Working with your builder
Your bathrooms and laundry
Everybody loves a well designed bathroom. Here's an opportunity to add value to your home and save lots of water in bathrooms and laundries without having to compromise a thing. Your plumbing fixtures will last a long time so it pays to demand the best standard of water savings. When you come to sell your home you'll want it to be able to compete with newer, water efficient homes.
The 3-star showerhead costs no extra and can save around $100 in energy and water each year. A 4-star toilet saves the average household about 1,000–1,500 litres of water each year.
There's been a recent trend towards multiple bathrooms in new homes, but it's worth thinking about the extra costs and cleaning before you add bathroom number three to your 'wish list'!
| Average home | Water efficient home | |
|---|---|---|
| Shower | 9 –10 L/minute | 6–7 L/minute (3-star) |
| Toilet | 7 .5 L/flush | less than 4 L/flush (4-star) |
| Washing machine | 140 L/wash | 7 0 L/wash (4.5-star) |
| Dishwasher | 2 0 L/wash | 12 L/wash (4-star) |
You can save money on plumbing by choosing a plan that groups wet areas like the kitchen, laundry and bathrooms close together.
Having windows that open to ventilate bathrooms and laundries is cheaper and quieter than relying on an exhaust fan. Your rooms will have a light, airy feel and you'll save on electricity.
If you use predominantly light, neutral colours in permanent finishes like tiles, you can use colour accents in features that are easier to change, like painted walls. It's a good idea to choose slip-resistant floor tiles.
After you've locked in good savings with your water efficient fittings you might want to go further by using rainwater or treating water for reuse. More information.
Your bedrooms
The southern side of the house is the coolest and usually good for bedrooms. The eastern side gets morning sun and this can also be a nice aspect, though you'll need shading if you want to sleep in!
Avoid bedrooms facing west if you can as they heat up in the afternoon and can be uncomfortable on a summer night. Because heat rises, upper level bedrooms can get particularly hot. If you just can't avoid west-facing bedrooms don't worry - they can still be comfortable - you'll just need to pay better attention to shading and insulation.
Your home office
If you work from home a lot, try to provide your home office with a pleasant north-facing aspect - you'll want it to be comfortable all day.
'Getting the builder to make a few changes to the plan was the best thing we ever did.'
Checklist
Our bathrooms, laundry, bedrooms and home office
- Will our bathrooms and laundry have a window for natural ventilation?
- Have we chosen fixtures that will save water? For example, do our bathrooms and laundries have 3-star showerheads, 4-star toilets and 3+ star taps?
- Comments, things we'd like to change:
- Can we swap some rooms around so the bedrooms will be cooler in summer?
- Comments, things we'd like to change:
- Will we use the home office a lot?
- Will it be a sunny, pleasant place to work?
- Comments, things we'd like to change: