Choosing The Right Lot For Your Custom Home

Shape Of The Lot

The shape and geography of the lot has a dramatic influence on the design of your home. For instance, what if your lot is sloped? This has some serious impacts on the design and construction process for your home. Depending on the grade of the slope you may be able to flatten it out but if the grade of the slope is too steep or environmental factors make flattening the ground no longer a possibility, you may have to consider changing the design of the home to fit this slope. A big design change that this could impact would be basement size and whether you could have a walkout basement. 

Considerations must be made if the lot is oddly shaped, this may cause design adjustments if the lot was not taken into account when it was designed. Optimal placement within this lot choice may cause a complete redesign of the features like the front door in relation to the walkway, or the garage in relation to how the lot connects to the road. The layout and size of the home may change if there are desired lot features such as a front or backyard or even for privacy reasons. The shape and size can also determine the future of the home, consider if you may want a pool or a large deck in the backyard. You must consider these choices about your lot before construction begins because it may make it impossible to do in the future.

Your lot may also have access to breathtaking views, of which the Okanagan has many to behold. It would be in your best interest to take advantage of these views whenever possible, but it would be a shame if your design didn’t take this into account and your laundry room was the one to have the best views. It is common in many cases that the design of the home should conform to the lot to ensure that it is facing the right direction. It is important that there is optimal placement for windows, decks, and leisure areas to ensure that the home can take in the most of the views as possible.

You may have picked out the best location for your home, it is close to friends and family and school, and to top it off you got it for a great price! But something you may not have considered is the quality of ground on which you are building your home. It is of utmost importance that you know what soil type you have, different soil types such as clay and granular which dramatically affect how the home will be built. Different soil types especially in conjunction with the geography of the property could lead to serious problems such as difficulty with drainage or erosion.  It is also important that you do background research on the property. If the property had been filled in at some point then it is absolutely crucial that you have the soil tested by professionals to ensure that the ground is secured. Improperly filled land can cause serious damage to your property and home. In some cases it is okay to build on land that has been filled in, so long as it was “clean fill” and compacted properly. But this is a costly risk and must be taken into consideration when choosing the right lot. You will also have to contend with natural barriers such as trees that can change the layout of the lot significantly, in some cases you may not even be allowed to fully remove the trees which means that it must be taken into consideration when designing the home. But do not fret with the right design and creativity, even the most difficult lots can be turned into a perfect foundation for your new custom home.

The purpose of zoning is to control density, noise, and congestion in a neighbourhood. Some may not want a massive apartment complex or farm built next to their new custom-built home. Safety is also a concern. A good example would be setbacks, which keep houses separated, in the event a fire were to occur it would prevent the fire from jumping from one house to another. Violating zoning rules is not something we would recommend, even with a valid building permit it is possible that errors can occur especially if the design of the custom home doesn’t take the lot into consideration. Be careful because if you build your home too close to the lot line or violate height restrictions, you can be forced to modify and in some serious cases, dismantle the construction project if a solution is not possible with what is already done. At a minimum, you can face big legal bills and enormous headaches. That is why we highly recommend before finalizing any design for your new custom home that you take into great consideration the lot you choose and the zoning laws that come with it and how they will inevitably affect the final designs.