Building a house, what direction do we want it built in?

[UserX]

The side of your house that has the most windows, or where you will spend the most time, should NOT face west!

The front on my house faces east and the rear west, and I love it that way.

[Lone Sailor]

The side of your house that has the most windows, or where you will spend the most time, should NOT face west!

The front on my house faces east and the rear west, and I love it that way.

Wouldn't it be the other way around? Front face west and rear face east? I guess if sunsets are your thing I could understand it more I suppose, but otherwise I would think for most of the year it would be more shaded in the rear of the house facing east and be a bit cooler because of that.

[90GT50]

Brent, high roof in the garage for a lift, and lots of outlets for DAs and rotarys, that's all I got, lol.

[Counterfiend]

The ceiling in the garage is 14' high. So thats nice. Doing outlets for air compressor, welder, and a few extra just to have em (cant have too many)

The builder is David Weekley. No room for a shop anywhere on the property. Lot size is about 10k sq ft. So a big backyard in that part of dallas for sure.

I know all home builders have horror stories, but David Weekley seems great.

Brent

[90GT50]

The ceiling in the garage is 14' high. So thats nice. Doing outlets for air compressor, welder, and a few extra just to have em (cant have too many)

The builder is David Weekley. No room for a shop anywhere on the property. Lot size is about 10k sq ft. So a big backyard in that part of dallas for sure.

I know all home builders have horror stories, but David Weekley seems great.

Brent

Nice, are you staying in Coppell?

[Who Needs 8]

Wouldn't it be the other way around? Front face west and rear face east?

Like I said before, it's not so much "front", "rear" or what ever, it's all about square footage of glass.

East/West is the same when calculating an HVAC load. But North/South is not because of the angle of the sun at different times of the year.

So obviously you want the side with the most square footage of glass to face North because the Sun will be heating that side of the house least.

[Vertnut]

The back of my house faces west, but I have most of my windows under the covered back porch. The sun isn't really a factor due to the angle.

[Who Needs 8]

From my experience it's an insulation issue. My media/game room is directly above my garage and that room suffers from serious temperature differential than all other upstairs rooms. We keep it closed and shut off unless we know we are going to be using it.

This is/isn't the problem. If your HVAC was designed correctly (I do not do Ashton Woods homes, but I think I know who does and if so I know it wasn't done correctly) then more air would be sent to the room above the garage to counter the lack of insulation between the garage. But the more air, even if balanced correctly, is going to also raise the amount of energy needed. One of the best ways to counter the energy use is to zone the room above the garage with it's own t-stat. But builders have stopped doing this to cut costs.

Think of it this way . . . if it's hot enough outside to get your attic into the 130 degree area then your garage will probably reach 100-110. The insulation in the ceiling between your 2nd floor and attic space is probably R-30. But the insulation between your Garage and Room above it is only R-13 or R-19. I think you see the problem here.

High end builders are only NOW starting to use R-30 insulation in the ceilings between garages and rooms above.

[Who Needs 8]

The back of my house faces west, but I have most of my windows under the covered back porch. The sun isn't really a factor due to the angle.

Yeah, I forgot to include that suggestion. Covered patio's really help a ton (almost litterally can drop the A/C a half a ton).

[AdamLX]

This is/isn't the problem. If your HVAC was designed correctly (I do not do Ashton Woods homes, but I think I know who does and if so I know it wasn't done correctly) then more air would be sent to the room above the garage to counter the lack of insulation between the garage. But the more air, even if balanced correctly, is going to also raise the amount of energy needed. One of the best ways to counter the energy use is to zone the room above the garage with it's own t-stat. But builders have stopped doing this to cut costs.

Think of it this way . . . if it's hot enough outside to get your attic into the 130 degree area then your garage will probably reach 100-110. The insulation in the ceiling between your 2nd floor and attic space is probably R-30. But the insulation between your Garage and Room above it is only R-13 or R-19. I think you see the problem here.

High end builders are only NOW starting to use R-30 insulation in the ceilings between garages and rooms above.

It's not an HVAC issue as it is perfectly fine when I have it running. I just mean in general if I leave all doors open with nothing running, the room above the garage has a huge temperature variation compared to other rooms.

[yellowstang]

It's not an HVAC issue as it is perfectly fine when I have it running. I just mean in general if I leave all doors open with nothing running, the room above the garage has a huge temperature variation compared to other rooms.

Needs a Holmes Inspection...

He'd spray the underside with foam and seal it up good!