₦airaland Forum

Ashrush:
Thumbs up my man

Most of your thoughts align with mine thus I agree

@psity and others, any thoughts/recommendations on the alley way/lobby as memejem mentioned?

Memejem:
Thanks. I'm not a professional builder/architect or anything like that. But I just felt I should say something

P.s I've edited my original comment for spelling mistakes and just a congratulations on your build! Keep it up

STRATEK:
Go through your arch plan again sir....the opening in living room & dinning will light up the lobby...if u insist on adding more to that, create an opening of considerable size in the inner wall of the study room & use a glass block or any transparent glass material, so light can pass through...hope u understand what i mean...

Ashrush:
Nice one

Drop your details and will contact in due course

Psity:
Hello op. I am really shocked that folks think this your floor plan is OK. From my own point of view, it isn't and I owe Nairaland a duty to warn you and here are the points to note:

1. The bedroom close to the pre-sit or ante room is not cross ventilated.

2. The store has no window(opening outside) and therefore will be poorly lit as well as ventilated. Your foodstuffs could rot in a few days.

3. All the entrances to the rooms are wrongly placed.i.e you shouldn't walk into the closet before accessing the room itself. Proper thing is to locate the room first, then you move into your convenience enroute the walk-in-closet.

4. There is a long corridor that has no natural lighting and ventilation provision. Imaging when there is power outage, it will be a dark alley.

Please do not be carried away by the 3D. That design requires not just adjustments but a total overhaul. I hope you have not started digging yet. A word is enough to avoid pulling down your house after building. I can almost bet the designer isn't an architect. If at all a professional, it will be one of those structural engineers who dabble into architectural design, which is not their primary forte. He may be good with construction works but definitely not design. This isn't to spite him but to help op avoid wasting his money.

And nairalanders should note that the ability to generate 3D images is not limited to architects. So, do not be bamboozled by 3D images alone. Architects are trained first to resolve the elements of circulation and ventilation before any thing.

segzy14:
Any show?

Ashrush:
Thank you for the suggestion sir; It is duly noted and much appreciated

Ashrush:
I have used water gravel for my dwarf fence.

I am thinking of using it for the building foundation and DPC; would this be okay or should I use granite instead?

segzy14:
If you have money for the granite, it would be nice to use granite.

Ashrush:
Thanks

Ashrush:
Thanks

Memejem:
I'm not an architect but I'll just give my 2 cents.

1. Here in Canada most of our kitchen pantries/stores don't have windows in them and the food don't rot. I'm aware the climate is different in Nigeria. But we have four seasons. Keep in mind that it is storage. Fresh fruits and vegetables are to be used fairly quickly within a week or two. Those should be kept in the kitchen, in the fridge or the cupboards there. The kitchen is equipped with a window. A store is meant to store food items for a relatively longer period of time that you would not normally keep in the kitchen. Usually excess supplies or non/perishable goods. I think the design of the store is fine. It depends on what the OP chooses to put inside there.

2. As for the design of the placement of closets in the room. That is also fine. It's a design preference and there is no right or wrong way to do this. Where I currently live the closet is right next to the door. It has sliding doors that are painted to match the room.When the closet door is closed it blends in with the walls. I'm not sure how most closets are designed in nigeria but I don't see any issue with their placement. From his plan the rooms seem large. The closet placements are not hindering space or movement. Unless it's an open closet without any doors the worst case is it may not be aesthetically pleasing to see clothes hanging from the wall upon entry to the room.

3. I could be wrong but the bedroom close to the pre-sit seems cross ventilated to me. His architect did well to place the rooms in the corners of the house walls to ensure each bedroom has 2 windows. But that's also not a requirement. In my house in Canada each room has at least 1 large window (some have 2) and ventilation is not a problem at all. Just open the window and get fresh air.

4. As for the long alley way. If light is off and it's dark? What's the issue? Have flashlights gone extinct? Im not sure what the fix is for that. What do you recommend that will not completely alter the design of the house?

@OP congratulations on your build!! I look forward to your updates here and learning from you. Best of luck. You're doing well.

Psity:
Many thanks for your observations, which to an extent is an objective and somewhat academic analysis of my points.

You are absolutely correct about the bedroom close to the pre-sit, as a further careful study of the plan has revealed the location of a second window. Guess the size of the image made it less obvious at first.

Be that as it may, as you rightly pointed, architectural design has to be in consonance with the environment/climatic conditions. Hence, a compulsory course in climatology embedded within the undergraduate architecture curriculum, so much so that there are principles even guiding the location of windows. Ordinary laymen and or draughtsmen may just think windows are located anyhow but lo, they are not. The orientation of the site with regards to the geographical four cardinal points of north, south, east and west have to be considered. Its one of the reasons amongst others, that the guiding document for the orientation of a building, on a given site is the survey plan, because it carries that information apart from the beacon numbers, plot and block numbers, owners title etc.

This is to underscore the importance of prevailing climatic conditions in architectural design. Thus, what works for temperate regions won't work for the tropics. Please note that the fact that some houses are located in Canada or any other developed society doesn't mean it is architecturally sound, as there are quacks everywhere.

Speaking for the tropics and from extensive design and build experience, it is gross incompetence stemming from inexperience, based on lack of basic knowledge of design principles to design a store without an external window, expect it to depend on lighting and ventilation from a small kitchen window, as well as expect your client to depend on the use of flashlights to light up a corridor, whose only lighting is that which filters through the dining space. Why not expect your client to depend solely on artificial air-conditioning and electric power lighting for the whole house and close up all fenestrations thereby?

Basic reason an architect is engaged, is to solve those problems. The fact that that you are not a mystic that can predict behavioural patterns and choices over a long period of time requires you to follow basic laid down principles that covers majority of end users. Architects are thinkers. Otherwise, your client's builder/bricklayer might as well use his discretion. Architecture is a precise and measured art.

Except having to create a courtyard or introduce skylight/clear storey windows, there is no way a redesign won't be the best recommendation.


Redesign recommendations

1. Relocation of store such that it has an external window along same wall with the kitchen window, which will require dividing the kitchen into two albeit unequal halves. The store may now be accessed via the kitchen, while the entrance to the kitchen should be blocked and relocated on the partition wall between kitchen and dining.

2. The wall separating the main lounge and the corridor should be totally removed, thereby opening up the living room space and providing an indirect linkage and flow with the dining, only now separated by an archway beam. That way, the length of the corridor is greatly reduced. Cross ventilation may now be brought into the living room and much need lighting for the remaining corridor section, by raising the height of the wall now separating the kitchen from the living room and introducing clear story windows. Archways can be introduced on both ends of the corridor to separate the public from the private.

3. An alternative to the clear story window is to relocate the study in order to give way for the introduction of a window to light up the corridor, and many more suggestions than my fingers would allow me type, but as you may observe, this is more of an overhaul than an adjustment.

Goodluck @OP.

Diamondpicture:
Please I need a very good architect to make a house plan for me my wattsapp 258867409243

Memejem:
I respectfully disagree with you.

If you understood the purpose of a store you would know a window is not required.

As for your point in Canada, we have strict building codes. The Majority of houses are built to code if not all. Not by quacks esp in the major city I live.

Perhaps in rural areas you could claim a quack built them.

The OP is fine to continue his build the way it is. The only possible concern is the lighting for the lobby. Which to be honest is irrelevant when there is no natural lighting or electricity. Regardless of the design or length of a lobby every lobby in Nigeria will be dark.

I think you're just making a big deal out of nothing

Ashrush:
Sure thing

Drop your details and will contact in due course

Ashrush:
Setting out...

Architect, Mason and Labourers = N12,000
Blocks (50x170) = N8,500
Supervison = N3,000

Ashrush:
Blinding


cement (29x2700)
labour = N25,000
water = N10,000
sharp sand (1 trip)
gravel (1 trip)

[b]Foundation wall
[/b]7

blocks (1750x160) = N280,000
cement (29x2700) = 78,300
sharp sand =N30,000
plaster sand = N13,000
labour =N70,000
water = N15,000
reiforcment = N12,000

EfeEj:
Hello Ashrush,

Please what reinforcement are you referring to that costs 12000?

I cannot see any reinforcement from your pictures.
Please throw more light on this.

Regards

Arc Efe

Ashrush:
I have two pillars, two in front and one at back.

I used ready made reinforcement bars which cost N4000 each (column base inclusive)