Best approach for my roof design


Keys2Heaven
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Hello. I'm in the process of designing a home for my wife and I. I have, what I think, is a good floor plan. The house is a basic ranch-style with a nice front porch and a bump out in the back for a four-season room. Ceiling heights are a default of 9' with the exception of the dining room area which has a slightly raised ceiling for a coffered ceiling.

I've used the auto roofs tool and I'd say the software got about 40 - 50% of it right. I've been watching videos of manipulating roof planes to get it more where I want, but think I am confusing myself on how to approach this.

Right now I am headed to work, but can post the plan later tonight if you want to see the floor plan.

Basically, the house will have gables at each end, a gable over the four season room and the a setback gable over the covered front porch. There is also a nested gable over a small bump out from the garage.


My main sticking point is that I have a living area where I want to vault the ceiling. Now, I want the ceiling to have a different pitch and I did see a video on how to do this. I guess where I am stuck is if I can just work on the roof based off of the first floor or will I need to add a second floor and build attic walls to raise the roof in the middle of the home, so I can vault the living room.

 

I appreciate your feedback!

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34 minutes ago, Keys2Heaven said:

I guess where I am stuck is if I can just work on the roof based off of the first floor or will I need to add a second floor and build attic walls to raise the roof in the middle of the home, so I can vault the living room.

 

 

If your proposed vault fits under the roof, then no need for a 2nd floor. Will the ceiling (if it were flat) be raised in the living room -- higher walls?

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2 hours ago, solver said:

 

If your proposed vault fits under the roof, then no need for a 2nd floor. Will the ceiling (if it were flat) be raised in the living room -- higher walls?

 

No. I want to vault from 9' at the wall to 15' in the middle.

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26 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

Maybe build walls in the attic around the living room, label that room as "open below"

 

You cannot define rooms on the Attic level.

 

When you remove the ceiling from a room, and there is a roof above, the program will extend the walls automatically.

 

ht1.thumb.png.1105769a2c17f3d20cbddd0cc063d26c.png

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54 minutes ago, solver said:

Without the plan, cannot say for sure, but it sounds like you just need to draw in ceiling planes to form the vault.

 

 

 

Eric, I'll post that tonight when I get home. I wouldn't mind a critique of it either, since I'm a newbie to this whole "design your dream home" mentality I have. :)

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16 hours ago, Rookie65 said:

I think I have done it before by unchecking "no locate" and "no room definition" for the walls. I could be wrong, yet I can't look into it right now.

 

In order to have living space you MUST first create a blank Second Floor in order to create an "attic room", it is impossible to do that on the automatic <A> or Attic Level, it MUST always be on a floor two. That is the way this software is programmed to function.

 

DJP

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David,

 

Let me take the time to thank you for looking at my plan and giving me some valuable pointers with the roof design and the floor plan geometry! The video was more than I expected and certainly very eye-opening when someone with as much experience as you takes a look at it. 

Yes, I agree about the ridge line of the roof and will work on get that straightened out this weekend. The covered deck in the back was really going to be pergola with a ledger board attached to the house and planks run out from that. A couple of 4x4's on the corners.

Regards,

Mike Keys

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The roof shown here, is all done using "auto build roof".  So much easier than trying to manually build all the roof planes.

 

The living room vaulted ceiling is done using 2 ceiling planes, set to 15' at their peak.  I did only partial ceiling planes, so you can see their pitch difference from the 8/12" default roof pitch, exposed above the ceiling planes.  The 8/12" roof pitch does not interfere with the vaulted ceiling height.

 

image.thumb.png.448b59ac53443e1d2d295edc01583510.pngimage.thumb.png.79469ab1a8f7d2138f2ec522281a0199.pngimage.thumb.png.9086bf58d68f148a045776fd53eb06fe.png

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9 minutes ago, Jo_Ann said:

The roof shown here, is all done using "auto build roof".  So much easier than trying to manually build all the roof planes.

 

The living room vaulted ceiling is done using 2 ceiling planes, set to 15' at their peak.  I did only partial ceiling planes, so you can see their pitch difference from the 8/12" default roof pitch, exposed above the ceiling planes.  The 8/12" roof pitch does not interfere with the vaulted ceiling height.

 

image.thumb.png.448b59ac53443e1d2d295edc01583510.pngimage.thumb.png.79469ab1a8f7d2138f2ec522281a0199.pngimage.thumb.png.9086bf58d68f148a045776fd53eb06fe.png

 

JoAnn...THIS IS AWESOME. Did you do as David suggested and align some of the external walls to get the auto build roof to work?

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1 hour ago, solver said:

A quick look at the plan. 

 

Eric, to answer some initial questions you asked in the first video.

Lot size is 1.3 ac. on a corner lot

Lot is flat and located in Central Illinois.
House will face N to NE.

I tried to layout the house for ease of movement, since this will be our retirement home and my wife has MS. She is not in a wheelchair at this time, but wanted enough room to make it easy for her to get around if she were in one (or me for that matter).

I'm not real cracked up on the two east bedrooms either. I want a split-bedroom design but didn't want a bathroom open to both bedrooms, hence the shared bathroom. This east side bedroom layout was actually derived from another plan I saw online. I tried to make them "equal", but have entertained making one of them more of a guest bedroom which would be bit larger. 

 

As far as furniture placement....that was me goofing around just trying get an idea of space. Most likely there would not be a couch in the office. I just grabbed some furniture from the program and threw it into the spaces to get an idea where things might be. So, no attention was made to placement.


The front "living" room is really more of a sitting room. I liked the french door look and wanted the room to have visibility from the foyer and the living room. I imagine a tree being in this room for the holidays, for example.

The isolated kitchen is a must have for my wife. She absolutely hates open concept homes, so this was my take on trying to appeaser her. She wants a nice island as well.

I'll rethink the pantry. Putting pantry cabinets in the kitchen might work better anyway.

The HVAC was just to see where it might go. I'm up in the air about the basement at this point and could easily do this on a crawl foundation.

I tried to place a powder room that was about halfway from the garage and front entryway. Seems like when we have guests over, one of the first things out of their mouths is "Can I use your bathroom". And, many home plans we see online have the powder room off the garage and folks would have to walk through a big part of the home just to use it. Maybe I can shift this to where the mudroom area is?

I included a couple of exterior inspiration examples below.

Yes, my goal is to get the plan back down to around 2500 sq. ft. or less. I'll definitely put in a basement if < 2500 sq. ft.


Oh, and THANK YOU for taking the time to provide some valuable feedback!

 

Inspiration 1.jpg

Inspiration 2.jpg

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