House Plan- Your Thoughts?

Forgot to mention, love that you are using 2x6 instead of 2x4. So many wonderful benefits to include better insulation options, stronger frame, and reduced outside noise penetration.
 
Shingles last longer with that steep roof pitch. Google French home plans and such roofs are almost always on French home designs. Make sure to have a mud room with two washer and dryer hookups. If you don’t require the granite countertop bragging rights, Formica Ideal Edge is worth a look.
 
skyactiv said:
Shingles last longer with that steep roof pitch. Google French home plans and such roofs are almost always on French home designs. Make sure to have a mud room with two washer and dryer hookups. If you don’t require the granite countertop bragging rights, Formica Ideal Edge is worth a look.
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Granite is standard but it's so 90s to me 😆
The laundry room is nice but unlike women I hate it on the first or second floor.
I would have the laundry as is but a second one in the basement and that's the way I like them. Have a fake closet with an option to move the laundry up and down to make it easier.
So two laundry rooms.
Living area laundry rooms are noisy...dirty and if you get a leak you are done... I don't like the vibration either.
 
Hillbilly Deluxe said:
Nope, but we are allowed to have different opinions. Good luck.
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No problem as I'm not buying it.
Conversation only...
Base cost was $343k. And as shown is $360k and pennies.

My niece had them build her a house last year. Great builder.
 
AZjeff said:
Too much. It's like someone threw every current popular design element at it. The high pitch roof, all the windows, the rock veneer, the turret room, the grey scale color scheme. Trying too hard. IMO.
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Those are always my pet peeves. I sometimes drive through Hinsdale IL and marvel at the mansions built there to replace the more-modest homes that were torn down. It is common to see two colors of brick, shale tiles, rustic wood shingle siding, and three types of stonework all on the same house. Too many textures! And the gray color scheme.... It was unique and interesting a few years ago, but 50 million houses/businesses later, not so much. It's everywhere now.
 
GON said:
Forgot to mention, love that you are using 2x6 instead of 2x4. So many wonderful benefits to include better insulation options, stronger frame, and reduced outside noise penetration.
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Do they use 24" centers in Washington state (aka Advanced Framing)? Builders east of the Mississippi almost always commit the costly erroring of remaining with 16" centers when moving from 2x4 to 2x6.
 
A 2x4 wall with spray foam will out-perform a 2x6 wall stuffed full of fiberglass or cellulose. And that 2x4 wall won't be need to be full of spray foam.

Seriously, the walls matter hardly anything when it comes to heating and cooling loads. Here's what matters most in buildings-

Roof Insulation
Window/Glazing Solar Heat Gain Co-efficient numbers
Infiltration


Those three things can't be battled against with a 2x6 wall full of spray foam.

Get the roof sprayed with 6" + spray foam, buy good windows with a max of 0.20 SHGC number and get the house sealed up around penetrations. You can have a sheet of newspaper for insulation in the walls (with OSB sheathing) and it will be ok....
 
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Hillbilly Deluxe said:
A 2x4 wall with spray foam will out-perform a 2x6 wall stuffed full of fiberglass or cellulose. And that 2x4 wall won't be need to be full of spray foam.

Seriously, the walls matter hardly anything when it comes to heating and cooling loads. Here's what matters most in buildings-

Roof Insulation
Window/Glazing Solar Heat Gain Co-efficient numbers
Infiltration


Those three things can't be battled against with a 2x6 wall full of spray foam.

Get the roof sprayed with 6" + spray foam, buy good windows with a max of 0.20 SHGC number and get the house sealed up around penetrations. You can have a sheet of newspaper for insulation in the walls (with OSB sheathing) and it will be ok....
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Everything is top spec- no corners no cheapness.
2x6 for the win for me.
 
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Hillbilly Deluxe said:
A 2x4 wall with spray foam will out-perform a 2x6 wall stuffed full of fiberglass or cellulose. And that 2x4 wall won't be need to be full of spray foam.

Seriously, the walls matter hardly anything when it comes to heating and cooling loads. Here's what matters most in buildings-

Roof Insulation
Window/Glazing Solar Heat Gain Co-efficient numbers
Infiltration


Those three things can't be battled against with a 2x6 wall full of spray foam.

Get the roof sprayed with 6" + spray foam, buy good windows with a max of 0.20 SHGC number and get the house sealed up around penetrations. You can have a sheet of newspaper for insulation in the walls (with OSB sheathing) and it will be ok....
Click to expand...
We looked at a home on the Missouri River in South Dakota a few years ago. House was poorly constructed and used spray foam for wall insulation.

Decided the interior including the drywall would need to be gutted. The spray foam added a lot of complexity to the proposed gutting of the home.

Love spray foam, but it can be a mess if the home is not constructed well. And does a 2x6 spray phone wall insulte and reduce noise better than. 2x4 spray foam wall?
 
GON said:
Awesome house as long as it has nine foot + ceilings in the main floor. Love the 10 foot basement ceilings.
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Yeah, new homes, 9+ foot ceilings is a must have. Most of Long Island NY are older homes with 8 foot.
When we moved south 16 years ago we ended up with 3000 sq ft and 9 to 16 foot ceilings for half the cost of a small NY home.
Now as you know, downsized into our maybe forever retirement house near the coast.

MUCH smaller at 1800 sq ft. but the 9 foot ceilings plus additional half foot or so with tray ceilings in the master and office and 11 foot in the family room make it nice and open. Yeah, I wouldnt have minded that extra 400 sq ft but it is what it is, wife didnt want it or care about it and we liked the lot they were building this one on, also didnt want to wait another 6 months to a year and yeah, saved some money too.
 
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GON said:
Love spray foam, but it can be a mess if the home is not constructed well. And does a 2x6 spray phone wall insulte and reduce noise better than. 2x4 spray foam wall?
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Yes but it's not linear. Depending on the climate zone a 2x4 wall with 1 inch exterior foam would be as good as a 2x6 @ 16" centers. Window and door choices along with air sealing have large influence. SPF is very good at sealing air leaks which is why a lot of builders like to use it.

diminishing-returns-adding-more-insulation-2.png
 
A "single story plan" with second story dormers? All that and a too tall roof?

If it's a fake second story, this design results in a very expensive and hard to maintain roof - for no benefit.

A bungalow (a real single story) could be a lot simpler, which would vastly improve the appearance.
 
GON said:
Love spray foam, but it can be a mess if the home is not constructed well. And does a 2x6 spray phone wall insulte and reduce noise better than. 2x4 spray foam wall?
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Possibly marginally. Everyone I know who has a 2x4 wall home with 2" of spray foam in the walls says "they can't hear anything outside".

Again, wall insulation value is almost questionable in a heat load/gain calculation. Infiltration is HUUUUGE. Spray foam eliminates a lot of infiltration, the rest is around window/door openings.
 
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BMWTurboDzl said:
Depending on the climate zone a 2x4 wall with 1 inch exterior foam would be as good as a 2x6 @ 16" centers. Window and door choices along with air sealing have large influence. SPF is very good at sealing air leaks which is why a lot of builders like to use it.
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Just don't get caught by the approach one builder used: a 2 X 4 insulated wall with no sheathing except for the 2" of foam insulation on the outside. He did put a narrow steel strap (maybe 1/2" wide) from corner to corner. I can't imagine that wall (with plastic siding, and 1/2" drywall on the inside) staying rigid and not cracking at the corners of all the openings.

I suppose the builder saved some money on sheathing material and labour. Lost his reputation though as far as I'm concerned.

I do agree that 2 X 4 construction on 16" centers, properly sheathed, with 2" of foam insulation outside, and at least double pane windows makes for a good wall.

I built my first house with 2 X 6 on 16"centers (with plywood sheathing), fiberglass bat insulation and triple pane wood framed windows. Also had 2" of foam insulation on the outside of the upper 2' of the basement walls. I had initial problems with a poorly installed fireplace and leaky ceiling fixtures but once I got those sorted it was a comfortable home in a cold environment. Would work just as well in a hot environment.

2 X 6s aren't much more expensive than 2 X 4s and the labour is the same. At least they used to be fairly similar in price.
 
ecotourist said:
Just don't get caught by the approach one builder used: a 2 X 4 insulated wall with no sheathing except for the 2" of foam insulation on the outside. He did put a narrow steel strap (maybe 1/2" wide) from corner to corner. I can't imagine that wall (with plastic siding, and 1/2" drywall on the inside) staying rigid and not cracking at the corners of all the openings.

I suppose the builder saved some money on sheathing material and labour. Lost his reputation though as far as I'm concerned.

I do agree that 2 X 4 construction on 16" centers, properly sheathed, with 2" of foam insulation outside, and at least double pane windows makes for a good wall.

I built my first house with 2 X 6 on 16"centers (with plywood sheathing), fiberglass bat insulation and triple pane wood framed windows. Also had 2" of foam insulation on the outside of the upper 2' of the basement walls. I had initial problems with a poorly installed fireplace and leaky ceiling fixtures but once I got those sorted it was a comfortable home in a cold environment. Would work just as well in a hot environment.

2 X 6s aren't much more expensive than 2 X 4s and the labour is the same. At least they used to be fairly similar in price.
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Ya. Bracing works. It's allowed by code afterall. Foam sheathing..meh..hope the seams are taped.

Exterior rigid foam is a rarity in the US due to both environmental (i.e. termites, ants) concerns and builder pushback. 1 inch of exterior foam goes along way in the majority of the US being that we're more temperate. Going over 1 inch is more costly because it requires additional labor and materials around windows and doors. With a warming climate, going super insulated makes less sense. I'd just like to find a builder who can install a rain screen. They're not required in the wet SE US. In the US code adoption is decided by state and local gov.

Below is the current IECC code for wall insulation. The "13+5" notates R13 wall plus R5 exterior foam and so on. This would be a 2x4 with 1" exterior. R20 would be 2x6

1616013715522.jpg




https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IECC2021P1/chapter-4-re-residential-energy-efficiency
 
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