House Plans: Section Added for comments

dfcelt

Finally completed my house plans. Links attached. Please comment.

Original design modified to accommodate Louth Development Plan. "No house to be greater than 220 sq.m or 2400 sq ft." in development area 4.
I know room titles/dimensions etc. need to be tidied up a bit but the general design is what I'd like comments on. All comments welcome, good, bad or indifferent.

Brief outline:
Ground: 2 living rooms, hall, W.C., Coms Rm (all elec to this rm for "home automation"), utility rm, sunroom, large kitchen dining area with vu fold (sliding doors) door leading to rear of house.
First: 5 bedrooms (1 marked office), 1 en-suite with walk-in wardrobe, Main bathroom, Hot Press.
Garage seperate to house.
Site just over 1/2 acre.

Muchos Gracias to Villain for all his assistance, if I'm ever in your neck of the woods I owe ya a pint (or 10)

DFCELT

Edit: Section added

smashey

Do they still allow the external chimney and the full height front pprojection down there?

sydthebeat

a few comments:

ground floor front windows may be better if dropped a block longer than the 1st floor ones

Current WC doesnt comply with disabled regs... you need a 750 x 1200 clear area adjacent to the toilet.. .perhaps move the location of the sink.

1st floor office window.. they may not give you permission for a first floor side window in this room... they may demand translucent glazing, which ia always terrible in a room thats not a bathroom. perhaps consider swapping the bathroom and office.

you have scope to make a much larger and more impressive stairwell... you have the stair ope to the absolute minimum. perhaps consider enlarging it more by moving the master bedroom door towards the front wall

whats the comsroom?? are you in the FBI? this room is too small to be 'walled off'

i would pull the sunroom forward by about 675... aesthetically you need a corner here.

I would pull the utility door from the kitchen 800mm to the LHS.. this allows counter top behind the door and lessens the walkway

The 'entertainment room' is bigger than the 'living room'... why??? i would swap these rooms and have the fireplace on the other side.

dfcelt

Checked recent applications & in December (in same parish) they granted application to a similar design, its not a major job to position it internally mind you (on adjacent wall) so I might do that to eleminate that arguement altogether.

themadchef

I like the open plan kitchen / dining room.

I have one thing that i would change if it were mine though. I would probably lose the office and either make 2 bigger bedrooms or one large master bedroom. I know it's a big thing when you come to sell your house i.e how many bedrooms. But imo when it comes to living there space is priceless.

Have you any idea how much it's going to cost you to build?

Best of luck with it. Oh, and i love the upstairs entertainment room

dfcelt

Cheers Syd, will take those on board.


Sunroom will definitely be repositioned.

Coms Room is really the office/homework etc. room where I will pull all cabling to set up home entetrainment/automation systems. Must ID. it "Study Room".

Entertainment Room will be main family room with elec fire & t.v. positioned above. Don't want fireplace in this room as draught in current living room is unreal & we both agree that (given we only use our fire 5 or so days a year) its not necessary. Other living room will not be used as often as entertainment rm.

Madchef:
Only requirement of the wife was a big open plan living area to rear of house, we have nice views to rear as well, hence the fancy door!
Office is actually a fifth bedroom allowing for increase in family, noted office for planning application.
Hoping to come in at just under 100 sq ft on hse & about 80 per sq ft on garage....fingers crossed.
Thankfully the site was a freebie.

sydthebeat

good point about draughts....

you have enough space to create a draught lobby.. perhaps consider this.. it will aid in energy efficient and BER calculations.

I would still question whether the study room is large enough to be 'walled off' from the kitchen / diner...... it would make that room very uncomfortable to do any kind of study in.....

eire1977

One thing you might consider, move the office to the front for the house in the large space you have in the hallway - that way you'll have a window (see syd's comment)!! Then the space where the office was you can make the hotpress bigger and have two large wardrobes for your two bedrooms, thus freeing up more space in those rooms. Do you get me? Your hall way will have less light but you can always put in a tunnel window to the roof!! Other than that I really like the kitching/dining/sun room.

Mellor

In addition to points already highlighted,

Does the roof pitch need to be that steep, it creates alot of unnesscery height.

In the bedroom to the left of the bathroom, I think the wardrobes are better on the other wall. The bathroom is large enough to move the sink towards the external wall, then you could add an internal door, from bedroom direct to bathroom. It is handy.

Do you have a section, I'm a little concerned about some the heights, cills heads etc.

dfcelt

Eire; I had considered that, great minds think alike & all......but, we have two kids & a ****load of relatives so a spare bedroom is a must & the office room will be a fifth bedroom (for future sprog ). The lack of natural light to the landing is putting me off placing office to front. We have a tube in our current en-suite and imo its crap, you'd need quite a few if a full landing was to be accommodated.

Mellor

given we only use our fire 5 or so days a year

Take it out maybe. A chimney/fireplace adds a considerable cost to a house to build, it also reduces comfort and efficency. Open fires will be used less in a well insulated house

dfcelt

Mellor;
She wants a fireplace (feature in rm etc) so that arguement is over. :rolleyes:
I'll try to get section up after lunch.
Roof pitch is 30 deg. Leaves 2733 in attic, overall height of bldg 8499. I know theres a mention of pitch requirements in Dev.Plan must check it out.
Cill 600, top of window 2100, both floors 2500, attic 2773, overall 8499.

sydthebeat

8.5 m ridge height is very high... may cause you problems.....

i did a quick section myself using your figures i got a ridge of 8.13...
keep GF 150mm above path..
give 215 for intermediate floor and 150 for ceiling joists.
200mm eaves...overhang

personally i would try to get this down below 8 m... depending on your site..

archtech

The height to the bottom of your first floor widows in the bedrooms are too low for means of escape should be between 800-1100.

Regarding the chimney , maybe fit a wood pellet stove (with back boiler) into same, rather than an open fire, it can be made a feature of the room.

Mellor

dfcelt wrote: »

Mellor;
She wants a fireplace (feature in rm etc) so that arguement is over. :rolleyes:
I'll try to get section up after lunch.
Roof pitch is 30 deg. Leaves 2733 in attic, overall height of bldg 8499. I know theres a mention of pitch requirements in Dev.Plan must check it out.
Cill 600, top of window 2100, both floors 2500, attic 2773, overall 8499.

You can have a fireplace without a chimney. Or a hole in the building know as a flue

The roof in elevation doesn't look like 30 deg

As I guessed from the windows in elevation, the cills are too low

dfcelt

Archtech;
Thanks for the info, will amend windows accordingly. They were probably a bit too high anyway, 1.3m high x 1m wide should be sufficient.

I'm liking the stove idea, esp. given Mellors comment earlier & the cost of accommodating a std. fire/chimney into build, not to mention the aesthetics to the elevations. Will discuss with Dboss this evening.

Mellor: Could you expand on flue, are you thinking a stainless steel type pipe (forgive my level of knowledge) protruding from rear of fireplace & extending up exterior of house to above roof level? I didn't think that would be acceptable. We're thinking of installing natural gas, are there any specific regs to be followed with flue installation?

Roofs definitely 30 deg, just checked.

Mellor

By the flue I mean, all chimneys have a flue in them. This is basically a big hole letting out air. Also, the chimney is a large thermal bridge in a house. This also cause a energy loss. If you are not going to use the open fire then there is no need to build a chimney, you can still install a (faux) fireplace as a feature. It might not suit you, but it will suit some people

dfcelt

I get your thinking now Mellor. But if I do want a working fireplace do I have to construct a standard chimney stack arrangement or can I use an alternative arrangement i.e. exposed flue protruding from rear at ? height above ground, constructed of s/s or similar, terminating above roof level? This method would be less obtrusive than the current method but I have a feeling I already know the answer. Flue of this type is only suitable for wood pellet stoves/range cookers etc.