A little peace and quiet can be hard to find for many of us. Of all places, our home
should be quite private and afford us those little luxuries. Whether it’s lounging in your back garden and soaking up a little sun alone or with friends or loved ones, being able to work quietly from your home office, or simply not having prying eyes looking through your window at any given time, privacy often has a price that many of us are all too willing to gladly pay.
There are many ways to retrofit a home to make it more private after the fact (after it’s been built), but it’s also something one should consider when building a new home, and especially a dual occupancy home.
These homes are two separate properties that have been subdivided on what was often one singular plot, so naturally there’s a lot more proximity and perhaps less of a feeling of privacy. Sometimes, they’re attached (e.g. a ‘duplex’), at other times, they’re physically separated. In either case, it’s possible and often desirable to build dual occupancy homes with plenty of privacy features for the moment they’re built and for the future.
Here are a few design tips to consider when planning out your dream dual occupancy home:
01. Provide Separate Entrances and Footpaths
No matter whether the homes are attached with a privacy wall in between or separate, the entrance to both should be clearly demarcated and each should have their own entrance and pathways leading up to the front door. Shared paths and a shared door creates a lot of potential challenges, like passing responsibility for cleaning or maintaining shared spaces. At that point your property, even if not legally classified as such, operates like a strata (e.g. think of a condominium), but much worse – nobody will claim responsibility for cleaning up and paying for someone else’s mess!
02. Build Soundproof and Use Acoustic Insulation
Given that dual occupancy homes tend to be in quite close proximity to one another, it’s very important to consider investing in soundproofing for the walls and the insulation inside. Insulation batting, solid doors (e.g. composite, aluminium, rather than uPVC or thin timber), and double-glazed windows all offer varying levels of acoustic protection.
Soundproofing is not only good for keeping noise of traffic and neighbours to a minimum, but it also allows you to turn up your music indoors without waking up the neighbourhood and their dogs in the process.
03. Create Private, Delineated Outdoor Spaces
A good fence makes good neighbours. If you do not want or plan to have communal spaces like gardens between both of your properties, you will want to treat them like many good neighbours do and put up a fence and separate the garden space of each.
A private garden is a little retreat, especially in suburban city areas where a little greenery makes for a wonderful and natural escape from the concrete of the CBD. Privacy fences and screens can further add privacy between neighbours.
04. Plan Out Your Rooms Carefully
Make sure that your design, whenever possible, puts rooms like the kitchen and living areas away from any shared walls – especially with bedrooms. If the properties are adjoined, consider mirroring their design so that the noisest rooms of each are at polar opposites rather than up against the shared wall.
05. Separate the Utilities
Newer homes should always have their own independent connections, and dual occupancy homes are no different. Utilities like water and electricity should be connected separately and metered individually. This may sound obvious, but neglecting this important detail could create a lot of headaches if connections need to be made after the home is built.
Trevor Homes
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