BEFORE THE ARCHITECT – BLUEPRINT DESIGN CONSULTANTS
SECOND OPINION – OWNER'S HOME FLOOR PLANS, including kitchen floor plans and garage plans
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This commission involved XL spreadsheets of home floor plans, including kitchen floor plans and garage plans, on which we were asked to comment generally plus other questions of us about how to weatherproof an exterior balcony, and which of 2 pictured roof designs we preferred. This case study is an example of our address to specific issues raised by our clients.
Our reply follows.
NOTE: {Client's name and address in the S.E.]
FROM: Before The Architect, Cumming, GA
RE: Replies to Your Questions Asked About Floor Plans, Etc.
DATE: May 24, 2003
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Our work together has begun.
Mrs. AG & I have reviewed the floor plans, and I have reviewed matters of balcony water intrusion and roofline as you have raised them to our attention. Our replies are herein under.
FLOOR PLANS
Questions first.
 | Is there to be a basement? |
| Please would you further indicate how the interior stairs run? |
| Will either or both balconies be functional or decorative? |
| Which direction is North? |
| Is there contemplation or expectation of design at either L1 or L2 for physical accessibility on any bases, including most notably for mobility-challenged residents? |
Comments.
| The lower right-hand outside corner of the garage floor plans should be wider - not less than 2'-8" without specifically designed construction materials and methods. See http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/pages/h00011.asp, "Common Engineering Problems in Frame Construction: Garage walls and cripple walls need extra bracing." (Review of the entire article is encouraged in addition to the section highlighted.) |
| The kitchen floor plans layout has the potential to be too tight to safely and conveniently use all major appliances, and its precise layout should be set carefully, particularly with an eye to avoid through-traffic patterns crossing the work triangle. Chances are, some rework of the wall lines and travel patterns will be well worth the effort. |
| The Mud Room area should include a toilet and lavatory as necessary functional associations with the shower. (Good idea – the shower.) |
| The serial arrangement of closet and bath in the Master area is unusual, and could be rearranged in either of two possibly more convenient layouts: either by a hall to the Walk-in which hall passage would also allow access to the bath (preferable) or by reversing the two as in bath first, closet second in seriality. |
| There are several doors to be further considered, among them the following: At L1 -- Master Bedroom/back porch for private, Master passage; Master Bedroom/Family Room for another way in and out, e.g., when guests are in residence; 2nd one at Family Room/back porch for improved traffic flow; at each end of the hall from center hall to the Main Bathroom and Master area, the left-hand one for a distinctive measure of increased privacy to the Master Area and the right-hand one as a civil means of privacy for front Bedroom residents particularly in nighttime and morning-rising events both within the guest (that’s what we reckoned that bedroom was for – guests) and the proximate community hallway; front porch to Storage for utility convenience; back porch to Mud Room for utility convenience; Garage to either front or back or both for traffic flow and utility convenience (noting that the Garage floor plans allow ample space for interior passage even with vehicles parked inside; At L2 -- Bathroom/Sitting (to respect shared use). |
| We note in passing that the L2 Bedroom at the Garage floor plans end is huge by comparison to the other bedrooms, being almost a full one-third larger than the Master, for example. Whereat, it may be desirable to install a small, full bath proximate to or even private to that largest bedroom. |
| We respectfully defer and refrain from further such comments on these drawings until such time as you reply to these questions and comments and, as well, the drawings themselves have progressed in detail at your hands or ours. |
BALCONY WATER INTRUSION
Herewith, I date myself shamelessly by writing that in my day (not so very long ago to my sense of it) such a balcony or two submitted to me as you have indicated would have been heaved off my drawing board without a second thought. Why? They all leaked sooner or later - usually sooner. I am responsibly advised that things are different now, or at least that they can be. EPDM has done this common change of mind. EPDM is a kind of rubber in sheet and roll form used as a substrate to roof shingles which sheet blocks vapor and moisture transfer and seals around the shafts of penetrating nails. [It should not be confused with a roughly similar product often used at eaves and known by several names – peel and seal, water and ice, etc.] There is plenty of advice around about how to do a balcony deck of your choosing simply by going to the web or, as likely, your local roofing wholesaler or the like. Be careful to lap up walls not less than 6”-9”, use the related accessories and other things like the right strip sealers and edgings that come with such applications. Now here’s the bad news – of itself, EPDM does not wear well under direct traffic (punctures and tears up over time, and can develop the slightest holes so small they’re all but impossible to locate), and does not take well to sunshine. So you cover it. There are to my understanding several choices for covering EPDM to let foot traffic safely, particularly forms of pads or tiles suited just to that very purpose. Again, I am responsibly advised that the bigger the pads or tiles, the better. Flash well. Lap house wrap top over bottom on walls. Hire a roofer who has learned his trade up North. Build the balcony deck flat, firm, and pitched about 1/12, and you should do fine.
ROOFLINES
You’ve got a good eye. Your primary gable roof pitch at 10/12 would loom the ridge if you ran it right from the front of the porch to the back. So, let’s not do that. For the porch roof, we’d be better off framing it to look like a porch at about half the main roof pitch or less (but not less than 4/12). Then, run the porch roof slope up into the main slope at your desired numbers.
This approach will still give us a tall roofline which can pitch can be relaxed a little. Stylistically, there’s no problem herewith. It’s adequate L2 surface area at ceiling height to which we must be vigilant. The design pitches above are intended to hold pretty close to the layouts that you have provided.
Both Mrs. AG and I prefer the “B” house look in that it’s more country and farm in its appearance and less pretentious than “A” which has overtones of semi-citified and country gent, plus both of us are generally offended by front-facing garages so that “A” setup gnaws at us straight away, and a wrap-around porch looks better [read: more normal; consistent; darned near expected] on that structure. (There’s yet another reason for the “B” preference to follow in the next paragraph)
Now, let’s take a moment to address the dormer arrangement in the pics. Better again in “B”, but not for what you’re thinking that of course it is you old ninny because you’ve already told us that we [the clients] like the big ‘un in the middle. Nope. We Before The Architecters like that dormer setup in “B” because even the smaller dormers in are bigger than in “A”, making the roof less prominent.
On to porch ceiling height. If you're looking to get that kind eave-end height to the porch that’s pictured in “B”, start by lifting the interior ceilings to at least 9’, and you’ll substantially improved chances for a more attractive appearance, usually. Certainly, part of the apparent height to the porch ceiling in “B” is the up-angle of the picture taker; nevertheless, part of it is the lack of a low-brow to the eave-edge header structure to hold up the porch and the give-up on trimming that brow down any with what Mrs. AG calls froufrou, you know, brackets and skirting and knee braces and such. If that 9’ ceiling inside doesn’t appeal to you, the only real consequence to the porch roofline is that it can run up a little higher on the primary roof.
Hold your eaves and overhangs at 18”-24”, especially the eaves.
Finally, roofline orientation to your floor plan: 2 gable ridges, left to right with the house ridge being primary and the garage ridge being secondary; shed and gable slopes as indicated. Now some folks might prefer to turn the garage gable end face forward, even with the vehicle doors to the side. In fact, that’s the way our own house is laid out. OK with us prospectively for this house, too; however, we would like to look at it a bit before biting if that front-facing option is among your druthers.
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Thanks for the letting to us the opportunity to look over your work and for soliciting our thoughts.
Please tell us what you think.
AG
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