Reference
48 elements that separate a considered house from an expensive one. Each with the dimension that decides whether it works, what it costs relative to everything else on the list, and how much difference it makes once you live there.
Filter by section, sort by impact, or search for the thing you are arguing about with your builder.
0 mm upstand, 150 mm channel
The single detail that decides whether a terrace is part of the house or a destination. Must be drawn before the slab is poured.
2.0 to 2.5 m projection
Shades the glass, protects the sliding track, makes an outdoor room and gives the elevation a horizontal line that ages well.
200 to 250 mm wall
Structure and finish in one pour. Costs 15 to 30 per cent more than concrete that will be covered, and there is no second chance.
4 by 4 m minimum
A chimney, a light well and a windless room disguised as a garden. Adds external wall, removes the need for cooling.
400 to 700 mm high, at head level
The cheapest way to light the back of a deep room and the only one that adds no glare at eye level.
15 to 25 mm
Wall stops, ceiling begins, nothing explains itself. Replaces cornice, skirting and architrave in one move.
200 mm+, insulation outside
Flattens the daily temperature swing by six to nine degrees. Useless if the insulation is on the wrong side.
half levels on 8 to 20 per cent slopes
Follows the contour instead of fighting it. Every room gets a horizon, excavation stays affordable.
flush with finished floor
The difference between a door and an absence. Requires the structural slab to be set down before the screed goes in.
80 to 150 kg per m2 saturated
Real cooling on the top floor, real weight in the structure. Needs a root barrier, drainage layer and access at every outlet.
high vent, 2 m above intake
Stack ventilation with no moving parts. Works best in still, hot weather, exactly when cross ventilation fails.
sliding or folding, full opening
Stops the heat before the glass. Internal blinds stop glare and almost no heat at all.
3 m deep minimum
Outdoor room carved into the building volume rather than added to it. Permanent shade, no maintenance, no structure to fail.
coping set back 20 mm
Makes a flat roof read as a line rather than a wedding cake. Ask for the 1:5 section before construction.
300 to 600 mm
Lifts timber and render clear of splashback and ground moisture, which is where facades usually start failing.
one material, inside to out
Makes space read larger far more reliably than pale paint. Honed inside, brushed outside, same stone.
1 part wall colour to 4 white
Softens the corner, lowers the visual pressure and warms every face in the room. Costs nothing but the mixing.
25 to 45 euro per m2 applied
Scatters light instead of reflecting it. Marks, and the marks read as age rather than damage.
60 to 110 euro per m2
Warm, grainy and remarkable at buffering humidity. Excellent in bedrooms, questionable in shower rooms.
lime, polished, soap sealed
Waterproof and seamless enough to make tiling look fussy. Requires a genuine specialist with five year old work to show.
fabric 2.5x opening width
Hung at the ceiling, not the window head. The room gains height and the window loses its picture frame.
recessed box, channels both sides
Real darkness comes from covered edges, not from thicker fabric. The most under-specified item in bedrooms.
ambient, task, accent, separate circuits
Ambient you cannot locate, task you can aim, accent that washes a surface. Every layer dimmable, or it will be unused.
2200 to 2700 K at bedside
The cheapest upgrade in any bedroom. Low, warm, indirect light in the last hour before sleep.
floor to ceiling, no architrave
Doors stop being objects and become part of the wall. Requires a frameless system and a very straight opening.
240 by 340 cm typical
Under the front legs of every piece in the group. The size that looks right in the shop is always too small at home.
2.4 to 3.0 m seat to seat
Closer feels like an interrogation, further and the conversation dies. No dominant direction, a surface within reach of every seat.
190 by 80 cm, under a window
The most flexible object you can own and the first thing sold when a house changes hands, because nobody knows how to name it.
floor to ceiling, one run
All the storage on one wall, everything behind a door, the rest of the room almost empty. More per metre, cheaper overall.
20 to 30 mm, matt
Matt is forgiving where polished is a mirror that records every scratch. Ask for the absorption figure before the sample.
three depths, soft close
Drawers instead of cupboards is the highest-return decision in any kitchen. You see everything, you reach everything.
500+ m3/h at under 55 dB
The difference between an open kitchen and a house that smells of last night. Duct diameter matters more than the motor.
bar, 128 to 192 mm centres
Something to hook a finger under with wet hands, in a material that improves with grease and polishing.
electric mat or wet loop
Not a comfort extra: it is the mechanism that dries the room, keeps grout clean and frees the radiator wall.
against the wall, 1.5 per cent fall
One direction of fall instead of four, larger format tiles, and no puddle in the corner nobody can reach.
15 air changes per hour, run-on timer
The most skipped item in bathroom design and the reason so many of them smell faintly sour by year three.
borrowed light to internal rooms
Privacy is a matter of glass type and sill height, not of solid walls. Rescues bathrooms with no external wall.
1.8 m high, 2 to 3 m long
Costs the price of a sofa and adds six weeks to each end of the outdoor season. Perpendicular to the prevailing wind.
dropped 500 to 600 mm
Puts a seated head below the airflow. Looks like a style decision, is a wind decision.
firebox in a terrace wall
The wall shelters the flame, the mass radiates for hours after the fire dies, and the shelf beside it turns fire into equipment.
70 per cent coverage minimum
Cools by transpiration as well as shade, four to six degrees under dense foliage. Slats alone give you stripes at lunch.
R11 slip rating, 1.5 per cent fall
Stays comfortable barefoot in full sun where dark porcelain reaches sixty degrees at the hour you want to swim.
10 mm shadow gap, slot drain
Three per cent of the pool budget, and the difference between water sitting in the landscape and a swimming facility.
recessed, below coping
Halves heating cost and evaporation, doubles the usable season. Retrofitting one is expensive and ugly.
isolation valve, drain-down point
The line that turns an outdoor barbecue into an outdoor kitchen, and the first one cut from the budget.
70 to 100 mm depth
Cuts evaporation by roughly two thirds, cools root zones and suppresses weeds. Highest return per euro in any dry garden.
positioned by 16:00 shade
Placed by where the shade falls in the afternoon, not by where it balances the elevation from the drive.
deep, fortnightly, two seasons
Twenty litres once a fortnight beats three litres daily. Remove it once the planting is established, which is the part nobody does.
How to use it
Sort by impact and look at the first ten. Most of them are cheap: a return wall, gravel mulch, a tinted ceiling, warm bulbs at the bedside, drawers instead of cupboards. The expensive items are further down the list than anyone expects, which is the most useful thing this page has to say.