everthing minimal and clean looking, I need to look into where pipes will run in practical terms though.

 

How high is the interior wall height at the eaves? You have drawn the upstairs rooms out to the outside wall, but it is not clear how high the ceiling will be at this point, maybe only 1.2m? 1.34m where the Catslide comes down.  On the rear of the house this isn't an issue as the rooms are large enough to not have to locate furniture etc against that wall.  On the front this is mainly bathrooms, ensuite and when I was positioning showers etc I made sure that head room was acceptable, so hopefully not an issue.  This is something I will triple check though before committing to anything.

 

I applaud the effort you have made, it seems like you have put in a lot of work.  Thank you, it did but I expect that this will prove to be the easy part!  Like everyone else on this forum, we will get to the dream eventually.

 

Thank you for taking the time to give some feedback, it is appreciated.

 

TIA

 

Jamie

Edited May 8, 2018 by Jamie998
Posted before I had added comments

[Ferdinand]

Hello @Jamie998

 

Can I add my comments?

 

From the fencing I am assuming that the setting is rural-ish.

 

I think there are some fundamental things that may be worth revisiting or at least rechecking - concise summary of requirements, priorities and acceptable compromises, possible future requirements, orientation, sunlight at different times of the day / year, shelter from prevailing wind, relationship to neighbours etc. I think you have most of those well-understood, but perhaps not all of them.

 

1 - It is very good to spend extra time cogitating before spending money --- that is the cheapest way to fix any issues. For self-builders most of us only build once so we need to take time to develop the eye and way of thinking that architects get from 7 years training plus several years Autocad-bashing before they get to really design things. Well-worth taking the time to get it right - even 37 days :-).

 

We only do it once usually so let's take the time to do it as right as possible.

 

2 - I agree with @Mr Punter - at present the design is not sufficiently resolved.

 

To me it feels unclear. There is not a single underlying concept tying it together, and seems to be neither one thing nor t'other. As it sits in the landscape, I am not clear whether it is referencing say a traditional farmhouse, a barn conversion, or a range of buildings that have evolved over time, or a ranch-style dormer bungalow from mid-century.To go for a traditional form in a modern style may give it a feeling of "fitting in well".

 

For example, your dormer windows seem to be a vernacular detail from a farmhouse, and would not appear on outbuildings or barns, but the added-on 'pseudo-extensions '(kitchen, cinema) seem to be trying to echo how a building would evolve, and perhaps an enlargement of a barn. But the architectural language to me does not quite match how an evolution would have happened - eg a single-storey flat roofed extension as living space is a pretty modern concept, and I am not sure the cinema 'add-on' would historically have had such a roof.

 

Though you could take a position of "sod the context; this will be good enough to redefine the context". It can be done. 

 

All that is where a modicum of feedback from a local architect or adviser may help. 

 

I think room layout etc needs to be informed by the above.

 

3 - I think there is space for a bit more "wow" for a grand house. Were I to suggest some changes from the existing they might be:

 

a - Make the cinema room into the same profile as the house, perhaps a different shade or material if you want the "evolving" look. May be less expensive to build.

b - Put master suite above cinema room.

c - Make kitchen / living with a cathedral ceiling, with the formal dining space as a "room off" but with sliding doors to close off if required.

d - Perhaps reconsider that single storey kitchen add-on, and have something more like a veranda or orangery along the house there to provide a dining / living space which transitions to the garden / landscape.

e - Make the hall and staircase quite arresting - eg open well with gallery and skylight.

 

And go from there.

 

4 - The form could perhaps be simplified to help maintenance in future, and reduce building costs to some extent. Which money could then be used for something else. Swimming pool? Tennis court? Manege? Handbag collection? Gyrocopter?

 

5 - Given that this is much larger than you have used before, I recommend going and spending a weekend or 6 in larger holiday homes (eg Landmark Trust) do you get a feel for having extra space and what you can do with it. I would also recommend visiting a lot of similar size houses with an estate agent.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by Ferdinand

[newhome]

3 hours ago, Jamie998 said:

I intend to buy a second Dyson (in leiu of a central vac system which was the original plan)

 

Good call. I have a central vac and never use it. These days I just use 2 cordless vacuums; one upstairs, one down. Plus 2 steam cleaners, one up, one down. Job done! 

 

 

[joe90]

11 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

Good call. I have a central vac and never use it. These days I just use 2 cordless vacuums; one upstairs, one down. Plus 2 steam cleaners, one up, one down. Job done! 

 

 

Can you say which cordless vacs you bought and would you recommend them?. Our carpet supplier/fitter recommended a Henry but we fancy cordless and like you, one on each floor.

[Ferdinand]

5 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Can you say which cordless vacs you bought and would you recommend them?. Our carpet supplier/fitter recommended a Henry but we fancy cordless and like you, one on each floor.

 

Just had a conversation with our cleaner about that. Dysons are recommended, but Sharks are rumoured to be OK.

 

As yet I have no personal experience.

[swisscheese]

Just a note, about the aesthetics.  Each to their own and all that, however...

 

In our area "pre-application advice" is encouraged, many might think it's just a way for the council to make a bit more cash, it probably is, it doesn't speed up the process, no matter what they say, and is not binding.  In our case though, perhaps we were lucky and the young planner who came on site was supportive and "implicitly" encouraged a bit more boldness in design, agreed that the location had no real vernacular or singular defining characteristics, the plot is tucked away etc etc.....needless to say the Parish Council hated it...I cared not.

 

I guess the message being really if you don't try something a little bolder - rather like @epsilonGreedy"Some how you have created a 2800 sq ft design without any wow features."  You never know.

 

@Ferdinand - Some good advice in that post.

 

I don't know your location but If you have paid for a 'view', you might want a bigger window to take it all in. 

 

Internally; You have to live in it (unless you are selling it), can changing the layout it improve the way you want to live.

Good Luck with the project.

 

 

[le-cerveau]

48 minutes ago, joe90 said:

Can you say which cordless vacs you bought and would you recommend them?.

We got the new Dyson V10 and it works fine, the brushead is motorised and we only use it on the lowest setting and it works fine (last an hour).  However we have hard floors throughout with rugs, so it is fairly easy cleaning.

[newhome]

2 hours ago, joe90 said:

Can you say which cordless vacs you bought and would you recommend them?. Our carpet supplier/fitter recommended a Henry but we fancy cordless and like you, one on each floor.

 

I only have hard floors here but I have a cordless Dyson upstairs that was close to £300. It’s ok. Irritating when it needs recharging as you have to stop and recharge the whole unit as there is no separate battery. It’s also a pain to empty if it collects dog fur (which is why I tend to use it upstairs rather than down). The dog fur tends to get stuck up the top of it and I have to shove something in it to get it out as it doesn’t come apart. The dust canister is pretty small too. 

 

Downstairs I have a Vax Air cordless Lift duo. More like a conventional upright vac. It also ‘lifts’ out of the main unit to make it easier to do the stairs for example. Mine came with 2 lithium batteries which makes it easy to keep going when a battery runs out of charge. It’s easier to empty too I feel as the canister comes apart if anything gets stuck in it unlike the Dyson, and the dust canister is larger. It was only about £100 and I don’t see that the Dyson is 3 times as good TBH. I also have a Vax cordless hard floor cleaner that takes the same batteries and isn’t bad. 

 

Actually I must take all of the corded ones I have here to the tip as I don’t see me using corded ones ever again. Corded vacs are more powerful, but for hard floors that’s not much of an issue. 

 

I did try a robot vac at one stage. Bloody thing was hopeless. Used to get stuck on the bottom of the kitchen stools and, well almost anywhere really. By the time I had rescued it and set it off again and then emptied it, I could have pushed the cordless one round so I got rid. 

 

The Shark Liftaway has great reviews but is corded hence I haven’t bought one. 

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by newhome

[Jamie998]

6 hours ago, joe90 said:

Can you say which cordless vacs you bought and would you recommend them?. Our carpet supplier/fitter recommended a Henry but we fancy cordless and like you, one on each floor.

I would never go back to a standard upright now.  We bought the Dyson V8 about 6 months ago and hoovering has gone from being a PITA to simples!  I tend to hoover little and often now - probably because the battery on full power (I prefer full power, though probably unnecessary) will only last for one floor level at a time.

 

Takes up very little space, pull the red lever over the bin and it all pops up to get rid of the crud from within, no hassle.  I have two long haired cats which shed a fair bit and this has no issues dealing with that.

 

So the downside is battery life, but in the grand scheme of life not an issue.

[newhome]

15 minutes ago, Jamie998 said:

  I have two long haired cats which shed a fair bit and this has no issues dealing with that.

 

 

Looks like they changed the design (mine is 3 years old) and corrected the design fault then. In the version I have it's completely static when you press the red button and only the very bottom bit opens (looks like yours drops down too?) meaning that whatever is trapped in the small gap between the bin and the purple bit at the bottom of the cyclone element (generally dog fur) stays there until you stick something in it to get it out. I keep a plastic kitchen spatula for that purpose now. Not great to spend £300 on something called 'Animal' especially to deal with pet hair that has a clear design fault when used for pet hair TBH!

 

 

[Jamie998]

@newhome If I was a more sceptical person I would say they keep enough 'flaws' in the design to keep belt feeding new models out.  I only bought mine 6 months ago and saw earlier they are onto version 10 now! 

[LA3222]

Morning all, well after 6 months of cajoling solicitors into doing something we signed the contract for the plot yesterday!!

 

Due to the unknown ownership of the unadopted lane Northern Powergrid won't confirm if they have the necessary legal rights to excavate said lane to lay a new service cable to our plot.  They won't set their legal department to task until payment has been received for said connection!

 

So, a bit of a chicken/egg  situation.  The vendor can't afford to get the plot serviced, we didn't want to pay and then risk the vendor selling to someone else.

 

The compromise we have reached is that a clause was inserted into the contract whereby if we are unsuccessful in obtaining an electrical connection within 6 mths we can walk away.  Likewise, once we are satisfied it can be done, 10 days notice is served and we complete on the purchase.

 

We paid a notional £6000 deposit, but this is a solution that was proposed by Lyndsey & I, and is something we are comfortable with.

 

My first quote from NorthernPowergrid was for a single phase connection - they offer max 18kVa and 80A fuse.  When I really looked into what we could potentially be running, I concluded that 80A was a bit close to the bone and so submitted a new request for a three phase connection - I plucked a notional 30kVa out of the air, but when I was talking to the engineer he said I could request up to 55kVa so I suspect the fuses in the service head will be for 55kVa rather than my requested 30kVa.

 

So, they have till next Thursday to provide the quote.  When I was discussing options with engineer he said it would be a few hundred quid extra to request a three phase connection over a single phase one and that the service cable was the same.  I have decided on building a 'kiosk' right near the entrance now which saves on about 30m of service cable being laid - I'm hoping the saving here will actually bring the quote in a bit less than the one I received for a single phase connection (£5900).

 

I will then run SWA from here to the garage and utility room once ready to do so.

 

Why do I feel 80A may be  close to the bone - well we have no gas for a start so all electric in the house.  We also want a sauna and steamroom (pretentious maybe - but what self builder doesnt have luxuries they aspire to have? - these are ours!) and the generators could be looking a combined 50A ish during use, throw in an induction hob and electric ovens and electric car charger and if it's all on at one then it's close.  I know that diversity is applied when working out power requirements and that the likelihood of the perfect storm of everything being on together and blowing the service head fuze is small, but  I would rather have too much than too little - it's cheaper to go three phase now rather than retrospectively.

 

On another note we took the kids (6&8) to look at the local infant/junior school (combined).  It backs onto our plot which is handy, only 90kids in the entire school - my 8yr old has 90 just in her year at her current school.  Safe to say they loved it - I think new kids are rare because they were like celebrities, all the other kids and teachers knew their names.  It was an hour of listening to my kids say "we're not allowed to do that at my school".  I never realised how restricted they are!!  We saw one kid waving a stick in the air - head teacher covered her eyes saying "I hope he doesn't poke someone's eye out" before asking him to be careful.  My youngest told me that they get shouted at if they even look at a stick in the wrong way at her school.  My eldest couldn't believe they had 5, yes 5 whole football's to play with at this school - she told me there is one at her junior school which the boys get at lunch time and the girls can have during the other breaks.

 

I was gobsmacked - I never realised how bad it is for kids nowadays, when did we stop letting kids be kids and start constraining them with endless rules and regulations.

 

My lasting impression was that this school is like 'freedom' and just let's kids express themselves how they want.  Safe to say I need to get a shimmy on now because I think the shine has gone from their current school.

 

(I will say that all the teachers they have had up till now have all been really good and nice, I suspect that it is the shear number of pupils to staff in most schools which necessitate the endless rules and restrictions they put in place - sad really because it takes the fun away)

 

Anyway, that was a long post and this is where we currently stand - a little bit closer to the end goal!

 

Jamie

Edited June 23, 2018 by LA3222
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