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RE: Room Dimension Questions

I'd like to chew on this for a day or so, but my guess is that the architect wants to move along and get your money. So...

First of all, I'm curious as to why you're paying an architect, since this appears to be mostly a matter of knocking out some non-load-bearing walls and running some electrical to new outlets. You're not doing any exterior wall extensions or foundation changes, are you? Doesn't seem so. My neighbor did this sort of simple rennovation a couple years, and he didn't even hire a contractor - his "handy man" did the whole thing while the owner told him what to do. In any case, the contractor you use should be quite capable of doing anything the architect seems to be doing, so I'd seriously consider losing the architect and put that extra few thousand into other areas of the project. One area is to address issues of noise isolation - things like wall construction, sound leaks through electrical outlets, structure-borne noise via joists and attic, minimizing air-handling noise, window type and installation, etc. Architects aren't equipped to know about these things acoustically - professional acoustical consultants are. Call Richard Schrag at RBDG (Russ Berger Design Group - http://rbdg.com/team-member/richard/), tell him what you want to do, and get a quote/estimate for what you want. He can do all this stuff in his sleep, including architectural drawings for the contractor. He may or may not think the project is too small for him, but it never hurts to ask.

Regarding dimensions, "out of square" is best. There are people who say there are "golden" dimension ratios, but you can largely ignor them, since there are several other factors which come into play, and you'll still have to deal with room modes. High on the list are non-parallel side walls and a high ceiling (at least 9 feet, preferably 10, preferably sloped).

Lastly, at least for now, I'd go for the largest dimensions possible. As it is, even 13 x 14.5 is a bit on the small side. If you can bump the 13 up to 15, and the 14.5 up to 17 or 18, and do a ceiling of 10, you'd be in very good shape - depending on where the doors and windows would be.

(Tell me again, how many times are you going to do this rennovation?)

:)


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