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Small (1380sqft) House Design

xplorer8 | Posted in General Discussion on February 20, 2018 11:19am

Just looking to get some feedback on a house design. SOG, highly insulated, SIPS on exterior walls, flat roof with 2ft of blown in insulation, HRV, minisplit with ducted indoor unit. Image below and pdf’s attached. House is in southern Ontario, heavily treed lot. Climate zone 6.

A few questions;

– Should I put in a seperate Point Source hot water heater for kitchen sink? 

– Basement? We are trying to keep our family close, and could always add on later when the kids get older.

– Are SIPS really worth it (~$12k)? Using for outdoor vapour barrier and R-40 (6.25in) insluation.

– Flat roof looking to use a thick 90mm EPDM/proactive trimming to avoid punctures.

 

  

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Replies

  1. DanH | Feb 20, 2018 01:40pm | #1

    1380 square feet with 4 bedrooms??

    1. cussnu2 | Feb 20, 2018 09:59pm | #2

      My first thought was FLAT ROOF in heavy snow country?????????????

      Ontario shows snow from 30" to over 150" per year.

      1. xplorer8 | Feb 20, 2018 10:12pm | #4

        Snow loads

        Snow loading is certainly an important factor, for our area it is 2 kPa and 2x8 with 16" spacing can handle just over 10ft spans, not huge but works out fine for 28ft wide house. I'll be on the roofing guys like tar making sure they get it down properly with the right trim/edging details to prevent any leaks. The high insulation values should prevent any ice dams as long as the air tight drywall does it's job.

        1. DanH | Feb 20, 2018 10:22pm | #6

          I don't think being on the roofing guy like tar is going to impress him much -- it's be pretty much the same old same old.

    2. xplorer8 | Feb 20, 2018 10:05pm | #3

      Lots of bedrooms

      Hi Dan you have certainly touched on probably the oddest feature of the house but I have given it a lot of thought but am trying to maintain a small overall size. I currently have a couple young kids and we spend most of our time outside, if they need more room when they are teenagers I still have a decade to plan/save for that remodel plus lots of land around. Otherwise it's certainly not a huge selling feature so two of the three walls that separate bedrooms are non-structural and will only have electrical cables in them so if down the road we go to sell I can reorganize space and make for a more seller friendly layout. Check out the pdf you will see all bedrooms are at least 8x11ft. Cheers Tyler 

      1. cussnu2 | Feb 20, 2018 10:20pm | #5

        Your grouping of the plumbing is nice with the bedrooms but I would be concerned a little with the plumbing on the the outerwall.  If there was any workable way to put that on the wall with the rest of your plumbing it would eliminate any issues there.

  2. oops | Feb 21, 2018 01:21pm | #7

    house design

    I would try to rearange the door locaton to the puble bathroom so that the occupants of the three bedrooms don't have to be viewed from the livingroom/front door  as they go tripping down the hall to the toilet in their various modes of dress or "undress"..

    1. xplorer8 | Feb 21, 2018 07:29pm | #8

      Bathroom Door

      Good point ya moving the main bath door to the hallway would be more discreet.

      1. DanH | Feb 21, 2018 07:46pm | #9

        Drag that entire bathroom down and to the right, so the hallway passes above it, and it nestles in next to the lower right bedroom.  This will put the bath door on the other side and obscure the entire bedroom hall from the entryway and kitchen area.

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