Please review the Floor Plan

[sudheerp]

Hi All,

I would need your suggestions for the following floor plan. The site is 40*30(Not 30*40) North west corner where 40 feet is facing towards North Road. So we are planning to have the main entrance and elevation focused towards North. We are looking to build ground floor 2 bhk with car parking for rental purpose and First and Second floor a duplex house.

Kindly review and let me know your valuable inputs.

Regards

Sudheer

[bloremanager]

Toilets are generally installed in North-South direction, try to change one proposed east-west toilet.
The staircase roof while you get down or move up the steps should not be less than 6.5 feet, otherwise you will end up bumping your head all the time
Can you consider opening up the AV room to be part of the living room so that way you will end up saving space. Are you trying to install home theatre in AV room?
I am not sure whether kitchen is in NE or NW. Try shifting the Kitchen to the North East corner rather than North-west (For religious reasons)
Where would the rain water harvesting be accommodated?
How big would the sump be? (Try to have atleast 8,000 litre capacity)

[sudheerp]

Hi ,

Thanks for your valuable inputs. I will take these to architect.

Yes, I am planning to have a home theater set up at this AV Room.

Regards,

Sudheer

[sarbda]

Hi Sudheer,

Not sure whether you would be aligning the plan with Vastu. If you want to buid it as per vastu, than few corrections

1. GF- SE corner, kitchen is extended
2. NE corner there cannot be cut (balcony shown) in first floor plan

Ideally, the building should be square or rectangular. Avoid corner cuts / extension in NE, SW and extension in SE.

Regards,
Sar

[bloremanager]

Are you going for TV based home theatre or a large screen based home theatre? If your preference is for the enclosed AV room and since the area is not big, then get bookshelf speakers mounted on good quality stands rather than floor standing speakers which need a bigger area to shine.
Also ask where the solar panels would be installed (South West is best from heat gain perspective and you will almost never have to use geyser except in rare circumstances) as well as the MS step ladder for the water tank area on the terrace. Go for 2 separate tanks (1000 ltrs each minimum, triple layered)
What would be the size of the staircase room? height of this room is usually done at 7 or 8 ft. Higher is even better.
Insist on 250-300 electrical points as well as 1.5 inch conduits for electrical cables in the ceiling. Since you are going for an AV room, ensure you have separate conduits for electrical cables as well as AV cables to nullify noise interference if any.
Do not go for any false ceiling and plan for LED lighting in the AV room (these lights go inside the ceiling and all you will see is the small outer casing) and it will give a premium look. You would need 8 LED lights (your wiring can be managed in such a way that lights facing each other can be switched on with 1 switch control and other 4 by other switch control. 7 Watts LED lights are more than sufficient.

[hegde19]

@bloremanager, Good points. You are asking not to go for false ceiling, any particular reason?

-Santosh

[bloremanager]

False ceiling may start to peel off after a few years. Moreover you lose 1 foot height of the ceiling because of it.

[navhe]

Well thought design. Good to go ahead.
Couple of observations:
> hope u provide a hand-wash near dining area - since common bath room is quite far from this area
> single covered parking may not be sufficient unless ample space available on the road - since ground floor is '2bhk Rent', all possibility that they also will have one 2 wheeler and a car.
> GF -> Light factor: 2x4 small windows could be added to Hall on front side. Similarly for kitchen one 2x3 window. Front side is the main source of light
> I don't suggest changing any design just to satisfy 'vaastu'.
All the best. !

[ardesarchitects]

Hi,Sudhir
I am not commenting on your requirement since its defined by your usage .I have few observations in term of practicality

1.No of stairs leading from GF to FF will not be sufficient enough to clear 10'6" floor ht , you need min 18 raisers to clear 10'6" ht floor with 7" raiser .In case of 6" raiser ht you need 21 nos . In the dwg i can read only 15 raisers
2.In the first floor bedroom you got a nice offset on the north wall , so if you can fit the wardrobe there and any study table on south wall will make the room look more spacious the minute you open the door .Wardrobe on north wall will look like concealed.Accordingly the window on the west wall need to adjusted .
3.FF toilet entry below stairs will not be 7' ht as per the dwg.
4.Dinning room can be little more than 9' if possible reducing living to 15' is also fine.
5.SF walk-in you can opt for skylight with opaque glass and security grill of 1'x1' min to get ample light during day time.
6.AV room is smaller compared to standard min size you need unless you are very specific about projection screen size , plan all your speaker points at 4' ht not 7' if you want to save on buying expensive high end speakers .False ceiling is must to get proper acoustics and it wont peal off even after 20 years .
7.Lesser the number of window in AV is lesser the cost to get pro acoustics, if you are planning to use as multi room then go for 2 windows or else one small window is good enough.

Please share your experiences with fellow members during your bumpy & happy journey of constructing your dream home.

All the best for your construction.


Regards
Ar.Praveen.N
Ardes Architects and Interior designers
ardesarchitects@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/ardes.architects
http://www.ardesarchitects.com

[bloremanager]

I have done a reasonable AV system and did away with false ceiling. Acoustic ceiling tiles are quite expensive (not 5000-10000 but can easily go upto 50k and above) and do not really merit consideration in a residence unless you have serious money to spend. You are better off with bass traps, diffusers, thick carpets on the floor, absorption panels after using the room correction technologies like MultiEQXT32, DiracLive etc. If you are opting for wooden floor in that room, go for noise control padding below the wooden planks, which is so easy to install.
The key is to design your windows in that room properly (double pane is better but need to get good quality to avoid condensation issues between the panes) or single pane glass is also okay with very thick acoustic curtain and an acoustic entrance door to the room can be used as well. (Acoustic doors can easily cost 25-50k depending on the quality). Expecting studio quality sound in a residential setup is prohibitively expensive (anechoic chambers where there is zero sound) and in residences a minimum of 20-25 db sound is always present which is why you need to dial your AV receiver a few notches up in sound to hear the voice conversations.
I had speaker points at 2 foot height and it was perfect for my floor-standers. If you are going for bookshelf speakers with speaker stands, then 4 foot height speaker wire points are more feasible