Street smarts
After Doug Fleming bought a lot next to a busy roadway, he set about designing a unique house that effectively minimizes the noise in the neighbourhood.
There’s one advantage to buying property next to a busy roadway — it’s typically less expensive than it would be further away from traffic noise.
Doug Fleming was a man with a limited budget when he decided to go house- hunting. Fleming had been living in a condominium, but when smokers moved into the suite below, he knew it was time to move. He didn’t want to move back into a condo, but couldn’t afford a typical single- family house within city limits.
All that changed when he spotted an in- fill lot that measured a mere 25 feet wide by 135 feet long. The price was attractive because it was smaller than a typical city lot, and because it was on Victoria’s Burnside Road East, a major traffic artery into town.
Fleming wasn’t too worried about the location; those who live along busy roads often find the sound of vehicles becomes so constant that it becomes white noise.
“I stood on the property, just listening to the traffic before I bought the lot,” Fleming says. “The deciding factor was that the property was also accessible from a side street.”
He set about designing a house that would minimize street noise. The house won’t win any awards for curb appeal, but the Spartan exterior is a result of function, not fashion. His solution to the noise problem was to present a bare wall to the road, save for a plain door on the main level and an upper bedroom window.
“The door is only there because it is required under the building code,” says Fleming. “It’s never used.”
He used laminated glass for the bedroom window; he was told that was more effective at blocking noise than even a triple- paned window. It also doesn’t open, so no noise can sneak in. The south- facing window is placed high on the wall, which gives the room lots of light. The room has conventional windows on the side.
Wilf Gorter of Gorter Construction says Fleming is on the right path. He has even installed windows with one pane of glass tempered and the other laminated.
“The idea is that the different materials filter out different frequencies,” says Gorter. “Using materials with different densities helps reduce sound transference.”
The result is a house that is a lot quieter than others and certainly doesn’t sound like there is a busy roadway nine metres away.
With the noise problem tackled, the second challenge was designing an attractive residence on a long and narrow lot.
In the end, Fleming got a 1,390- square- foot, two- level structure with two bedrooms. The house is 49 feet long but only 15 feet wide, leaving five- foot setbacks on either side.
Fleming usually enters his house from the rear. The lot is long enough to include a garage at the back, with just enough property left over for a small patio area beside the back door.
A countertop that serves as both his home office and breakfast eating area is opposite his 2.7 metre square U- shaped kitchen. The open- plan layout allows the eye to travel the length of the house.
There is a minimum number of windows for a reason. Fleming has a modest collection of fine art and the walls are adorned with these paintings, which add colour and interest to the home.
Another advantage of having fewer windows is the house loses heat more slowly in the winter.
The major source of heat is a wood stove. He has one fan- forced electrical heater on each floor and a 400- watt convection heater that runs continuously in the winter.
His love for wood is expressed with interior exposed beams, a custommade staircase and exterior millwork.
The master bedroom is at the back of the house. Both the master and the spare bedroom have an ensuite bathroom.
The house is basically a rectangle. Because of its simplicity, Fleming was able to have the house prefabricated by Pacific Homes in Cobble Hill for $ 40,000.
He then served as the home’s general contractor and had it finished to his specifications.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” he says. “I get all the advantages of a singlefamily house for about the same price as a townhouse — without the strata fees.”