I am a day late, nearly two days late. For those paying attention, I apologize. This will be a short post, but a post that is very useful. I am taking the advice and an idea from a friend, 5 items to pay attention to when selecting a building site. Lot selection is very important because it can either save you money or cost you money, as well as create more maintenance or cause you to have more maintenance.
1.
Lot Slope or Topography-Gone are the days that you can find a flat lot in a neighborhood. You may be able to locate large tracts of property and find a nice flat area, but in a neighborhood, it is very difficult. So when looking for a lot, look for a property with the minimalist amount of slope. And look for a lot that slopes from are rear corner to the opposite front corner. This will allow you to design a home where by dropping the garage (assuming it is located on the opposite front corner) will aid in eliminating the amount of dirt brought in.
2.
Is the lot wooded or barren? The more trees, the more it cost to clear for the home. But if you look closely, you can choose a lot where the nicer trees and larger trees are located outside of the building foot print. It is ideal to have some trees on the property to aid in shading the home, this will help to keep direct sunlight off of the home, allowing the air conditioning units to work less. Which leads us to the 3rd item.
3.
Lot position or placement. For energy efficiency you want the widest part of the home to face northern or southern directions. Typically the widest exterior walls of the home contain the most windows. Facing East or West will allow for the most sun exposure on these windows causing the home have a high heat gain. This is not good for the HVAC system, hot morning and hot afternoons. The A/C system will be working hard all day. So for your home to face the norther or southern direction the property needs to be oriented in the same way.
4.
The lot's elevation compared to the streets elevation. This one can be tricky. The lot can be flat and look ideal, but may sit below the level of the street. This can be bad. If the neighborhood drainage was not planned properly, in periods of heavy rain you may experience flooding. I have seen this happen before. New developments are now taking notice, and are requiring in the Deed Restrictions or Architectural Guidelines, that the home site "x" amount of feet higher than the street. So for a lot that appeared flat and perfect in every way, but sat 4 feet below the street's highest point, now you have to raise the homes foundation 4 feet plus "x" amount over that. This can cost some serious money. And a lot of times it is overlooked, because the homeowner does not read the Architectural Guidelines closely.
5.
Lot Drainage- You want a lot that is as flat as possible, but you also want it to drain properly. You don't want a lot with low areas that are going to hold water after rains, causing a perfect area for mosquitoes to breed. The ideal lot would be flat and high in the center with slight slopes around the sides to allow for water shed to make it's way to the ditch and neighborhood drain system. An easy way to identify low land areas around Houston are what we call Saw Palmettos. These plants like wet soil. If you are looking at property filled with Saw Palmettos, then you might want to look elsewhere.
I hope you find this post helpful when you are out lot or land hunting for that new custom home.
Labels: Build Site, Lot
