our new home may have to be footed slab, no basement or crawlspace - input?

[KiotiKowboy]

We are just breaking ground on our new build and we also are building geriatric. All doors are 36". All hallway is between 4 & 5'. Showers are designed as "roll-in" and toilets are elevated. The ground floor is slab but the garage and covered front/rear porches will be offset 4". We do have a basement and the stairway is almost 5' wide, with more than ample width for a power chair on one side. As for the ironing board, ours is built-in to the utility room wall.

 

[mikefromnh]

I built our barrier free home for our sons wheelchair about 9 years ago. The 4" lower garage May have been code at some point but it was not required by the code inspector.

Every home should be built with 36" doors and as many universal design features IMHO. Some things such as lever door knobs are very handy when your hands are full. No stairs are great for bringing in heavy woodstoves etc. The bathrooms are built as wet rooms...cleaning means taking the shower handle and spraying down the whole room with hot water. Takes about 5 minutes

One thing I dislike is that the breezeway floor is not sunken below the rest of the living space. Mud and dirt tend to spill out of the room. When the mud room floor is a step down the mess stays more confined.

 

[leaky little red]

I built my in-laws a 1200 foot house with an 1100 foot garage right behind mine last year. We did all ICF to ceiling level, then trusses on top. Added sheeting and 2" of foam to gable ends, gasketed the walls before drywall, finished the exterior walls with hard coat stucco. I chose hard coat because we have Flickkers here, kinda like a big woodpecker that is a protected species, and they love the EFIS style stucco. That 1/2" of concrete put a stop to them pecking right away. Radiant heat in the floors with a mini split for A/C. Mother in-law loves having warm feet in the winter. Father in-law wanted a basement so he could have an aging room for his game, 72 years old and still would rather hunt than anything else. We ICFd hthat as well, and ran 2 6" ducts to the outside. One duct has a in-line fan that is thermostatically controlled to bring in cool air at night, and dampers to keep out warm air during the day. Insulated fiberglass entry door for access. Haven't tried it out yet, I kept him too busy last year to go hunting. One thing I didn't do but might be worth the extra $ is to put 1/2" of foil backed foam (polystyrene) on the roof. The foil helps bounce heat back into the atmosphere and keep your attic cool in summer, and the foam provides a thermal bridge.

 

[dfkrug]

Bids for this plan came back 50% over our budget.

I hope that was not due to the choice of ICF construction! In most houses, the shell or frame
constitutes as little as 10% of the total cost of construction. If your builder does not use an
ICF specialist for the shell, you will over-pay.

I love ICFs, and my own ICF house is on a hillside, with daylight basement/garage under part of it.
The living area has some HVAC ducts under the slab, insulated. The garage is 58F year-round, and
the whole house stays pretty cool in the summer, eliminating the need for AC.

I do have a pump-up septic system, and that was spendy, but it has been pretty trouble-free,
for the most part.