Building A House........ Suggested Uprgrades In Construction?

[cattlelackranch]

He's referring to each stud cavity.

[Sticks&Strings]

What do you mean by 'bay'? Thanks.

The space between the studs where you put insulation.

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[8mpg]

Great suggestions here. If they are close to the same price would you use Bibs or foam insulation for the exterior walls if you are not foaming the roof line?

I may be a minority here, but I think foaming the roof line is probably the most important. This keeps your a/c in a conditioned space and helps air seal so there is less worry about ceiling air penetration.

[12RingKing]

Wow.... There's so much info here!!! I like a lot of these ideas listed. I'm going to use some for sure.

[Mertzon Man]

I'm asking similar questions on roofing right now and it looks like its worth it to get the synthetic felt called "Rhino roof" instead of 15# or even 30# felt. Also go with a quality 3 tab shingle with a limited lifetime warranty. I'm using Owens Corning.

If your using a synthetic underpayment make sure the shingles are installed fairly soon and not let it get exposed to the sun for several weeks.

[mjhaverkamp]

I may be a minority here, but I think foaming the roof line is probably the most important. This keeps your a/c in a conditioned space and helps air seal so there is less worry about ceiling air penetration.

I am with you, our lake house is 3400 feet, largest electric bill this year has been 112.00, we have only had the house finished for 5 months, the next highest bill was 64.00. We di have gas range and water heater.

[jimned]

Put LED lights everywhere you can.

[LFD2037]

Put LED lights everywhere you can.

Indeed!

[offthemap]

Allow for natural sunlight into the showers, the UV rays kill mold & mildew. At least that's what my current interior designer (gf) suggests

[offthemap]

Also, my buddy owns a door company and is telling me that I need to get reinforced exterior doors with a frame that's 1/3 fiberglass from the slab, up. I haven't looked into it yet, but I will soon.

[CaptainDave]

Couple things that are easy and don't cost much -

1) Outlets on every wall; seems like you can never have too many.

2) Pre-plumb for outdoor kitchen - hot/cold water, gas, electrical; even if it's a future add-on.

3) Pre-wire for security system and even surround sound for entertainment; much cheaper and easier to do during construction as opposed to after even if you aren't going to utilize at first.

4) Have outlets situated up on walls, etc, where you might want to mount TV's

5) Kitchen counter lighting under cabinets is nice.

6) If you plan on having a reverse osmosis water filtration system, have it pre-plumbed to the refrigerator area from where it will located at the sink area. It's nice if your ice machine and cold water from fridge is also filtered.

[deerplanter]

Lots of good info on here, the one thing that I didn't see and isn't usually a problem in custom homes is to have your breaker panel in the house somewhere. I see lots of houses with them on the outside and that has always kind of bothered me knowing that anyone without much knowledge could kill all the power to the house. One house I built was 100' from one end to the other and was feed on one end so what I did to save on wire costs was to install a 100 amp sub panel on the other end of the house and garage.
I also prefer tinted windows on the west side instead of solar screens which makes your view look blurry.