Designing homes on a two foot grid

There is an awful lot that your designer can do to help your next project get built green. One of the things to think about from the start is designing on a grid. Commercial guys can use any size grid, five feet, ten feet, or whatever, because concrete and steel works great in any dimension. For homes built out of lumber a two foor grid works best. Why? Well, that's the lengths that they sell the lumber in. So you are going to get better results using those dimensions. The inside walls aren't so critical as the outside ones. It takes the same amount of lumber to make a house 29' deep as it does 30' deep, you just throw more of it on the ground. Using a 2' grid for general building layout will help a lot in getting the most for your building dollar. Cut outs and bays are okay if you don't overuse them, and rectangular boxes are more efficient than "L" shapes and "H" shapes. Don't compromize your design, just think about ways to make your design greener!