long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Just purchased Home Designer suite (had interiors from 2005). I am somewhat familiar with the program but mostly interior things. I am trying to get the basic exterior of my house in the program so I can work on designing a patio roof and area. I put on a wrap around porch in the program but my house is 22" off the ground because we are pier and beam. I made the foundation 22" in the program. I added a wrap around porch but am not sure how to make is have concrete underneath it like the rest of the house??? Also, I played around with the railing to see what I could do to have no railing but just columns. Is the best way to deselect all railing options and then select and put in posts? I did this but couldn't put columns exactly where mine are (I ended up with one that I didn't want on the end by the front door). This will do if that is the best way. TY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Please take a minute and add Suite 2018 to your signature. Keeps me and others from searching for this info. Start by checking this setting and rebuild the foundation. It may or may not help to make the model match the house. Define the porch with a room divider wall instead of a railing. Check the library for columns and place them manually. Check the bonus catalogs available on the website for other columns. You can make the porch floor thicker so it fills in below, or on the foundation level, draw in new walls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 Ty. I don't see the options - Hang 1st floor or the Show S Markers. I did have it rebuild the foundation but that didn't work. 6 minutes ago, solver said: Please take a minute and add Suite 2018 to your signature. Keeps me and others from searching for this info. Start by checking this setting and rebuild the foundation. It may or may not help to make the model match the house. Define the porch with a room divider wall instead of a railing. Check the library for columns and place them manually. Check the bonus catalogs available on the website for other columns. You can make the porch floor thicker so it fills in below, or on the foundation level, draw in new walls. So I will try a room divider wall, place the columns and make the porch thicker and see if that works. TY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 Ok...I made the porch floor thicker but it is all too high. Is there a way to lower it to the ground level? I can't seem to find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 26 minutes ago, long88 said: but it is all too high. Is there a way to lower it to the ground level? What's too high? Image? Your porches are well above the ground (terrain). What do you want to lower? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 I left the material of the porch wood so that it is easy to see. I will make it concrete when I figure out how to place it at ground level. Sorry, I should have attached an image earlier...was being lazy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Change the Room Type to Porch. You have made the floor finish thicker, and a Porch has no Floor Finish, so increase the thickness of the slab. You can move the slab up or down using the floor setting under Structure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 I already have it set to porch and under structure it gives me: Floor: Floor Finish (K): 22" Floor structure (L): 4" I can change the finish from 22" to whatever. I can't change the 4". It cannot be edited. I can change the room type to slab. Should I do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Sorry -- I forget how stupidly limited Suite is. Try this. I just used 24" as an example. You can paint the thick wood as concrete, or you might be able to set it so in defaults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 That did it. TY! Now to try to put columns on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 BTW, something I don't understand is I have the wall height set to 22" in the build foundation dialog. But I have to set the terrain and now the porch at 44 (or -44") to make them at the right elevation. I'm not clear why that is happening. It isn't terribly important as I'm just using this for a mock up plan to cover the patio with an attached roof to the house. We just want a visual idea of what it will look like before building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 Here is a picture. It looks the foundation is 22" but it takes another 22" to get to the right level of the interior floor?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawB10 Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Quote Could you upload the plan please... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 Do you mean the file? Or a jpg of the floor plan? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LawB10 Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Yes, it will be the plan you saved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 Here ya go! Patio plan temp..plan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jo_Ann Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 I think you have gone about this all wrong, and made it complicated. I can see your house floor sticking out half-way up your garage door. You have 5 rises on the porch steps. Even if the risers are only 6", that would mean that the porch floor is at least 30" above your terrain. Solver's suggestion, use the divider wall, label the room 'Porch'. Go to level 0, turn on the reference display, grab the foundation wall tool, and draw in walls under the porch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted January 13, 2018 Share Posted January 13, 2018 Looking at a section view will make the numbers clear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 13, 2018 Author Share Posted January 13, 2018 TY...I will have to work on it later. I am out of time now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 Ok. I have had time to read the responses and I am not sure what I need to do. This is new to me and I am unclear exactly what I need to do. I do see that the elevation of the floor is too high in the house. I set the build foundation at 22" to represent the pier and beam height of my foundation. But nothing lines up right with that, including the terrain unless I force it to. I appreciate you all being patient and helping me. I did read and try to figure it out before starting this thread :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 Here is what I have right now. I set the porch back to 0 for the height. Both it and the patio come in too high above the foundation as well as the interior floor. I drew the slab, patio and house and it just puts everything way high. patio plan temp.plan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Because you are looking for a visual and not an accurate structural model, I would make the foundation 48" high and the terrain will hide the excess. Then raise the terrain so the spacing between it and the porch is correct. Open the patio and lower it -- give the Floor field a negative value. Your yard is sloped, so you may want to work with the terrain giving it the same slope. I suggested you make the porch floor thick was so you could rebuild the foundation and not need to manually redraw foundation walls under the porch. Again, you are looking for a visual, and any excess would be hidden by the terrain. And keep in mind that measurements are relative to your 0 (zero) height first floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 Ok...before I do that will that make the interior floor come down? I wish I understood the problem better. I just need 22" of concrete under my house so my porch is all concrete for the 22" with stairs coming down and same for the porch (haven't built yet) by the french doors on the patio. Was trying to make the foundation 22" the wrong approach in the first place? And it makes me have to double that amount to raise/lower things to the right place. I'm so confused I've only ever used this program to make interiors and everything level and on one elevation. I never tried to to the exterior. And that was back in 2005 with a really old version of the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long88 Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 I wonder if it would work to make no foundation and then make exterior pony walls (22" higher than the exterior walls are right now) with concrete material on the bottom? Would everything then be at the right level except the interior floor which I guess would need moved up 22"? (oops just realized that Home Designer doesn't do pony walls) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solver Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 5 minutes ago, long88 said: Ok...before I do that will that make the interior floor come down? The interior floor is fine. Why do you think it needs to come down? If you are worried about the floor at the garage door, put a wall in to divide the garage and call that space a Garage. 10 minutes ago, long88 said: Was trying to make the foundation 22" the wrong approach in the first place? Can't answer without understanding how your house is built. Again, it's not important. Make the foundation taller, then raise the terrain so it is the correct distance below the porch. 9 minutes ago, long88 said: which I guess would need moved up 22"? Don't mess with the house floor -- it's correct. Here is the house with the changes i suggested above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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