Building plans, layouts, ideas, etc

[Bro. Williams]

So, I am highly considering building a small home. Here are the few details I have at the moment:

Want it to be barn-house style, but small, gambrel roof.

Looking at under 1000 square foot on main floor, with a loft area to finish out at a later date.

I don't know if I should do a slab or crawl space (basement is out of the picture due to land conditions).

I am sure there are a thousand other things that I haven't decided on or even considered.

I would like some input on design ideas, additives, precautions, did I say ideas, advice, etc.

Anything you would like to suggest or any input or ideas would be greatly appreciated. THanks.

[SolarGary]

Hi,
I like the gambrel roof idea -- my shop has a gambrel roof done with a very open truss design that leaves an amazing amount of usable space upstairs -- very livable. Canada Plan Service has a free download of the the gambrel design I used.

There are a lot of passive solar home ideas and sketch plans on my site here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...es/plansps.htm

And some energy efficienti construction techniques here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...tructionps.htm

Gary

[AlyCarm]

DH and I were looking into building a "barn house" also! We had one priced out at the UFA store (alberta farm supply store) for $23,000. That included the stairs and flooring upstairs, as well as the siding, roofing, soffits, fascia, insulation, drywall even down to the nails and screws!!
It was going to be 20' x 40' with 8' walls on both levels. So 800 sq ft. each level.
The important thing is to make sure your rafters meet residental Spec, which in our case meant they had to have more of them b/c they had to be closer together then an average livestock barn.

Aly

[farminghandyman]

I would figure future potential additions in the drawing or planing it may help with where the electrical, and size of in coming panel and breaker spaces and access to run new lines, plumbing would go, or the roof lines, sewer, heat, better lay out of rooms and hall if any,

and if there were to be things like a future dinning room would taking what would be used as a bed room currently and adding a bed room wing, to remove the bedrooms from the central of the house,

how open of a floor plan does one want, do you want the kitchen some what closed off, for not exposing mess when serving company, or even the family, (we have a window type opening in the kitchen and one in the living room to the dinning room, it leaves the house open and people can communicate yet there is separation and wall space.

a mud porch and wash up sink (I do not know how we could ever get along with out the room and the sink), jsut having the sink is all most like a second bath, we have a single bowl kitchen sink, it is big, one can fill bucket (we have a pull up faucet in it) the mud room keep a lot of the dirt out of the house, and we have a coat closet that is about 8 foot long, consider a bench in it to set on, (could hold extra shoes in the bench),

a pantry? washer and dryer? wood stove and how will the chimney work? wood path to stove and temporary wood storage.
I do not recommend the washer and dryer in the mud porch, as the mud and a manure from the animals do not make keep clean clothes clean easy, in the kitchen is very noisy, and we currently have ours washer and dryer in the pantry, and it is working well now, the noise is much less in the house, and the room is not tracked with dirt,

one other thing we have done is quarry tiled the main walk areas, as tile doesn't not ware and cleans easly, and then protects the other floors that are more prone to were, it attracts the sand and rocks when dry and the goo that is not got off when wet, in the mud porch.

STORAGE built ins, closets, (we have a story and 1/2 house, and we opened up the attic space and created closet and storage space in our up stars rooms,

[Jerngen]

Here is one (we're currently renting it). I have been very impressed with how efficient it is to heat/cool. Am seriously considering building one. The roof/siding is metal so the snow just slides right off. I personally would get rid of the balcony and do a glassed in porch across the front. There's another house of similiar style about 12 miles from here with a glassed porch and it looks great.

[highlands]

Here's what we did:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/labels/Tiny%20Cottage.html



It has cost us a little under $7,000 for all materials, most of the windows are salvage, we did all the labor and have a backhoe bucket loader on our tractor. It took about two months of intense effort to go from ground zero to closed in. Then another year before we moved in working on it much more slowly as we had to get back to farming. We're not totally done - owner built you know. It is live-able and each week we make more progress finishing it.

It is a high thermal mass inside an insulating envelope so it soaks up passive solar and keeps itself warm. Additional heat is a tiny wood stove. It is mostly concrete, stone and brick on a floating slab foundation sitting on insulation on a gravel pad on ledge in a hollow we carved into the mountain. This buffers us from the wind and eventually we'll earthshelter it.

I like working with concrete, stone and brick. It stays where I put it. It is solid. It stores heat. It doesn't rot or burn. It will last for many life-times.

The roof is a barrel vault - the biggest one I've done to date, about 14' wide. Next I plan to do one that is about 34' wide by 40' long. To learn how to do them I did a lot of smaller practice animal shelters and models. Works slick and very strong so it can take our winter snow load as well as earth eventually.

Floor area of our cottage is 252 sq-ft plus loft space over the front room. Cozy and comfortable - we've been in it two winters now and love it.

If you like designing and building things then there is nothing so satisfying as building your own home. If you can't stand a mess then hire it done. I am blessed with a family that enjoys the process and all help. Its a grand adventure. Just don't rush!

Cheers,

-Walter

[snoozy]

I have a radiant concrete slab. I wouldn't do one again. It's fine when the slab is on -- but when the power is out, that slab just sucks the heat out of the house. Radiant is good, but do the wood kind with a crawl space.

[hotzcatz]

There are several books which might be useful when thinking about building a home. Ortho Press put out a book called "Basic Home Building" which is very good. Another one which is a total bear to read, use and understand but what your inspector will probably use is the "Uniform Building Code". I'd go with the first book for starters.

[highlands]

Snoozy,

I had toyed with the idea of doing a radiant concrete slab but didn't because I ran out of time and hadn't had any practice yet. I've left the option of adding it by raising our floor.

The concrete floor of our cottage is insulated below and around the perimeter, just like the rest of the house, and I don't lose heat through it. I have checked it carefully with a heat gun.

I'm very curious as to how your slab was built.
Is your slab insulated below?
Is your slab insulated around the perimeter?
If so how much insulation on each?

-Walter

[artificer]

Originally Posted by snoozy

I have a radiant concrete slab. I wouldn't do one again. It's fine when the slab is on -- but when the power is out, that slab just sucks the heat out of the house. Radiant is good, but do the wood kind with a crawl space.

A radiant heat concrete slab is a GREAT source of thermal mass in a house. 15 tons/1000sqr.ft. as a minimum. As Highlands is implying by his questions: you must insulate under the slab. If its a heated space, I would insulate under/around a slab even if it isn't radiant heated.

Michael

[Bro. Williams]

Originally Posted by farminghandyman

I would figure future potential additions in the drawing or planing it may help with where the electrical, and size of in coming panel and breaker spaces and access to run new lines, plumbing would go, or the roof lines, sewer, heat, better lay out of rooms and hall if any,

and if there were to be things like a future dinning room would taking what would be used as a bed room currently and adding a bed room wing, to remove the bedrooms from the central of the house,

how open of a floor plan does one want, do you want the kitchen some what closed off, for not exposing mess when serving company, or even the family, (we have a window type opening in the kitchen and one in the living room to the dinning room, it leaves the house open and people can communicate yet there is separation and wall space.

a mud porch and wash up sink (I do not know how we could ever get along with out the room and the sink), jsut having the sink is all most like a second bath, we have a single bowl kitchen sink, it is big, one can fill bucket (we have a pull up faucet in it) the mud room keep a lot of the dirt out of the house, and we have a coat closet that is about 8 foot long, consider a bench in it to set on, (could hold extra shoes in the bench),

a pantry? washer and dryer? wood stove and how will the chimney work? wood path to stove and temporary wood storage.
I do not recommend the washer and dryer in the mud porch, as the mud and a manure from the animals do not make keep clean clothes clean easy, in the kitchen is very noisy, and we currently have ours washer and dryer in the pantry, and it is working well now, the noise is much less in the house, and the room is not tracked with dirt,

one other thing we have done is quarry tiled the main walk areas, as tile doesn't not ware and cleans easly, and then protects the other floors that are more prone to were, it attracts the sand and rocks when dry and the goo that is not got off when wet, in the mud porch.

STORAGE built ins, closets, (we have a story and 1/2 house, and we opened up the attic space and created closet and storage space in our up stars rooms,

I really like the mud porch idea. Our intentions are to create a sunroom or greenhouse on the side of the house eventually, so maybe I could work the mud room into that plan.

Currently, our main desire is to build efficiently and get it done. I am really interested in constructing my own home, but due to time and lack of experience at the moment, I have planned on building a livable core unit to which I can hopefully add to at a later date. Our desired additions, at present, would be a large kitchen and family room, if we feel we want it in several years.

WE have a lot of good slate rock in our area. I would like to use some of it eventually on the floor, but haven't studied up on it enough as of yet.

[Bro. Williams]

Originally Posted by SolarGary

Hi,
I like the gambrel roof idea -- my shop has a gambrel roof done with a very open truss design that leaves an amazing amount of usable space upstairs -- very livable. Canada Plan Service has a free download of the the gambrel design I used.

There are a lot of passive solar home ideas and sketch plans on my site here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...es/plansps.htm

And some energy efficienti construction techniques here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects...tructionps.htm

Gary

That is some extensive info. I have been needing a good reference site. Thank you.

[Bro. Williams]

I have looked at your example before and I like the idea. Unfortunately at the moment I am completely lacking in ANY ability and little time. Congrats on the progress and job though, sounds like a great idea.

[Bro. Williams]

Originally Posted by highlands

Here's what we did:

http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/labels/Tiny%20Cottage.html



It has cost us a little under $7,000 for all materials, most of the windows are salvage, we did all the labor and have a backhoe bucket loader on our tractor. It took about two months of intense effort to go from ground zero to closed in. Then another year before we moved in working on it much more slowly as we had to get back to farming. We're not totally done - owner built you know. It is live-able and each week we make more progress finishing it.

It is a high thermal mass inside an insulating envelope so it soaks up passive solar and keeps itself warm. Additional heat is a tiny wood stove. It is mostly concrete, stone and brick on a floating slab foundation sitting on insulation on a gravel pad on ledge in a hollow we carved into the mountain. This buffers us from the wind and eventually we'll earthshelter it.

I like working with concrete, stone and brick. It stays where I put it. It is solid. It stores heat. It doesn't rot or burn. It will last for many life-times.

The roof is a barrel vault - the biggest one I've done to date, about 14' wide. Next I plan to do one that is about 34' wide by 40' long. To learn how to do them I did a lot of smaller practice animal shelters and models. Works slick and very strong so it can take our winter snow load as well as earth eventually.

Floor area of our cottage is 252 sq-ft plus loft space over the front room. Cozy and comfortable - we've been in it two winters now and love it.

If you like designing and building things then there is nothing so satisfying as building your own home. If you can't stand a mess then hire it done. I am blessed with a family that enjoys the process and all help. Its a grand adventure. Just don't rush!

Cheers,

-Walter

I have looked at your example before and I like the idea. Unfortunately at the moment I am completely lacking in ANY ability and little time. Congrats on the progress and job though, sounds like a great idea.

[Bro. Williams]

I do have a specific question regarding heating/cooling.

The home will likely be 800sf on the first floor, with a beginning unfinished loft, sealed off and used for storage at first. We plan to heat with wood.

My question is on cooling though. We have an older central air unit and accessories, minus the duct work. The unit can cool that size of house (based on it's previous use), but I would rather not run all the duct work. Can I just have one basic vent and use fans to circulate the air?

I would eventually use a window unit upstairs if needed for cooling. Thanks.

[Sawmill Jim]

Yes just extend your supply a little past your return or it will tumble .More specific the air from the supply will just drop an go back threw the return . Have done it before just make a box put foam board in it an a good size return grill with filter in it

[MushCreek]

These are my favorite barn plans: www.barnplans.com

Lots of good ideas, and the plans are pretty cheap. It's also an easy design to build- you put up 4 walls and a second floor deck, then build your roof trusses on the second floor deck. They're fairly light, and already up where you need 'em.