Home > Lofthouses > Designing and Ordering Your Lofthouse
A few words about building permits
Before starting to design your house, talk with your local building or zoning officials to see whether you can build what you want where you want it. Ask if there are unusual local conditions such as high snow, wind or seismic loads. Try to determine what, if any, technical information or drawings they will require. In some cases, a printed copy of the Lofthouse Specifications page will be sufficient. Sometimes, floorplans and elevation drawings will be required. Shelter-Kit can provide these once your design is finalized. Occasionally, building officials will require a set of structural drawings with an engineer's stamp. These are available from Shelter-Kit for a modest fee.
Designing
Thanks to its post & beam framing system, designing a Lofthouse is easy. By combining standard components, many different sizes and shapes can be created to meet almost any need. The drawings on this page illustrate the Lofthouse Components and how they can be combined.
Lofthouse Modular Components
Standard modules can create houses of many different sizes. The chart below lists the name of each module and its overall size. The schematic drawings and models illustrate the size and shape of each module and their relationship to each other.
| Extensions | LE 16 | 8' x 16' | Porches | LP 16 | 10' x 16' |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LE 20 | 8' x 20' | LP 20 | 10' x 20' | ||
| Lean-tos | LL 16 | 10' x 16' | LP 24 | 10' x 24' | |
| LL 20 | 10' x 20' | Decks | LD 16 | 10' x 16' | |
| LL 24 | 10' x 24' | LD 20 | 10' x 20' | ||
| LD 10 | 10' x 10' | ||||
| LD 8 | 8' x 10' | ||||
Combining Lofthouse Modules—What You Can and Can't Do
Standard modules can be combined to create houses of many different sizes, either as single building projects or or over a period of years. The schematics drawings below show how the modules can and can't be combined.
Some things you can't do with Lofthouse modules. Note misalignment of corners and sides.
Realize that there are some limits. The posts, trusses and headers cannot be eliminated, moved, cut, or modified in any way. This occasionally means moving a door, window or stair to accommodate the frame. Sometimes posts must be added: if a Porch or Lean-To is attached to the front or rear of a Lofthouse a post must be added in the center of the Lofthouse wall. Note also the 6" step down from a Lofthouse to any Deck, Porch or Lean-To floor. There are some limits on the number and size of door and window openings; these limits can be addressed as your floorplan is refined. The basic components and their dimensions and specifications are described in Lofthouse Specifications. Refer to The Lofthouse Gallery and Lofthouse Floorplans for examples of what others have done. Observe the space allowed for stairs, hallways, doors, appliances, fixtures, and the thickness of walls and interior partitions.
Start by making a list of the things you need or want in your house and how it will be used. Is it a seasonal vacation home? A residence? How many bedrooms and bathrooms are needed? Do you plan to enlarge the house? How much do you want to spend? Does your site have a view that you would like to see from the house? Spend time to include all the ideas that you can, then list them with the most important or essential items first and the least important items last. Compare the sizes of the rooms in the drawings with the sizes of the rooms that you want.
Ordering Your Lofthouse
- The drawings Lofthouse 16 Floorplan and Lofthouse 20 Floorplan show Lofthouses with Decks, Porches or Lean-Tos on two sides. Using the modules needed, sketch in the details of your own floorplan, working from the list of features that you want in your house. Do this several times, moving rooms and objects to different locations to get the most use from the space. Prices for the modules you have chosen are listed in Lofthouse Prices. You can closely estimate the cost of your Lofthouse from this list.
- After you have laid out your floorplan, located the doors and windows and indicated their approximate size and style, send it to us. If you have questions be sure to include them with your floorplan. We will quote a price for the kit, with or without doors and windows, and answer your questions. If we provide doors and windows as part of the kit, prepared openings, trim and instructions are included. We do not pre-cut openings for doors and windows that we do not provide. If you tell us the location of the site (town and zip code) we will estimate the shipping charge.
Our contact information is:
Shelter-Kit
22W Mill Street
Tilton, NH 03276
E: buildings@shelter-kit.com
T: (603) 286-7611
F: (603) 286-2839
- Once your design is finalized and you have received a building permit, or are sure that one will be issued, print and complete an Order Form/Purchase Agreement (HTML or PDF file) and send it to us with the retainer. We will acknowledge receipt of your Order and Retainer by return mail. Your Lofthouse order will be placed in our production schedule and a Construction Manual will be sent to you. If you are unable to view or print the order Form/Purchase Agreement or if you have any questions call, write, e mail or fax us.