Custom Built House Question

There is a plot of land (about 2/3 acre) I am looking at, and it has a mature oak tree right in the middle of it that is protected and cannot be moved. For this reason the owner was unable to sell it.

I have always wanted to have a house that does not have a traditional front yard - house - back yard arrangement. I want a house with the courtyard in the middle and the courtyard is bounded by the house itself. Which means something like living/dinning/kitchen/garage in the front of the house, then the courtyard, then the rear will be like the bed rooms, den and bathrooms. The front and rear will be connected by corridors on both sides, with sliding doors opening to the courtyard. The corridor may be wide enough to serve as a den or part of

a kitchen.

Anyway I am wondering if it is practical to consider custom building a house like this with this oak tree in the middle. It will provide incredible shade to the entire courtyard, I can do a pond, some landscape, perhaps a pool will be difficult given the root system of the

tree. Someone did mention the possibility of dropping leaves, bird crap

and insect this may cause.

How do I go about investigating this idea? Do I look for an architect first, or try to find some custom plans that match my idea, and how do I

go about finding out how much it will cost and whether I can afford it?

I am located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. If someone has a suggestion for a good local contact please respond or email me.

Thanks,

A problem, but one which a talented local Architect / Designer could have great fun with. It is possible, because I did it for a client here in Boston in 1980 and client and tree are still alive and kicking.

The house was an existing 1814 4 story row house on Beacon Hill with a 15' deep yard and a 70' tree in the yard. My client wanted to enclose the yard (it was hidden from view and at the dead end of a 30' wide alley) and build a Winter Garden with a glass roof. The tree was adjacent to the rear lot line. We installed a glass roof (sloped) with 1' tempered double glazing (to withstand tree branches) a reinforced brick wall at the property line bridging over roots extending into the alley areas, and powered clearstory windows atop the wall up to the steel framed eve. The glass roof had large powered panels driven by modified aircraft flap systems and automatically closed by a rain sensor on the building roof . The tree went thru the glass roof. (I measured sway during a windstorm) and was surrounded from glass roof up 3' by an EPDM membrane clamped to the tree with a giant adjustable hose clamp and set into roof system. Counter flashing was aluminum held by another adjustable hose clamp. The client was supposed to slacken the clamps as the tree grew. She didn't, the tree popped the clamps and we had to replace them last year. We raised the garden floor about a foot supported on 1/2 round clay roof tiles to allow air and water to access the tree. A 4' x 3' pit was left around the tree and covered with a decorative grill. The Contractor was great and used to such things.

When she told me that she wanted to keep the tree, I doubted if it could be done, but almost any challenge can be met. (with enough money).

Great care in protecting the tree and its roots is necessary. Here we go down 4' for frost break and we bridged over the main roots. In Florida it might be easier.

Have a blast with the design!

EDS

'Orange'> wrote

Sounds like an excellent idea, if it is planned properly, giving the tree the space it requires to flourish. To lessen the impact on the root structure, consider building the home on pier blocks or pilings rather than a continuous footing. The Oak tree would be an enhanced by the *Euro-Cracker* style of home I have created, and I just happen to have designed 5 upscale courtyard homes during the past couple months. I am 125 miles west of you. Good luck ! (BTW: does the Oak have Spanish Moss ?)

I will not comment on who to contact, but you must definitely work with an architect or custom home designer. Preferably it should be someone local.

I think the others have hit the basic issues....so here is a summary of the key issues:

1. One of the most critical issues is the setbacks and yard lines required by your zoning regulations. Before doing ANYTHING else you need to look into this....or ask someone to look into this for you. This will tell you if you have room for a livable, functional house after you leave room for the tree and its root system.

2. I would also talk to a LOCAL tree expert to examine the tree and its setting to determine how close you can build.

3. You did not say anything about slope....even an apparently flat piece of land often drains in one direction...and this will probably affect your layout...again talk to the tree expert.

4. Depending on what you learn from a designer and tree expert, you might consider a three-sided or L-shaped courtyard....this may give you more flexibility in house layout and protecting the tree by improving drainage. This is very common in Mexico, where the courtyard house is typical. We are currently designing a house here in San Antonio in which the house is built around a U-shaped courtyard facing a beautiful oak tree. Fortunately the site has a gentle slope towards the Southeast, so we are building up-slope from the tree so the property drains and we get the dominant breeze.

Good luck...and let us know how it goes!

Buy 'Home tree home', study it for a while, and then build a tree-house.

Having done houses like this, what is the typical 'if there is something typical' surcharge of building a courtyard house vs a typical rectangular block house? I know it varies depending on size, material, design etc etc etc. But assuming everything else being equal, how much more 'percentage wise' will a courtyard house cost above and beyond a regaular house?

I assume it will cost more for the foundation, increased exterior area (now there is an exterior wall and an interior exterior wall, more roofing, some corridor space may not be as usuable requiring additional living footage, additional consideration to the drainage of the central courtyard, more operating cost of heating and cooling the house, and more doors and windows? What else?

I am not talking about a multi million dollar giant size mansion, I am talking about something like a 4000 square foot home. So is this still practical? Can you tell me in such a arrangement with this giant tree in the middle, how would I go about screening the central area (to keep the bugs out)?

By the way this tree is so big, it shaded the entire lot. It limbs reached all corners of the lot.

Thanks,

Neat idea. You seem concerned about the cost. Consider that you're probably tripling the surface area of the house (by having an interior courtyard) so heating/cooling costs will be more.

I read somewhere that windows are 20% of the cost of a house (which I find hard to beleive) but consider also you'll probably need a 1/3 more windows.

Still it may all be worth it.

Also, about the tree. I've always heard that the root system of a tree mirrors it's branches somewhat.

1. By this date (19 April), have you already hired an architect? 2. If not, can you ask the seller for some time to develop your ideas to see if the purchase is sensible...without them selling it to someone else? Maybe you need 30 to 45 days to your questions answered sufficiently to decide what to do.....get this answer, review the rest of these ideas, then let me know what you find; 3. Have you gotten credit qualified for a loan? 4. If not, do so. 5. Identify how much money you have for a cash downpayment. 6. How many bedrooms did you need? 7. Let's assume its a three bedroom house....at 1,800 sf....assume average quality construction will cost (it has to be custom built, I would think) in that area, $100 per sf....so $180,000 for the house, plus the land cost...say that's $30,000; 8. Are you qualified for a $189,000 mortgage and do you have $21,000 for the downpayment....quick test...is about $1,200 a month less then 27% of your monthly household income? 9. IF Yes to all the above, email bill pageau, tell him you and I visited about this project, and ask him if he is interested in building this for you. His

10. If he says yes, then I will get you a proposal for starting the design process. 11. Before we start designing, you will need to firmly tie up the land purchase and secure your financing....... Lawrence Goldblatt, AIA AICP