Forums
New posts
Search forums
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
Latest activity
Classifieds
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Log in
Register
What's New?
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
New posts
Search forums
Menu
Log in
Register
Navigation
Install the app
Install
More Options
Advertise with us
Contact Us
Close Menu
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Forums
The Water Cooler
General Discussion
Building a house
Search titles only
By:
Reply to Thread
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Message
<blockquote data-quote="David2012" data-source="post: 1874337" data-attributes="member: 24428"><p>I'd suggest a couple of things.. </p><p></p><p>1. A good foundation & safe room. The safe room can also double as a gun & valuables safe for you.</p><p></p><p>2. Make sure you get really good insulation inside your outer walls... especially on the west side of the house. During these 100+ degree days, we can really feel the heat on the west side of our house in the evenings. The outside brick really absorbs and radiates the heat long after dark.</p><p></p><p>3. If the house will be in a rural area where fire protection might take a while to arrive... or is in a brush / grass fire prone area.. think about going with a metal roof. Metal will help prevent sparks & embers from a wild fire setting your house on fire. I think insurance companies will give you a discount for a metal roof.</p><p></p><p>4. Even if you plan on having an all electric kitchen....consider having a gas line put in for a stove top insert and capping it off... in case you later want to go gas. It is a heck of a lot easier & cheaper to run the line before installing the cabinets than trying to retro fit later. I went 9 days without being able to use my all electric kitchen appliances in the ice storm of '09. I'm about to replace my old appliances.. and while the oven will stay electric due to its location and size restraints. I'm having a gas line run to replace the electric stove top with a gas insert. Although I now have a Generac 20 KW auto start electric generator for power outages, I'm not gonna risk having to cooking off of a little Coleman propane stove for almost 2 weeks again. Already changed out the electric hot water heater to gas.</p><p></p><p>5. Laundry room-- make sure your water drain pipe going from the washer to the main sewer line is at least 3" in diameter... and if possible, have it run so it only connects to your main line.. not running through any of the house's other drain lines to get to the main line. When we first got our HE washer. We had water backing up and flooding our wash room. We had never had the problem before. We called the plumbers out several times to have the pipes rodded out and still had a back-up problem. Turned out these new HE washers pump out the water at the end of the wash so fast that the original drain pipe wasn't large enough to handle the capacity. We ended up installing a new 3" independant line going directly to the main line and it solve the problem. </p><p></p><p>6. Showers & bathtubs-- I recommend that you have access pannels installed on the back side of the wall that the faucets are on [if possible] so you can get to the faucets to work on the plumbing. We had some fixtures go bad and they were so old they couldn't be repaired, they had to be replaced.. it was either cut out the tile / marble inside the bathroom to remove them or else cut a hole in the sheet rock on the back side and then repair & re-paint the whole wall. Those removable panels look nice and give easy access to the fixture if you ever need to get inside the wall to work on it. </p><p></p><p>Electric-- Make sure your fuse box is large enough to add a few new breakers in the future if needed. And that it uses a good brand of breakers, like Square D... that can easily be bought just about any where. </p><p></p><p>Also take into consideration the lighting fixtures for your ceilings and above the bathroom vanities... the types of bulbs they will be using. Under the Obama administration, the EPA is requiring some strange new light bulb requirements to go into effect in the next few years. If he is re-elected, some of the older light bulbs won't be able to be manufactured after a certain date and might be hard to get in a few years. You don't want to have to be changing out fixtures in a almost new home just because you can't get bulbs to fit the fixtures. Hopefully your electrical contractor will know what may possibly be coming along those lines.. and help you plan ahead.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="David2012, post: 1874337, member: 24428"] I'd suggest a couple of things.. 1. A good foundation & safe room. The safe room can also double as a gun & valuables safe for you. 2. Make sure you get really good insulation inside your outer walls... especially on the west side of the house. During these 100+ degree days, we can really feel the heat on the west side of our house in the evenings. The outside brick really absorbs and radiates the heat long after dark. 3. If the house will be in a rural area where fire protection might take a while to arrive... or is in a brush / grass fire prone area.. think about going with a metal roof. Metal will help prevent sparks & embers from a wild fire setting your house on fire. I think insurance companies will give you a discount for a metal roof. 4. Even if you plan on having an all electric kitchen....consider having a gas line put in for a stove top insert and capping it off... in case you later want to go gas. It is a heck of a lot easier & cheaper to run the line before installing the cabinets than trying to retro fit later. I went 9 days without being able to use my all electric kitchen appliances in the ice storm of '09. I'm about to replace my old appliances.. and while the oven will stay electric due to its location and size restraints. I'm having a gas line run to replace the electric stove top with a gas insert. Although I now have a Generac 20 KW auto start electric generator for power outages, I'm not gonna risk having to cooking off of a little Coleman propane stove for almost 2 weeks again. Already changed out the electric hot water heater to gas. 5. Laundry room-- make sure your water drain pipe going from the washer to the main sewer line is at least 3" in diameter... and if possible, have it run so it only connects to your main line.. not running through any of the house's other drain lines to get to the main line. When we first got our HE washer. We had water backing up and flooding our wash room. We had never had the problem before. We called the plumbers out several times to have the pipes rodded out and still had a back-up problem. Turned out these new HE washers pump out the water at the end of the wash so fast that the original drain pipe wasn't large enough to handle the capacity. We ended up installing a new 3" independant line going directly to the main line and it solve the problem. 6. Showers & bathtubs-- I recommend that you have access pannels installed on the back side of the wall that the faucets are on [if possible] so you can get to the faucets to work on the plumbing. We had some fixtures go bad and they were so old they couldn't be repaired, they had to be replaced.. it was either cut out the tile / marble inside the bathroom to remove them or else cut a hole in the sheet rock on the back side and then repair & re-paint the whole wall. Those removable panels look nice and give easy access to the fixture if you ever need to get inside the wall to work on it. Electric-- Make sure your fuse box is large enough to add a few new breakers in the future if needed. And that it uses a good brand of breakers, like Square D... that can easily be bought just about any where. Also take into consideration the lighting fixtures for your ceilings and above the bathroom vanities... the types of bulbs they will be using. Under the Obama administration, the EPA is requiring some strange new light bulb requirements to go into effect in the next few years. If he is re-elected, some of the older light bulbs won't be able to be manufactured after a certain date and might be hard to get in a few years. You don't want to have to be changing out fixtures in a almost new home just because you can't get bulbs to fit the fixtures. Hopefully your electrical contractor will know what may possibly be coming along those lines.. and help you plan ahead. [/QUOTE]
Insert Quotes…
Verification
Post Reply
Forums
The Water Cooler
General Discussion
Building a house
Search titles only
By:
Top
Bottom