My Latest Attempt At House Design

[JimShortz]

Hi folks,

I've been playing around with an online house design programme. I guess I can post the link here since it's free to use? (www.floorplanner.com) Sorry mods if I'm wrong about this!

Anyway... I've had a lot of fun coming up with my house design. My criteria are that it should be designed for coolness (good airflow, ventilated/heat reflective roof, optimum orientation, etc) and not be terribly expensive (certainly below 2 million Baht; I have the land already). I intend to do all of the internal woodwork/fitted cabinets myself and employ builders to do specific jobs, step by step - not to take over the whole project. Shade trees will be planted along the south and western side of the house.

The overall shape is basically a rectangle (albeit with one corner being an outside terrace) to keep down the construction costs. The house is built on pillars (round ones because I think they look better). Car parking will be under part of the building and there will be a bathroom downstairs directly beneath the main upstairs bathroom.

It'll probably be about two years before I start to build and I want to use that time to optimise the design. I intend to incirporate passive solar water heating, and other interesting innovations that are not commonly found in Thailand.

I have shown speakers (including surround) and TVs/stereos as it is important to me to get all of the wiring hidden away. Electrical sockets are not yet shown - just think lots!

What do you think should be incorporated into the design? What boo boos have I made? What are your opinions on this design? What would you do differently?

All opinions/ideas greatfully received. Perhaps we can pool all of our best design ideas together?

Here's my design:

[splitlid]

the stairs will not work.

you will be banging your head everytime you go up or down, four treads showing is not enough, unless you are 3ft tall

[longball53098]

Start thinking 4 meters between columns possibly 5 but most Thai builds are based on 4 meter centers unless you plan to pay extra for support steel or concrete to span a longer opening.

[GungaDin]

Hi Jim.

What height are your poles?

Planning a verandah?

What is the width of your eaves? 1m or wider?

A 36m2 Living room is quite large to cool, what will you do if the fans don't keep that (living) room cool enough to be comfortable in?

My lounge/living room is 40m2, & is very expensive to keep cool with 2 aircons.

Have you considered a smaller lounge/living room?

cheers

gd

[T_Dog]

Jim,

You're doing the right thing to get some ideas on paper for comment. A builder or architect can finalize it for you after you get it refined.

I have a friend that has one of the easiest to cool houses around and I've been toying with an idea based on how his house is built. The concept is based on a living area built on slab on one floor, and then a concrete ceiling/second story floor that is cantilevered out from the walls of the first floor. The second story is an open garden with no walls except where there is an upstairs bathroom. The roof keeps the sun off the living area, and the garden area helps get rid of the heat radiated from the inside of the roof. I don't like the idea of a house on stilts as stairs to get in look steeper the older you get.

I plugged it into my architectural design software and here is the printout! Good luck on your project.

[neverdie]

Jim, when you do your wiring, don't skimp on outlets, nothing worse than constantly looking for a power outlet.

Small bathrooms & kitchens are a nightmare, make sure you space out a room of similar size and place some items in the room to mimick counters etc. A lot of thais also like a little outdoor kitchen, its sometimes a great idea to get some of the cooking outdoors to reduce the internal heat & keep the messy oiling cooking out in the kitchen that can be attacked with a garden hose & good old elbow grease if required. Don't skimp with storage space, you can never have enough cupboards in a house.

Large eaves are a great thing, helps keep you cooler & also allows you to have windows open when its raining.

Great idea to do what you are doing & also you can start keeping a lookout for good quality fixtures @ special prices.

I like your use of windows, many people knock this saying it can cause heat but that can be counter acted with tints, trees, eaves etc....My last house had heaps of windows & I could always attract a breeze through the house irregardless of which way the wind was blowing....people always commented "Its so cool in your house".

Good luck & enjoy

[JimShortz]

Hey fellas,

Thanks for all of the great feedback. The stairs clearly wouldn't work, and the need for 4m(ish) centres makes a lot of sense in terms of all of the other buildings I see in Thailand. On my re-design I've also made the living room slightly smaller: but I have no intention of air conditioning it ( this is for bedrooms only in my opinion...).

T-dog I like your idea of separating the roof completely from the living area and have thought about this myself; but in the end i think I will go for a very well ventilated (mechanically forced?) attic space with ceiling insulation and silver lining under the roof. By the way - where did you get your CAD software from; it's very effective, if a little hi-tec for me...

I love a good through breeze - hence the house on stilts. I'm with you on this one neverdie, and i pretty much agree with everything else you have said too...

Here's design number 2. Perfect I'm sure you will agree!!!

Will that number of supporting pillars work okay? Are there too many?

[tjo o tjim]

Second round looks better, but the corridor creates a kind of awkward space. Personally, your door arrangement for the master bedroom would drive me nuts-- hard to get things in and out, and you feel like you are always surrounded by doors. It also means you must always close the bathroom or bedroom door, unless you like a view of the stairs from the crapper. It's usually nicer to have the entrance closer to public areas of the house rather than private.

Details, but your outdoor veranda faces east and your "dining room" faces west. That arrangement works best if you are a morning person.

Based on the single couch you have shown, the living room is pretty big. You might actually prefer to have the column in the space to help frame off areas within.

[Naam]

Here's design number 2. Perfect I'm sure you will agree!

no doubt about that!

[Gerontion]

You've got a long west wall. This will maximise heat gain. Better to have your house thin and long, along the east-west axis so you have a small west wall. It's also worth finding out which direction the prevailing winds come from and orienting your house towards those (the house doesn't have to be at 90 degrees to them). Thin and long houses also have the advantage of maximising cross-ventilation. If you want to know about the size of eaves, download a copy of sketchup (it's free). You can do your design very quickly and then, if you plug in your latitude and longitude, you can see how shadows will fall at any time of the day/year.

[Deke]

I'd move the bathroom at the entrance to the area where the living room is now; adjacent to the other bathroom. I'd also switch the kitchen with the terrace. This will allow you to put all of the plumbing along the same wall. The door at the top of the stairs can lead to the living room.

[neverdie]

Jim, I hate to be a killer critiser, because im not & I also like a smaller type house, but those two bedrooms (small ones) are too small mate, 6.8 metres squared is too small. Is it just the two of you living there? If so, and you only want a guest room, maybe you could go for one room. Where do you plan to keep your pc? are you a lap top man?

Keep the changes coming, its the only way

[trogers]

Sorry to be the bad apple.

Where is the main entrance to your home?

Why do many doors open outwards? This is accident-prone.

You should place the wc near to the bathtub to shorten waste pipe runs.

Never place a wc in the center of your home (8x14m overall plan) - it will mean shit building at the heart.

[neverdie]

Sorry to be the bad apple.

Where is the main entrance to your home?

Why do many doors open outwards? This is accident-prone.

You should place the wc near to the bathtub to shorten waste pipe runs.

Never place a wc in the center of your home (8x14m overall plan) - it will mean shit building at the heart.

I don't understand your critism's. Firstly only two doors open outwards, I can understand why he has done this with the main bedroom....PERHAPS he should consider an internal slider here....if its just him and the wife, that door will probably remain 'open' normally. Then its only the kitchen door that opens outwards. Personally I would do away with that too.....especially if theres an outdoor kitchen put in where the cook can do some of the hot cooking outside. So its not the case, only two doors open outwards.

I prefer an open plan, not closing the kitchen in, but perhaps the OP does not.

As for your <deleted> comment about the shitter being in the middle of the house...are you being serious or are you talking about the running of the pipes, did you forget that this house is NOT a slab home, but raised?

The OP is at the start of his planning stage.

[splitlid]

I'd move the bathroom at the entrance to the area where the living room is now; adjacent to the other bathroom. I'd also switch the kitchen with the terrace. This will allow you to put all of the plumbing along the same wall. The door at the top of the stairs can lead to the living room.

excellent suggestions this would also enable the tv to be positioned where it can be seen from the kitchen and dining table if required.

[BigSnake]

Hi folks,

I've been playing around with an online house design programme. I guess I can post the link here since it's free to use? (www.floorplanner.com) Sorry mods if I'm wrong about this!

Anyway... I've had a lot of fun coming up with my house design. My criteria are that it should be designed for coolness (good airflow, ventilated/heat reflective roof, optimum orientation, etc) and not be terribly expensive (certainly below 2 million Baht; I have the land already). I intend to do all of the internal woodwork/fitted cabinets myself and employ builders to do specific jobs, step by step - not to take over the whole project. Shade trees will be planted along the south and western side of the house.

The overall shape is basically a rectangle (albeit with one corner being an outside terrace) to keep down the construction costs. The house is built on pillars (round ones because I think they look better). Car parking will be under part of the building and there will be a bathroom downstairs directly beneath the main upstairs bathroom.

It'll probably be about two years before I start to build and I want to use that time to optimise the design. I intend to incirporate passive solar water heating, and other interesting innovations that are not commonly found in Thailand.

I have shown speakers (including surround) and TVs/stereos as it is important to me to get all of the wiring hidden away. Electrical sockets are not yet shown - just think lots!

What do you think should be incorporated into the design? What boo boos have I made? What are your opinions on this design? What would you do differently?

All opinions/ideas greatfully received. Perhaps we can pool all of our best design ideas together?

Here's my design:

OK, but I for one would lose the Ceiling Fan, I had one to come loose in my home luckily no one was under the thing, all have been replace with mounted wall fans.

Edited March 25, 2009 by BigSnake

[JimShortz]

Okay, now I'm getting serious!

I'm beginning to think i've entered some kind of twilight zone... all I keep getting from you folks is helpful constructive comments. No stupid bitching and complaining... Can this really be Thai Visa?

In design 3 I've reoriented the house; put all water using rooms on the same side of the house; made the entrance into the heart of the home, and made the two kids rooms bigger (and yes, we have 2 kids) - these changes make the living room slightly smaller, but still a very acceptable 5 x 5m. I think your various bits of advice are bang-on, and I've tried to incorporate them.

The ceiling fans (and high ceilings) are staying though; I love them, and hate those swinging wall mounted things. I find proper ceiling fans give a really gentle breeze, unlike them dam_n swinging things: on you, off you, on you, off you.... I do take the point about the danger though and will ensure that they are properly fixed to something solid!

I also like the orientation of the terrace. Facin south and east means having the sun to go with my morning cup of tea, but nice and shaded when I get home from work in the hotter late afternoons.

Anyway, I can't half waffle...

Any more useful comments on the design?

Also, what is a common (or better still, optimum) roof slope angle to get a roof that sheds water effectively and so doesn't leak, but would also be best for matching with long protruding eaves to provide maximum shading? I want to model the shading that the roof would provide in Google Sketchup (thanks for the tip Gerontian), but I need some idea of roof angles to work with first.

Thanks in advance fellas

Here's design 3:

[trogers]

Here's design 3:

This is what I will do:

Extend the landing outside the entrance door all the way to the top (west wall of your master bedroom), like an extended balcony. This will also enable extending your roof eaves to cover the balcony.

Move the patio to the kitchen, move the master bedroom to the patio area, and move the kitchen to the present master bedroom area, and relocate the 2 bathrooms to the south wall between the small bedroom and the newly relocated master bedroom.

Now you have an open plan from the kitchen at the west wall on the right half of design 3 to the patio on the east wall, with a proper main entrance, living and dining area and patio. Natural ventilation will be good as wind is blowing in from the east to the west through your open plan space.

Edited March 25, 2009 by trogers

[ChiangMaiAjarn]

Wow trogers, that sure is a lot of changes. i'm not sure I can visualise all of those changes, but i get your drift... you just think it is rubbish and should start again!

[fiddlehead]

Personally, i liked your first design the best. Except for a few things: Make one bedroom out of the two small ones.

Knock out that wall between the kitchen and dining area and make it more of a bar/sitting area.

I like having the kitchen in or near where people can talk to the cook, maybe even put the stove or sink in the bar area that would separate the two rooms.

That's what i would do anyway. I like open areas, not so many walls and where people around the house can talk/see each other.

my 2 cents. (for what that's worth)

[T_Dog]

Wow trogers, that sure is a lot of changes. i'm not sure I can visualise all of those changes, but i get your drift... you just think it is rubbish and should start again!

Hey, easy there partner, this is a hijack-free zone. I see what trogers is getting at as you end up with a wrap-around deck at the front of the house and a more welcoming entrance to the house. Jim is going to end up with a heck of a design by the end of this thread, and a lot of lurkers, like me, might use it too.

[trogers]

I see what trogers is getting at as you end up with a wrap-around deck at the front of the house and a more welcoming entrance to the house.

This is correct.

Lining up the bedrooms and bathrooms along the south wall makes the said areas a private zone, while placing the kitchen, dining, patio and living areas near the front entrance with a long deck makes a welcoming frontage.

I would like to add a washing/laundry area to be located between the 2nd bedroom and the kitchen facing west to take advantage of the afternoon sun. The kitchen can be extended onto the deck/balcony area if needed.

[ChiangMaiAjarn]

I see what you mean, but isn't there a problem with putting the patio on the north side of the house - it won't catch much sun...

[trogers]

I see what you mean, but isn't there a problem with putting the patio on the north side of the house - it won't catch much sun...

If the patio is an extension of the living room, and it is located at the north east corner, it will catch the morning sun.

The dining area next to the kitchen can be extended (will folding doors) onto the deck/balcony to gain extra space and view.

Thus, the patio will serve as an extended living area, and not dining area.

[tjo o tjim]

In the future, you might want to upload the pictures directly to TV rather than linking from the other site. Looks like their bandwidth is gone...

[JimShortz]

I'm sorry to hear the bandwidth for downloading my earlier images isn't good for some people. I've now started using Photobucket, and hopefully (if it works) this post will include a thumbnail of design 4 (just a few small changes from 3). I'm now pretty happy with the overall layout and am spending time learning some rather complex software to produce full a 3D design with architectural plans, etc. Wish me luck!

Here's design 4:

[JRinger]

If I read your plan correctly, the kitchen is in the front?

I'm surprised your wife didn't also tell you that 'traditionally', in Thailand, the kitchen is built at the rear of the house....

Edited March 29, 2009 by JRinger

[trogers]

If I read your plan correctly, the kitchen is in the front?

I'm surprised your wife didn't also tell you that 'traditionally', in Thailand, the kitchen is built at the rear of the house....

The entrance of the home through the dining and kitchen area is a carried over habit from living too long in condos...

[arby]

I'm sorry to hear the bandwidth for downloading my earlier images isn't good for some people. I've now started using Photobucket, and hopefully (if it works) this post will include a thumbnail of design 4 (just a few small changes from 3). I'm now pretty happy with the overall layout and am spending time learning some rather complex software to produce full a 3D design with architectural plans, etc. Wish me luck!

Here's design 4:

Forget spending the time learning to use some complex software just to lay out one home. Buy yourself a glue gun and pick up a discarded cardboard box that was used to package a refrigerator or stove in and make yourself a scale model of the house. Draw the floor plan right on to the cardboard or on a piece of white paper and glue it down on the cardboard and build the model right over the floor plan. Make the roof removable so you can take it off and look inside. Build the whole thing on a piece of cardboard ( or masonite) that is big enough to represent your land plot and road(s). You can turn off all the lights at night time and simulate the sun's trajectory with a small flashlight and see where the shadows will lie at different times of the day, etc. You can also lay out your landscaping with trees and plants made from colored pages from a magazine, food cartons , etc. This way you can actually see how the house will look on the site and it will be more fun than trying to learn a new software program. If you really need (or want to) be able to "walk through" the house, than cut a cardboard paper towel core to make a small 45 degree piece at one end (periscope). Glue a piece of mirror in the 45 junction and look down the tube as you put the 45 degree end in the doorways and through the house to get an idea what it would look like in a virtual walk through. If you need any examples I can send you some photos of two different designs I have been working on for my plot of land.

[GungaDin]

^^^^ ^^^^ Good advice!

Personally, I'd dump the bathtub in favour of a large, walk-in shower area.

Try having a bath with an injured leg or foot, I speak from experience.

Maybe you could add the walk-in shower?

Don't think that you will never break a leg or injure your foot!

I'd still like to know the height of the house poles.

Storage areas?

gd