I’m doing some initial retirement house planning and keep coming up against the design issue of a first story master bedroom desire versus the cost savings of staying with a traditional two-story design with all bedrooms on the second floor.
As a basis of comparison with everything else being equal, what is the cost differential for a traditional two story of approximately 3000 square feet with four bedrooms on the second story, versus the same two story with a home elevator and additonal square footage to accomodate versus a two story with the master bedroom on the first floor?
Does anyone have rough cost comparisons or sources for such guidelines in making such tradeoffs? I’m not concerned with the size of the footprint (have a large lot), but with fundamental construction materials and labor cost differences.
Replies
bert.... how can you use "retirement house" and "2d floor bedrooms" in the same sentence..
sure .. the 2d floor SF is less than additional 1st fl SF.. but so what ?
if you are building a retirement house and you do NOT have a master bedroom and a master bath on the first floor, nor have you designed in convertability, then you are making a very basic error..
design EVERYTHING in the new house as if one of you were disabled.. wether confined to a wheelchair, or bed-ridden.
I know too many people who had to move to assisted living because they could no longer function in their own home..so...
if you like your community, and you want to go on living among your friends and relatives... design your new house for the long haul
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
here's my rule of thumb... really rough..
a 2d floor SF costs 50% of what a 1st floor SF would cost
Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
You would save on foundation costs, framing costs and roofing costs but I don't think that these would add up to 50%. There is a savings on materials but there are some labor inefficiencies with every foot above the ground. Many costs are the same, such as interior finishes, plumbing, hvac, electric, kitchen, etc. I would normally say that there is only a 10% savings, well worth it for a young family, a bad deal for an older couple.
shell... i said it was rough, dammit..
anyways... lets take an example...28w x 40' single floor structure
vs a 28w x 20' 2 story structure... betcha i'm closer to 50% than you are to 10%....
ooops .. don't put one of stans million dollar staircases in thereMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I am designing such a house now, for myself and took care of two different handicapped, older people before in hoses not built with that in mind, so I am speaking from hard won experience.
First, NO upper floor if you have a choice! Not that old now myself but have a bad knee that would not last any time if I had to go up and down stairs. Small house lifts are unhandy with wheelchairs and their possible attachments.
Had a friend that built with two floors and a lift in her house and it didn't work for her oversize wheelchair and an attendant, so later they had to move her hospital bed into the living room since all bedrooms were upstairs. That little bathroom downstairs was too little to handle her needs but had to do. Took much help to get her around in it.
No steps anywhere, in accesses or entrances and no split level rooms. All doors, even walk-in-closet ones, 3' at least.
Build as open a design as you can make it, avoiding doors at all when privacy is not absolutely necessary.
At least 5' room in front of anything solid, like in bathrooms, between toilet and anything else. Position toilet where it can be accessed from the side too. Use pedestal hand washing bowls that a wheelchair can get up to without hitting the cabinet below, like in vanities. Use the lower ones made for that, they work fine for all people too.
Put a wheelchair accessible shower, without dintel to have to climb over, in one bathroom, because it will get where bathtubs are too hard to get in and out of and showers will be the only option left, before relegated to sponge baths and dry shampoos at the last. We didn't have a shower we could get grandma in so had to put a kid's plastic inflatable swimming pool in the bathroom, a bathroom chair in it and use a rubber shower extension on the vanity faucet to bathe her, then bail the water out into the bathtub.
If money is a concern, as it seems to be, build as small as you can and it still be resealable as a family dwelling later, so you can take care of things yourself as long as possible. I will have enough rooms for a family but have designed it so I can keep those parts closed when not in use.
Buy, if you don't have them, the Alexander books, especially "A Pattern For Living", if you don't have them. Outdated now but much there is common sense that we know but forget to take into consideration when designing.
We can build for the future but we don't really know, do we...
I know nothing about home construction, but I kinda choked when you asked about the cost savings of building 1 storey versus installing an elevator on a 2 storey. Gee, one of those has to be expensive, I think.....
$10,000-$12,000 for a 2 stop vertical lift installed, exclusive of framing and drywalling and doors.
figure a good twenty five grand to get the elevator in.
Where I choked was at the thought of a retirement house with four bedrooms. When I retire, it won't be to run a bed and breakfast joint for friends and relatives. But you can do it as a four bedroom for resale value, using one for the computer room, one for the wife's craft room, and one for the occasional guest..
Excellence is its own reward!