changed the ht room dimension to realign the floor beam to provide extra support for the 2nd floor extension.
the ht room is extended by ~1.2 feet to a final dimension of 5880 mm x 4680 mm.

planned arrangement inside the room:

currently not planning a screen larger than 120" since i'm gonna start with a lower level projector first. probably optoma hd25 or sony hw40es. would like to preserve some sharpness. and not to mention i'm opting for 2 rows of seat, with 30 degrees of FOV at the 2nd row.

4 subs at each corner, LCR speaker hidden behind the screen. DIY acoustic transparent screen, steel or zincalume frame.

simulation shows that this is the projected response at the LP.
9 feet ceiling:


9.5 feet ceiling:


10 feet high ceiling:


of course i'm going with 9 feet high ceiling. 9.5 feet is gonna require more output from the subs to pressurize the room. 10 feet have the pesky cancellation at 50hz.
now whoever said that higher ceiling is better for sound?

floor beam structure plus planned pile point:

12-14 feet pile, 14 inch diameter. a lot more than needed, but i got them for cheap.
3 extra pile point (not shown in figure). 2 will be put at the house edge and another one at the laundry room. pretty nice and evenly spread throughout the house with extra precaution at the planned 2nd floor extension.

WOW !!! very professional.....

doubt other people is gonna be as detailed as this.
it's my own house, might as well make it as properly engineered as possible.

light simulation for the house.
geo-referenced to the accurate GPS position, and aligned to the accurate alignment using a compass, compensated to true north of course.



this is how it's gonna shade at 4.30pm, in december.

other than a single point in time, i've also simulated and animated the sun position throughout the entire year, and sun movement from early morning to late evening,
all to avoid getting too much evening sun to the bedrooms.

also got a cost quote for individual AAC bricks.
one wall is gonna be ~RM200 extra to adopt AAC. rough calculation it's gonna be RM1k-ish (under RM2k) to adopt AAC for the entire bedroom wall. there's also an option to use cement brick for the toilet wall and just AAC the 3 bedroom wall and master bedroom. that should bring down the extra cost closer to RM1k.

seems that AAC doesn't cost all that much compared to cement bricks. might even be the same cost as clay bricks.

I really like how detail your project is. I wish I know all these technical stuff so that I can monitor my house construction progress (when it starts building, of course).

Care to share what software you use for this simulation?

Are you sure about using AAC bricks.
I've read somewhere that it is not strong enough for load bearing.

True, plus 3 storey height limit. However, it's compensated by thickness to achieve the equivalent strength or have strategic load bearing borne by masonry bricks at critical points with AAC covering in front with an air gap as thermal break so as to prevent direct heat transfer over these.

it's built into google sketchup. pretty accurate if you could get the alignment right.

they're not. aac aren't designed for load bearing applications. they're brittle and soft enough that you could hack through the wall with a hammer.

but to compensate, you could design the house so that the load are sustained by the house structure rather than the walls.

visited decra sales office last week in subang USJ21.
and met with decra rep yesterday.

they're the only metal roof product with stone coating that have that rough surface. looks like ordinary roof tiles. and since they're metal roof, have a lot of advantages compared to roof tiles.
1. leak proof.
2. wind lift proof.
3. burglar proof.
4. approved to ~200km/h wind speed.
5. approved to cyclone or hurricane prone areas.

and this:


they're lightweight.
they're bendable.
they're flexible.
you could walk over it.

but gosh. they're freaking expensive.
i was quoted over RM20 psft.

ordinary roof tiles could be had for less than half of that, complete with roof structure, roof truss, insulation and installation.
sigh. i was opting to go with decra even if they're priced the same as roof tiles. even with +20% premium i'd still go with them. now it's just too expensive to consider.

backup plan.
1. find some other metal roof with a rough surface that have the same outlook as roof tiles.
or
2. go crazy and adopt a 2 layer roof.
primary roof consisting of flat (or nearly flat) roof tiles (or roof shingles) and do a thin layer metal roofing (with a high standing seam) as secondary roof.

we have a very simple roof design. second plan makes a lot of sense.

this project expected to complete in 2021?

started the land fill in march.
first layer completed by april.
top and final layer completed by may.

it's only been 4 month. less than 6 month for the soil to set.
not even enough time in you follow JKR specs.

so some changes had to be made to accommodate the short time for the land to set. either by rolling the site, or by rolling the site. yeah you have to roll the site. but we can't roll the site. not in this weather.


pilings have arrived. in stages since it's raining cats and dogs for the last 2 weeks.

original plan to have the site rolled by a 15 tonne vibrating roller had to be cancelled. we've successfully negotiated the vibrating roller for RM900 including transportation costs. it requires a frekkin transport trailer to come here. 3-4 tonne vibrating roller could be had for ~RM300 per day, ~RM600 including transport since it could fit on a loader lorry.

but since the soil is now too soft from the never ending downpour, we're skipping the roller and going with bigger piling.
original plan is to just use square column, 8-10 inches (RM85 a piece) and have the site rolled.

pile boring, and pressing will commence next week, weather permitting.

dude, is this a genuine question or just a sarcastic remark?

This post has been edited by paskal: Sep 15 2014, 06:41 PM

oh. one more thing.


these. i got these for RM120 a piece (shipped)(lorried).
all 38 of them for RM4.6k, shipped (lorried) to the site.

as per agreement, the contractor will now bear the cost for the boring, and pile pressing at the site.
all 38 of them.

feeling sorry for him. i have no idea how he's going to put all of them into the ground. not my problem tho. it's all in the agreement.

for pilling.. any type of pilling used?
38 isn't that bit more than for 1 house?

How much would cost just to pile in the pillars? Including/excluding pilar cost?

Thanks for sharing this, its blardy expensive tho but impresive.

Nice sharing bro

updated reading material.
which could be interesting to some. those who already knew, please move on.

thanks to the guy that pointed them to me.



never knew about the negative pressure to suck wind into the house.
implemented.

this 2 large openings will (probably) have large louvers to provide large leeward opening for negative pressure.


implemented.

sides of the casement windows will have that concrete protruding thingy.
one as a wall feature.
two as a rain shield.
three as a fin to provide negative pressure to aid cross ventilation inside the room.

wife refused to add them to all windows tho.

construction update.

renegotiation with the contractor update.
1. moved the HT room walls by 1.2 feet
2. added 1 more toilet to the garage (inclusive plumbing)
3. added 3 feet of apron around the house (not mentioned in the original agreement)
4. installation of ceramic drainage around the house. we supply the ceramic drain.
5. ceiling slab for water reservoir at 3 different places. 14.2'x6.3' , 14.2'x8.3', 14.2'x6.3'
6. separate drainage system around the house for greywater discharge and blackwater overflow.

additional.... get this.... RM5k


wife pestered me last month for a vacation. so we stayed at morib gold coast resort for a couple of days.
we got the room with the jacuzzi, and the size of the bathroom is just nice to accommodate the 1.5m jacuzzi in it.

and since we are planning to install a 1.8m unit, the master bedroom toilet is so freakishly small.
yes some of you have pointed it out before. thanks.

so we expanded the master bedroom another ~4 feet, for the full 18' span. turning the floorplan to this:

also expanded the toilet to ~8.5' x ~8.5'. wife doesn't want it bigger than that. her choice.
better to do it now than to hack the walls later on.

re-nego with the contractor, again. and we agreed for an addition RM2.2k for it.
RM2.2k for an extension of 4' x 18' & bigger toilet.

yes. i'm a cheapskate.
and yes, it's gonna be a problem if the contractor decides to run away.
but no, i'm not gonna pay exorbitant price to scalpers. please move along.

and finally.
project is delayed. estimated to complete by 2085. pile pressing estimated to complete by 2021.
so expect pictures to be up by 2022.

Nice and good posting.

Yes, louvres has great flexibility in air circulation. One thing to note though is that air blowing through the house is aided by a negative pressure differential between the inside and outside. It's hard for the wind to blow in if:
1. if it's not directed at the house
2. the inside of the house is hotter than the outside (positive higher pressure differential) - can be mitigated with extractor fans to induce flow.

One thing about Queensland is that architects in that state has taken various innovation in our climate to adapt over there. Some homes built over there reminds me of those we see here. One prime distinction is that they are built on stilts to minimise ground heat intrusion because air is a poor conductor and not for them but relevant in your site is to prevent the black swan event of flooding. Those innovation added is such that the architecture is called the 'Queenslander'. Actually would be good to see if there are any relevant points there to integrate back to your design approach.

2085 - wah I don't know if I live that long.

oh what do you know. it's already near 2021.

so site have been marked for pile pressing and construction of the structure beam.



only after site marking it puts everything into perspective.

only ~10 feet setback at the side. from the absolute edge of the land plot to the house apron.


~13 feet of setback from the back.
we only have ~10 feet of clearance at the front, side and back.

mind you, the plot is 7,000 sqft.
and we're only left with 10 feet of clearance. gosh, it's certainly not gonna be a small house. that's for sure.

the plot have to enlarged.
but that's another project for another day.

after site marking, the contractor have asked for some changes to the floor plan to ease construction.
since the requested changes doesn't have any major effect to the design, we agreed.

current (final) floorplan: