not by myself. me and my wife.
the first, initial drawing and planning started last year so it's been a year.

there's no electrical and plumbing drawing yet. it's a work in progress. have to finalize the walls and structure first before drawing the electrical and plumbing route. there's a proposed lighting arrangement though. posted before.

calibrated mics could be bought for ~RM300. tho i have to agree that preference plays a major part.
but it's been a few years since i've started with audio measurement and i could judge my preferences from the graph.
if you did enough measurement, for long enough time, you know what's your preference from a brief look at the room response.

here's my previous experience with the simulated response:
predicted:


measured:


overlaid:

see how accurate that is? pretty darn accurate that made me a believer. google for 'rew room simulation accuracy'.

anyway... contractor appointed.
RM32 psft



basic structure.
piling.
main structure beam as per JKR spec.
y12 steel with r6 link throughout.
13 feet wall.
16 inch high main structure beam.
effective ~20 inch raised floor from the ground.
cement brick.
concrete support block for all windows and door. dunno the exact term.
concrete overhang for all windows as shown in the drawing. 30cm x 5 cm.
no roof.
no windows.
inclusive indoor plumbing.
inclusive outdoor drainage.
inclusive outdoor apron with cement gutter.
2 septic tanks for toilets, separated for family area and guestroom.
1 septic tank for greywater discharge.
no wiring.

RM115k for 3621 sqft (indoor + outdoor area).


now my wife wanna add another toilet next to the laudry area.
5 toilets for 4 people? what for need so many toilets ah?
initially she wants the toilet inside my garage. saying the garage is too big for me.

I think RM32 psft is a good price. I've searched around in Selangor area, asking for ridiculous RM100++ psft...

Look on those numbers, it never state what type of sub being used? I don't do measurements most of the time, so I won't bother to know this, haha.
To manage a dip, there's more to be done other than just keep on looking at the graphs.

Must know where our friend is first

Includes finishes, flooring, etc?
Rm 32 psf is bare basic only. If yours include finishes, price looks right to me.

it's normal for contractors to ask for >RM100 for a complete build. usually RM120-RM130 psft including tile, ceiling, paint, etc.
mine at RM32 psft, but there's no roof, no windows, no doors, no bathroom utensil, no tile, no wiring.

pretty much the basic structure only. we're gonna be our own main contractor. it's DIY from start to end

it's a dual 15 inch ported sub tuned to 20hz. each powered by a 600w class d amp.

null because of the sub response, or amp response could be corrected. but a large null because of the room could never be corrected by a brute force solution. i (we) have experimented to correct a huge room null by giving the sub 4x the power, it only improves the response by 2db. 400% more power, only ~5% correction.

I don't know, I assume that both sub are placed together? If yes, guess they are self cancelling each other.

Really enjoying your thread, good luck on your endeavour and cant wait to see when it's done!

oh, no wonder so cheap

Nice discussions & a good job you did.

Just my 2 cents below:
1) ever consider built in closet for each room? it will save you money.

2) for ventilation, maybe ventilation fan on high wall to suck the hot air out?

3) you seem to have big windows in your guest room which is facing west? I think most people in malaysia would have the curtains closed, and thus the big windows are kind of useless. For me, I would build the windows on 5' & above so that there is privacy without the need to put curtain & will be bright enough too. You can put another vertical window for viewing outside.

4) can consider rain/air cond water harvesting for toilet flush & gardening.

5) passive hot water, it is actually quite easy to build one yourself. I have done mine, and it is working quite OK.

6) where are you gonna put your aircon compressors? Should put this into the design as well.

Just my suggestions for you to consider.

some update.

the initial plan is to adopt a total roof solution from monier. complete coolroof solution together with insulation, supply and installation.

nice right? monier perspective, minimum roof pitch at 15 degrees.
but monier asked us to increase the pitch to 17 degrees to avoid leaking. better not to stick to the minimum recommendation when an additional 2 degrees won't change the roof outlook much.

but a lot of people that we approached have the same comment. the roof is still gonna leak.
even contractors don't wanna do the roof as the pitch is just too risky. the same recommendation from architect and civil engineers.

but my wife die die don't wanna change to the roof to another material. hard headed she is. her auntie even said the same, increase the pitch to 23 degrees minimum. why yes, ask for auntie advice lah compared to an internet forum.

even my gut is saying it's gonna leak. and it's gonna cost me. moreover, the longest roof length is right where the strongest wind is.

marked the direction of the strongest wind. the left side wind blowing to the 15m long roof is much stronger compared to the right side wind.

if the roof leak, it's gonna be hard to pinpoint the source of the leak since the roof is gonna be insulated, effectively blocking any way of seeing the leaking area. sigh.
insulating the roof is gonna be a problem in the long run. talk about double edge solution.

so i started my own research. read read and more reading.
as the roof pitch is low, we must adopt an underlay/sarking/insulation layer to channel any leak to the roof edge.
but as i said earlier, it's gonna be hard to pinpoint the leaking area.

or build another secondary roof below the roof tile. which is stupid to me.
if there's gonna be another aluminium/metal roof underneath, might as well don't have that roof tile primary roof. too much cost. heavy roof. more structural support needed. redundant primary roof. too complex roof design just to avoid leaking, which could be effectively avoided by not adopting roof tile in the first place.

but i did considered putting an aluminium sheet underneath the insulation layer just to be safe. but yeah, complicated stuff.


leak will happen at these area. when there's a heavy rain coupled with strong wind the roof can't dissipate as much water as fast as needed.
strong wind will blow the water upwards, blocking the water from falling to the gutter. more and more water will be accumulated from the falling rain, eventually forced into the roof structure. hence causing a leak.

low roof pitch + long roof length + strong prevalent wind = problem.

this is described inside monier own roof structural guide:

sigh. 23 degrees does seem like the minimum. 28-30 degrees as a safe bet.

or we could change the roof structure and adopt a traditional design. no more modern design.
a couple of contractors that we went even suggested this.

but we already fixed our eyes (and mind) on the modern design. change to traditional design? change to higher roof pitch? and make it look like a cathedral?
how about no.

so what do you do when you hit a design problem?
you call your auntie, of course.

and your auntie pointed you to this roof material:


if nobody said it's not roof tile in those pic, nobody would even know.
all the good looks of a roof tile, none of the problem.

expect nothing less from an experienced Ar.

I would choose the solution that would avoid water leak problems.

Functionality out weighs aesthetics.

security will be handled by mostly active security system. proximity sensors and cctv at the entry road. distributed perimeter sensors consisting of proximity, motion and IR (heat) sensors. windows, doors and any glass opening will be installed with vibration and motion sensor. probably another layer of motion and proximity sensor around the roof overhang and apron area.

cctv will all be using ip cameras, wired with power-over-ethernet, running on a separate network wiring. 100mbps cat5e rj45. each of the 4 corners will be fixed with fixed lens outdoor ip camera. indoor maybe a couple more of those pan-tilt-zoom (or no zoom) ip camera at the entrance, living room, deck area, family area and kitchen.

i'll try and get those 3 megapixel or those 1.3 megapixel at least. probably from foscam/wanscam or trendnet or axis if i have the money.
all monitored, logged and centrally managed by zoneminder, operating on intel atom SoC mini-itx board which will also act as the house NAS and media server.

i might not have the budget to do all of these implementation during the build, but since 1000 feet/305 meter of them cat5e cabling only costs RM150-ish, might as well run the entire house with them. planning to even run the sensors wiring with cat5e. a meter is only 49 sen, cheaper than even copper cable, and i get 8 solid copper core to work with.


the most leak-proof solution would have to be these clip-lock metal roofing.

they could be made in very long length, avoiding any joints. cut to any length required by the user and shipped for installation. as there's no joints, no connection and no screw holes, there's no way for water to leak from.

but my god those look hideous. upside is that minimum required pitch is only 1 degrees.

1. built in cabinet is considered. will be implemented.

2. ventilation fan on a high wall looks ugly. to me. seen some houses integrate them and don't like the outlook. have to pass.

3. the guest room is facing east. there's only less than 2 feet of window which is facing east. west facing window is at the master bedroom, which will have nothing but paddy fields for 15km. refer graphic below.

4. the simple, 2 side monopitch roof is implemented for the sole reason of rainwater harvesting.

yellow marking shows the planned area for rainwater collection tank. roof gutter will fall here to the filter and discharge pipe.
blue marking shows the planned area for elevated storage tank. as there's gonna be separate tank for rainwater and tap water, each area will probably have 2 tanks. too much for most people, but water disruption and low water pressure is a normal problem that we face nearly every week. just last week there's a water disruption for 3 days. it's a rural area so it's expected.

i rather have multiple storage tanks hidden inside the roof than large tanks blocking the view.

5. passive hot water will be adopted. probably from monier. installed at the roof section above the kids toilet, providing hot water to only 3 toilets below it. the guestroom toilet and kitchen toilet will run on instant water heater.

6. haven't thought about aircond compressors yet. to be frank we're trying to make do without aircond. right now the only place that's gonna have aircond is the HT room. opting for 2hp or 2.5hp inverter from mitsubishi electric.
all the rooms have integrated lourves at the window and very high ceiling (11-11.5 feet). living room, family area and dry kitchen have 16 to 14 feet sloping ceiling.

if even after those 'optimizations' it's still uncomfortable then there's no option but to adopt active air conditioning. active AC is just not part of the design process. if we want active AC then it's better to adopt low ceiling, small windows and less opening to keep the cold air from escaping. it's just the exact opposite of what we're currently doing.

how it will turn out? i have no idea.

Roof leakage is expected where wind infiltration is expected. Monier cool roof Alu membrane foil is suppose to form a second skin functioning as radiant barrier and moisture barrier. One area you might want to investigate is Miami-Dade County rules on such aspects and see if you could improvise a solution therefrom for your installation.

There's also solar air conditioning solution that can be leveraged. It's the in thing now. Uses Microsolar collector.

Since Solar water heater has proportional heat losses the longer the runs, smaller volume collectors per outlet could help alleviate that esp for a large property.

Also, since thermal heat recovery is a relatively unexplored area, a R410A heat pump placed near the compressors (concentrate the compressors as close as possible without causing them to overheat one another and induce a heat stack so that the hot air rises) could in effect harvest waste heat and give out drier air (less humid). For ocassions where padi field burning or haze may bring in dust, pass the air through a rotating drum filter first commonly use in Scandanavian countries and Germany. The dust is captured in water. The waste can be periodically drained through an irrigation filter and a ball cock replenish the water from an readily available source - condensate that drains from all the AC. UV could keep the storage tank sterile as possible so that we do not unwittingly let it be a place where legionnella bacteria to breed. After which pass the filtered and drier air through Airegard ERV or Fresh Air Vent Systems to all the rooms.

Just to elaborate on the above concept, since we have abundant heat rejection through AC and also from from re-radiation of heat accumulated throughout the day, one aspect of economic use is to re-harvest the heat for useful purposes. If efficient enough, even solar AC could run through the night for some hours after sun down so long as the heat gain at the collectors is efficient enough to drive the compressor. Even if not, heat could be used to convert into heated water through a thermal recovery appliance. This requires a rethink functionally as to where to place the compressors. One idea visualized is an enclosed 4'x4' or 6'x6' or 8'x8' chiminey column of sorts with the thermal heat recovery unit at the top and the compressors staggered in height below it. Taking into account of the heat stack and aiding the thermal convection process is some form of mechanical ventilation that draws this air into a small room where the rotating drum filter resides with its water replenished via AC condensate and the dust collected constant and regularly drained at a predetermined rate. The cleaner air from the drum filter is passed through to the next chamber that houses the R410a heat pump which could act as a backup either for pre-heat to or post-heat downmix from the solar thermal water heater. after that the drier air could be cleaned again with another rotating drum filter and the air revitalized with an air cleaner before letting it through Airegard series to all the rooms. This way the air is cleaned twice and also dried twice and used twice.

One advantage is that the AC compressors would be somewhere in the interior open air space much like the old open roof in single storey houses. To address the noise due to the number of compressors accumulated there, surround it with brick (where the compressors anchors will be mounted), rock wool (to dampen sound transmission) and AAC (to minimse heat gain accumulated from the rock wool) into the interior to dampen the droning sound. A door access into that area could be thick door with rubber seals (Raven) all round.

Anything is possible. Happy tinkering.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Aug 24 2014, 08:44 PM

thanks for the detailed suggestion. highly appreciated!

have you seen the solar AC in action?
i've been researching about them previously and the whole concept is just seem dubious to me. as far as my understanding goes, it makes no sensor to superheat the gas as it'll reduce the efficiency. or maybe i just don't understand the concept.

some websites even mentioned that the solar AC is just bogus claim. what's your opinion?

No worries. See here and here. Both are locally sourced. The first one IMO manufactures one of the world's most efficient solar thermal water heater which I own (M60VTHE). They have updated their model specification I think as shown here.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Aug 25 2014, 01:29 PM

more updates.
wife drew 3 different 2nd floor extension plan.


from the 3, the middle is the nicest.
additional ~1500sqft floorspace upstairs. 1 family area, 4 large rooms, 4 additional toilets. 1 of the largest room could be isolated with a sliding fake wall since it's 14'x21', affectively making space for 5 room.
the right plan allows for ~1200sqft additional floorspace. smaller extension of the middle plan.

discussed with a civil engineer the strengthening that we needed to do to allow this 2nd floor extension.
a few piling point that's best if we did 2 pile per cap. and the HT room wall needs to be moved and aligned to provide additional support and strength for the lower ground beam.


that's solar water heater bro. have you tried solar AC? does it improve the AC efficiency as claimed by the manufacturer? 50% better efficiency is A LOT! hard to believe such a simple concept and modification could allow that much improvement.
too good to be true.

I have not tried the solar AC but it takes the thermosyphon design from Microsolar. That part is the secret sauce to really hot water because of the solar heat gain from ambient to 95-100 depending upon sunny conditions.

The first [correction] link show the solar AC installed in the Port Klang North port. Keyword is UP TO. I think we have to take this with a dose of reality as how often that kind of savings is acheived actually depends upon how frequently sunny the location is. For your place, how many annual wet days per year? Compared that to Port Klang

Also compare that with this.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Aug 28 2014, 12:56 PM