House Construction - Best Value Dimensions

[ultrarunner]

No round houses... some of his more current homes have turrets...

Different market and different times...

He has a lot of simple truths that I love... drives an old pickup and you would never know he builds on his own dime... never takes out a construction loan.

A little off topic... Tom would say how can the government be broke when a dollar changes hands a couple of times the government gets it back... speaking about 10% sales tax and 50% state and federal California taxes...

 

[two_bit_score]

Great points!

 

[westcliffe01]

I think small buildings like cabins are more affected by poor choices of building dimensions and not taking into account material sizes.

My personal choice is for a shed roof style, oriented facade south, roof sloping down to the north, earth berm around the West and North. Southern roof overhang to prevent summer overheating. I'm going small on the house and big on the barn, built in a similar style...

 

[JimRB]

Building a house that you may retire in might lead one to think about handicap access. Building a house with hallways and doors wide enough for a wheelchair or walker is something to think about. A 4' hallway might make for 14' rooms which may or may not be small. Ramps or low stair count to get into the office is another factor. My wife is figuring out where a ramp can be built and we are in our mid fifties.

 

[Budweiser John]

Best to keep the overall foot print on 4' increments as that will insure the best use of material.
Consider a gambrel roof as the additional space can provide storage or perhaps future living space. For sure build over a basement as that will be the cheapest space in the residence.
If your planning to occupy the building before it's finished and doing the interior your self be sure to get the blessing of the local building official and banker.

 

[CurlyDave]

Building a house that you may retire in might lead one to think about handicap access. Building a house with hallways and doors wide enough for a wheelchair or walker is something to think about. A 4' hallway might make for 14' rooms which may or may not be small. Ramps or low stair count to get into the office is another factor. My wife is figuring out where a ramp can be built and we are in our mid fifties.

I am in total agreement. I designed our house as our retirement home, and there is a ramp inside the garage, which provides easy access to the interior level. Before we moved to the country, we lived in suburban CA and it seemed like 10-20% of the houses in the nicer, older subdivisions had a ramp added to the house. This always looked unsightly because the house was not designed for it, and if anyone ever had to use the ramp it left them at the mercy of the weather. A ramp inside the garage is easy at the design stage, and is always out of the weather.

Every door is a 36" door. The maser bath is designed with room for both a wheelchair and an attendant.

We don't need any of these features right now, but if, God forbid, we need them in the future they are there and waiting for us. Adding them afterwards will cost many times what designing them in ahead of time costs, and the need will be at a time of great stress, not a good time to be evaluating contractors. And, the money comes back when the house is sold. Handicap accessible is a feature that adds to sales price. Kludged-on additions detract from sales price.

 

[dstig1]

Having lived this for the past couple years, I can tell you there is no easy solution. You cannot maintain all building materials in 4' or 8' increments no matter how hard you try as every piece of the structure has it's own quirks. If you make the foundation 4' increments, the framing will not be, as it is not set to the same exact points as the foundation (sheathing typically overhangs foundation, for example). Plus the inside and outside of the foundation will not both be on 4' increments, for example. By the time you get ready for siding, you will have added another couple inches to the dimension, so it will hit you again. Similar with roof sheathing. The one I think I would try to hit is exterior sheathing. Let the foundation guys match up to it as they can add in odd sized forms to make up the difference at a corner. You will really hate it if you have to stretch a 4x8' sheathing sheet by 1" to make it to the corner... Cutting off 1" is not as bad, but does take extra time.

Some things are already out there to make your life easier. Precut studs are a biggie. Design to use them for 8', 9' or 10' walls, and that will save a ton of cutting.

 

[newbury]

I think small buildings like cabins are more affected by poor choices of building dimensions and not taking into account material sizes.

My personal choice is for a shed roof style, oriented facade south, roof sloping down to the north, earth berm around the West and North. Southern roof overhang to prevent summer overheating. I'm going small on the house and big on the barn, built in a similar style...

If your handy and comfortable with tools a big barn will save money on the house. I'm sure the OP gets rain in Georgia. Having an empty place to store all the building materials and storing "leftovers" keeps the quality of construction materials high.

Building a house that you may retire in might lead one to think about handicap access. Building a house with hallways and doors wide enough for a wheelchair or walker is something to think about. A 4' hallway might make for 14' rooms which may or may not be small. Ramps or low stair count to get into the office is another factor. My wife is figuring out where a ramp can be built and we are in our mid fifties.

One of the features that "sold" us on our retirement house was wide doorways and halls. It's so nice to be able to move furniture around easily. I just constantly have to make sure SWMBO doesn't put up a small shelf unit or such in the hallway.

Another feature to not overlook is "higher" than the 8' average ceilings. Especially if you are tall.

 

[dmccarty]

I would rethink the boring outside idea. Think resale. At some point, someone will have to sell the house and a little bit of design work that costs a little bit of money can go along way. I see some many houses that are a rectangular box that look like scat. If they had put in a few usable details like a porch or added a small roof that sheds water away from the door(s), it really makes a house look good.

A higher roof line, say a 6/12 vs a 3/12 or 4/12, not only sheds water, snow, and ice more efficiently, the roof looks better, minimizes leak risks, and can give better head room access in the attic. If you have a south facing roof, getting the proper angle for your location is critical if you every install solar water heating or solar power panels.

We built our dream home in the country and it looks good even though nobody but us can see it. That may change in the future. We thought we would live in this house until we died or had to go into a nursing home but we are thinking of selling everything to buy a boat and see the world before we get old. I never would have guessed we would seriously consider the boat idea but here we are thinking about selling everything. Don't lock yourself into a plain design. Think resale.

Later,
Dan

 

[ultrarunner]

I would rethink the boring outside idea. Think resale. At some point, someone will have to sell the house and a little bit of design work that costs a little bit of money can go along way. I see some many houses that are a rectangular box that look like scat. If they had put in a few usable details like a porch or added a small roof that sheds water away from the door(s), it really makes a house look good.

A higher roof line, say a 6/12 vs a 3/12 or 4/12, not only sheds water, snow, and ice more efficiently, the roof looks better, minimizes leak risks, and can give better head room access in the attic. If you have a south facing roof, getting the proper angle for your location is critical if you every install solar water heating or solar power panels.

We built our dream home in the country and it looks good even though nobody but us can see it. That may change in the future. We thought we would live in this house until we died or had to go into a nursing home but we are thinking of selling everything to buy a boat and see the world before we get old. I never would have guessed we would seriously consider the boat idea but here we are thinking about selling everything. Don't lock yourself into a plain design. Think resale.

Later,
Dan

My friends did that... bought a steel hull 3 masted schooner and sailed the world for 5 years... it was everything they wanted and more... they had a deep water dock in their backyard so it wasn't as if they were gone 5 years straight.

They sold the Bay Area home, the boat and the Cessna P210 and bought 20 acres on a trout stream in the mountains and now have a barn and Deere 110tlb.

I love to hear when a plan comes together... they are both around 70 now and enjoy the country life... who would have thought...

The barn they built was laid out to minimize any waste of material... a little forethought makes a big difference.