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The Essential Guide » The Planning Stage » Designing a Home For Your Storage Needs
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Storage
There are two areas to think about for storage in either a new build or renovation project. “External”: - Garden buildings / garages etc, and “Internal”.
External storage is straightforward: A garage, garden shed, or outbuildings of some sort normally satisfy all your requirements in that respect, and more external storage can normally be added at any time when it is needed.
Internal storage, however, can actually be one of the big reasons for you thinking about one of these projects in the first place. – “We need more room”! “There’s nowhere to put anything!”
There is nothing greatly technical about working out the best way to satisfy your storage needs, but it’s best to make all your decisions in the initial design period, in case you want to then include built in storage or attic storage as part of your design.
As well as your standard kitchen and utility room units, storage options include:
1) Built in wardrobes / storage cupboards
2) Airing cupboard
3) Loft storage
4) Fitted wardrobes
5) Flatpack wardrobes / Drawer units
6) Storage “within” furniture.
1) Built in wardrobes: These are designed “into” the individual rooms, possibly at your initial sketch stage, depending upon how important and how high up your “wish list” the storage part of the project is.
Simple to design, simple and usually relatively cheap to construct, unobtrusive, often paired up with a mirror door which can make the room feel bigger and saves you having to buy other mirrors for the rooms where they are included. – Overall a good idea.
Construction of these wardrobes can be included as part of a timber frame package, or can easily be done by the joiners as part of the joinery contract. At “First fix” stage the fronts of the wardrobes are “framed out” in a similar manner to how the walls are built, leaving space to create the opening (this can be in the form of 2 or more sliding, folding, or standard doors, depending on the overall width of the wardrobe). You may wish to install electric lighting of one form or another inside the wardrobe ( Led lighting can create a really nice effect in wardrobes, giving an “ambiance”, or “glow” to the interior).
At second fix stage the walls are plasterboarded and finished in the same manner as the rest of the walls, so, apart from the fact that there is a gaping hole in what looks like the wall, they are generally identical to the rest of the bedroom. They will even have skirtings running along at floor level.
The final fix then sees the doors, of whatever type fixed, - and there you have it, what could be a huge great storage space created simply and fairly cheaply.
Internally, they can then be fitted out with all sorts of drawers and rails, often from floor to ceiling height, so you can get maximum storage from each unit. You can now even get a wide selection of pre designed“Self Assembly” units to “build into” your built in wardrobes.
Two things to bear in mind:
1) Plan ahead: You need to make your final decisions on size and location at an early stage because your wardrobes may need to take into account door and window positions, electrical installation, where you want tom position your bed and other furniture. If you try to “slot” built in wardrobes in while you are building, the chances are you will hit problems of them not fitting or you not being able to get them where you want them.
2) On the down side: They are generally permanent. Once they are built you have got them for good! They can restrict you room layout, and mean that there is just one way your bedroom furniture can be positioned.
Airing cupboards:
These days if you buy a “spec build” developer’s house, you will still tend to get the traditional airing cupboard, but it doesn’t really do what it used to anymore! – The cylinder which is often in the cupboard is so well insulated, that all that lovely heat which used to air your clothes doesn’t escape from the cylinder!
If you have the traditional plumbing and heating system which is pretty standard for developers to install, you will usually need a storage cupboard of some description to house it. I suppose it makes sense to use the top half of that cupboard to store towels and the like, but don’t think that it is still doing the same job as the traditional airing cupboard because it probably isn’t!
For some years now, Self builders and Renovators have been tending to opt for another option which is a “Combi Boiler”. Building regs have recently been upgraded so your choice of a “combi boiler” now actually usually becomes a “Condensing Combi Boiler” (see “Plumbing and Heating” pages for details).
The combi boiler reduces the storage requirements of the system by heating the water up as it is required (apart from a small amount which it keeps hot all the time). It doesn’t need a cylinder, and it is far more flexible with regards to where it can be positioned, so it doesn’t need an airing cupboard. – Which, together with the fact that cylinders don’t heat the space with the wasted heat like they used to, means that what has always been an airing cupboard, half full of cylinder, can now be dedicated solely to storage space. – OR, it can be done away with altogether if you have adequate storage elsewhere.
Loft Storage:
Your loft is potentially a huge area for storage, but does not often get used to its potential because of poor access and the fact that the structure cannot take a great deal of weight. – This is not how it has to be, and for a very reasonable cost you could upgrade the attic structure to allow you to use the space it offers far more efficiently.
If when you “specify” (detail) your house design, you include for “Attic trusses” instead of “Standard trusses”, you will get at least 2 benefits:
1) You will create the ability of the loft to “swallow” most of your storage items easily.
2) You will give yourself a much easier and cheaper option in the future to convert your loft into full living space (see pages on roof construction later).
Where a standard truss costs £50, an attic truss may cost £150. They are positioned usually at 600mm centres which would mean that a 10 wide house would use around 17 trusses. At £100 extra each, for £1700 basic cost you will add flexibility to the completed house and probably increase its value by far more than the extra cost of the trusses.
If you opt for attic trusses, you can fully board out the loft (above the insulation), and create possibly both storage AND possibly a hobby area.
Your access can be upgraded by installing a loft ladder, and these are now available in all sorts of styles, including automatic, high quality “semi staircases”.
You need to bear in mind the ventilation and temperature aspects of a loft. New properties usually achieve adequate ventilation, but because the insulation above the ceiling below the attic is now so efficient, the temperature in the loft could vary considerably over the year. “Sensitive goods” may be best kept in other storage areas.
( Note: You can insulate the loft on the underside of the slope of the roof rather than on top of the plasterboard ceiling, which would give a more a more even year round temperature and a more acceptable storage area, even for “sensitive goods”).
Fitted wardrobes / Drawer units:
If you want to create storage within rooms but want to maintain a certain level of flexibility which “built in” options can deny you, then fitted furniture can be the answer.
“Fitted” units usually cost considerably more than “flatpack”, but generally giving a more permanent and professional finished product. Offering a wide range of styles and units, which are tailored to individual rooms, fitted furniture can be the finishing touch that completes the “dream home” that you have been working on for so long. If you ever get fed up of fitted furniture, unlike built in wardrobes, it is not a major job to get it replaced. Some minor redecoration after its removal will give you the option of changing your furniture layout and having new fitted units built in different positions around the room.
You will normally buy fitted furniture as part of a supply and fit package, but that does not have to be how it works. If you have your own joiner who you would prefer to do the work, you can get the designs done and the furniture ordered for delivery, and your own joiner can assemble it as an when the projects is ready.
If you go down this route, try to get more than one quote, and don’t be pressurized into buying “on the night”. With a Self Build or renovation project, things change all the time. If you order something today, next week a problem may be found which changes a door position, or some other building component which directly affects your fitted furniture design. Do your homework. Get designs done and prices in, but don’t order until you are sure that what you are ordering is going to be what you need.
Note: One advantage of “holding off” ordering for a while is that in many cases you will find companies coming back to you and offering reduced prices.
Flatpack furniture / drawers:
For years a thorn in the side of the Self builder, Renovator, and DIY’er, these days the “Flat pack world” has improved significantly. – there are still exceptions, - some items from certain areas of the world, still come with instructions which bear little resemblance to the instructions we actually NEED to be able to put the things together. BUT on the whole, DIY systems are now a lot simpler and straightforward. In most cases all the bits ARE included in the packs, and each of the main manufacturers tend to try to follow a “theme” for the assemble of all of their units. – You may, however need to d a couple of units to “get the hang of it”, and still need 2 people to build many of the units.
Cost / delivery: Generally a lot cheaper than fitted furniture. Quicker to design and order (often the units are in stock for immediate delivery or pickup). Delivery can normally be organised within a week, and you can have your furniture built a short time after that, so this option gives you more flexibility in a lot of ways.
Quality: Although the units themselves these days are very good quality, with Self Assembly furniture you don’t tend to be able to get the “detailing bits” that you can with fitted furniture which “finish off the job” professionally. – Those little pieces which fill the gap between the top of the wardrobe and the ceiling, the end of the wardrobe and a wall or under a sloping ceiling.
Storage within furniture:
If you keep your eyes open there are a lot of “innovative” items of furniture around now which have storage built in. A small family room could really benefit from a settee whose cushions lift up to provide a substantial amount of storage under the seat. A footstool which does the same, a table which folds down and stores its seats in a frame underneath, A “built in” TV or wall unit with “hidden” storage. These, along with many others are all little ways to increase your homes storage capacity and they don’t necessarily need to cost you any extra money. You just need to “shop wisely” and be on the lookout all the time.
( Note: If you see an item of furniture which is ideal from a storage or any other point of view, but you are not ready to take delivery, it’s worth asking if the supplier can keep it for a couple of months with a deposit holding it, until you are ready for it. – This can allow you to take advantage of sales and special offers when they are on. – I have sometimes found great offers and managed to get the items held in stock on a small deposit, for up to four months before now.
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