building new home on lbi nj after sandy - plan help

11 years ago

Hi,
We are building a new home on LBI after Sandy destroyed my uncle's home. We are looking for plans for a modest (by LBI standards) multigenerational home. We are looking to keep it to 2000 sq feet. Here's the dream list:

Single car garage on grade
1st floor - 5 feet above grade MBR with full bath, Living room - Kitchen (with Dining area),Laundry and Powder room,
Over garage - Bedroom with full bath
2nd floor - 3BR, Family room, full bath, screened porch
Lot is 60 wide X 100 deep
No views.

I have looked at plan sites and haven't come up with much.
Any suggestions?

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Comments (8)

zone4newby
11 years ago
I'm not familiar with "LBI" but have you considered talking to an architect? I *think* that you might want to build in special storm protection when you rebuild, and that's not likely to be included in stock plans.
Annie Deighnaugh
11 years ago
Our architect is working on a house in a beach area where it not only requires piers, but also has specific code on wind load factors which will not be in an off-the-shelf plan....
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Sometimes on forums like this, people seem not to post if they have nothing nice to say. If you search the archives you will see that almost no one here has a high opinion of Leylands. Please, spare future generations the same problems you're having now by not planting any more that will just blow over in the next Sandy 30 years later, or decline from disease sooner. It's particularly funny to see attempts at creating an "estate" feeling by surrounding the house w/hideous walls of leylandii, which look particularly comical when a few of them topple over. At the very least, plant Thuja 'Green Giant' instead, it is more disease resistant. And because it grows slower, less likely to outgrow its roots. Among other things - put some spruces and pines in there if you must stick to cheap conifers. A screen planting should have a variety of plants so that if one becomes prone to a disease you don't lose the entire effect. I think hollies are undervalued as screening plants. Nurseries don't push them because they are more expensive to produce as salable plants than most [screening] conifers. You do have to wait longer though, they are definitely slower than leylands. They don't get as much love here because they aren't conifers. Nellie Stevens is ok but the very large growing hybrid I X koehneana would be even more useful for your lot size. Sadly it's almost unavailable in the trade. McLean Nursery in Balto., MD, has small plants for a reasonable price but they don't ship. The grow about 1' a year for the first 5 years, but then speed up to about 2' a year. As people have posted here previously, the real solution to quick screening is to think about what you are really trying to achieve. Are you trying to entirely block the view from anywhere in your yard to anywhere beyond it? Or do you have an area where you sit that you'd like privacy. In that case build a small screened area with some trellis lathes and grow some annual vines on it.
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Magsnj, I'd almost certainly want to protect that nice window in the pantry too. Sigh. I liked my idea, too. The big issue is obviously what to do with the elephant-in-the-kitchen. 1. How about seeing what reframing the door from the DRM down in the lower corner does for you, like Bellsmom's but all the way down? You'd be able to go in and out from the back garden without actually walking "through" the kitchen. The refrigerator could go left of the doorway, invisible from the rest of the house (you put a panel across its side), the stove would be on the LRM wall, and there'd be work counter to the fridge's right to join the counter around the stove. 2. My favorite option from a distance: How about moving the door to the back yard out of the kitchen and into the dining room, giving it the work space it needs? Perhaps as one a trio of French doors. I imagine those three windows there are a very nice feature you'd like to leave alone but, ultimately, opening up a direct relationship between your living spaces and the rear garden would improve livability as a whole and, of course, allow you to set the elephant down into that lower left corner where the current door is, with storage alongside. Then the options would be much more fun: * Have the stove back to the DRM wall in a closed kitchen, * Put it on the LRM wall and create an open work counter at the DRM wall. * Slide the DRM door up against the closet for the additional layout options that offers. (You'd probably have to reframe it anyway to fit in the fridge.)
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I've seen I Love Red's plans and they are very well designed and it's a beautiful house. There are definitely good (and a few excellent) stock plan designs out there but it takes a lot of looking to find a truly good one. I know when I was looking I found nothing that would meet our needs for our lot. We worked with a draftsman. If I had it to do over, I'd have hired an architect to work with us as it probably would have taken me a lot less time. I do have a slight advantage in that I'm a visual person, can think in 3d and was at one time thinking of becoming an interior designer (before I realized I'd have to work with people.) There definitely is no one answer but I will say that so many of the plans posted here from stock plans are not well laid out or are extremely expensive to build with lots of unnecessary jigs and jogs, angled walls, gables on top of gables, roofs that could cover the taj mahal, rooms without any light entering them, etc. They attach gee gaws onto the fronts of the elevations to add interest to what is an overdone plan. Many people have no clue even what they are really looking at in terms of how the rooms flow, what works from a design sense, etc. I know if I show a plan to my DH, he has no clue what relates to what. For someone like my DH, if I wasnt around, working with an architect or someone with true design skills would be his best way to create a custom house. If you're someone like Sandy who knows what works for them, can understand a plan and an elevation, can think somewhat in 3D, then you are ahead of the game. In that case finding a stock plan, or working with a designer or architect will work for you.
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EJ M, I completely understand your thought process and perhaps I was not clear in what I wrote. I am not suggesting that a builder is brought in at the end of the architect's process, more in the middle, once a builder can accurately gauge what is being designed and therefore provide a proper take-off and bid. A builder cannot provide accurate numbers to a client without having enough information to calculate their materials and time. If a builder is brought in and provides a bid that exceeds the client's budget, one of two things occur: 1. The architect revises the plans in order to meet the client's budget with that specific builder 2. Other builders are brought in to provide bids so that the client can determine the best course of action (i.e. go with a different builder who better understands the build process and therefore can provide a lower but accurate bid - OR - instruct the architect to revise the drawings in accordance with the cost per sq ft from the chosen builder) Being in this industry for such a long period of time, I have seen more than my fair share of clients who come in initially telling us "My builder says a 2500sqft house will cost $250k". My response is always the same. There is no way a builder can tell you how much something costs when they have no idea what the design entails, the materials necessary, or the foundation design based on a geo-technical survey of the property. Builders love to throw out numbers to entice clients. None of that matters until the builder is presented with a plan set for bid that allows them to calculate everything the build entails. I hope that explanation clears up the confusion.
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david_cary
11 years ago
Wait a sec - plans are plans. Local engineering will always need to be done. There is nothing particularly special about building on piers (we call them pilings in my area) and there is nothing special about wind protection.

Now - that being said. A simple rectangle is best for the wind (actually a square is better and then an octagon is even better), and a hip roof is better. In NC, we get a 7% discount on wind insurance just by the hip roof design.

So any plan can be made compliant with both elevation and wind but there are designs that are less than ideal.

I really think you should have something like this designed from scratch.

What is your elevation - I find it hard to imagine 5 feet is enough but I live in a more frequent storm area. I still think FEMA bows to political pressure in the NE and is way too lenient. We are at 14 feet above sea level and we built the bottom floor 10 feet above that. Our 100 year flood BFE (base flood elevation) is 14 feet. Yours was quite a bit lower but Sandy was 13 in a lot of areas so it would be foolish to not build to at least 13 feet.

In my area (VE zone - which LBI should be), we pay more for flood if there is a structure (ie garage) on ground level. People do it all the time but the upcharge is as much as 50% - not much right now but federal flood is likely to be cut and premiums raised. The other flood trick is based on BFE - you get 25% discount for being 1 foot above BFE and it continues to a max of 66% for 3 feet above BFE. This is a FEMA rule so it should be the same for you.

Do your research on this and build right. In our jurisdiction, we also get wind discounts for building to higher wind zone - so called fortified structures. No builders know this and very few people build to it but it is something to consider in such a high dollar area to build in.

LBI=Long Beach Island. It is a barrier island off Long Island.
User
11 years ago
There are many more rules and regulations in place than there used to be when building even just a few years ago. That all adds to the already pretty steep costs of a water build. Many people whose homes were destroyed by Sandy will not be able to afford to rebuild due to the escalated costs that all of the requirements will give to a build. I hope that you are not in that category.
Annie Deighnaugh
11 years ago
I thought Long Beach Island was off of NJ....
caymaiden
11 years ago
Have you looked at Flatfish Island Designs? They are the stock plan company of Herlong and Associates, and there are some very nice raised plans there, all different sizes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flatfish Island Designs

This post was edited by caymaiden on Tue, Jan 8, 13 at 15:01
millworkman
11 years ago
Long Beach Island is off the coast of New jersey. The Long Beach that is on Long Island is the City of Long beach and it is technically located on Long Beach Barrier Island but is is only referred to as Long beach or The City of Long beach.
david_cary
11 years ago
My mistake on the LBI. I have to admit that I never heard it referred to an island even though it is one (the LI version). I guess the tag line said it was NJ anyway.

building new home on lbi nj after sandy - plan help

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zone4newby

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