New House - Design ideas/Features - laundry chutes, central vacuum systems etc

Naux

I will be starting a direct labour build within the next 9 months and at the moment I am at the design stage with our architect.

I'd appreciate it if some of ye would give your ideas about your house designs and what you'd consider as good/essential features (eg) laundry chutes, central vacuum systems etc and maybe items/features that you'd avoid

If you were doing a house build again you definitely would/would not have put in a .....................


Tks

Naux

joejoem

definitley put in a wet room!

Naux

joejoem wrote:

definitley put in a wet room!

Instead of a traditional shower tray & enclosure I presume??

What exactly is involved in putting in a wet room joejoem?

emul

Run structure cabling to all rooms for home entertainment etc. Have a look at http://www.smarthome.ie/products.html for some ideas...

joejoem

Naux wrote:

Instead of a traditional shower tray & enclosure I presume??

What exactly is involved in putting in a wet room joejoem?

A wet room would be for a larger bathroom. I have a friend putting in one now, its basically a bathroom that is completley tiled, you can then install shower "holes" in the walls, and give it an overall sauna look. I'm not too sure of the ins and outs of it as his is still under construction.

tribesman

I put in a laundry chute and we find it very handy. We designed the house so that the main bathroom and the master en-suite were located over the utility. We have access to the chute from the both bathrooms and the clothes fall into a cupboard right beside the washing machine.

I don't know of anywhere that you can buy a laundry chute in this country so I made my own out of plywood. I covered the inside with seld adhesive contact to make it slippy. I arranged it so that the door was flush with the bathroom wall and I just tiled over it so that you'd hardly know it was there.
P8020030.JPG

The door opens inwards (hinged on top) and uses a door closing spring to make it close again.

Another thing to consider would be a pantry/larder. We included a small room off the kitchen which is about 6ft x 3ft and is shelved on three sides. You can fit loads of groceries and bigger kitchen utensils (food processors etc.) in here and it means you don't need a huge fitted kitchen.

delly

tribesman wrote:

I put in a laundry chute and we find it very handy. We designed the house so that the main bathroom and the master en-suite were located over the utility. We have access to the chute from the both bathrooms and the clothes fall into a cupboard right beside the washing machine.

I don't know of anywhere that you can buy a laundry chute in this country so I made my own out of plywood. I covered the inside with seld adhesive contact to make it slippy. I arranged it so that the door was flush with the bathroom wall and I just tiled over it so that you'd hardly know it was there.
P8020030.JPG

The door opens inwards (hinged on top) and uses a door closing spring to make it close again.

Looks very tidy. Is there any planning or fire/safety implications with installing it?

Naux

tribesman wrote:

I put in a laundry chute and we find it very handy. We designed the house so that the main bathroom and the master en-suite were located over the utility. We have access to the chute from the both bathrooms and the clothes fall into a cupboard right beside the washing machine.

I don't know of anywhere that you can buy a laundry chute in this country so I made my own out of plywood. I covered the inside with seld adhesive contact to make it slippy. I arranged it so that the door was flush with the bathroom wall and I just tiled over it so that you'd hardly know it was there.
P8020030.JPG

The door opens inwards (hinged on top) and uses a door closing spring to make it close again.

Another thing to consider would be a pantry/larder. We included a small room off the kitchen which is about 6ft x 3ft and is shelved on three sides. You can fit loads of groceries and bigger kitchen utensils (food processors etc.) in here and it means you don't need a huge fitted kitchen.

Good job with the laundry chute!! I have a friend that put one into his new house and he finds it brilliant.

The wife is onto the pantry idea as well, it is one of the problem areas with the architect at the moment beacause it isn't fitting in well with the rest of the kitchen/utility/back hall area. We'll figure it out eventually:D but its definitely on the list

antoinolachtnai

To do right, the larder should be on an outside wall and be ventilated from the outside to keep the temperature down. I haven't seen one done like that for quite a while though!

My personal preferred way of doing this would be to have those deep full-height pull-out shelves against an external wall with vents into it. I would prefer to have two narrow ones rather than one wide one. This takes a lot less room than a fully-blown walk-in larder. I have never actually had an opportunity to build this arrangement, and I have never personally seen it, but it seems like a good idea to me.

Do the structured cabling for sure. It is important that all the cables in the house come back to one place. Go for at least cat 5e + coax. If possible, leave some way of getting extra cables into the house later on without having to rip the whole place apart.

Before you put down the floors and board the walls, take some photos, so that you will have a record of where the services were installed in case you need to find the services again in the future.

I think it is worth going to a good bit of trouble to make interior walls of a new build soundproof. You have to think about cost-effective ways of doing this. One I have heard of (but never actually seen or done) is to slice a groove along three-quarters of the lengths of the wall members. This reduces the amount of sound transmission (allegedly) without the expense of special sound-reducing clips. It might also be worth using thicker-than-usual plasterboard.

You might want to wire for a unified stereo system. Personally I think these systems are overblown, and you might be better using a separate amplifier/speaker combo in each room, using something like a sonus system if you want synchronized sound throughout the house.

I personally think the centralized vacuum system is too much of a luxury. It's another thing to break and get jammed up, and it's a good bit of trouble and expense to install. You could leave a vacuum cleaner on each floor for a lot less money. But I haven't really used these systems for any great length of time, so maybe it is worth it.

I would spend a lot of money getting the energy-saving right. I think this will add a lot of value in the future. I would blow any extra cash on this to be honest.

De_man

hi naux what style of house are you doing? dimensions,orientation etc

Not to put a damper on things you have your work cut out for you
to start in 9months:( i'm afraid the planners take their time..i was lucky to
have the planning in 7months and really that was without any hitches only looking for further information, and that was really the fault of the person doing my planning application:rolleyes:

If you think you've got the ideal design, make a mockup of the house..cut
out your plans and attach the bits to cardboard and makeup a model
it certainly brings your plans alive:)


if you give us a rough idea of your house design we can all help with fitting in the pantry etc etc

i agree with all the posters, but i would add precast flooring for the first floor, its much quieter and quicker to install, the drawback being the expense...

lots of CAT 5/6 cable around the house, to include CAT 5 at all TV points, all bedrooms ensuite,

large utility room to house all cable for future entertainment/computer system
and to dry the clothes:D


as i say give us an idea what you are going to build


a pint of plain is yer only man

De_man

naux

one magazine i recommend to you is "build you own house and home"
basically it's a guide to building a home in ireland explained in laymans terminology, it's ideal for starting out & widely available in the shops or try www.houseandhome.ie

squire1

Just three things.

Central Vacume: I put one in and find it very good. It's practically silent, very, very good suction and convenient. The unit I bought was from Vacuflo in Kilkenny. True, you could buy a couple of cheap vacumes and leave them around the house but then you have two things that can break down not just one. I had a small problem when I first comissioned it and Vacuflo sent out someone to fix the problem free of charge even though I had installed it myself and it was my fault it went wrong.

Suntubes: These are a cheap but effective alternative to Skylights. In my bungalow, there is a centrally located corridor that is under the apex of the roof, no natural light and skylights would have been difficult. We installed two suntubes that trap light at roof level and transfer it through tha attic in an aluminium tube and it is diffused at ceiling level. You can also get light fittings for the diffuser so that they become normal lights at night time. The corridor in now bathed in sunlight all day long. I can't remember the maunfaturers name but if anyone wants more info I can find a link.

Passive heating: Is that what you call it. Anyway, we designed the house around the path of the sun. We have a lot of glass/windows that trap the heat and warms up the whole house. I know its summer at the moment but I'd expect to save a lot of money on heating bills throughout the year.

Naux

De_man wrote:

hi naux what style of house are you doing? dimensions,orientation etc

Not to put a damper on things you have your work cut out for you
to start in 9months:( i'm afraid the planners take their time..i was lucky to
have the planning in 7months and really that was without any hitches only looking for further information, and that was really the fault of the person doing my planning application:rolleyes:

I already have full planning, i'm just going for change of houseplan. I got full planning 3 years ago 'cos I thought it was going to get progressively harder to get in the future. The only drawback was I didn't know what I wanted to build at the time so I put in a plain 2450sqft 2 storey.

De_man wrote:

[If you think you've got the ideal design, make a mockup of the house..cut
out your plans and attach the bits to cardboard and makeup a model
it certainly brings your plans alive:)

Thats one I haven't heard before!! Might be worth a try.

De_man wrote:

if you give us a rough idea of your house design we can all help with fitting in the pantry etc etc

I'll post seperatly on this.

De_man wrote:

i agree with all the posters, but i would add precast flooring for the first floor, its much quieter and quicker to install, the drawback being the expense...

lots of CAT 5/6 cable around the house, to include CAT 5 at all TV points, all bedrooms ensuite,

What are the advantages to this type of cabling. Besides TV can't most everything else be wireless?

De_man wrote:

large utility room to house all cable for future entertainment/computer system
and to dry the clothes:D


as i say give us an idea what you are going to build]

2500 sq ft 2 storey with large seperate garage

De_man wrote:

[a pint of plain is yer only man

More to follow.... thanks for all the help lads n lassies:)

Naux

antoinolachtnai wrote:

To do right, the larder should be on an outside wall and be ventilated from the outside to keep the temperature down. I haven't seen one done like that for quite a while though!

My personal preferred way of doing this would be to have those deep full-height pull-out shelves against an external wall with vents into it. I would prefer to have two narrow ones rather than one wide one. This takes a lot less room than a fully-blown walk-in larder. I have never actually had an opportunity to build this arrangement, and I have never personally seen it, but it seems like a good idea to me..

Sounds very nice, I would never have thought of the outside wall thing & ventilation.

antoinolachtnai wrote:

Do the structured cabling for sure. It is important that all the cables in the house come back to one place. Go for at least cat 5e + coax. If possible, leave some way of getting extra cables into the house later on without having to rip the whole place apart...

This might be a silly question but what are the advantages of this? Is wireless an option for home networks etc?

antoinolachtnai wrote:

Before you put down the floors and board the walls, take some photos, so that you will have a record of where the services were installed in case you need to find the services again in the future..

Excellent suggestion, a friend of mine was advising me along the same lines.

antoinolachtnai wrote:

I would spend a lot of money getting the energy-saving right. I think this will add a lot of value in the future. I would blow any extra cash on this to be honest.

This is definitely an area that I'll be concentrating on. I know people with large houses that are very,very expensive to heat due to not paying close enough attention to insulation specs, heating systems etc.

Tks Antoin

Naux

squire1 wrote:

Passive heating: Is that what you call it. Anyway, we designed the house around the path of the sun. We have a lot of glass/windows that trap the heat and warms up the whole house. I know its summer at the moment but I'd expect to save a lot of money on heating bills throughout the year.

The house will actually be designed around the path of the sun and there will be large amounts of glass on the South facing corner. Still working on this with the architect as its a woodland site which makes it more complicated.

Tks squire

Viking House

Naux wrote:

The house will actually be designed around the path of the sun and there will be large amounts of glass on the South facing corner. Still working on this with the architect as its a woodland site which makes it more complicated.

Tks squire

If you don't seperate the sunroom from the living area you won't get any economical heating advantage with a sunroom as it can loose as much as it gains by being a big heat looser at night.
There is more info on this on my website
http://www.viking-house.net/wooden-conservatories

I would also insulate externally if I was building.

Naux

Viking House wrote:

If you don't seperate the sunroom from the living area you won't get any economical heating advantage with a sunroom as it can loose as much as it gains by being a big heat looser at night.
There is more info on this on my website
http://www.viking-house.net/wooden-conservatories.

How does your wooden conservatory work with regard to having/producing an economical heating advantage?

We will be putting a lot of glass in the south facing wall of the kitchen/dining area so we will not have a conservatory per se. Also there will be a high roof in the kitchen/dining area with a small gallery area from upstairs. Can the priciples applied in your wooden conservatory soloution be applied to something like this in order to gain an economical heating advantage??

Viking House wrote:

I would also insulate externally if I was building.

I have briefly read a few of your previous posts on this subject and its something I'll definitely look into. I assume you can still have a nap plaster finish after insulating this way? What about if you were putting up natural stone as an external finish?

De_man

hi naux

Quote:
I already have full planning, i'm just going for change of houseplan. I got full planning 3 years ago 'cos I thought it was going to get progressively harder to get in the future. The only drawback was I didn't know what I wanted to build at the time so I put in a plain 2450sqft 2 storey.


Perfect you won't have any delay, you really thought ahead


Quote:
Originally Posted by De_man
i agree with all the posters, but i would add precast flooring for the first floor, its much quieter and quicker to install, the drawback being the expense...

lots of CAT 5/6 cable around the house, to include CAT 5 at all TV points, all bedrooms ensuite,


What are the advantages to this type of cabling. Besides TV can't most everything else be wireless?


this topic has been discussed at length on other threads, i personally prefer
to have everything hard wired at a guess using precast flooring would
cost approx an extra 6K to the price of house build



a pint of plain is yer only man

FrankGrimes

yep, wireless just cannot match wired performance for bandwidth and reliability and will not do so for some time. In theory it may well do so, but in practice, particularly if concrete walls are in place (and naturally a concrete first floor would impact this), I'm yet to see it deliver to the full theoretical potential. So pre-wiring wherever possible is the smart thing to do.

Look for the many posts on here, particularly from patrido, and you'll see what's needed.

Naux

De_man wrote:

this topic has been discussed at length on other threads, i personally prefer
to have everything hard wired at a guess using precast flooring would
cost approx an extra 6K to the price of house build



a pint of plain is yer only man

I'll have at look at those threads regarding hard wiring.

If we go with traditional blockbuild(and we are leaning towards this at this stage) I will be putting in precast flooring.

Cheers De man

Naux

FrankGrimes wrote:

yep, wireless just cannot match wired performance for bandwidth and reliability and will not do so for some time. In theory it may well do so, but in practice, particularly if concrete walls are in place (and naturally a concrete first floor would impact this), I'm yet to see it deliver to the full theoretical potential. So pre-wiring wherever possible is the smart thing to do.

Look for the many posts on here, particularly from patrido, and you'll see what's needed.

The only broadband that I will be able to get(only 11 miles from Galway city:eek: ) in the forseeable future will be wireless so thats why I was thinking that way.

I'm not bothered about music in every room etc and all that. Just TV and a home network would be enough for me unless I can be convinced to the merits of anything else. I suppose thats what this thread is for

dras

Naux,

Would recommend you look at a significant amount of solar panels to drive an underfloor heating system not just to provide hot water. Passive solar gain v important. Severe insulation levels also needed, particularly in roof. Viking house looked very interesting to me. If doing direct labour I agree that block on block would appear more attractive than timber frame but don't discount it. Also look at steel frame. Water supply - how good is it? Need a well? Rainwater harvesting? Seen laundry chute made from large gauge plastic piping. Wouldn.t bother with central vacuum - most people have wooden floors and tiles now. Have a think about wind turbines and off-grid options - not sure of economics but is interesting idea.

G'luck

antoinolachtnai

Well, the broadband will come. And there are plenty things within the house that the network might be good for. It's hard to anticipate what you will actually use it for. One thing might be if you want to connect your TVs around the house to a central DVR.

At a minimum, I would put cable to anywhere you are putting a TV point.

If you want to save money, don't bother terminating the cat 5 cable.

Alternatively again, you might be able to leave ducting and draw-strings in place so you can pull extra cable afterwards. In theory this is the best thing to do, but in practice, it is very awkward.

Pocari Sweat

What water source are you planning on? Group scheme or private well. You will have hard water if you live 11 miles from Galway and you want to plan early when running the mains pipe feed if you have one, to be looped to the garage first to a decent sized water softener and then to the main kitchen of the house.

antoinolachtnai

Is it fashionable to soften drinking water? I thought there were health issues regarding this where infants are involved (because of the risk of increased salt content, I think).

Just another little thing to think about.

FrankGrimes

3 words Naux - Windows Media Center.

The possibilities plenty of CAT 5e cable will give you are endless, particularly if you run one to each power socket, light switch etc - as described in posts by patrido the home automation options this gives you are endless.
Though an X10 home automation system may be an option due to cheaper price.

Naux

dras wrote:

Naux,

Water supply - how good is it? Need a well? Rainwater harvesting? Seen laundry chute made from large gauge plastic piping.

Local Community Water scheme is in operation in my area so I should be covered.

dras wrote:

Wouldn.t bother with central vacuum - most people have wooden floors and tiles now.

G'luck

Wooden foors and tiles still need to be cleaned/dusted!!!!!


Solar panels will be part of the heating system I hope. I have large trees on the site so I assume that will make the solar option will be more tricky to implement.


cheers dras

Naux

antoinolachtnai wrote:

If you want to save money, don't bother terminating the cat 5 cable.

Antoin....................what do you mean by don't terminate the cat5 and how would this save money. Picking your brains here !!

Tks

Naux

Pocari Sweat wrote:

What water source are you planning on? Group scheme or private well. You will have hard water if you live 11 miles from Galway and you want to plan early when running the mains pipe feed if you have one, to be looped to the garage first to a decent sized water softener and then to the main kitchen of the house.

Water in the area is very hard and I think a water softener is essential around here. Hard water means you are constantly descaling shower heads, kettles etc not to mention the damage it does to aplliances.

Antoin, I've never heard about issues with softened water being bad for infants but I'll do a bit of research.

Naux

FrankGrimes wrote:

3 words Naux - Windows Media Center.

The possibilities plenty of CAT 5e cable will give you are endless, particularly if you run one to each power socket, light switch etc - as described in posts by patrido the home automation options this gives you are endless.
Though an X10 home automation system may be an option due to cheaper price.

A friend of mine said I should look at Windows media Centre as well so I guess I search for some of Patrido threads for a few pointers.

Cheers FG

sas

You are not supposed to use softened water for infants bottles.

We have a water softener and a 1.5 year old. Installed the softener a year ago. Even the installer told us this.

Nurses etc all said it too.

Naux

sas wrote:

You are not supposed to use softened water for infants bottles.

We have a water softener and a 1.5 year old. Installed the softener a year ago. Even the installer told us this.

Nurses etc all said it too.

We have a new arrival(our first) due in the next couple of days:D so it is good to have the info...

Tks sas

Pocari Sweat

The low down of sodium content in softened water is this:

The Health Boards can test softened water for sodium content and they should find it is below the 200 ppm safe drinking limit, or well below, and therefore pass it as being potable and safe for human consumption.

The salt we take into our diets is mainly by food, and from the 10% trace levels of salt found in food naturally, manufacturers add about 75% of sodium in things as obvious as bacon, ham, tinned and processed foods etc, to the less obvious as cereals which often contain higher salt concentrations weight for weight than salted peanuts. And we add around 15% ourselves via the salt shaker.

A slice of bacon, contains more sodium than a gallon (8 pints) of softened water. Most Heinz soups have 1.2 grams in a 440 ml tin. We would have to drink about 20 equivalent size tins of soft water or say 10 litres of the average soft water, to be approximate, to exceed our daily allowance.

The plumbers or nurses who avoid softened water for drinking may have anecdotal fears because of the trace presence of sodium in softened water but may not realise the far higher amounts of sodium hidden in all sorts of foods.

Some doctors may recommend ex-cardiac patients with high blood pressure looking to reduce sodium levels on all fronts, and may include a reduced intake of softened water. We drink a variety of fluids like tea, coffee, juices, milk etc, so we would be hardly affected by a small percentage of sodium in softened water more so as we don't drink it exclusively. Less processed food, pork and additions of salt on chips etc will reduce salt levels - if there is concern sodium levels are too high.

The World Health Organisation and our own Health Authorities advise an RDA or recommended daily allowance of 6 grams of salt which is 2.4 grams of sodium for adults. It is the foremost mineral we use on a daily basis for most vital bodily functions - control of body temperature via perspiration, sodium is used in many fluids - eye lubrication, seminal fluid etc, and 100's of other bodily requirements.

We tend to exceed salt intake, (average figures list 8 grams a day across the population), but our renal system (kidneys) gets rid of it, filtering it out via urination. A thirst signal is sent from our hyperthalamus making us drink more water, thereby diluting sodium concentrations followed by urination.

Diuretics or fluid losing drinks such as tea, coffee, cola and alcohol are not recommended as healthy, because they make us lose more fluid than we gain. The best way of hydrating the body is by drinking water, fruit juices and milk.

Water softeners work on a catalytic exchange of calcium ions for sodium ions known as cation exchange.

This means hard water with calcium carbonate at a level of 300 ppm will soften by an exchange of sodium usually to a bit less than 300 ppm. Sodium is the lesser part of sodium chloride (common salt), and is 40% of the molecular weight of sodium chloride

So 300 ppm of sodium chloride in water is around 120 ppm of sodium alone. So the official line by the Health Authorities, EPA and EU drinking water directives from 1988 onwards, state that a limit of 200 ppm is acceptable for sodium in water and at these levels are too low to taste.

beolight

regarding water softener issues

you can get your plumber to run seperate waterpipe to kitchen,upstairs bathroom anywhere you might need unsoftened drinking water also get him to fit filter unit on these i.e bypassing water softener

p.s dont forget run seperate waterpipe unsoftened to were you are going to put your big fat american style freezer, if your not getting one now still run one and leave it under your kitchen where you can get at it easy enough

also why not look at rainwater harvesting and forget about water softener?

Viking House

Very interesting Pocari.

antoinolachtnai

I agree that a clean-running water softener is not going to be a problem in general.

What I worry about a little though, is the process of renewing the water softener (i.e., getting the calcium back out of it and putting sodium back in) might leave an excess of sodium salt lying around in the system and this might cause an issue.

Obviously this will not happen where the softener is well run. But I worry about the 'edge case' where the softener might be somehow faulty or not properly maintained.

Is this a legitimate worry to have, or am I being unreasonable?

beolight

lots of ideas here uk house of the future article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4594723.stm

a follow up of it http://www.easier.com/view/News/Property/article-37088.html

Pocari Sweat

antoinolachtnai wrote:

I agree that a clean-running water softener is not going to be a problem in general.

What I worry about a little though, is the process of renewing the water softener (i.e., getting the calcium back out of it and putting sodium back in) might leave an excess of sodium salt lying around in the system and this might cause an issue.

Obviously this will not happen where the softener is well run. But I worry about the 'edge case' where the softener might be somehow faulty or not properly maintained.

Is this a legitimate worry to have, or am I being unreasonable?

Yes, you are probably getting right to the roots of the fear of salt in softened water there.

Normal soft water is safe to drink, but a softener has a very slight risk, probably less than 1%, of getting caught out by a prolonged ESB power failure for over say 6 hours, which would have to start at around 2:10 am to 3.10 am on the particular day of when a softener is set to perform its "regeneration" and its 2nd cycle brining function.

Then the softener owner would have to complete this unusual sequence of events by heading straight for the softener in the morning and resetting the valve head to skip the 3rd, 4th and 5th cycles of the "regen" sequence to allow the brine caught in the main vessel of the water softener on the 2nd cycle, to then enter the household water, (on some valveheads). But if forewarned they can set the softener to perform a manual regeneration immediately and clear out the brine in the main vessel, they suspect the power cut started between 2.10 to 3.10 or thereabouts, and carried on for some time.

In the odd case where this happens an excess of brine may enter the header tank of a house feeding the baths, toilets, loos etc, which means you may happen to brush your teeth and the water tastes salty but the contents of the average 50 to 70 gallon header tank usually only last for less than half a day on the average 160 gallon a day household water consumption.

Normal soft water, having trace levels of sodium, has absolutely no effect on pipes, or other parts of the plumbing system or appliances, where as lime in hard water certainly will cause hard scaling on anything from the cold domestic pipe feeds to a lesser extent to the worst scaling found around the hotter parts of the plumbing system (but not affecting to any degree the closed loop of the household heating system, whatever any water treatment company might claim).

A reverse osmosis filter can also be fitted on softened water to provide the purest level of drinking water at the kitchen sink, plumbed to an additional small drinking faucet, or using a combined hot and cold "triflow" mixer tap with built-in filter feed.

A water softener will easily remove over 99% of lime found in the hardest water, and a reverse osmosis filter will then follow on to remove up to 99.99% of any harmful toxins including heavy metals, chlorine etc, and if sodium is present at around 120 ppm, it will have a further reduction of around 95% of the remainder trace level of sodium to a nearly non-existent level. It also performs well in removing nitrates and nitrites at around 85 to 95% reduction, when these are found to be borderline in drinking limits from flooding of farmland and subsequent ingress to water sources.

Naux

Naux wrote:

We have a new arrival(our first) due in the next couple of days:D so it is good to have the info...

Tks sas

New arrival is a baby girl 9lbs born Saturday 15-07-06:D

sas

Naux wrote:

New arrival is a baby girl 9lbs born Saturday 15-07-06:D

Congratulations. Taking on a house build and having a new baby at the same time. Glutten for punishment

hotlips_h

Congratulations on the new arrival.

You are lucky to have the opportunity to build from scratch.

As well as what others have suggested, I would consider the following:
- putting all sleeping areas downstairs and living areas upstairs to benefit from maximum light in living areas and lower temperatures in sleeping areas
- a laundry room where you can leave the ironing board permanently set up

Qwerty?

Congratulation Naux. I started building two years ago a few weeks before our first was born. Sas is right.:D .
But now you have a very special reason to get the house built.

A few things I would recommend would be:-

Central Vacuum system. We find it brilliant for wooden floors rather than dragging a hoover after you, very quiet (unit is in ext. garage) and great suction. And the Sweep up point in the kitchen is very handy.

A Quatity based Water Softener - as it only rejunvenates when a preset quatity of water is used, rather than after a preset time. But also run a normal mains pipe to the kitchen sink. We then installed a Triflow tap, so we have softened hot and cold, and normal drinking water at the kitchen sink.

UFH and geothermal. Discussed at length in other threads.

Hollowcore and concrete stairs - safety aspect and noise.

And a pressurised plumbing system - or shower at the very least and don't forget the speakers in the bathroom ceiling... essential;)

Mellor

I'd put alot of thought into the kitchen units. Get them perfect and you'll live longer. I'd reccomment a slide out larder unit. Corner unit is important too, look at whats available (folding door, rotary shelfs. and see what you like. Also a cheap but very good idea is a pull out ironing board. It goes in the top drawer (where you would normally find knifes etc.) and opens like a regular drawer and the board fold out then. Very neat and tidy and any guest open it looking for cuterly and tell how much they like it and how clever you are.

Naux

Mellor wrote:

Also a cheap but very good idea is a pull out ironing board. It goes in the top drawer (where you would normally find knifes etc.) and opens like a regular drawer and the board fold out then. Very neat and tidy and any guest open it looking for cuterly and tell how much they like it and how clever you are.

A pull out ironing board is a very smart idea indeed and has just been added to my list of definites:)

Naux

hotlips_h wrote:

I would consider the following:
- putting all sleeping areas downstairs and living areas upstairs to benefit from maximum light in living areas and lower temperatures in sleeping areas

Interesting concept. A friend of mine has a fabulous house designed like that but it is built into the side of a hill so the design suits because on the upper level at the back there are lawns etc. which you can just walk out onto.

On a flat site though you'd have to run downstairs to go out onto a lawn/patio area which would be a pain after a while especially with kids.

iplogger1

For central vacuuming systems (such as Beam, etc).
Is ducting required in blockwork or is it at the plastering/chasing
stage that house purchaser needs to make it clear to plasterers/
tradesmen/subcontractors that they require ducts for a central
vac system ?

Also, I seem to recall someone saying that the central vacuum
systems are very noisy. Can anyone confirm or refute this ?

What is the usual outlay required say for 2 storey house and
Beam (or equiv) system ?

~ipxl

Naux

iplogger1 wrote:

Also, I seem to recall someone saying that the central vacuum
systems are very noisy. Can anyone confirm or refute this ?

What is the usual outlay required say for 2 storey house and
Beam (or equiv) system ?

~ipxl

My friend has one in and he says its not noisy unless you are standing right beside it in the utility room while it is in use(how many times will that be:p )

Roughly 1500 to 2250 euro seems the norm from what I've heard but I have not checked myself yet.

AJL

Need to run a 4" pipe out to the garage. 90 degree low radius bind waven pipe. This needs to be done before slab is poured. Am putting it in the garage as it is handy if you want to clean the car.
This of course is not needed if you are putting in utility. I am doing a timber frame and they wll install pipework behind platerboard.

squire1

iplogger1 wrote:

For central vacuuming systems (such as Beam, etc).
Is ducting required in blockwork or is it at the plastering/chasing
stage that house purchaser needs to make it clear to plasterers/
tradesmen/subcontractors that they require ducts for a central
vac system ?

Also, I seem to recall someone saying that the central vacuum
systems are very noisy. Can anyone confirm or refute this ?

What is the usual outlay required say for 2 storey house and
Beam (or equiv) system ?

~ipxl

I put one in a block built house and put the pipework in before the floor slab was poured at first fix plumbing stage. The blocklayer then left space around the rising pipes on the internal blockwork. It needs to be second fixed then before the plasterers start.

They are a little bit louder than a conventional vacume but because the power unit is remote, this should not cause any problem. The only sound you will hear when using it is the suction noise.

Suction is very powerful. The unit I got was from Vacuflo, suitable for 2500SqFt and cost aound €1000 which included the power unit (true Cyclonic, no bags required) all pipework and all accessories.

I can't speak for Beam but if you send Pat in Vacuflo a copy of your floor plan he will get back to you with a pipework layout to suit your house. It is very easy to install. The only advice I can give is to avoid using short radius bends where possible. The long radius bends reduce the possibility on blockages.

tribesman

When comparing quotes for central vac systems make sure that they are for the same number of outlets so that you're comparing like with like. Some suppliers may quote for just a few outlets and supply a big long hose.The more outlets the better as it reduces the length of the hose you need to carry round. A big long hose could be just as cumbersome as dragging round an ordinary vacuum.

squire1

The extra outlets are a minimal cost. I got three extra thrown in for free. If you are paying for installation, that may be a different matter.