Security Minded Home Plan

[JCook5003]

Well Guys-

I want to gather some information.

I am starting to plan my dream house, it will be built out on our family farm.

I want to incorporate a lot of energy effiency, self suffiency, and security principles into my design. I have looked into ICF's and the home will most likley be built from those.

I had thought about ICF walls, shed style roof earth bermed on 3 sides with passive solar heating, I had even thought of using something like Lite-Deck and complely burrying the house on all but the south facing wall, but I was worried about radon buildup and venting.

I want to incorporate a "walk-in gun safe/safe room" in the basement, concrete on all sides and a concrete roof, plumbed, electric and data connections with a vault door.

I also want to build the house "smart" so I can gain some effiency and convience, as well as security (one button turns on every light in the house) etc.

Other than an earth sheltered or earth bermed house I had thought about a "Spanish Villa" style home with a courtyard, that way I could ultimatley have a truly secure exterior with a heavy entry gate.

I have a strong architectural background and will probably design the home myself and have a professional architect sign off on the plans and check them over.

Anyway enough rambling I am just gathering ideas and get some brainstorming going, suggestions, and links to good reading or floor plans and building materials are greatly appreciated.

 

[CB900F]

Jcook5003;

When you want to do the vault door, please contact me. I'm a Graffunder dealer & would be glad to help you get what you want, as long as it's a true vault door. Graffunder is a custom maker & will build to dimension for you. However, they won't build a jacketed residential type door. It's plate steel at a minimum with them.

900F

 

[leadcounsel]

Well, I"m very interested so when you design the plans be sure to share them here!

My concern is that I move so often that it would be hard to give up a dream house like that!

 

[JCook5003]

If I design a courtyard or atrium style home in the Eichler style how in the hell do I drain rain water from the center atrium away from the home?

See this link for the plans I am thinking about http://www.eichlersocal.com/floorplans/FPindex1.htm

 

[Robby]

As to the drains for an atrium. I would say, just like you set up perimeter drainage when the foundations are setup, the same would apply, with the addition of several drains from the center of the area, to the outside of the home to remove any excess water that you get in that area.

I had to design and figure out some of mine to keep water off a lower deck that was surrounded on 3 sides by house and dirt. I only missed on one side, so I have to back and retro that area as water stands there for short periods after heavy rains. My problem is Bed Rock just a few inches below that area.

 

[BSlacker]

If I design a courtyard or atrium style home in the Eichler style how in the hell do I drain rain water from the center atrium away from the home?

I have a central atrium in the Eichler style. The drainage is just like a patio. Water drains off paved and gravel areas to areas where there are trees or plants and that is surrounded with drains that take heavy water off to the street. Normal rain falls just like a uncovered patio soaks in waters the folage excess hits the drains and goes to the street. Where I need fast drainage such as run off from the roof gravel is used as a cover and normal drain fabic and pipes do the work water disappears into the gravel. Most of the plants that are large are planted in pots with the bottoms cut out so that the roots can grow into the soil. They wouldn't get that large with just the soil and root space provided by the pots.
To stay on the built in security topic, a little, the atrium design provides secure space from the front door to the front gate. When answering the front door at my house just look first at the video screen and see them. If you want to be seen then go ahead open the front door you still have the locked gate and 7 yards distance. If not stay hidden and speak through a barred window that is beside the gate or ignore its your option.

 

[JCook5003]

BSlacker, do you like your home? how does the atrium effect cooling in the summer, and heating in the winter?

Also if you dont mind could you show a few photos of your house?

I am torn between an Atrium style plan and an earth sheltered plan, I think the earth sheltered would be the most affordable to build, but I like the atrium style more.

 

[TCB in TN]

In any house (especially an ICF) your "weak points" are going to be your holes in the wall (windows, and doors). Good steel core doors are great but even with a good steel door if your frame is just wood then it doesn't take much to defeat them. Heavy steel door frames set into your concrete wall will give you a much stronger barrier. Windows still are a problem pretty much anyway you look at it, but I have seen some very nice fancy steel window grating that looks good and will help to slow down unwanted entry. They can still yank them off with a chain and a car etc, but it takes a lot more work. Another area to think about is the roof. Metal roofing is harder to get through than shingle, but anyone can get in through just about any roof if they want to.

 

[TallPine]

Our house is on a wooded hillside so it makes it sort of impractical, but if I were setting up a rural home from scratch, I would have a large fenced yard around the house and garage with a couple of big dogs running in there all the time.

The driveway would be fenced as well, but with a cross-fence so the dogs could be penned on one side and the driveway gate could be open for coming and going as desired.

Also, you want to be careful about having trees and bushes around to make hiding places (not to mention defensible space in case of wildfire).

When we first moved out here in the hills, I wasn't thinking that much about security until we had some creeps prowling around our house area.

There are so many different ways to secure a house (I'd like to have a ladder that we pull up at night ), but something to think about is your visibility out. The upstairs of our house is a half-wall a-frame so there are only windows on the ends. Someday I want to put a dormer on the driveway side.

If your bedrooms are upstairs, it would be handy to have a window or even a balcony above the front door so that if some strangers show up at night then you can speak to them from above without opening the door. (assuming your dogs haven't eaten them first )

 

[Justin]

IIRC, Jeff Cooper wrote an article on defense-oriented architecture. It was short, and might be worth a read.

 

[hotshotshoting]

just so you know in a "secure" home you cant be lazy cause theres alot of walking to check different angles... alot of manual checkpoints etc... not to mention you can buy a vault door.. if i saw a vault door i would just go through your wall.... so its very tough and expensive but if you are concerned with that amount of saftey go for it

 

[ServiceSoon]

My father is building an ICF home using Build Block and I keep asking him to let me shoot his walls. I am certain they can withstand a large caliber rifle.

Which blocks are you going to use?

 

[BSlacker]

I don't know how much this helps but here are a couple of pics.
First is looking out the front door towards the front gate.

This one is looking from the walkway towards the front gate that leads to the atrium. In upper right you can see the camera.

My office window is to the left of the front door pic. One can not see into the house from the gate. There is a video camera looking at the gate area. Monitors all over the house.
Good luck with your build.
Don't care about heating and cooling cost. I suspect it helps both. It provides a cool shaded place for the humming birds to raise their young and thats all the wife cares about.
B

 

[DRYHUMOR]

Think about capturing the rainwater in a cistern. DC pumps powered by solar can pump into a storage tank. Left untreated, it's good for irrigation, washing, and flushing. A little chlorene, it's ok to drink.

Think about a central tower, it can be used to draw cooling air through the structure in the summer. Slit vertical windows allow vantage points but no access if small enough.

Radiant heating is an option as well. Cooling can be done this way also. Look into a solar panel dedicated to a DC pump to circulate the water in the radiant system. Valving can provide a loop to a collector for heating, and a loop buried underground for cooling. Just valve accordingly for summer and winter. Distilled water is mineral free and would aid in the life of the system. You could add a tank in the attic for makeup water when needed.

 

[Creade]

I recently purchased a home that was intended to be a "green" economic home in the 1980s.
First, let me say its not easy trying to update and fix all the disasters of "do-it yourselfers" that did all their own work 20 years ago.
Our house is a very strange floor plan, they call it multilevel.

We have passive solar for our hot water heater. The solar panels are ontop of our front sunroom with venting fans into the house to use more of that heat when possible, and reversed fans to blow the heat out if we're cooling.
A central fireplace located in the great room is the main heat source for the house. Each room then has an electric baseboard heater as well, all controlled independent of one another.

A commercial cooling unit in the kitchen cools the entire house, as we do not have ductwork for forced air cooling.

All of the bedrooms are below grade, keeping them warmer in the winter, and very cool in the summer.
I am considering looking into a spacepak type system for more airflow and air quality control in the lower bedrooms.

We also have a huge venting fan in one end of the house, when windows/doors are opened/closed in the proper manner, I can turn the house into a windtunnel to cool/heat or air out the house.

I was really just sharing ideas, not necessarily telling you to use this plan, just saying, its definitely manageable to be efficient without have a state of the art home!

I wish I would have had the chance to design some of this house in the beginning!