How big would this house be?

Paddy1234

Hi there,

We have a site and are just in the initial stages of looking into building. I have no idea what square foot size our dream house would be.

Basically:
5 bedrooms - 4 upstairs, 1 downstairs - 2 ensuite
Bathroom
Living Room
Kitchen/Dining Room
Family Room
Utility Room
Conservatory
Seperate Garage at side

Want to have decent sized rooms. My guess would be about 2500 square feet.

Would anyone have any idea what square foot you would be talking for a house of this kind.

Thanks for your help

sydthebeat

2500 without garage, maybe...
with garage would have very small rooms

archtech

To be honest I think, you would be pushed to fit all that into 2500 sq.foot with decent sized rooms, of course that depends on what you define as a decent sized room. You have a lot of separate rooms dedicated to living space, all of which will contain some dead space. An open plan arrangement breaking up the space in "zones"may work to keep the area at 2500sq.feet, depending on the site.

Bear in mind you will need a downstairs accessible wc which in a house of your area it is never any harm to be of such size to accommodate a level access shown at some stage in the future.

I assume you have a maximum budget for the spend? Remember for every sq. foot you build, you will also have to heat it for the duration your in the house.

scwazrh

Good design is much more beneficial than Total sq ft.

Paddy1234

Thanks a million for the posts guys. Our max budget would be 250k all in. Is that realistic?

archtech

scwazrh wrote: »

Good design is much more beneficial than Total sq ft.

Would totally agree with that

archtech

Paddy1234 wrote: »

Thanks a million for the posts guys. Our max budget would be 250k all in. Is that realistic?

Lots of unknowns at this stage in my opinion it would be tight and would very much depend on the house design and finishes, assuming these are included in the 250k.

shane6977

You need to have a good long think about you whether you really need a house of about 2500sq ft!

Best way I could think of showing how big the house would be was to draw it! Without knowing your site / orientation I’ve sketched up a quick layout based on your list above. Leaving out the garage and conservatory, the sketch gives a house of approx 2000sq ft, with very generous living spaces and bedrooms.

Do you really need a house this big? You could possibly save yourself a lot of money by building a bit smaller or even have more money left in your budget to spend on finishes.

muffler

shane6977 wrote: »

You need to have a good long think about you whether you really need a house of about 2500sq ft!

Best way I could think of showing how big the house would be was to draw it! Without knowing your site / orientation I’ve sketched up a quick layout based on your list above. Leaving out the garage and conservatory, the sketch gives a house of approx 2000sq ft, with very generous living spaces and bedrooms (note the beds shown are Super Kingsize 2m X 1.8m!!)

Do you really need a house this big? You could possibly save yourself a lot of money by building a bit smaller or even have more money left in your budget to spend on finishes.

I realise you are only trying to be helpful but we dont allow sketch designs to be posted - see sections 3 (g) and 3 (h) of the main forum charter

beyondpassive

Paddy1234 wrote: »

Thanks a million for the posts guys. Our max budget would be 250k all in. Is that realistic?

250k - 10% contingency/ client items/ furniture
225K - Vat at 13.5% (main contractor)
200K - capital contributions 10k
190K - prelims, landscape, driveway, effluent treatment, water ESB 10k
180K residual house budget

'up/down the country rates for 2011 regulation compliant* main contractor mid-high range spec finsihes is €110 to €120 per sq ft = €1300 per square metre.

(Part L compliant is A2/A3 with mandatory renewables. It uses less than 40% of the energy use of a house built in 2006 and 2007)

Thats about 1600 square foot in total, or 1,800 for 'Kountry pine shtyle' finishes. You can negociate with the tenderer, but if you're complying with the 2011 regulations, your well under 2000 sq ft. Well worth engaging a good designer/ registered Architect, Technologist with a good reputation. They have all the tricks to make best use of space and employ clever tricks to maximise storage, light, remove waste corridors. Besides a comfortable bright modestly designed house is far better than a shoddy built half designed McMansion.

shane6977

muffler wrote: »

I realise you are only trying to be helpful but we dont allow sketch designs to be posted - see sections 3 (g) and 3 (h) of the main forum charter

sorry, will keep that in mind in future