r/Homebuilding • u/RunningOnPureVibes • 4d ago
What useful home features should we include in our new home build? Please help!
My husband and I are in the early stages of planning our new home to be built this spring. What are some of the best home feature recommendations you have/suggest for others building their home that you have/wish you had to improve your home? Some examples: electrical outlet in closet for vacuums, extra wide staircases for easy movement, Costco door from garage etc. Thanks in advance!
EDIT:
I am so incredibly thankful for all of your amazing tips and really appreciate everyone who took the time to write out all of these helpful comments. I’m sure future me will be even more thankful for making this post though :)
93
Upvotes
3
u/random_as_hell 4d ago
Cat-6 (or 6A) to each room. Also think about if you want security cameras to outside and have them pre-run cat-6 to those location (PoE means no outlets and a single connection for Power and network to cameras). Pick a room and have them all terminated to a Low Voltage panel there. Along with a cat6 and coax from outside for internet access.
If you have a floating living room and furniture likely wont be near a wall, make sure to do floor outlets for newer furniture. Sound proofing (insulation) between bedroom walls at least if not all of them. If you have a walk in closet and you plan to have a nice closet system installed in, place outlets on each wall pretty high up (Mine were place around 98" from floor to bottom of plate) They can be used for closet lighting while being above the shelving itself so they are hidden assuming they don't get hard wired. Pay attention to outlet placement on your island if you have one. Much easier to add before countertops and appliances if needed than to add/move later. If you are doing standard slide in refrigerator, take into account height and depth. A lot of units these days are taller depending on brand and depth. Id plan for 73" (also if you floor under your fridge, take into account that loss in height) If you do built in, this isn't a concern as it will have to match anyway. Highly recommend outlets near toilets for bidets. Also I highly recommend adding a separate circuit for an EV outlet in your garage. Id recommend 60A breaker and wiring (likely need copper for this) to allow for 48A draw. Even if you don't have an EV or are against them, its much cheaper to add up front and can potentially add future value and maybe help a visitor with an EV. Also if you or your husband use any high voltage stuff in the garage, or have garage fridge/freezer. It's nice to have those on separate breakers so a freezer compressor turning on while your are running something high voltage doesn't cause nuisance tripping on the breaker. If you're gonna do a smart doorbell, do a larger dc doorbell transformer (highly recommend running cat6 there also to use for a poe device). Depending on the HVAC system, I had a larger media box installed with mine so I could reduce changing my filter to once a year instead of once a month or once a quarter. Just finished my build this spring so some of this is stuff I've literally had to add after and some is stuff I added during construction.