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Hello,

I am trying to incorporate a widow's walk on the top of my house's hip roof. Access to it will likely need to be from an internal staircase located beneath the walk. The widow's walk will be approximately 10' by 10", with a railing located around the perimeter. I have searched extensively through the chat forums, online tutorials, etc., and have been unable to find a way to create the widow's walk and the staircase beneath it in Home Designer Pro. If anyone could please offer some help with this project I would greatly appreciate it!

Thank you!

Alex

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A"Widow's Walk" is basically a deck with railings around a tower or copula, that means that BEFORE you create roofs you need to have already drawn the Widows Walk and copula BEFORE then roofing them.

 

This is a little difficult for most beginners but is doable.

 

Just layout the spaces, name those spaces and establish ceiling heights, when you get  the settings and room  names right, then build roofs.

 

DJP

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My sincere thanks to both Eric and David for your time in helping with designing the widow's walk! Can't thank both of you enough!

 

I'd like to attach some pictures of the house to give you a better idea of my project. The open widow's walk (no roof above it) will be centered on the main roof of the house.

 

Is it helpful to post the actual Plan file, or just pictures?

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Thanks Eric. Attached please find the colonial house design I've been working on...and for more days than I should admit! It's been a slow, but perhaps steady process.

Designing the Widow's Walk has been my biggest stumbling block to date, which is why I posted my question on the forum in the first place. My wife and I were also hoping to have a second design (for comparison) having the concrete porch, columns and the deck (balcony) above it go around the entire perimeter of the house, much like some of the plantation homes in Louisiana, but I have yet to figure that one out. But firstly I wanted to address the Widow's Walk, which should be rectangular to match the shape of the house...perhaps 8' by 10'. The roof pitch is 9/12, and the vaulted ceiling on the second floor is 6/12. I'm guessing that access to the Walk will be from a floor hatch that is reached from the stairs below.

 

Colonial House Design.plan

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Yes, this is a new build. Here are some of the photos that we used as inspiration.

 

I'm currently working on the Widow's Walk using the technique you showed in your video...will let you know how I make out.

 

The next challenge is how do I create a concrete porch (with a basement below it) that surrounds the perimeter of the house? Above this porch will be a wooden balcony, and above that a hip roof over the entire house and exteding over the balcony.

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  attached is an image of my home which I am finishing modeling using pro 2020.  I was able to do the widows walk by manually moving the roof planes creating an opening in the peak.  I inserted a slab for the floor and then added deck railings.  Still a work in progress but shows what I had intended it to.  Hope the jpeg shows up ok in the post

 

regards.

widows walk.jpg

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7 minutes ago, barthmv said:

  attached is an image of my home which I am finishing modeling using pro 2020.  I was able to do the widows walk by manually moving the roof planes creating an opening in the peak.  I inserted a slab for the floor and then added deck railings.  Still a work in progress but shows what I had intended it to.  Hope the jpeg shows up ok in the post

 

regards.

widows walk.jpg

Thank you for sharing your design and how you achieved it. Impressive house too! :)

 

Will the floor of your widow's walk be recessed below the top of the roof planes, or flush with them? I'm working on trying to place the floor about 16" below, then have the top of the railings about 24" above.

 

I'm also trying to figure out how to access the widow's walk from below.... 

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2 minutes ago, solver said:

 

Similar to a shallow swimming pool? ;)

Yes! lol 

I'm trying to do so using a pony wall for the 4th floor (which is the widow's walk): the lower portion being a wall up to the top of the ceiling plane, then a railing for the top portion.

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1 hour ago, solver said:

 

Similar to a shallow swimming pool? ;)

Can't seem to get the "pool" drawn. Any idea why the two long sides of the room appear, but not the two short sides? I've been trying to figure it out for hours without success. I've tried pony walls, but they don't appear either. 

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1 hour ago, solver said:

My remark about the shallow pool -- You are creating a shallow pool on top of the house. 

 

Where will the water go?

 

You will also have an access from below at the bottom of the pool.

 

Attach the plan file -- close Pro first.

The widow walk will have a floor-surface drain, much like many flat roofs with parapets. And the horizontal access door will be higher than the surrounding floor.

I've attached the file as requested.

Thank you for your feedback and assistance. :)

Colonial House Design1.plan

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Is this what you want?

The top of the pony wall bottom is flush with the side roof planes, and the floor is recessed 16" from that.

I think you can see by looking at the (green dashed) roof plane lines, that an 8' by 10' room is not going to fill that roof void.

The room will have to be longer, to accommodate the roof.

image.thumb.png.420a843b29f426528c9a2d7e5be6c52d.png

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there seems to be a number of ways that this can be drawn in pro.   I created it by lowering the floor I had in my recent post by 18", modifed the framing to be 18" around the floor.

next I added the railings with a bottom offset an height to get the proper appearance.  Solver is correct in saying that this is not a very practical design.  Most widow walks that I have seen have always been prone to leaking and this design without some kind of slope and drainage would be really bad. 

pool widows walk.jpg

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