What's new
By:
Filters

Easy/ no brainer upgrade suggestions for New house build?

Motorcharge said:
That's really cool if you want to wait 2-3 business days to get access to your coffee pot and have 2' thick walls in your house for no fucking reason. :laughing:
Click to expand...

Hope they put some outlets in that area so you can use the appliances you are storing there, unless you want to carry them all over
 
pcorssmit said:
The main light in our master is on a 4-way switch, one by the door and one on each side of the bed. Works great, very happy with it.
Click to expand...

Ahhhh 3 way and 4 way switches.

I wish my brain would let me go to bed at night with switches in the wrong position. I'll probably die an old man tripping on something walking across my dark basement because the wrong light switch was used to shut off the lights.
 
Dedicated laundry room with solid core door and insulated walls. Last 2 houses had the laundry in the kitchen. Absolute worst

If there’s a ceiling fan w/ light that thing better have 2 switches.

Whole house fan

Sink the fridge in to counter depth

Walk in pantry

Screw a formal dining room. Eat-in kitchen with some sort of island seating or a bar.

Giant bedroom never made sense to me. Your either sleeping or screwing all you need is enough room to walk around a king size bed. Use that sq ft elsewhere
 
mjlogan88 said:
Dedicated laundry room with solid core door and insulated


Screw a formal dining room. Eat-in kitchen with some sort of island seating or a bar.

Giant bedroom never made sense to me. Your either sleeping or screwing all you need is enough room to walk around a king size bed. Use that sq ft elsewhere
Click to expand...
Same with bathroom make it the size needed to get business done , you are either shitting or showering no need for a giant empty space.


Insulate behind shower, my head board was against the shower wall very noisy with a fiberglass shower
 
Etyler2 said:
Outlets in the soffits for Xmas lights, outdoor shower / handle for rinsing off and washing pets. Outdoor outlets. Laundry tub in garage. Floor drain in garage and bathrooms and kitchen.
Click to expand...
Interesting.. I have a breaker that is labeled Xmas lights. I have no idea where this fucking outlet is. I also have a dead outlet on the back patio. Wires going into and out of but no power. Not even a path between nuteral and ground. :confused::confused::confused::confused:
 
We are about to break ground on our house. I can echo a lot of what people are saying here.

Make the garage bigger than you think. We added a wider 3rd bay for our boat and deepened the whole thing to 30ft. We also are having a hot/cold rough in done to build a dog wash in the garage as well.

The "shop" is going to be converted to a gaming room for the kids and I, but its not in the budget to do immediately.

We like to cook so we opted for dual 30" gas ranges. Its cheaper to do than to go with the larger ranges and the oven sizes are more useful. We're also doing a pot filler.

Cabinets. Our friend is a custom cabinet maker and will be doing ours. They are all soft close doors with the lower cabinets all have soft close pull out shelves for easy access to pots.

Butlers pantry. Extra counter space for prep (main kitchen doesnt have a lot honestly). Extra fridge for inside storage (will have more in the garage). Extra sink (no need to do the dirty dishes to do meat prep or thaw something). Lots of extra storage and an access door to the back patio where the grills and BBQ's will be.

Outlets. We will be walking through with the electrician and telling him where to put every single one and there will be plenty. If you think you need one, put two in the same space.

Utility room right off the garage with a sink so you can drop all your greasy shit and wash up before going inside.

9ft ceilings with a vaulted main room, plenty of head room.

We will also be doing a generator hookup for backfeeding as well as a 50a RV hookup and a cleanout for our trailer.

Master bath do a tub and a shower so the wife can soak if she wants, but you're not limited to just a tub.


1724184556724.png
 
Make the garage oversize. Minimum 28' deep, 30' is better. 18' wide overhead door and minimum 8' high. 10' per vehicle parking space plus 5' for the stairs or things against the wall so at least 25' wide for a double, 35' wide for a triple. Don't allow the engineer to put support posts in the garage, they are always in the way. Floor drains. 240V 80A service in the garage for EV charging in the future.

Run bigger utility power amperage than you think you need 200A capable minimum. The cost to pull a bigger secondary cable out from the utility's transformer to your meter base is minimal and saves big if it needs to be upsized in the future. Install rough ins for a hot tub, generator and solar infastructure. Soffit christmas light receptacles with a programmable timer in the front entrance boot closet. Programmable timer for exterior lighting. Get back lit house numbers.

Pull cat6 for POE cameras and WiFi access points. Install a small server rack to land all the cables into and put the internet modem, ethernet switch, camera servers or built in audio gear into. Run a few empty conduits from the rack to the roof so you can pull new cables in as needed in the future. Pull cat6 from the server rack to your office space for printers, desktop computers, and TVs. Pull a drop into every bedroom. Run 6 coax cables from the rack to the highest point on your roof for satellite TV and/or MIMO cell phone boosters if you use such things, and one to each TV. Run conduits from the back of where any TVs are going to a dedicated marshalling panel nearby so you can add or remove connectivity as needed.

Spend a lot of money on your HVAC. Run a zone system so you can shut off infrequently used areas of the house like guest bedrooms and so that each room has a thermostat that can be adjusted independently. You'll have a cold deck and a hot deck then mixing valves to temper the air and send it into the room where it is wanted while the rest is blocked off. Nothing sucks worse than having hot / cold areas of the house needlessly. My basement is always freezing cold and it sucks to send cooled air down there all the time. If I block off the vents then the evaporator coil freezes up for a lack of airflow. If you have a basement, install a circulation system where you can pull air from the basement and put it upstairs or vice versa for better temperature consistency.

Run a boiler system for hot water. Boiler heats glycol which runs through a heating coil in a tank. The tank holds the hot water in reserve. You don't have issues with the boiler exchanger fouling with water deposits, nor do you have issues with the heating coil forming deposits from boiling the water inside. There is enough BTU exchange that you can never run out of hot water if your boiler is big enough. My holding tank has a large access port on the side to open it up every couple of years to wash out the sediment that collects inside. Add a hot water circulation system with a pump so you have near instant hot water at the showers, bathroom sinks, laundry, dishwasher and kitchen sink. Add a drain for the hot tub as many places no longer allow you to dump it on the ground.
 
Alpine4x4 said:
We are about to break ground on our house. I can echo a lot of what people are saying here.

Make the garage bigger than you think. We added a wider 3rd bay for our boat and deepened the whole thing to 30ft. We also are having a hot/cold rough in done to build a dog wash in the garage as well.

The "shop" is going to be converted to a gaming room for the kids and I, but its not in the budget to do immediately.

We like to cook so we opted for dual 30" gas ranges. Its cheaper to do than to go with the larger ranges and the oven sizes are more useful. We're also doing a pot filler.

Cabinets. Our friend is a custom cabinet maker and will be doing ours. They are all soft close doors with the lower cabinets all have soft close pull out shelves for easy access to pots.

Butlers pantry. Extra counter space for prep (main kitchen doesnt have a lot honestly). Extra fridge for inside storage (will have more in the garage). Extra sink (no need to do the dirty dishes to do meat prep or thaw something). Lots of extra storage and an access door to the back patio where the grills and BBQ's will be.

Outlets. We will be walking through with the electrician and telling him where to put every single one and there will be plenty. If you think you need one, put two in the same space.

Utility room right off the garage with a sink so you can drop all your greasy shit and wash up before going inside.

9ft ceilings with a vaulted main room, plenty of head room.

We will also be doing a generator hookup for backfeeding as well as a 50a RV hookup and a cleanout for our trailer.

Master bath do a tub and a shower so the wife can soak if she wants, but you're not limited to just a tub.


1724184556724.png
Click to expand...
1724184556724.png


I'd open up every single one of those openings in red to at least 2/10. 2/4 bath entries are retarded. Bedroom furniture through 2/6 at bed 3 is going to be a pain in the ass. 3/0 out of the garage but dropping to 2/8 out of the utility room is just stupid if you've ever got to bring anything sizeable through there. Price difference on those doors is negligible. Missed the powder room outside the shop, but include that one too. Anything less than 2/8 on a passage door is too small.
 
Motorcharge said:
1724184556724.png


I'd open up every single one of those openings in red to at least 2/10. 2/4 bath entries are retarded. Bedroom furniture through 2/6 at bed 3 is going to be a pain in the ass. 3/0 out of the garage but dropping to 2/8 out of the utility room is just stupid if you've ever got to bring anything sizeable through there. Price difference on those doors is negligible. Missed the powder room outside the shop, but include that one too. Anything less than 2/8 on a passage door is too small.
Click to expand...
Once you mentioned it in this thread I added it to the list of changes to talk to the builder about along with solid core doors:beer:. I agree the 2/4 is way too small. We do have an oversize rear slider so we can get shit in the house easier, getting it to its respective room though like you said will be difficult with the small doors.
 
Alpine4x4 said:
Once you mentioned it in this thread I added it to the list of changes to talk to the builder about along with solid core doors:beer:. I agree the 2/4 is way too small. We do have an oversize rear slider so we can get shit in the house easier, getting it to its respective room though like you said will be difficult with the small doors.
Click to expand...
Especially egress. I want openings wide enough to carry a case of water or plastic storage box through without having to turn sideways or fight the opening. 2/4 on anything but a linen closet is crazy.
 
We just built our house two years ago, I can give you our builder's contact info and you're welcome to come check our house out if you'd like.

Duane
 
billdacat said:
Interesting.. I have a breaker that is labeled Xmas lights. I have no idea where this fucking outlet is. I also have a dead outlet on the back patio. Wires going into and out of but no power. Not even a path between nuteral and ground. :confused::confused::confused::confused:
Click to expand...
My Dads electrician installed them on his last build / current house. There’s a switch in the garage for them. It’s dorky and awesome at the same time. Good for outdoor LED strings also. No extension cords a a plugging in and out.
 
Good quiet whole house fan and Bluetooth gable end fans. I have the Solatube one and it’s amazing. And Solatubes. I wish I had 10. They make them for bathrooms with integral fart fans.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh