How to create a split level house?

[gracefr]

I am trying to design a house on a sloped lot. I choose to use a split-level house. The first floor will be on the lower part of the land. The second floor is above the first floor but part of the second floor is on the higher part of the lot.

How do I
1) Setup this terrain (slope)
2) Build the second floor so that part of it is above the first floor while the other part is on the higher part of the lot.

Novice user thanking you,
Grace

[jbrace]

Grace,

I am making an assumption that you are using Suite.

1) The User Guide contains good information on using Terrain Tools. See the section titled "Terrain and Landscaping Tutorial" and there is a walkout basement tutorial too.

Also, if you haven't, you may want to upgrade to 6.04. 6.04 allows you to turn off Auto Calculate Elevation. Turning of Auto Calculate Elevation was the only way I was able to successfully build my walkout home in Suite.

2. Search the forum for "split level". In a thread Dan Park describes how to build a split level and there are some help database articles that explain it.

Good luck.

Jim

[gracefr]

Thanks for that response Jim!

[cazalea]

I'm new to this program and a little confused. We have a long split level home. Main home (bedrooms, livingroom, diningroom, kitchen) is on a foundation and the lower level (garage, family room, laundry room) is on a slab. Don't know exactly how to lay out the plans.

[Katalyst777]

Have you looked over the Help Database articles on split levels? I've attached a few screenshots taken from the articles to give you a good idea what they discuss.

Article Number 140: How to control floor and ceiling heights

Article Number 901: How to create a sunken living room

Article Number 269: How to create a split level entry

There is also at least one sample plan that I was able to locate through the Find Plan Wizard that is a split level. It is number 1203, and can give you a good idea of how to accomplish a split level as well.

[imt]

I am a novice. So I am sure I messed something up somehow. If I make a change and make the wall exterior, so I get siding on the outside, I will then get siding on the upper part of the "hallway & Kitchen wall, since its the same shared wall. Would it help if you were able to view the actual project to see what I did?

Yeah you are right. I would have thought that the software would be smart enough to figure this one out on its own. This would only be an issue with split level walls, since the height is split between multiple floors.

I have come up with my own way to fudge this and I am in the middle of trying it out. I have set the wall to exterior, so that siding will be correct. Of course this will then put the same siding on the interior. I then am adding a soffit on the wall surface. I have set the thickness to 1/16 of an inch and will make it the size of the wall (Covering the top and bottom section. I then will be able to add my crown moulding and paint this wall the same color as the reminder of the room. This would minimaly affect the dimensions of the room since the soffit is only 1/16 of an inch.

[omni]

What you need is something that the roof divideds the walls as exterior and interior. We need something that will allow us to divide walls instead of horizontal and vertical but on angles.

I thing I may have found it. In HDP 9 When you click the wall and bring up the wall specs click on the roof tab and in the lower right there is a drop down box that you can specify the lower wall below the roof the wall above the roof line will be the default wall.

I don't know if hdp 8 has this.

[Katalyst777]

The Pro 9 Trial version has an option under the Roof tab of the Wall Specification dialog for "Lower wall type if split by butting roof." The Help describes is as:

Lower wall type if split by butting roof -Specify the desired wall type for the portion of the selected wall located beneath an adjacent, abutting roof plane, should one be present. The upper portion is defined on the Wall Types tab.

This sounds like it may be what you need? Architectural Home Designer version 8 doesn't have it, so I don't know if it is in the other version 9 programs or if it is a Pro only feature. Perhaps Mr. Potter could elaborate?