Anyone have a custom home built?

[BudAshes]

"The one factor that I saw that drove up the price of a new house was the amount of change orders that occurred. If the husband, or wife, changes their mind all the time........the dollar signs add up very quickly."​

Good luck.

This is definitely huge. Make sure you know what you want and the general contractor in charge understands what you want as well. Be as specific as possible and get everything in writing. Honestly I'd probably want to see a few houses he built and talk to the people he built them for before we got started as well.

 

[Darwin333]

For solar I'm still a fan of regular roof mount or ground mount systems so that it keeps both systems (shingle and solar) separate. In a custom home I would build it out so the roof is at an optimal angle for snow to slide off easily and that all penetrations are on the north side. Basically a church style roof with one side facing south, but maybe not quite as steep. I'd probably use metal roofing or something that is life time, then have regular mounted panels on it.

Why would all of your penetrations be on the north side?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Why would all of your penetrations be on the north side?

So that the south side can have no obstructions and be used for solar.

Of course that would require some thinking in the entire planing of the house as anything that requires any kind of venting should probably be on the north side.

 

[Darwin333]

So that the south side can have no obstructions and be used for solar.

Of course that would require some thinking in the entire planing of the house as anything that requires any kind of venting should probably be on the north side.

Ah, sorry, I do both solar and roofing and both of them come with penetrations. Trying to keep penetrations off of a big south facing roof with a lot of glass on it is going to get ugly quick if at all possible due to the wind codes. Not sure what it is up north but down here we have to use some pretty massive screws straight into the rafters so the solar itself creates the largest amount of penetrations. I'm assuming you are looking at it from a shading side and not a waterproofing side?

In a bind keep them as close to ridge or hips as you can without actually being part of said ridge/hip, NEVER put anything even near valleys.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Ah, sorry, I do both solar and roofing and both of them come with penetrations. Trying to keep penetrations off of a big south facing roof with a lot of glass on it is going to get ugly quick if at all possible due to the wind codes. Not sure what it is up north but down here we have to use some pretty massive screws straight into the rafters so the solar itself creates the largest amount of penetrations. I'm assuming you are looking at it from a shading side and not a waterproofing side?

In a bind keep them as close to ridge or hips as you can without actually being part of said ridge/hip, NEVER put anything even near valleys.

Ohh sorry I meant no roof vents, and that kind of thing. You'd still have to make penitrations for the actual solar panels of course. We get huge wind bursts here and wind storms so would definitely want to use bolts going right though the rafters with nuts on the other end and unitstrut or something for the overall mounting.

 

[Darwin333]

Ohh sorry I meant no roof vents, and that kind of thing. You'd still have to make penitrations for the actual solar panels of course. We get huge wind bursts here and wind storms so would definitely want to use bolts going right though the rafters with nuts on the other end and unitstrut or something for the overall mounting.

Just FYI, we must design our systems to the most stringent/highest wind speeds in the country, systems must be able to withstand 140mph winds for X amount of time (can't remember how long atm, brain fog), and we get by with using lag screws into the rafters. Pretty darn big lag screws admittedly but it sure as hell beats having to use bolts and nuts in the attic. I did design and manage one project on a flat roof in which the concrete joists were so far apart we had to use 4 big ass bolts to a custom made piece of steel in the attic and wrapped around the joist. To make matters worse the arrays ran diagonal to the direction of the joists and we were drilling through a brand new roof that we had just installed so our math had to be spot on every time. Pretty much everything was custom on that job, not my biggest project by far but damn sure one of my proudest. If those panels ever get blown off of that roof wherever they find them they will still be attached to those concrete joists or at least whatever is left of the joists. Anyway, having to attach nuts in the attic SUCKS big time and I didn't even have to physically do it. It's your house though and if that is what makes you comfortable then go for it bud.

If I remember I will dig up some pics of the project.