← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Happy Hacker
Thread ID: 19146 | Posts: 8 | Started: 2005-07-14
2005-07-14 15:27 | User Profile
With the land, and a place cleared for the house, I'm still trying to decide on a floor plan. After looking through books of thousands of floor plans, I conclude that nearly everyone of them is bad. Why are good floor plans so rare?
Here's some of the common problems I find with most house plans:
Lack of privacy. The master bedroom either opens to a public area (e.g. living room), or in a position that to get to the kitchen or leave the house, you must pass through the living room. I see times when I'll be in my boxers, wanting to get a snack, and the Mrs. will have the lady's Bible study over.
Inefficient use of outside wall space. The greater the outside wall, the more the cost to build the house and the more costly to heat it and cool it. Many floor plans have enough wings or rooms sticking out, that they take twice the wall length to enclose the area they could otherwise enclose. All the extra corners also make construction more difficult.
Stairs. Climbing stairs can be a bother. And, as a I plan to leave in this house a very long time, I see a time when stairs might be more than a bother. Other floors are fine for children's rooms, storage, or a rec-room. I want two bedrooms on the main floor.
Miscellaneous layout nuisances. Garages that open into the living or dining room. Laundry rooms far from the bedrooms. Outside doors or garages that open directly to carpeted areas (impossible to keep the carpet clean). Dinning rooms open to the foyer.
The small/cheap house feel. Many house plans for mid-size houses have a small house feel. This could be more layout nuisances, like a lack of a proper foyer or rooms that open to places they shouldn't. Lack of other certain rooms.
Lack of space to accommodate large dinners. I'm thinking of large crowds for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other special events. Most dinning rooms have no space to add an extra table anyplace close. And, if they do, it's often because of a tacky floor plan that makes the dinning room essentially a section of the living room.
I'm working on my own floor plans. I'd just like good model to follow.
2005-07-14 17:16 | User Profile
That's the same experience I had. Most plans are either tract home plans or custom plans. The former are no use for large tracts and the latter are usually site specific. I made my own plans on graph paper. Many builders are OK with that. Draw a floor plan, east elevation, west elevation and so on, then compare then to make sure there are no conflicts, like stairways not having enough room etc and pay close attention the anything that must go thru the roof...gas water heater vents, chimneys and such will dictate things.
If you like foyers and stuff like that a basic rectangle probably won't suit you, but that's how I built my most recent place.
2005-07-14 18:57 | User Profile
Happy Hacker,
I hate modern house floor plans too. It is the degenerate open floor plan ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright and other modern architects that are at fault in destroying any privacy in houses. Even the so-called Victorian house plan have the same ugly open floor. It is usually not too hard to move interior walls around. So find a home plan that looks nice on the outside and move the walls around. You might looks some books on Victorian houses and books from the 1900-1950 period too for some good ideas for floor plans. As Travis said start drawing and playing around with ideas. I rather like hallways so one does not have to walk into the livingroom in order to get from one side of the house to the other.
I would say do not have wall to wall carpet anywhere. Put in hardwood floors and put a few rugs over them it is much easier to keep clean. And put ceramic tile in the foyers, laundry room, kitchen and bathrooms.
2005-07-15 21:00 | User Profile
I'm shocked by these 170k and up vinyl sided homes...it's freakin' plastic...:thumbd:
2005-07-15 21:23 | User Profile
Pennsylvania_Dutch,
I agree vinyl siding is bad stuff. Wood siding will last for hundreds of years if you paint it. On one TV the host showed a piece of vinyl siding taken off a house in Ohio, it looked terrible it was badly warp and starting to go bad and it was less than ten years old. Aluminum stuff may not be well thought of by many but it does not fall apart like PVC. Stucco over wood frame is probably the best low cost house material. I like bricks but they cost more. Concrete block Stuccoed or brick face would likely be the best way to build a house.
2005-07-15 21:34 | User Profile
Stucco is very expensive and you have to paint it. If you live in an area with 20 inches a year or less rainfall, wood is great. If its 35 inches or more, the choices are slimmer. Aluminum has expansion-contraction problems (length) and like vinyl gives that mobile home look. One thing I hate about brick and rock is that it makes the outside of the house so much larger than the inside, a fact that the property tax appraisors disregard. If I lived in a high rainfall area I might look into Hardi-panels or Hardi planks.
2005-07-15 21:57 | User Profile
travis
In the old days stucco houses used to cheap. Just throw up a 2x4 frame, cover it tar paper, tack drown some chicken wire and cover it with a mix of sand, water, and portland cement. I have seen a number of 50 to 100 year houses built by this method that are still in good condition. Sadly building codes will let you does this anymore.
I will give one piece of advice stay away any type of pressboard siding, it is real bad stuff. I have know people who have had a lot of trouble with it. I do not think much of vinyl either. Too bad you can not get asbestos siding anymore it was pretty good stuff.
2005-07-16 00:36 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Faust] Too bad you can not get asbestos siding anymore it was pretty good stuff.[/QUOTE] If you like asbestos siding you'll probably like Hardi panels. They come in 4x8 sheets and long planks of lap siding. They are made of concrete and fibers and will never rot. I have not installed any but have lived in two houses that had it on the outside walls. Paint sticks to it better than anything.