Custom Home - Must Haves?

Joined
Jan 26, 2021
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1,453
Location
Oregon
Curious why some of you guys mentioned that you don’t like pocket doors?
They suck IMO, they usually end up failing down the road in some way. Pain in the butt to repaint them once hung unless you remove trim. If you absolutely need to use them for gods sake use a solid core door and a high quality pocket door kit. Same goes for barn doors mostly, in my opinion they look cool but are not that functional as an actual door. Having lived in 2 houses that had them and installed countless of both pocket and barn doors, i prefer a standard door, especially for bathrooms and bedrooms
 

tdot

WKR
Joined
Aug 18, 2014
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1,888
Location
BC
Curious why some of you guys mentioned that you don’t like pocket doors?
Others have mentioned some of the issues, bit IMO the #1 issue is that they commonly warp. Which is why people can't open them.

The cheap hollow core door with a crap pine frame placed in a high humidity location (bathroom) and they are guaranteed to fail at some point.

They have their issues, but they also have a place too. They are better in a 2x6 wall. We custom build them in our millwork shop and have never had a failure.
 

JGuest

FNG
Joined
Feb 12, 2021
Messages
30
Location
South Dakota
Curious if anyone on this thread is an architect?
Drafting/design background but I went into the Utility sector and have never really dipped my toe in architecture. So anything I would attempt custom design would have that utility engineer feel, aka ugly.
 

dzlfarmboy

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Sep 21, 2019
Messages
101
Location
Maryland
Just thought about looking on hear for office/trophy room/hunting room ideas and found this thread. Gonna be on my read list since its 9 pages long. Getting ready to build a post frame house here in the next month and have been working on plans for 2 years. Radiant floor heat through out. Loft above attic truss/loft above bedrooms and entire shop. Scissor truss in living room. The rear 16'x39' storage is gonna be my office/workout/hunting room I want to finish off nice.
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Jakerex

WKR
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
654
2ft overhangs and no gutters

Build on a slab with In-floor radiant heat

Ranch style one floor living so it will last you forever

Separate garage / man room from the house

Separate water heater and pump to heat your concrete driveway....no more shoveling or plowing.

No landscaping around the house other than grass cutting

Good insulation

Ceiling fans in all rooms

If you do a basement - 10ft ceilings

Built-in gun safe room. Concrete walls and buy a vault door


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Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
1,033
Anyone built with SIP (structural insulated panels)?

I am seriously looking into it as I had a friend build with them 5 years ago and his home is amazingly efficient. From what I'm finding the panels cost a bit more than regular materials, but the construction time savings makes up for it???
 

86indy

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Aug 5, 2019
Messages
173
Location
S. IL
Just because I can't pull a leveled pickup in my garage, tall doors 10'+ and a shop with double doors to pull trailers straight through. Or at least a shop long enough to pull truck/trailer in work on whats broken on the trailer.
 

manitou1

WKR
Joined
Mar 29, 2017
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Wyoming
Anyone built with SIP (structural insulated panels)?

I am seriously looking into it as I had a friend build with them 5 years ago and his home is amazingly efficient. From what I'm finding the panels cost a bit more than regular materials, but the construction time savings makes up for it???
We are about 85% finished with our new home build using these. The builder highly recommended the system.
Party bonus: The panels have screw/fastening strips inbedded vertically every 8 inches... so when I finish the basement I can just screw the sheetrock to the panels without a need for farring? strips.
Also, you can pour down to very cold temps due to the insulating properties of the panels keeping the concrete heat in.
 

JohnB

WKR
Joined
Aug 28, 2019
Messages
376
We are about 85% finished with our new home build using these. The builder highly recommended the system.
Party bonus: The panels have screw/fastening strips inbedded vertically every 8 inches... so when I finish the basement I can just screw the sheetrock to the panels without a need for farring? strips.
Also, you can pour down to very cold temps due to the insulating properties of the panels keeping the concrete heat in.
Are you talking about SIPS or ICFs? ICF are Insulated Concrete Forms and are used for pouring foundations. SIPs are Structural Insulated Panels and replace framing with 2x6 and separate insulation instruction.
Anyone built with SIP (structural insulated panels)?

I am seriously looking into it as I had a friend build with them 5 years ago and his home is amazingly efficient. From what I'm finding the panels cost a bit more than regular materials, but the construction time savings makes up for it???

A couple buddies and a neighbor have them. When neighbor installed they built two houses that were two stories and ~1100 square feet. They had a crew of 8-10 and had both houses built and windows installed in 10 days. I'm not entirely convinced that was cost effective over a smaller crew and traditional framing but the convenience was high. SIPs will require a good sized crane and forklift for moving panels around the job site. Locally not many houses are built with SIPs so the neighbor also had a hard time finding sub contractors that were willing to bother to mess around figuring that stuff out.
 
Joined
Apr 9, 2012
Messages
1,847
Location
Fishhook, Alaska
We are about 85% finished with our new home build using these. The builder highly recommended the system.
Party bonus: The panels have screw/fastening strips inbedded vertically every 8 inches... so when I finish the basement I can just screw the sheetrock to the panels without a need for farring? strips.
Also, you can pour down to very cold temps due to the insulating properties of the panels keeping the concrete heat in.
I think you might be confusing Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS) with Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF)? Sounds like you have an ICF basement.

No experience with SIPS, but ICF have some great perks. They have drawbacks too... A plastic strip in foam is NOT as good as a wood stud when it comes to hanging stuff and even hanging sheetrock can be annoying. And despite what the salesman says, they aren't as easy to run wiring either. They are very popular as basements where I am at, and can also be built to the rafters. With the current crazy price of lumber, I'd think they can compete price wise on a full house build as of early 2021. Despite the drawbacks, they are a strong contender for my next house build. The airtightness, insulation, and sound reduction are great.
 
OP
BigBadJohn
Joined
Jan 16, 2020
Messages
49
Sprinkler systems. Worth it? Possible to install at later date?

Primarily concerned with keeping water on a treeline but I can put drip on that. Yard sprinkler systems in my experience have been a huge PITA, but admittedly maybe the latest tech and a proper install would make it worth it. Curious what yall think.
 
Joined
Jan 26, 2021
Messages
1,453
Location
Oregon
Id minimize all lanscaping that requires maintenance unless its really important to ya. Eventually sprinklers fail in one way or another in my observation
 

JohnB

WKR
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Aug 28, 2019
Messages
376
Sprinkler systems. Worth it? Possible to install at later date?

Primarily concerned with keeping water on a treeline but I can put drip on that. Yard sprinkler systems in my experience have been a huge PITA, but admittedly maybe the latest tech and a proper install would make it worth it. Curious what yall think.
If you are going to do this in a few years then put a bit of thought into how it will connect to your house and flow requirements. It'll be way easier for your plumber to do this work while plumbing your house as opposed to coming back in a few years. Don't expect to be able to run much off of a hose bib. Also just have a very rough idea of where you will want to run lines to and pay attention to where things are buried that could be in the way later. We had to route ours under a small french drain that had been installed a few years prior.
 

SWOHTR

WKR
Joined
Aug 1, 2016
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1,438
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Briney foam
Sprinkler systems. Worth it? Possible to install at later date?

Primarily concerned with keeping water on a treeline but I can put drip on that. Yard sprinkler systems in my experience have been a huge PITA, but admittedly maybe the latest tech and a proper install would make it worth it. Curious what yall think.
I have one and HATE it. Cheap, components fail constantly. Do not recommend.
 

Ram94

WKR
Joined
Jul 24, 2019
Messages
626
This is a great thread.
A lot of recommendations for backup generators with ATS. While they are nice systems, they are very expensive. What I do, is splice an extension cord so that it’s a double male, open the main breaker and plug that double ended cord into my portable 3000W generator and then into a wall outlet. This now becomes the feed to the house to run the basics. (Furnace, well pump, freezer) very easy and inexpensive for when you need it.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2019
Messages
2,228
Location
Missouri
What I do, is splice an extension cord so that it’s a double male, open the main breaker and plug that double ended cord into my portable 3000W generator and then into a wall outlet. This now becomes the feed to the house to run the basics. (Furnace, well pump, freezer) very easy and inexpensive for when you need it.
I've done that too, but those things are nicknamed "suicide cords" for a good reason 😬. Back-feeding one leg of a 120/240V split-phase system can also make it tricky to get power to all the spots you need it. It can work in a pinch, just be careful and make extra sure you flip the main breaker so you don't accidentally energize the line feeding your home while a lineman might be working on it upstream.

A relatively cheap alternative to a Cadillac whole home backup generator with automatic transfer switch setup would be to wire in a manual transfer switch between the electric meter and breaker panel. That would give you a safe place to tie in a portable generator when needed and make it easier to get power to all the circuits you need.
 

TSAMP

WKR
Joined
Jul 16, 2019
Messages
1,447
Just thought about looking on hear for office/trophy room/hunting room ideas and found this thread. Gonna be on my read list since its 9 pages long. Getting ready to build a post frame house here in the next month and have been working on plans for 2 years. Radiant floor heat through out. Loft above attic truss/loft above bedrooms and entire shop. Scissor truss in living room. The rear 16'x39' storage is gonna be my office/workout/hunting room I want to finish off nice.
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Just a note, but a buddy did a pole building house on hunting property. He did Radiant in floor heat under entire slab. Then put a large wood burner inside garage portion, that stove keeps the garage so warm indirectly the infloor heat never needs to turn on in the garage. In hindsight knowing half was a garage the floor heat was a waste on that side. It was -30 here, still didn't kick on and run in the garage.
 

RS3579

WKR
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Messages
1,180
Extra 1” conduit from main panel to the attic for future. If shop is a separate building, make it have its own electric service.
 
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