New House

[huntnfish]

My wife and I have decided to build a new home. I am having the basement left unfinished and plan to do all of the finishing myself. Looking for some ideas on what people would/wouldn't do again in a similar siluation. The basement won't have anything framed up other than the load bearing walls. I plan to build a bar, a couple bedrooms, and of course a room to store all my hunting and fishing items.

Also, any ideas what to do for the countertops in the kitchen? Neither of us really care for granite. Has anyone else gone to any of the other surfaces that are available? Thanks

[delcecchi]

My wife and I have decided to build a new home. I am having the basement left unfinished and plan to do all of the finishing myself. Looking for some ideas on what people would/wouldn't do again in a similar siluation. The basement won't have anything framed up other than the load bearing walls. I plan to build a bar, a couple bedrooms, and of course a room to store all my hunting and fishing items.

Also, any ideas what to do for the countertops in the kitchen? Neither of us really care for granite. Has anyone else gone to any of the other surfaces that are available? Thanks

We have Cambria (quartz) in the kitchen with an undermount sink, really like it. We have corian (plastic) in the bathroom and it has been fine for at least 20 years. Quartz is 5+ years old and still looks good.

[Tom7227]

You may want to wait a year or two before you tackle the basement. Letting it dry out is important. Checking to see if any problems develop is another. It takes a long time of the cement to fully cure and the house to settle down.

[Cheers]

Use engineered truss joists to avoid the need for load bearing walls and teleaposts if possible

[derbier122x]

For the countertops, have you checked out the poured tops? Basically concrete and IMO are beautiful.

For the basement, is it a full or split level half basement type? Either way, it will be cheaper now to decide 100% for sure where the in floor plumbing is going (bathroom, wet bar) before the floor is poured.

[BoxMN]

In-floor heat, at least the tubes and insulation for now, and freespan trusses for sure. You can choose gas or electric boiler later, depending on what you have available. Have the plumbers put in venting and water to wherever you think you may want water, even if it might never happen, and also of course have them get the bathroom area stubbed in and ready. Nice to have options in the future.

The concrete counter tops are pretty nice, and you can do them yourself pretty easy, and it is cheap. Might take a broken or ugly stained one or two to get it right though I haven't done it, but watched it, not too hard.

When I do my basement in cabin, it is getting T&G pine ceiling, and walls a combo of sheetrock and some cool pine timbers (sort of like the half logs but thicker and more hand hewn and square looking) that look like log slabs but go up T&G. The key thing I think is you need some contrast between walls and ceiling with whatever you do, and not too much wood in one place.

Anyway there are my thoughts. Good luck!

[Moonshine]

Huntnfish-

We are starting the process as well. We have the design done and it is in the bid process now. We are building a rambler with a finished basement. The one thing we are doing that's a little different is putting in a garden garage. It is a separate storage room that is part of the house basement that has a smaller 6 foot garage door accessing the outdoors. Obviously you need to have a walkout house for this to work. It is connected to the indoors with a service door in the mechanical room. This way I do not need to build a storage shed on the property. I saw it in a house the builder showed us and I had to have it. Car, truck and boat in the garage and lawnmower, trimmer, gas, etc in garden garage down below.

The one thing we are at odds with now is wood flooring. Our builder only wants to use solid wood flooring and we saw an engineered product we really like the looks of. Does anyone have feedback on engineered wood floors? I have only owned solid wood flooring, so I have no knowledge.

[Sandmannd]

If you haven't started the building process check into the cost of adding a sprinkler system to your home. I built a little over a year ago a regret not adding it. My basement is unfinished so will be adding one now and will retrofit my upstairs. To a new build they are around $1.35 a square foot and well worth it. I'm in the fire academy now and my eyes have been opened wide to how fast new constructed homes will go up in flames.

[DREZLER]

With the new building code you will now be required to hang 1/2" gyspum wallboard on your basment ceilings, even if unfinished. If you can, save yourself some money and headaches later and try to get all of your hvac, plumbing, and low voltage lines ran because if not, you will be tearing down all of the rock that your builder hung on the basement lids to do so. This new code just changed last month. Also ovcr 4500 sq ft of finished space including the basment will require you to have sprinklers.

[LightningBG]

With the new building code you will now be required to hang 1/2" gyspum wallboard on your basment ceilings, even if unfinished. If you can, save yourself some money and headaches later and try to get all of your hvac, plumbing, and low voltage lines ran because if not, you will be tearing down all of the rock that your builder hung on the basement lids to do so. This new code just changed last month. Also ovcr 4500 sq ft of finished space including the basment will require you to have sprinklers.

Waaaaa? What codes are you running? Never heard of such a thing nor seen it in houses built within the last 2 years.

[crothmeier]

That code went into effect in Febraury of this year. Like stated above you will need to sheetrock the ceiling in the basement before a certificate of occupancy will be granted. Along with that comes a blower door test and a myriad of other changes that are new this year.

Best case is to determine your basement layout prior to finishing construction and have the partition walls, electrical/hvac ran right away. It'll save you money/time/demo in the long run.

[Todd S.]

Yeah with the new Sheetrock code for the basement you will want to pretty much have the entire lighting, plumbing, have, and electrical roughed in, otherwise you'll be tearing out the ceiling eventually adding time and money to your basement finishing costs.

[LightningBG]

You are correct, with a small caveat.

This is the new MN code

Quote:

R501.3 Fire protection of floors.

Floor assemblies, not required elsewhere in this code to be fire-resistance rated, shall be provided with a 1/2-inch (12.7 mm) gypsum wallboard membrane, 5/8-inch (16 mm) wood structural panel membrane, or equivalent on the underside of the floor framing member.

Exceptions:

1. Floor assemblies located directly over a space protected by an automatic sprinkler system in accordance with Section P2904, NFPA13D, or other approved equivalent sprinkler system.

2. Floor assemblies located directly over a crawl space not intended for storage or fuel-fired appliances.

3. Portions of floor assemblies can be unprotected when complying with the following:

3.1. The aggregate area of the unprotected portions shall not exceed 80 square feet per story

3.2. Fire blocking in accordance with Section R302.11.1 shall be installed along the perimeter of the unprotected portion to separate the unprotected portion from the remainder of the floor assembly.

4. Wood floor assemblies using dimension lumber or structural composite lumber equal to or greater than 2-inch by 10-inch (50.8 mm by 254 mm) nominal dimension, or other approved floor assemblies demonstrating equivalent fire performance.

But...it's my understanding that each municipality must adopt the new code before it's enforceable. Towns don't have to follow the state code if they choose not to, or if they haven't gotten around to adopting it yet.

[BoxMN]

Do I read that right that 3/4" T&G pine would work as the "fire protection" for a basement ceiling?

[Tom7227]

I don't want to steal this thread, but I am curious about the sprinkler setup. If you have a dry system isn't there some way that a sensor can be installed that would detect a leak as mentioned earlier? It would seem to me to be something that would be relatively simple and yet pretty crucial.

[delcecchi]

I don't want to steal this thread, but I am curious about the sprinkler setup. If you have a dry system isn't there some way that a sensor can be installed that would detect a leak as mentioned earlier? It would seem to me to be something that would be relatively simple and yet pretty crucial.

Yes, as I understand it the church had such a detector. It had apparently failed at some time in the past. After all it has to sit there for years and still work when needed.

[PurpleFloyd]

Also, any ideas what to do for the countertops in the kitchen? Neither of us really care for granite. Has anyone else gone to any of the other surfaces that are available? Thanks

I am a Cambria dealer and also fabricate Laminate and Solid Surface countertops. They all have their place in the market and have +/-. I used to sell mainly granite and solid surface in the 90's to early 2000's but Cambria now dominates the higher end market and high def laminate anchors the entry level market. Solid surface is a nice alternate. I have it all over our house and like it's performance.Custom Laminate will run in the neighborhood of $50 a lineal foot installed give or take. Solid Surface has a broad range depending on pattern but can be had in the $100 a lineal foot range and Cambria in the $150-170 / ft range. None of those include backsplash which is usually tile and runs in the 600-2000 range on average depending on pattern and amount of tile. Cambria has a benefit in that all colors are the same price and all edge profiles available for each thickness are the same price.

Does your builder have his own source for cabinets, countertops and millwork? If so then my experience is those types of contractors limit their clients to one or 2 choices and generally the client pays more than if the customer has the freedom to shop around and fins who fits them the best.

I am a fireman and would never have a sprinkler in my house and I totally oppose the mandates they are trying to ram down the industries throat and in the end all it does is increase the cost of any project and keeps many people from doing projects because of cost. I have no problem having them on the market for those who want to have them but the mandates are wrong.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

I am a fireman and would never have a sprinkler in my house and I totally oppose the mandates they are trying to ram down the industries throat and in the end all it does is increase the cost of any project and keeps many people from doing projects because of cost. I have no problem having them on the market for those who want to have them but the mandates are wrong.

Couldn't agree more. It is one of the more ridiculous laws I've seen. When I first heard the proposal, I did the research into the % of homes impacted by fire. I don't remember the exact figure, but it started with at least .00x%, if not much lower.

[huntnfish]

Couldn't agree more. It is one of the more ridiculous laws I've seen. When I first heard the proposal, I did the research into the % of homes impacted by fire. I don't remember the exact figure, but it started with at least .00x%, if not much lower.

The new MN codes that just went into effect did cut into some extras we were looking at so we could stay on budget.

I am hoping to be able to get a lot of the stuff ran in the ceiling of the basement before they cap it to try limit how much I need to take down but I am prepared to have to take it all down worst case. I wanted to be able to do a bunch of research and planning before having to lay everything out. The builder already said they'd drop in all the Sheetrock I want during the build to save me the hassle of taking it down the stairs. That in itself will save a lot of time. I am also going to try talk the builder into getting my gun safe into the basement.

I've thought about doing Corian but have heard of some warping issues from hot pans. My wife wants an under the counter sink so I think something other than laminate is what we'll have to go with. Thanks for all the replies so far.

[311Hemi]

I just built a little under two years ago. A few things that come to mind.

Basement - Run the tubing (wisboro/pex?) for in-floor heating in the basement. We didn't, but I wish we would have.

Basement - Rough in plumbing for all future plans. We had a drain/vent placed in the wall where I plan to build the bar. Also did two other bathrooms.

Garage - 18' door. I knew this and still didn't do it. Kick myself every day. I went with a 10' on the third stall, would have been much better to have the 18' on the main door.

Floor joists - Ask your builder about this one if you plan to do hard wood floors upstairs. I personally would request 16' OC spacing, no more. My builder did 24" OC and based on the national hardwood floor asc guidelines I should have put down more playwood. The 24" OC spacing also created issues when it came time to install the granite floor tile as it did not meet the recommendations for installing natural stone tile. Also verify the thickness of the subfloor they plan on putting down and reference both the national hardwood floor and the tile association to make sure you get it right the first time. I didn't know to ask about this stuff. If your builder says you don't need it (and you plan on using these materials), call around yourself to flooring installers to see what they say. I did and learned some stuff after it was too late.

Garage - Have them run the gas line and power if you plan to put a heater in the garage. I did and it made things much easier.

Garage - Request storage trusses, not basic attic trusses. You are very limited on what you can hang from normal attic trusses, wish I would have upgraded.

Yard -Consider including the sprinkler system with the house if possible. I spent $10-12k if I remember correctly on all lanscaping stuff after the build (sprinkler system, black dirt, hydroseed, retaining wall block, etc).

[huntnfish]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'm not going to have the tubing run for the floor heat. I think it would be nice but we won't be using the area as our primary living space so we will just have the gas and vent roughed in for a fireplace.

I keep meaning to ask what they are putting on for the double door in the garage. We built our last garage and went with the 18' door and were very happy we did.

We are having the water lines and drain roughed in for the bar. The hardest part about that will be deciding where to put it.

We are getting the lines and vent put in for a gas heater for the garage. I had planned to just go with an electric heater but said the heck with it and had them plan for gas. A little more speedy up front but it'll be nice to crank the heat and be up to temp a lot quicker. Plus that's going to save some space in my electrical panel. I am also having water and sewer lines roughed in so I can put a sink in the garage for cleaning fish and whatever else out there. I also requested the storage trusses mainly for the room in the attic.

I asked about the floor joists and they are in face 16". I was relieved to hear that. If nothing else it gave me the peace of mind that they don't seem to take shortcuts.

We are just going to go with the standard laminate for now. The upgrade for granite was 7k and Quartz was 7500. I know some people in that business and down the road if we decide we can't live with the laminate we'll upgrade at that time.

Anyone have any opinions on using steel studs for the framing in the basement?

[delcecchi]

There is some real nice looking laminate these days. We put some in our cabin and it looks like stone. Can't tell the difference from very far away.

[deerminator]

We built our new house 12 years ago and did radiant heat as the main heat source with gas as backup and for upstairs. Worked very well. Two years ago we had a geothermal system installed and it works awesome. I figured we'll break even after about 8-10 years and then it's pure savings. Something to consider if you plan to be there for awhile. And will increase resale value.

We did Kahrs engineered wood over the heated floors. You can't do traditional wood over an in floor system. You can sand it and refinish up to 3 times. It still looks great though seasoned thanks to kids and dogs with no additional work.

We have regular laminate countertops and like them. Look nice and work well if you treat them well.

One of the biggest things we did was install quality plumbing fixtures and baths and toilets. Etc. plumber flat out told us he wouldn't install anything less as he didn't want to be blamed for replacing them a year later. We haven't had to replace anything yet.

I guess one last thing I would say is spend more time planning the high use areas like entry way, mud room, laundry room and garage. Those are the rooms you are going to most be saying I wish we would have done it that way instead.

Good luck. It's a lot of work but fun too.

[landscaper]

I also am building this summer. Getting the plans tuned in now hopefully start soon.

Really good info guys. If you don't mind whats the soft price in your area? If you don't mind saying.

How deep of garage are you going to have?

[311Hemi]

Minimum depth I would consider would be 24'. One side of my garage is 24' and I can fit the suburban in with a few feet of space to walk by. If I get a truck that is a longer I may have to park in the other stall.