at design stage for new build what would you incoporate

beolight

We are meeting up with our architect in 2 weeks time and we have some decisions to make so all advise/guidance welcome

We are looking to build a house type circa 3500/4000 sq ft of accommodation
The site area is 1 acre and the house can be set well back from the road

We would like the building to be as ecologically friendly as possible, to be orientated to make best use of passive solar heat gain, with comprehensive insulation throughout.

We have not yet decided on timber frame/traditional build or concrete still weighing up. Any opinions advise on this most appreciated.

Also no decision on whether to go with 1.5 storey or 2 storey pretty much depends on what architect comes up with our main criteria is that it is an innovative design and layout incoporating lots of spacious light filled accommodation. Still looking at house plans and driving around the country taking pictures of other peoples houses

The main features we are considering are listed below, lots of these were garnered from posts here

FEATURES

· Marble and solid hardwood floors throughout
· Underfloor heating throughout. Heating to provides silent high efficiency output with condenser boiler and each room zoned separately with own thermostat .
· Central vacuum system
· Internal phone system
· Broadband The house is wired for multi-room sound & home cinema, separately zoned together with touch pad controls
· Alarm system including digital cameras protecting exterior of house and main electric entrance gates
· Remote controlled lighting system interior and exterior
· Solid oak doors/skirting/architrave throughout
· Feature Stone Front Elevation
· Structure - concrete floors to ground and first level(maybe) ensures a very high degree of sound insulation.
· Sound Insulation - High density sound insulation complemented by a Solid concrete first floor(maybe)
· Large double Sliding glass door wooden full height to rear of property
· Double detached garage with electric motor roller shutter, central heated attic & plumbed for hot + cold water with WC and shower

It sounds comprehensive but i am sure we have left out some things and of course our budget may restrict our choices in the long run.

To the self builders out there what would you incoporate now if you were starting of again

Pataman

Rainwater harvesting, wetroom, electronic gates connected to phone system.

Boston

Have a look at this http://www.chpa.co.uk/aboutchp.htm
There are irish companies that offer this service, Can cut you're over heats significantly

karltimber

did you ever think of a dedicated cinema room !!!

Idleater

Have you thought about your heating system? Can you put in Geothermal/wood pellet? If you can afford to do so, I think now is the time to consider these matters rather than later on in the build.

L.

prospect

beolight wrote:

· solid hardwood floors throughout
· Underfloor heating throughout.

I dont think these two features can be combined.

CJhaughey

beolight wrote:

· Large double Sliding glass door wooden full height to rear of property

Is this to be the passive solar collector? or is the front of your house facing south?
If so I would reconsider the use of large glass panels esp. opening ones as the net loss of heat from these on the north side will be considerable.

beolight

thanks for the replies everyone most appreciated

[Rainwater harvesting, wetroom, electronic gates connected to phone system./QUOTE]

yes any links or contact names/numbers to suppliers/manufacturers?

Have a look at this http://www.chpa.co.uk/aboutchp.htm
There are irish companies that offer this service, Can cut you're over heats significantly

cant figure this out from what i could garner seems pretty expensive50/60k and more suited to a group of houses maybe i got it all wrong please correct me if i have

did you ever think of a dedicated cinema room !!!

yes indeed having just finished retro installing one in my existing house this will be a priority

Have you thought about your heating system? Can you put in Geothermal/wood pellet? If you can afford to do so, I think now is the time to consider these matters rather than later on in the build.

kinda swayed towards wood pellets/solar heating solution with underfloor heating, not 100% sure about payback on geothermal option

I dont think these two features can be combined

i am sure they can from posts i have read here and elsewhere you just need to be careful with your choice of flooring i think

Is this to be the passive solar collector? or is the front of your house facing south?If so I would reconsider the use of large glass panels esp. opening ones as the net loss of heat from these on the north side will be considerable

didnt consider this, i will need tocheck orientation of house before committing myself on this thanks for the heads up

anymore ???

Evergreen

If I were you I would certainly go with the timber frame concept, they are far more efficient that double block walls at retaining heat. I work in the heating side of things and all boiler (wood pellet) manufacturers have to use lower heat load calculations for the Nordic countries because they all use timber frame (Inside and out) houses and the heat retention is much higher.

Also, when you are insulating your ceiling you should defenatly go with the European norm of 250mm insulation rather than the Irish norm of 120mm - the extra spend here will pay for itself very quickly, in the normal 120mm layer where the rolls are placed down between the joists it is considered only 75% effective compared to what it can do (i.e. 25% of the heat is lost through the gaps around the joists).

I would of course recommend that you install a wood pellet central heating system, but then again I might have a biased view on that

Best of luck with the new build

Soledad

You can most certainly use Junkers solid wood flooring with UFH system, I am sure there are others too.
Have you considered Oak Veneer doors to cut down costs as solid oak doors are very expensive.
I would spend money on items which add to the structure of the house such as stone work and external windows and doors and internal trends and fashions change.
Sounds like you have put a fair bit of though into it.
Can I ask do you have a family and if so have you thought how your needs will change as family grow?
We forgot to add a downstairs playroom, a move we regret.
Have you thought whehter your design will appeal to others if you decide to sell, not saying not to do things you love simply to be careful to protect the value for future sales but being different for the sake of being different can be dodgy too.
Would no way use underfloor heating as anyone I know who has it regrets it.
Factor in a fair wedge of your budget for outside landscaping, especially if you plan on having such large windows/doors.

O-Ninio

Double height entrance hall if its two storey with a light bay at the top if is a single or i.5 storey have your entrance hall extend into the roofspace with some form of kight bay at the top. Your architect will advise you on this but it provides a very good visual impact on entrance and provides great light.

Central vacuum - great idea.

Have you thought of incorporating a basement? Not very common in Ireland but a great addition to any house.

Idleater

O-Ninio wrote:

Have you thought of incorporating a basement? Not very common in Ireland but a great addition to any house.

Damn, yeah, how could I forget. Basement == snooker room

Oh and also with regard to Timber frame / trad block, have you looked at the "insulating concrete framework" ICF? Supposedly very efficient... looking at going that way myself...

L.

Pataman

Regarding the ICF www.polarwall.ie

The basement is the best idea. We are building a basement on our house 1400 sq ft, it will contain a swimming pool(20x10ft) and a snooker table. Happy days. Also it is the best place for the cinema room because of the pure darkness.

Pataman

Re your earlier question http://www.rainharvesting.co.uk/
Our quote was from www.bel.ie

davidoco

I’ve heard it said before but until I built I didn’t believe it, but your going to look at the house in 4 or 5 years and want to have done loads of things differently. I’m on my second house and I have a feeling I’ll do one more before I get it right.

3500/4000 sq ft is a big house by Irish standards. See http://www.wordreference.com/definition/ecologically
for one definition of “ecologically”

I guess big houses can work but ideally you should be looking to fit a kitchen, informal living areas (kids area), breakfast area and utility room (with loo) into a space of about 600 to 750 sq ft (max 1000 sq ft). Off that then you have a nice dining room, living room and reception then you can go add bedrooms to your hearts content and use unused bedrooms as play, cinema, office, gun! room, etc.

Builderwoman!

Would second the double height hallway. Just finishing our house and it looks fab! Great impact on entrance.

Would highly recommed that you incorportate walk in wardrobes/dressing rooms on all your bedrooms. We've done it and everyone that has seen the house and plans so far has commented on it being a fab idea. It's brill not having to go out now (at the end of our house build when money is running tight) and buy wardrobes. If you are building such large house you have plenty of room to incorporate them and you can make your bedrooms just a little bit smaller.

Incorporate lots of storage.

Cloakroom

Underfloor heating and wooden floors do not work. Use underfloors in hard surface areas ie kitchens, utility, bathrooms etc and put rads in rooms where you intend installing timber flooring.

Think seriously about solar panels and wood pellet and buffer storage tank.

Buy decent internal timber doors. We did in Dublin Door store sale and stored them and they look fab.

Plan your windows and glazing well and do lots of research.

Over insulate. Do not just comply with regs.

Be prepared for lots of headaches!!!!! Building can cause them but when you see your house just finished all the headaches are worth it!

RedLady

Hi BuilderWoman,

How did you get on with the wood pellet and solar system? I presume that they are installed at this stage. Where did install the pellet boiler? We are looking at doing the same but not sure about putting the boiler in the garage as its not attached to the house and I am afriad that it would just not be efficient enough to do this...

Regards,

wexfordman

Builderwoman,

Just a few thoughts on your multiroom system, have you looked anh anh specific type of multiroom system yet ? I had a 6 room system in my house, with wallmounted keypads for each room, it was pretty cool, until it went bang!! ~(lightning strike).

The problem, I found was that if the main unit went, then the entire system was gone. I spent a lot of time looking into a replacement system, and ended up getting a Sonos (www.sonos.com). Its the bees knees as far as I am concerned comparing to other systems, of of the main advantages is that it is modular, so if one unit goes, you still have a working system. Also, they have LCD controllers, wcih are not mounted to the wall (think about in 10 years time, when your wallmounted keypad system is up the duff, and you replace it with something else, loeaving yhou with unwanted keypads in your walls). Any multiroom system has a limited lifespan, so when you need to think about what heppens then.

The remoted controlled lighting is pretty cool, what system were you looking at ?
Wexfordman

Soledad

Builder woman don't you still have to shelve all the walk in wardrobes whihc can be costly too, granted not as expensive maybe as buying wardrobes but never the less if you want them to be practical and stylish they can cost a bit.