New House (your input wanted)

[dmccarty]

Since YOU are building the house you are going to know where many of the mistakes happened. If you bought the house instead of building it you would likely not notice the mistakes.

There are a few "mistakes" in our house. I doubt that 99% of the people who have been in our house ever noticed. My FIL still talks about the mistakes his GC made on his house. You would have to look long and hard to find those mistakes.

There is not such thing as a perfect project. You want it as perfect as possible but be reasonable as well.

Later,
Dan

 

[VABlue]

Floors - carpet is cheap and easy to change out, hardwood and tile - not so much! Get the material, color, finish, and style you want because you won't fix it for 15-20 years after move in. Same goes for cabinets and countertops - they just cannot be swapped out easily or cheaply. Make the laundry room big, roomy, and easy to get to from the bedrooms (where all of the laundry piles up)...

Don't forget about the outside of the house, either. Start thinking about landscaping now - types of plants/shrubs/etc you want; where will the beds be located; what type of watering needs will they have... If you want a nice yard all year you probably will want a sprinkler system. Many of those required their own well pump, so plan that into it (and maybe get the system installed as part of the GC work to mix it into the mortgage - saves $$$ down the road). Where might you need hose locations? Front porch and back deck are no-brainers, how about another tap at the driveway? Make it easy to get a hose to each section of the house, never know when you might need it there.

If you ever plan on putting electric and/or water to an outbuilding, get the connections stubbed in outside the house during construction. No sense in burrowing through the walls after the fact...

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Lloyd_E]

Think about:

- Movement of vehicles and access to home entrances with vehicles including farm tractors for loading and unloading stuff
- Mud-room with washer/dryer, extra large sink
- Outdoor/exterior shower stall and outdoor/exterior sink
- 400 amp or greater electrical panel - will allow power to out building at some point
- run 4" piping to possible future buildings/sites - you can run water and electrical through the pipe later
- Metal roof - inexpensive and will outlast anything.
- Generator hook up
- Cold room in cellar - for storage of food/vegtables
- Extra dishwasher
- Bury conduit in walls for pulling wires through at a later time
- Wide - 8' - walk in to basement
- shut off valves on all plumbing runs at various points
- clean outs for sink drains and 45 degree turns vs 90 if possible - easier to snake via a 45 than a 90
- extra space for all mechanical stuff - easier to work in larger spaces than cramped ones

******* take photos of every step and of exposed walls, studs, joist etc - for later reference. Also print and store in binders.

Hope this helps.

 

[gotrocks]

I've scanned the replies so far but have not read every detail so some of these may already be in the works.

Since we do our "outside living" mostly in the back yard, our AC compressors are in front of the house behind shrubs. That way we don't have to listen to the noise.
We're ALL electric.

Light switch convenience, in 1968 we installed "Touch Plate" that used low voltage with solenoids to control lights. My outside lights can be turned on/off from 6 (six) different locations. (adjacent to all exterior doors and by bed in master bedroom.
Do think this day and time I should NOT have to mention pre-wiring for tv, phone, internet, intercom, security etc.

I would include air compressor with several outlets in various locations.

As mentioned wheel chair friendly. Wide doors as well as ramps.

Sprinkler system for yard. We finally had a well drilled. City water was costing too much. After a few years the well is paid for itself.

I noticed another mention regarding communication with other family regarding floor plan - traffic pattern etc.

Before we started construction we would be in bed ready for sleep and one would say " if we swing that door from the other side of the jamb......."

Before you pave any drives or parking pads consider placing at least a 4 inch PVC pipe under so wires, water lines etc could be run.

Is this enough for now? :thumbsup: Good luck. Keep us posted and show pictures.

 

[skipmarcy]

One thing I did in our house when I built it 4 years ago was put in 36" pocket doors - a little extra cost for the hardware initially but not too bad - bought mine at Lowe's. Sure gives you more useable space in the rooms and is extremely good for moving things in & out as well as wheelchair compatible in the future (hopefully not needed!!). If you are going to do a concrete slab, a couple things I did -

1) I only have my main 1" water pipe coming into the house thru the slab - no other water lines under the slab. I have an attached garage so this worked well, the pipe is close to the edge of the slab too, just in case something ever happens to it.

2) When laying the drain pipes under the slab I made a good bed of sand at least 4" deep under the pipes - then a good bed on top & around the pipes before finishing with regular fill. Our ground has a good bit of rock in it - didn't want the risk of busting the PVC as the slab settled etc. The sand made it quicker & easier to get my drain grades too. I did this on all of my ditching - both water related and electrical related, except for my underground service entrance which used sch 80 pvc 3' deep and required creek gravel at each end of the ditch anyway.

I would highly recommend the foil bubble radiant barrier on your roof if you are using metal - it works fantastic. I used it on my 2 porches too and this allows you to sit on your porch while the summer sun is broiling. I sided my house with galvalume metal as well and fully wrapped my house in the bubble wrap - besides the radiant barrier it made a great moisture barrier as well. I don't know if you can use it with a shingle roof, wouldn't think so but would be worth checking into.

On electrical it's obvious to be sure you have plenty of outlets to suit your needs but I went a little further and made more of my receptacles in the kitchen and garage "homeruns" - only 1 or 2 receptacles on 1 wire/breaker. My refrig & dishwasher each have their own breaker but I also put the other 5 receptacles in the kitchen on 2 seperate breakers - we use different appliances in the kitchen alot and it's handy and safer. Costs a little more for those GFI breakers and extra wire up front but it's done once and you're ready for any remodelling or expansion down the road.

Oh yea, on your driveway - get some gravel on it before the trucks start coming in, let them help you pack it good !! The well drilling truck and the concrete trucks will definitely sink some rock in soft ground for you to get a good base going.

 

[Richard]

Floors - carpet is cheap and easy to change out, hardwood and tile - not so much! Get the material, color, finish, and style you want because you won't fix it for 15-20 years after move in.

HA! Not if you are my wife!

She decided she wanted a pinkish marble floor put down in the foyer. I got some kind of adhesive and we put the marble floor down.

Fast forward about 5 years and she decides.. "I don't like that color anymore"

Yes...she wanted to swap out tile and put the same tile in the foyer that she put down in the main room in basement.

Soooooooooooo, yours truely spent several days hacking, chipping, using a pneumatic chisel.... and ripped up the marble floor so we could replace it with the tile floor.

Fast forward about 2 years... and just recently....she has told me that she doesn't like the look of the tile in the foyer... seems the silly stuff "has gone out of style"

For once in my life, I think when I gave her "the look" she finally understood that she was walking on some pretty thin ice!

 

[VABlue]

"...several days hacking, chipping, using a pneumatic chisel...."

Exactly why (most) people don't simply change out non-carpet flooring! How big was the foyer? My house is all HW and tile on the first floor - no way I'm doing that... About floor color... Dark colors (like my dark brown maple HW) are beautiful and dramatic. They also show every little bit of dust. God forbid you have a house full of shedders (dogs, cats, etc)...

Anyway... One other thing - leave an empty conduit running from the basement up into the attic. (Boy was that handy to run additional electric to the unfinished room over the garage!)

 

[tyler101]

-Put outlets in your eaves that are switched. Put the switches inside a closet in the house. Chritmas light are much easier to turn on and off.

-Put as much money as you can into insulation and HVAC. Geothermal saves us tons of money as well as the spray foam insulation we used. You can always go cheaper on floor covering and faucets as they are easy to upgrade down the road.

-We used PEX with a homerun manifold system. We can isolate any part of the house from one location.

-Plan for the future with cabling. Run Cat 5 or Cat 6 cabling into every room. Many TV's today utilize broadband connections for piping in movies. These connections are easily converted from internet to phone connection. Bring all of these cables together in a media cabinet. This cleans up phone,internet, and cable connections.

-Before drywall begins, make sure to caullk all of your joints. Spending a little money on caulk now will save you a lot of money on heating and cooling later.

-If you plan on having a first floor or second floor laundry, put a floor drain in.

-If you are planning on a basement, go with at least 13 courses.

-Imagine you need to call EMS. Think about them getting a cot into your house and moving it around. Many people have to narrow of angles to move around. (Helps me out!)

-If you have extra money, think about putting in a home sprinkler system.(FD and insurance company will love you!) It's really easy to install with PEX fittings.

-Put geotextile fabric under your driveway to save yourself loosing gravel.

 

[MarkV]

If you plan on it being your final house go one story for your senior years. The extra paid now for insulation and quality door and windows will pay you back over time.

MarkV

 

[Pushing_Tin]

Some really good replies here!

We built our house a few years ago, things we're glad we did:
Installed an plug in for the generator. Now when the power goes out for a day or two I simply roll it out, plug er in and we're back in business. Since we're on a well this is especially important.

We have a large deep sink in the garage so we can clean up a bit before coming in. We also have an hose bib we can adjust from warm to cold water. This is nice for dog or car washing when it's cold.

If you want to do anything with concrete ensure a vapor barrier is laid down over the gravel before it's poured. Ours does not have this barrier and we've had issues with sealant and garage floor coating peeling up as the water tries to evaporate through the gravel into and out of the concrete.

Take lots of pictures of everything, you never know when you'll need to dig up a pipe, or cut into a wall in the future.

We insulated our garage and used a 40 year roof for not a whole lot of addtional money.

More if I remember anything worthwhile.

 

[keegs]

Think about:

- Cold room in cellar - for storage of food/vegtables
Hope this helps.

Lloyd...sorry to digress but regarding the basement cold room, the basement in my place in northern ME has to be in the high fifties low sixty degree (Fahrenheit) (15.5 C) range during the warmer summer months. If I want to cool down, I just spend a few minutes down there. I'm wondering if you know of any system to circulate that cooler basement air up into the house?

 

[maybar]

Starting the planning process of a new house. Hope to get a good pad built and a pasture road this fall. Would like to start the house sometime next year. What Im looking for is advice from those of you who have built homes as well as advice from some of you builders (electricians, framers, plumbers, concrete guys, roofers, etc), contractors, architechs, planners etc. Not really looking for "floor plans", styles, trends, etc, but rather: Im looking for hard and fast definate "Do's and Dont's" In other words:

Make sure you use "X" sized water line
Make sure you use "X" sized re-bar spaced "X" distance apart in the concrete
Make sure you use "X" wire and "X" circuits and "x" breaker size
Make sure you put your HVAC unit "X"

Example - we once had a deer cabin located on the east side of a lake facing west. In the evening you could not sit on the porch because it was too hot and the setting suns glare off the lake was unbearable.


Example -- Once lived in a house whose master bedroom was on the west end with no shade. That was the hottest room in the house. During the summer, we had to turn the AC up so much for us to sleep that the rest of the house was riduculously cold.

These are the types little subtlties I want to avoid if possible. Things you might not realize until you experience them.

Any detail that you feel very strongly about, I want to hear it.
Im really into the details and I feel that "FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION"

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I can give you some advice on heating and air systems even though it's completely against the grain of what you'll typically see.

For efficiency do not put the indoor unit and duct work in the attic. The contractor that installed mine 25 years ago ran PVC pipe ducts under the concrete slab. Any heat loss warms the floor and any cooling loss cools the floor. Insulation not recommended or necessary. I do have the return air in the attic but if I were ever to build again that would be changed. And speaking of return air, closed interior doors don't allow heating and air units to work correctly unless you have return air duct in each room.

Gutters - I would never have gutters installed on another house if I built new every year and lived to be 500. There are better ways to control water. And speaking of water, build at a high enough elevation that water runs away from the structure in every direction.

 

[txdon]

Standing seam metal roof

Spray-in-foam insulation - like this - YouTube - Spray Foam Insulation - The Intelligent Choice

Whole house surge protector - every thing that needs surge protection cannot be plugged into a strip, like your new electric dryer or your new a/c blower motor, both have computer panels that will blow with a surge.

 

[Travelover]

Couple of things that I didn't see mentioned.

Study up on proper attic ventilation and make sure that you have more than enough, especially soffit vents.

If you think you might ever want a central vacuum system, install the pipes while the walls are open - it is a snap. Later it is a real PITA.

Use two layers of drywall between bedrooms. This greatly cuts down on sound transmission and costs almost nothing. You only finish the top coat.

Seal the outlets on outside walls and also any wires that pass through to the attic. With a basement, seal the top of the wall to the rim joist and insulate it. Seal the window and door frames to the wall joint with low expanding sealer.

Have the HeVac ducting system sized and designed by a real engineer as opposed to just "installed". You'll save your money back and enjoy the added comfort for the whole time you live there. Seal the ducts thoroughly!

 

[dogeman]

NEVER pay a contractor or anybody up front and expect the work to be completed.

If I could, my house would be rotated 90 degrees to take advantage of the winter sun. Have the side with the most windows facing the sun. A good set of curtains and correct placement of heating/ AC vents is also helpful.

Use the shortest route to connect electric to the grid. It cost by the foot to have it installed.

Married? Let the wife pick out the interior save a lot of discussion and it will be changed later anyway.

Think of the future; will trees be in the way of sattelite dish?
If there is a well keep it out of harms way such as any potential car traffic going off the road.

Have a basement? think sump pum and drain tile inside and outside of the wall.

 

[Travelover]

..............Have a basement? think sump pump and drain tile inside and outside of the wall.

Oh yea, good one and have a clean out for the drain tile, 'cause over time it will get sand in it.

 

[Lloyd_E]

keegs,

I was thinking more for over the winter. And yes you have to insulate and separate from basement floor plan with walls and a direct(controllable) source of exterior cold fresh air.

We have a rock wall foundation - 200 year old house. I mentioned to a carpenter friend years ago about putting in a 6" in-line fan and some duct work to bring colder air up to the house from the basement during the summer. He warned me that it would bring up too much moisture which could lead to mould. You would also have to run a dehumidifier. We installed small AC units and find it works great and not a lot of money per month. In fact we only use
the AC unit for about 20 days over the 4 month summer period.

 

[CurlyDave]

A few things from our very recent retirement house.

Wheelchair access is a big deal, especially if you intent to live in this house for the rest of your life, but there are a few other unpleasant things to think about. At least one bathroom must have not only wheelchair access, but also enough room around the toilet for both the wheelchair and an attendant. One shower must be large enough for both a seat and an attendant to enter with a patient.

If you put in a ramp, put it inside the garage. Not only does it look better, you can get in and out of the car sheltered from the weather.

If you have satellite TV, or ever want it, find a location for the dish where it can be cleaned of snow accumulation either from a window or from the ground. I found out the hard way that the 3 or 4 times a year it snows, the best nozzle available for a garden hose is about 4' short of being able to clean my dish. Go ahead and try climbing a stepladder in 3" of snow to squirt the snow off your dish. BTW, when it snows and the roads are slick is when you want TV the most.

We designed our house with a 3' chase between the first and second floor. This is where all the ducts, wires, pipes, etc. go. And if we ever have to pull new wires it is easy.

 

[Pushing_Tin]

Lots of excellent advice, but has the OP ever even come back..?

 

[Jim in ICT]

Make your GC give you lien releases on all the bills for material and labor associated with your job. Nothing worse that having a sub throw a lien on your house because he wasn't paid.
If you have a front porch with a slab floor, consider a safe room below it for stormy weather with a steel door and frame.
Look into a tankless water heater. We love our Rinnai. The Pex piping and water manifold is great also.
Consider a whole house vacuum while it can be installed easily. My wife vacuums twice as much since we installed one in the new house. Only cost an extra $1,500.
Don't be concerned with hurting someone's feelings because you want to question their work. You're the one who's paying for it and the GC works for you. If you have a problem with a worker or their work, take it up with the GC and make him your advocate. Let him be the bad guy.
Show up once in a while with a few pizzas and/or Gatorade, etc. The subs will appreciate it and may not mind doing a bit more for you.
Pick up all the nails with a yard magnet several times during the job. Framers and roofers are the worst. Saves ruined lawnmowers tires later. As the job progresses, the subs are better about cleaning up after themselves.
Make your GC produce a copy of his liability and workman's comp. insurance policy for your file. Consider an umbrella insurance policy while construction is under way. You're protected if the GC or subs aren't insured. I think ours cost an extra $150.00 for a year. Money well spent.