Custom Home - Must Haves?

[Cameron.25]

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

Id be careful with this. You also gotta be damn sure you have enough power to run whatever you plug in. For instance, i know a guy with an expensive sub zero fridge that has 2 compressors and draws a ton of power when they kick on and he fried it with a 5000w generator doing the same thing Ram94 did with his panel. And hes an installer for sub zero lol

 

[Ram94]

Id be careful with this. You also gotta be damn sure you have enough power to run whatever you plug in. For instance, i know a guy with an expensive sub zero fridge that has 2 compressors and draws a ton of power when they kick on and he fried it with a 5000w generator doing the same thing Ram94 did with his panel. And hes an installer for sub zero lol

Yeah it’s definitely not idiot proof, but it can be done and doesn’t cost $10,000 is all I’m getting at. It would personally be an area I would cut costs on. Ymmv.

 

[tdhanses]

Radiant floor heat system. My next house will be one level slab on grade and will have a hydronic radiant heat system.

Was just going to recommend this, I’d do it in the basement/slab and shop.

 

[ShortMountain91]

I'm building my forever custom home right now and am doing a lot of the stuff mentioned here. But the most important thing to me that I don't think has been mentioned is just make sure you build it IN THE RIGHT PLACE. I had an awesome house in the wrong county (away from family, I like my family). My last house had a sweet metal shop, barn with nice tack room, great deer hunting, concrete storm shelter, quarter mile away from the road. It was great but it wasn't home. Was sort of the plan from the beginning but market got crazy, did some cosmetic upgrades and sold it for almost double what I paid to some guy in the city. Worked out great for both of us. Now I've got a nice piece of land on the farm I grew up on with great potential for deer, turkey, waterfowl, squirrel, and bird hunting and my kids get to grow up with their family, hunt their own land, and learn the value of work and taking care of something important. I could be happy with a nice trailer there because it's the perfect place. Don't build the perfect house in the wrong place. Find the perfect place then do what you need to live there.

For some actual tips on building here's what was important to me. Extra steel and concrete in your footer, cheapest insurance you'll ever buy. Standing seam metal roof, never have to do it again. Spray foam insulation with unvented crawlspace and attic or do ICFs as others have mentioned, ICFs are the bomb if your house plan makes sense with it. Don't cheap out on windows. My garage is on the low side of my house so I dropped the 2nd level floor system in it and made it a huge man cave, try and use that space if you can. If you do porches, fill under them with rock instead of a floating slab. If it's a crawlspace, add an extra layer of block. I like the home run pex plumbing because it's the fewest connections and you can place the manifold in a convenient place and have shutoff valves to everything in one spot. Plan for a good security / camera system. There's probably more I'll think of later but hope this helps someone.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Sturgies]

Always wanted a restaurant grade flat top grill as part of my dream kitchen

 

[axemill]

oval shaped toilets for space of your man parts and if you want to keep your safe in the garage get it near a specific electric plug to add a dehumidifier

 

[TX_Diver]

Single bowl sink. And get it as large as possible.

 

[txhunter581]

We did a “safe room” behind a hidden panel in the master closet. Has a lockable steel door. It’s actually where I keep all my ammo but not big enough to put the gun safe.

 

[Cameron.25]

Yeah it’s definitely not idiot proof, but it can be done and doesn’t cost $10,000 is all I’m getting at. It would personally be an area I would cut costs on. Ymmv.

I totally hear ya, im all about saving a buck. Thats why im building my house myself with my wife to save money, even if it takes a little longer. I just wanted to throw a lil warning out there lol. Especially with the crazy weather a lot of use dealt with recently. I had to use a portable generator for a couple days at my house too but people need to keep in mind their limitations and be careful.

This is an awesome thread, i hope the OP keeps us updated with his home progress lol

 

[ejp5281]

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but a residential fire suppression system (home sprinkler system). It should help to save on insurance. Plus, it would be a shame to build a home from scratch and have it burn down. Should be able to add a connection point on the exterior (even in a remote location) for a fire department to hook into to supplement pressure/volume.

Also, if you live in an area without hydrants or a pond/stream on your property, add an underground water tank (cistern). 10,000+ gallons of water the the fire department can use.

Sorry they're not "fun" answers and hopefully they're never used. However, a little more upfront costs should help to save a lot on insurance. Talk to your insurance company and I'm sure they'd help out.

 

[Will_m]

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but a residential fire suppression system (home sprinkler system). It should help to save on insurance. Plus, it would be a shame to build a home from scratch and have it burn down. Should be able to add a connection point on the exterior (even in a remote location) for a fire department to hook into to supplement pressure/volume.

Also, if you live in an area without hydrants or a pond/stream on your property, add an underground water tank (cistern). 10,000+ gallons of water the the fire department can use.

Sorry they're not "fun" answers and hopefully they're never used. However, a little more upfront costs should help to save a lot on insurance. Talk to your insurance company and I'm sure they'd help out.

I would think by the time the sprinklers got it suppressed it would probably be a total loss, unless it was a steel home or concrete fab home that could be gutted. Assuming it took the fire department to hook up to an auxiliary point, it would be long gone.

Not basing this on actual fact, just guessing because I've seen a lot of totaled house fires that weren't really that extensive.

 

[Cameron.25]

I would think by the time the sprinklers got it suppressed it would probably be a total loss, unless it was a steel home or concrete fab home that could be gutted. Assuming it took the fire department to hook up to an auxiliary point, it would be long gone.

Not basing this on actual fact, just guessing because I've seen a lot of totaled house fires that weren't really that extensive.

Sprinkler systems can be pretty expensive and kinda ugly. Ive only used them on one house because of complications with meeting fire code due to the homeowners design they were fixated on and it was well over 10k and caused delays in the build. House was not the biggest either

 

[ChiefO]

These guys are spot on with the modern fireplace insert. I never was a fan till I bought a house with 27 ft vaulted ceilings and that fireplace would actually heat that mass of air.

 

[colersu22]

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.

I would not recommend this, good way to light up the linemen or burn your house down from burning up the wire from the plug being over loaded. If you are going cheap get a main breaker lockout and a generator plug. Total you will be about $150 depending on what kind of panel you have. It backfeeds your panel but forces you to turn off the main making it safer for the utility.

 

[JohnB]

I would not recommend this, good way to light up the linemen or burn your house down from burning up the wire from the plug being over loaded. If you are going cheap get a main breaker lockout and a generator plug. Total you will be about $150 depending on what kind of panel you have. It backfeeds your panel but forces you to turn off the main making it safer for the utility.

Seriously. Seems like a common courtesy for your local linemen even if you are sure you'll never forget to flip your main breaker.

 

[Ram94]

Which is why I said to open the main breaker....lock it out if you wish. Not like the lineman is signing onto your lockout though.

And you don’t need to run everything through a single plug. Also still protected by the over-current protection on the gen and at the panel. If you can’t figure it out, don’t do it.

 

[DuckDogDr]

Slab foundation at in area of gun safe
Pre wire for hot tub
All low maintenance features...I work 80-100 hrs a week for 3 weeks...then off for 10 days When I'm off work i want to play; not fix skit

I'm old fashioned I want a wood fireplace
Vaulted ceilings for mounts
(I like the idea of plywood behind the sheetrock someone else mentioned for mounts)

I want a single story dwelling ...I have a terrible back and I don't want to not be able to get upstairs when I'm 70 in my custom built house.

Large soakers bath tub.

Area for workshop and boat storage

Indoor archery range for when weather is terrible...nothing like decompressing flinging some feathers

 

[Wetwork]

Just getting my site county permitted for my forever home on my families ranch. Looking at house plans right now....this thread is a time-saver and in my situation perfect timing and one of the top "man-card" threads on the net right now.

Thought I'd try to help in some way so here's a link to vault doors...Why get a impossible to move heavy safe when you just slap this on a fortified cement walled room.-WW
https://www.sturdysafe.com/products/vault-door

 

[manitou1]

Trench drains in garage bays.

 

[LangdonJohn]

A lot of truth in the list you made, but there are also a lot of things that need to be fitted to a house's needs. And to the owner's needs f course. My family and I have been wanting one of those big patios that have sliding doors that you can open really wide to be almost connected with the exterior. Finally, during the lockdown, we took the time to make this addition to the side of the house and I think we might have spent more time looking for patio doors than actually building. We finally got them from here https://doorsdirect2u.co.uk/product-category/patio-doors/ and I feel like those solid glass doors were a must-have in our case.