Wood Columns….
Stone Columns…..
Brickwork……
Painted Board……
Flat Roof…….
Pitched Tile Roof……
This House looks like it’s in a competition to get as many different materials in the facade.
It’s a display home……….in an attempt to make it look different it just look a confused mess!
When most people look at a display home the two first considerations are:
Sometimes that works fine when all the houses are in a line, and the same size…….but what about when the side of the house is on show?
For example:
The photo on the left shows the side view of the house, in the top photo, with the impressive facade.
Not only is this a lot less impressive……but as it is the view from the main road its the first impression of the house any visitor gets.
Don’t forget to think about how the sides of a house look when you are looking to build a new house!
Originally garages doors were hinged doors, then tilt and lift doors came in.
More recently the main choice for garage doors is between roller doors or sectional panels.
Fairly common as its the most used door in commercial applications.
Has the advantage in that its a fairly compact unit although it does need a bit more height to fit the roll over the opening.
Normally fairly draught proof but very hard to insulate.
I think these look a bit more classy than roller doors, after all you want to look more like a house than a commercial garage.
They are available in a wide range of styles.
If you don’t have windows in the garage it might be worth having a door with windows to bring a bit of extra light in.
They can be quite easily insulated if your garage is your workshop (or man cave) but are harder to draft proof.
One disadvantage is that the door takes up a lot of ceiling space which restricts where you can put ceiling light.
Last time we built I didn’t bother about a remote opener.
After a couple of years I was served with the ultimatum ” Remote opening or else” (My wife said afterwards “Well worth the money!”)
If you go back 39 years most houses had proper eaves but now they are less common.
As I travel around I sometimes see new houses with eaves on the front facade but non elsewhere, which I think looks weird.
If you are thinking about ‘eaves’ on your new house here are some advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages
Disadvantages
As for me my first Australian house had eaves, but my next house did not so I have a foot in both camps.
I didn’t mind the look of the design without eaves and I built a pergola on the north side for shading.
Are you for, or against, having eaves on your new house?
Rendering popularity comes and goes……………… However I think “Why pay more for a something that is only going to require painting in the future?”
As my old woodworking teacher once told me “There’s nothing wrong with being lazy as long as you are intelligently lazy.
That means getting the job done but saving effort, both now and in the future.”
Rendering does have its place:
Apart from the exceptions above here’s why I don’t like render as a final finish:
Bricks are making a comeback as people who have rendered 10 years ago now find that the additional cost was only the start.
Having a house painted every 10-15 years is an expense that basically starts at $12K. Personally I’d prefer a family holiday .
Render costs around $20,000 on a 30Sq home, plus painting, plus more for maintenance……Brick veneer requires a wash, at the most, with a low pressure hose.
Some people say the modern Acrylic renders are better than the cement renders but I remain to be convinced.
What do you think?.
Well these painted panels above the top of the window in this photo are an example.
This example is not very attractive in my opinion
Finishing up with painted infills like this is often a consequence of not having eaves and/or increasing ceiling height without considering window size (an easy thing to miss if you are building for the first time)
if you don’t like them make sure you check the builders elevation drawings carefully.
Basically these are much cheaper for the builder than a brick infill as they save both the cost of a lintel and the brickwork.
They also make the construction of the required brick articulation joints for the builder simpler (see Brick Articulation Joints )
This covers zincalume, galvanised steel and colorbond. Following are a few thoughts:
One drawback is that you will need an external TV aerial and mobile phone coverage may be worse than under a tiled roof.
Can be clay, terracotta or concrete. Their characteristics are:
I have previously had a steel roof but now have tiles.
If building again I would probably go for metal.
Do you like the sound of rain on the roof?
Appearance is very much a matter of taste with different people liking different styles, there no right solution.
If I put up a picture of something as the way to go than more people would think I was wrong, than would think I was right.
But here are a couple of thoughts:
I try and go for what you could call a timeless appearance but what’s that look like?
The best suggestion I can make is to walk round an estate near where you live that is around 20-30 years old.
Some of the houses you see will look very dated.
Other will look as though they could have been built a couple of years ago.
They won’t all look the same……………….. just timeless.
Take some photos of the ones you like to help you compare with other designs you come across.
Here are some things you should consider avoiding:
What trend do you think will mark a house as a Fashion Victim?
This addendum was added to an original Post from 2014 as there has been a lot of publicity recently (late February 2019) about foam panels and certification has been removed from certain types of panels.
A particular issue for apartment blocks has been related to high speed spread across the surface of the panels to other flats.
On a standard house the render should protect the insulation from external flames. (If flames penetrate the plasterboard, from the inside, it is likely that the occupants will either have already evacuated, or be dead before the insulation ignites) n
Nevertheless you should review whether the potential risks from foam panels are acceptable to you.
Rendered Foam walls are becoming much more common, particularly in the upper floor of 2 storey homes. They offer a real advantage in situations where it would be difficult to provide adequate suppport for a heavy brick wall (For example when the upper floor needs to be set back from the ground floor)
If you are worried about strength you need to be aware that the real strength of the house is in the frame. (see: House Construction – The Frame)
There are 2 different types of foam used in this construction method:
Insulation values for the various board thicknesses are:
Although there are some advantages in this system it does require careful detailing and construction otherwise leakage can occur damaging your house.
The advantage of masonry on the lower part of the house is that it is less likely to be damaged by the bumps and bangs of daily life. Once the wall is above head height damage becomes less of an issue and the rendered foam board should be fine.
I’d prefer XPS to EPS.
Although the insulation values are good the builder will most likely want to save the cost of the insulation batts in the frame. If you ask for the wall to include insulation batts you will have an exceptionally well insulated wall at very little extra cost.
Most of us are used to the traditional Australian roof drainage connecting to down pipes . . . . but this isn’t how everyone sees it.
Travelling around Hawaii I was quite surprised to see how many houses completely dispensed with any form of roof drainage like this photo.
No Gutters and no downpipes.
OK as long as you aren’t building on Reactive Clay
Not a problem in Hawaii where it is mainly volcanic sands or rock.
I recently talked about visiting some Frank Lloyd Wright ‘Prairie Houses’ in America.
With the ‘Prairie House; style there was an emphasis on horizontal lines.
To avoid the strong vertical lines of the downpipes Frank just got rid of them.
To collect the rain below each discharge point he positioned a pit like this one.
The only problem is that in the slightest breeze there is going to be a lot of spray.
For small flows the water drains through each cup to the one below it.
With heavier rain the flow runs on the outside of the cups where it is held to the cup by surface tension.
If you can’t get hold of the Japanese cups a simple chain can work just as well.
