Design Decisions FAQ'S
Design Decisions FAQ Table of Contents
2. What should my ceiling heights be?
3. Do I want 2x4 or 2x6 exterior walls?
4. What defines my "dream kitchen"?
6. What finish materials shall I use on the outside of my new home?
7. Do I need a finished basement?
8. How do I plan for possible future modifications to my house?
9. What are some basic room sizes?
1. What rooms do I need?
Make a list of all rooms you currently have and their approximate sizes. Are they big enough? Too large? Are there rooms that you need that you don't have in your existing home? Bring your "wish list" to our first meeting. We will try to incorporate all your needs into your new design.
2. What should my ceiling heights be?
The standard ceiling height on the first and second floors is 8'-0", although the majority of custom homes have 9'-0" first floor ceilings, and 8'-0" second floor ceilings. Higher-end homes occasionally have 10'-0" first floor ceiling heights and 9'-0" second floor ceiling heights. It's up to you. Keep in mind that with higher ceilings, taller windows are recommended. If you intend to put transoms over your first floor windows you will need a minimum 9'-0" first floor ceiling height.
Ceiling features such as tray or cathedral ceilings can be designed into the bottom chords of roof trusses, and can make a "standard" house more stately, with higher ceiling heights in the center of the room. Building a cathedral ceiling in the master bedroom, for example, is an economical way of adding volume without increasing the entire second floor ceiling height.
In determining your basement ceiling height, keep in mind that it will vary depending on the method of foundation wall construction. A typical CMU wall is 12 courses high, which is 8'-0", and finishes out to 7'-9 1/2". Clients sometimes increase the wall height to 13 courses and achieve an 8'-5 1/2" ceiling height. If you wish to have poured concrete foundation walls instead of CMU, the walls are built using forms, and are either 8'-0" high or 9'-0" high. The upgrade here is in specifying that the contractor use the 9'-0" forms, which results in a finished basement ceiling height of 8'-9 1/2". These basement wall examples are typical. A custom home builder will build taller walls for you if you desire it, and we can work with a structural engineer to specify the proper wall thicknesses and reinforcing within the wall.
3. Do I want 2x4 or 2x6 exterior walls?
This decision, which may seem minor to you at the beginning, is a very crucial one for the designer/drafter; the earlier this decision is made the better. Some people elect to use 2x6 wood studs in their exterior walls if they plan to install 5-1/2" fiberglass batt insulation in their outside walls, or if they particularly like deep window sills. It is a nice look if you have the budget for it. The majority of people, however, stay with 2x4 studs on their outside walls, as the Maryland climate doesn't require the 5-1/2" thick insulation. There are occasions when 2x6 stud walls will be required for structural reasons, though, such as at two-story family rooms, 10' high first floor ceilings, or at a garage door that has a very large steel beam above it (to conceal the thickness of the beam). We will discuss this issue at our first meeting, as it is very important.
4. What defines my "dream kitchen"?
We spend more time talking with our clients about the kitchen than any other part of the house, with the occasional exception of the master bath. The kitchen is usually the social center of the house and takes careful planning. The drawings that we create for you will show locations of the sink, dishwasher, range, and refrigerator. We do not do detailed cabinetry layouts, because the kitchen cabi netry manufacturer will do their own plans in-house when you select cabinets from them. However we do need to decide where all those major appliances will be installed. The "work triangle" concept helps us do this. It is the distance from the front of the sink, to the front of the refrigerator, to the front of the range. Total length of the three legs of the triangle should be under 23'-0" for maximum efficiency .
Islands are a good place for family and friends to congregate while the cook prepares dinner. We can discuss placement of a cooktop or a vegetable sink in an island. Seating at the island is important also. However, if you don't have room for an island, a peninsula might be a possibility. Another feature of an efficient kitchen is a pantry cabinet - we try to fit one in whenever possible. A walk-in pantry is even better. Finally, consider the idea of having a computer desk somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen/breakfast nook. A child can be supervised by a cooking parent while on the Internet.
5. What about windows?
The style of windows you want is up to you. Double-hung windows have a traditional look, while casements lend themselves to more contemporary styles. It is best not to mix styles of windows, with the exception of installing a double casement over the kitchen sink, even if the rest of the house uses double-hungs, because it's easier to lean over a sink and crank open a casement window than it is to lift the bottom sash of a double-hung.
There are other window issues as well:
| Grilles: grilles divide the window into rectangles (known as "lights"). You can omit them from the design entirely, go with a "standard" grill pattern, or designate a custom design (prairie style, for example). Depending on the window manufacturer, you may select false grilles which snap into the inside of the sash, grilles-between-the-glass, or "true divided light" windows, which are like traditional wood windows, in that each pane of glass is its own separate little window. | |
| Tempering: keep in mind that if the bottom of a window is within 18" of the floor , of stair treads, of a counter, or of a tub platform, the glass must be "tempered". The manufacturer pre-stresses the glass so that if it breaks, it will not shatter into sharp shards. It is a small additional expense. If you are on a very tight budget you may want to keep this in mind as we put together the design of your house. | |
| Window manufacturer: if a client is unsure of a window manufacturer we generally specify "Andersen" window model numbers, since they are so well-known. If the supplier of a different window brand were to provide you with a price quote, he would recognize the Andersen numbers and translate into his product line accordingly. However, we do have catalogs for many different window brands, and we will gladly specify a particular brand if the client knows from the beginning that he plans on using it, instead of Andersen. All the more popular windows have the same basic sizes in casements and double-hungs, but when getting into unusual shapes and sizes, some manufacturers have stock items while others have custom. |
6. What finish materials shall I use on the outside of my new home?
You have your choice of several traditional finishes: brick, siding, stone, cultured stone, and EIFS (" Dryvit " is a recognized trade name). We like to work more than one material into a design; for example, Dryvit on the majority of the house, with cultured stone to the bottom of the first floor window sills and around the entry. If you like the look of stone, consider cultured stone as an economical alternative. It is helpful to us if you take pictures of the fronts of homes you've driven by and liked.
Trim (rake boards, fascias, frieze boards, etc.) are usually wood, although synthetic materials are increasingly popular for their no- maintenance features. Companies like Fypon and CDM manufacture polystyrene mouldings, rails, door and window features, which add to the beauty of your home. You may wish to merely wrap your wood trim in vinyl or aluminum. For a historically accurate look, we would specify instead that the wood trim be primed and painted, in which case you would need to paint it every few years.
Most clients select fiberglass/asphalt shingles for the roof. You may wish to have cedar shakes, standing-seam metal, or slate instead. Standing-seam metal is recommended for low roof pitches. The decision to use slate should be made before the truss manufacturer begins designing the roof trusses, due to the added weight.
7. Do I need a finished basement?
You may not even want to think about the expense of finishing the basement in your new home now, but you will probably consider it in the future. When we are working out the structural supports in your basement we try to envision the possible future uses for the basement. The columns are placed accordingly, so that they would either be encapsulated by future walls, or could be wrapped to look like decorative columns and not be in the way. We can even position the columns with a future pool table in mind!
If you plan on having a fireplace somewhere on your first floor, and think you may want to finish your basement at some point in time, it's a good idea to install a flue for a future basement fireplace as well. Roughing-in for a future bathroom in the basement is another smart investment. Even if you never do put a bathroom in your basement, it's good for the resale value - the next owner might want to put one down there. Also, it's much cheaper to rough-in the plumbing for it before the slab is poured, than to have to break up the slab to do it later.
Clients sometimes want a bedroom in the basement. The grade conditions of the lot will determine if this is possible, because you need to have a large enough window to escape the bedroom in the event of a fire ( per the building codes). If your lot is flat, a special window well can be used to allow for a full-size window in the basement bedroom.
8. How do I plan for possible future modifications to my house?
If your new custom home is the place you intend to spend the rest of your life, please take future needs into consideration. It is a good idea to situate the Master Suite on the first floor, with wider doors and more spacious walk-in closets and Master Bath, so that future handicapped accessibility won't be a problem. It is easier to design for this now than to retrofit later. Perhaps your design dictates that the master suite be on the second floor; in that case, the staircase should be designed as a straight run, so that a future mechanical lift could be installed at the stair.
Most clients desire a deck at some point. We can work together in locating basement windows so that they would not interfere with the future placement of that deck. We have had clients express an interest in a future screened porch as well, and we have positioned second floor windows above the location of the future screened porch so as not to interfere with the future porch roof.
For houses that have a separate one-story garage module attached to the main house by a connecting "breezeway", we suggest using pre-engineered wood attic trusses over the garage, as opposed to regular trusses (which are constructed using 2x4s). An attic truss is designed from heavier lumber to allow an open room under the sloped roof, without the need for a steel beam and column running through the middle of the garage. A pull-down stair can be installed between the trusses, and suddenly you've turned previously unusable space over the cars into a very functional storage room. An improvement on this idea is to incorporate a standard staircase into one end of the garage, leading up to the attic room. This space could be used for a home office or hobby room.
Perhaps you have always wanted a brick home, but know that your budget won't allow anything but vinyl siding for the time being. We can specify a 4" ledge along the outside perimeter of your foundation, so that in the future you could remove the siding and use that ledge to support brick veneer.
9. What are some basic room sizes?
Room sizes for certain types of rooms will vary widely based on the caliber of home. Here are some general guidelines:
| Two-Car Garages should be at least 20'-0" wide x 20'-0" deep. When we draw preliminary floor plans, we show two cars in the garage, so you can see how much space will be left around them. We like to design garages with a little more "elbow room", especially since most clients wish to have a small workbench or store lawn equipment; We recommend at least 22'-0" x 22'-0". You might consider upgrading the size of the garage doors from a standard 8'-0" wide door to a 9'-0" door. If you have an SUV or other tall vehicle, you should upgrade the door height from 7'-0" to 8'-0" as well. | |
| Living Room/Great Room/Family Room will vary widely. We ask that you let us know how you intend to use the room and we'll size these rooms accordingly. |
| Kitchens will vary widely as well, so we are not even going to put down a size here. If there are any islands or counter peninsulas, there shall be a minimum walkway between counters of 3-0". We try to increase that to 3'-6" at least, whenever possible. | |
| Dining Rooms will be sized according to the size of your dining room table and the sizes of any buffets or sideboards you plan on having in the room. We can show the outlines of the furniture on your floor plan. A good rule of thumb here is to allow 3'-0" from the edge of the table to the nearest point (wall or piece of furniture), so that you avoid hitting the back of the chair against anything while standing up from the table. | |
| Breakfast Nook: the nook size depends on the size and shape of table you wish to have there, and the number of chairs. We try to follow the 3'-0" chair rule that we use for Dining Rooms (see above). Oftentimes there is a French door or a sliding patio door from the nook to a deck or patio, and it is important to provide adequate clearance between the nook table and that door. | |
| Powder room dimensions will depend on plumbing fixture placement. If the toilet and sink are opposite each other, we advise approximately 3'-1" x 6'-9". When the fixtures are beside each other, the Powder Room should measure at least 5'-1" x 5'-1". | |
| Laundry Room: allow 5'-8" min. in width for a side-by-side washer/dryer. 6'-0" is better. There should be at least 8'-0" in length if you wish to include a laundry tub beside the washer. Allow 6'-0" minimum total room depth, so that there is room for you to actually stand in front of the machines. If the washer/dryer is just a closet with double doors, not a separate "room", the closet needs to be at least 3'-0" deep. | |
| Bathroom: allow 5'-0" for a standard tub. A standard rectangular bathroom, where the vanity, toilet, and tub are all in a straight line, requires 5'-0" x 7'-9". Bathrooms can vary widely in size. | |
| Clothing closets must finish out to 2'-0" deep. Our drawings show dimensions to rough framing, not drywall, so the dimension will read 2'-1" on the blueprints. Walk-in closets with clothes on both sides should be at least 6'-0" wide to allow a comfortable walking aisle. | |
| Stairs: stairs must be at least 3'-0" wide. On a standard home, the staircase from first to second floor may be either 3'-0" or 3'-6" in width. A more lavish home will usually have a minimum 48" wide stair. | |
| Hallways must be at least 3'-0" wide, but we almost never design one that narrow, especially if the hallway is in a heavily-traveled portion of the house. On the main floor it's best to use 3'-6" minimum hallways, and in larger homes, 4'-1" is the minimum. | |
| Bedrooms shall be sized according to how you intend to use each bedroom. We like to allow room for a queen-size bed and nightstands, even in secondary bedrooms, unless you instruct me otherwise. We will locate each bedroom's doors and windows to maximize wall space for furniture positioning. A child's room may be 10' x 11' or 11' x 12' in a modest home, 13' x 15' in a larger home. The master bedroom should be about 14' x 15' in a modest home, 16' x 18' in a larger one. |
"Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul." -- Ernest Dimnet
Fine Line Home Design, LLC 115 South Potomac Street - 2nd Floor Hagerstown, MD 21740 Phone: 301.416.8499 Fax: 301.733.8050