ᐅ Floor Plan Design for a Single-Family Home for a Young Family
Created on: 30 Jun 2015 20:43
S
Sciurus
Hello fellow homebuilders,
my wife and I plan to start building our own home next year, so we are already busy planning. We own the plot of land, which is 900 m² (about 9,700 sq ft), inherited. The northwest boundary of the plot is a small stream (one reason not to build a basement), with large trees up to the building zone. The southeast boundary is a street (a quiet dead-end). The two neighboring lots are still vacant, but a multifamily house will soon be built to the northeast. The southwest neighboring plot (500 m² / about 5,400 sq ft) belongs to my parents and is not expected to be developed or sold (we can use it as a garden). Therefore, the living areas should face southwest.
The house should accommodate 2 adults and 3 children but also work if there are only 2 or even 4 children. When the children have grown up and moved out, it should be possible to use the upper floor as a separate apartment.
We have now received the first drafts from our architect and would like to hear some opinions before we go too far into details and then notice fundamental issues.
Variant 1: The architect aimed to reduce costs by keeping the roof as low as possible, using roof windows and dormers instead. We like the look, but I am not a big fan of this solution (“holes” in the roof, difficult to clean, poorer insulation). As for the ground floor, the room near the entrance feels a bit too small, and the separate exit to the garden between the living room and bathroom could be removed. On the upper floor, we miss a storage room or at least space for a large closet (for bed linen, towels, possibly a vacuum cleaner, etc.). What we particularly like is the large covered passage to the garden by the front door and the recessed corner with the terrace.
Variant 2: The upper floor is much more flexible due to the higher roof, but the estimated price is also roughly $15,000 higher. At first glance, we thought there were too many small rooms, but on second thought, we actually like it very much. The small room left of the bathroom could be a guest room, office, bedroom for one or two children, or later a kitchen. Some fine-tuning is definitely needed here, but we like the concept. What we don’t like about Variant 2 is the path from the carport to the garden only being possible through the shed.
Besides general ideas and suggestions for improving the floor plan, we are particularly interested in your opinion on dormers and roof windows versus a 1 m (3 ft) higher knee wall: how much money can be saved this way, and what real disadvantages come with having many roof windows and dormers?
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 900 m² (about 9,700 sq ft) or 1,400 m² (about 15,100 sq ft) (see text)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Number of floors permitted: 2 full stories
Roof type: gable roof, 25°–38°
Orientation: ridge line parallel to the street, i.e., northeast to southwest
Client Requirements
Style, building type: modern wooden house
Basement, floors: no basement, 1.5 to 2 stories, upper floor later separable
Number of occupants, ages: 2 adults, 3 children (first is 1 year old, second on the way, third planned)
Spaces needed on ground floor: kitchen, living, dining, shower bath, utility & technical rooms, 1 room or possibility to separate one later depending on upper floor
Spaces needed on upper floor: bathroom, 3–4 rooms
Office: small workspace for PC etc. desired
Guest stay per year: no separate guest room needed
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern style: indifferent, rather modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: yes and yes
Number of dining seats: 8
Garage, carport: carport for 2 cars with shed for bicycles and garden tools
House Design
Planner: architect
What we like especially:
V1: covered corner terrace, arrangement of technical room - shed - carport - front door, light in living room from 2 opposite sides
V2: layout of the upper floor
What we dislike?
V1: many roof windows and dormers
V2: passage from the carport side to the garden only through the shed
Estimated price according to architect/designer: V1 $430,000, V2 $445,000 (all included except kitchen and land development)
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: $500,000
Preferred heating technology: heat pump
If you had to compromise, which details or additions
-could you do without: second covered parking space
-could you not do without: large bike/tool shed
my wife and I plan to start building our own home next year, so we are already busy planning. We own the plot of land, which is 900 m² (about 9,700 sq ft), inherited. The northwest boundary of the plot is a small stream (one reason not to build a basement), with large trees up to the building zone. The southeast boundary is a street (a quiet dead-end). The two neighboring lots are still vacant, but a multifamily house will soon be built to the northeast. The southwest neighboring plot (500 m² / about 5,400 sq ft) belongs to my parents and is not expected to be developed or sold (we can use it as a garden). Therefore, the living areas should face southwest.
The house should accommodate 2 adults and 3 children but also work if there are only 2 or even 4 children. When the children have grown up and moved out, it should be possible to use the upper floor as a separate apartment.
We have now received the first drafts from our architect and would like to hear some opinions before we go too far into details and then notice fundamental issues.
Variant 1: The architect aimed to reduce costs by keeping the roof as low as possible, using roof windows and dormers instead. We like the look, but I am not a big fan of this solution (“holes” in the roof, difficult to clean, poorer insulation). As for the ground floor, the room near the entrance feels a bit too small, and the separate exit to the garden between the living room and bathroom could be removed. On the upper floor, we miss a storage room or at least space for a large closet (for bed linen, towels, possibly a vacuum cleaner, etc.). What we particularly like is the large covered passage to the garden by the front door and the recessed corner with the terrace.
Variant 2: The upper floor is much more flexible due to the higher roof, but the estimated price is also roughly $15,000 higher. At first glance, we thought there were too many small rooms, but on second thought, we actually like it very much. The small room left of the bathroom could be a guest room, office, bedroom for one or two children, or later a kitchen. Some fine-tuning is definitely needed here, but we like the concept. What we don’t like about Variant 2 is the path from the carport to the garden only being possible through the shed.
Besides general ideas and suggestions for improving the floor plan, we are particularly interested in your opinion on dormers and roof windows versus a 1 m (3 ft) higher knee wall: how much money can be saved this way, and what real disadvantages come with having many roof windows and dormers?
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 900 m² (about 9,700 sq ft) or 1,400 m² (about 15,100 sq ft) (see text)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Number of floors permitted: 2 full stories
Roof type: gable roof, 25°–38°
Orientation: ridge line parallel to the street, i.e., northeast to southwest
Client Requirements
Style, building type: modern wooden house
Basement, floors: no basement, 1.5 to 2 stories, upper floor later separable
Number of occupants, ages: 2 adults, 3 children (first is 1 year old, second on the way, third planned)
Spaces needed on ground floor: kitchen, living, dining, shower bath, utility & technical rooms, 1 room or possibility to separate one later depending on upper floor
Spaces needed on upper floor: bathroom, 3–4 rooms
Office: small workspace for PC etc. desired
Guest stay per year: no separate guest room needed
Open or closed layout: open
Conservative or modern style: indifferent, rather modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: yes and yes
Number of dining seats: 8
Garage, carport: carport for 2 cars with shed for bicycles and garden tools
House Design
Planner: architect
What we like especially:
V1: covered corner terrace, arrangement of technical room - shed - carport - front door, light in living room from 2 opposite sides
V2: layout of the upper floor
What we dislike?
V1: many roof windows and dormers
V2: passage from the carport side to the garden only through the shed
Estimated price according to architect/designer: V1 $430,000, V2 $445,000 (all included except kitchen and land development)
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: $500,000
Preferred heating technology: heat pump
If you had to compromise, which details or additions
-could you do without: second covered parking space
-could you not do without: large bike/tool shed
So, I quite like the architect’s version so far. However, there will probably be a closet space issue in the master bedroom.
And why is this one more expensive than your initial version (which already included the utility room extension)? Probably due to the higher upper floor.
Wouldn’t it be easier to keep the outer walls as they are and just remove the utility room extension? Then place the technical equipment where you currently have the 6.7 m² (72 sq ft) wardrobe area. That should be enough space solely for the technical installations. The front door could be hinged the other way, and the 12.7 m² (137 sq ft) area turned into a proper entrance area. Maybe you could also put the guest bathroom or a small home office there. A small office would actually be practical because then you could possibly remove the west-facing window in the master bedroom, shift the south-facing window 70 cm (28 inches) to the right, and have a full west wall available for a decent closet.
And why is this one more expensive than your initial version (which already included the utility room extension)? Probably due to the higher upper floor.
Wouldn’t it be easier to keep the outer walls as they are and just remove the utility room extension? Then place the technical equipment where you currently have the 6.7 m² (72 sq ft) wardrobe area. That should be enough space solely for the technical installations. The front door could be hinged the other way, and the 12.7 m² (137 sq ft) area turned into a proper entrance area. Maybe you could also put the guest bathroom or a small home office there. A small office would actually be practical because then you could possibly remove the west-facing window in the master bedroom, shift the south-facing window 70 cm (28 inches) to the right, and have a full west wall available for a decent closet.
Thank you for your effort and the quick response. For a floor area of about 100m² (1,076 ft²), raising the roof by 1 meter (3.3 ft) will cost us approximately 30,000 euros according to the architect’s estimate. The technical extension starts at 15,000 euros, depending on the size.
Replacing the 6.7m² (72 ft²) wardrobe with a technical room and placing a small bathroom and wardrobe at the bottom of the plan is also our idea in the revised design. We simply developed that further and reduced the overall size a bit, as we definitely don’t want to build a bigger house than we need.
And about our kitchen—oops: it somehow was never really “finished.” The lighting is still improvised, but maybe I’ll get around to it eventually...
Replacing the 6.7m² (72 ft²) wardrobe with a technical room and placing a small bathroom and wardrobe at the bottom of the plan is also our idea in the revised design. We simply developed that further and reduced the overall size a bit, as we definitely don’t want to build a bigger house than we need.
And about our kitchen—oops: it somehow was never really “finished.” The lighting is still improvised, but maybe I’ll get around to it eventually...
B
Bauexperte10 Aug 2015 17:35Sciurus schrieb:
For approximately 100m² (1,076 sq ft) of floor area, raising the roof by 1 meter (3.3 ft) will cost us about €30,000 according to the architect’s estimate, and the technical extension starts at €15,000, depending on its size.We are talking about 44 linear meters (144 ft) to be raised by 1.00 meter (3.3 ft). Assuming the roof pitch remains unchanged, in my opinion, this should not cost more than €12,000 for 36.5 cm (14.4 inches) masonry and €15,000 for 45 cm (17.7 inches) masonry. I believe your architect underestimated the costs for the technical room; it will likely be much more expensive to build. So it’s a good idea to integrate it into the main building.Why is he even struggling so much to present a proper floor plan?
Regards, Bauexperte
Thanks for the numbers, building expert! We want to build a timber frame structure, but the costs probably won’t differ too much.
I might have expressed myself a bit unclearly—the figures don’t come directly from the architect. I simply recalculated his cost estimate using the adjusted numbers and arrived at the values mentioned. This cost estimate was based on volume, €330/m³ (cubic meter) for the ground floor and €310/m³ for the upper floor (+ a larger slab for the additional technical room).
Does anyone have any feedback on our own design? =)
I might have expressed myself a bit unclearly—the figures don’t come directly from the architect. I simply recalculated his cost estimate using the adjusted numbers and arrived at the values mentioned. This cost estimate was based on volume, €330/m³ (cubic meter) for the ground floor and €310/m³ for the upper floor (+ a larger slab for the additional technical room).
Does anyone have any feedback on our own design? =)
Sciurus schrieb:
Does anyone have any thoughts on our own design? =)No, nothing at all! If you know what I mean. You can tell it was made by amateurs again—confusing hallway and too many sloped ceilings.
Go through the tips from @kbt09... then you’ll be much closer to your ideal home.
Regards, Yvonne
The sloped walls and the awkward hallway are essentially the same issue. It’s a shame that original ideas are dismissed so quickly here. I never claimed this was a finished floor plan; I described it as a sketch for brainstorming, but anyway.
Can someone explain what is so problematic about a hallway with a bend? Expensive? Impractical? I remember this from my childhood home and have lived in adjacent rooms with angled corners without ever being bothered by it. By the way, the idea came about to position the bedroom facing the quiet north side of the garden with the large trees, and the third children's room facing south.
On the ground floor, we already have a version similar to the one suggested by @kbt09, with a technical room instead of a 6.7m² (72 sq ft) wardrobe, and the 12.7m² (137 sq ft) room divided into wardrobe and bathroom. We also shifted the staircase slightly to create more space in the technical room and enlarge the upstairs bathroom.
Can someone explain what is so problematic about a hallway with a bend? Expensive? Impractical? I remember this from my childhood home and have lived in adjacent rooms with angled corners without ever being bothered by it. By the way, the idea came about to position the bedroom facing the quiet north side of the garden with the large trees, and the third children's room facing south.
On the ground floor, we already have a version similar to the one suggested by @kbt09, with a technical room instead of a 6.7m² (72 sq ft) wardrobe, and the 12.7m² (137 sq ft) room divided into wardrobe and bathroom. We also shifted the staircase slightly to create more space in the technical room and enlarge the upstairs bathroom.
Similar topics