3-Story House Floor Plans

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FAQ for 3-Story Floor Plan Houses

What Are Some Advantages of Building a Three-Story Home?

Three-story homes have some distinct advantages compared to their shorter counterparts. For one thing, you can get more square footage on a smaller footprint, squeezing more house onto a smaller lot. That can be huge when building in areas where land is at a premium and lots are small. If you’re building in a downtown area or on a historic lot designed for a small home, multi-level may be your only option to get the square footage your family needs, especially if you’d like a yard for pets or kids. One popular feature of multi-level homes, especially in cosmopolitan areas, is a roof-top balcony if your home is tall enough to stand above the homes around it. Tall houses can lead to great views and impressive cityscapes, perfect for relaxing with loved ones or celebrating with friends. Balconies or rooftop outdoor spaces are especially important if your lot is too small to allow for a yard.

What Design Features Can I Expect in a Three-Story Home?

With the right design three-story homes can boast impressive design features. Multi-level foyers or living rooms with sparkling chandeliers high above heads can impress your guests. Vertical spaces also make the home feel larger and less cramped, even if the spaces aren’t quite as open other homes. Tall walls also lend themselves to picturesque windows, impressive fireplaces, large pieces of art, or other feature pieces.

On the outside, three-story homes can make a towering impression. You’ll have more design options to consider than in shorter homes, like showpiece stonework, tall windows, or vertical landscaping. Modern designs are especially popular for three-story home, but you can choose any style and tailor the design to the look that works for you.

Do Three-Story Homes Present Maintenance Challenges?

Maintenance can be difficult in three-story homes, both inside and outside. Painting a three-story exterior is no picnic, nor is changing lightbulbs in multi-level living spaces. You won’t have a lot of fun cleaning your gutters or hanging Christmas lights either. But when you do get those Christmas lights hung they’ll be the envy of the neighborhood. Cleaning on the inside will involve lugging your cleaning supplies up and down multiple levels.

Are Three-Story Homes Easy to Renovate?

When it comes to changing floor plans, three-story homes may not have as many options as other types of homes since each floor has a more limited amount of space. It may also be more expensive to renovate a three-story home since spaces are tighter and more duct work, plumbing, and electric lines are needed to support all three stories.

Even moving furniture can be tricky in a three-story home since there are often stairs involved. A laundry room on the top floor with your bedroom sounds fantastic until you have to move a washer and dryer up to flights of stairs.

How Can a Three-Story Home Improve Sleep?

One unique aspect of a three-story home is dedicated spaces that are truly separate from the rest of the home. Research tells us that those defined spaces may actually be better for our mental health as well as our sleep habits. When your bedroom is designated only for sleep– a retreat separate from the rest of the home where your day to day worries are addressed– you tend to get better sleep since your mind knows that entering your bedroom means that it’s time to wind down and go to sleep. Three-story homes that have a floor dedicated as a primary bedroom retreat, or dedicated to all the bedrooms in the home, can help protect the sanctity of rest and promote better sleep habits.

Who Should Stay Away from a Three-Story House? 

One of the most obvious qualities of a three-story home are the multiple flights of stairs. Three-story living typically means that bedrooms, living spaces, and kitchen and dining spaces are all on different floors, making it hard to avoid those stairs for long. If stairs bother you for mobility or aesthetic reasons, stay away from these multi-level homes. Even if you don’t face mobility difficulties now, consider whether you intend to live in the house into your later years when stairs may look less and less appealing. Frequent guests with mobility issues may not appreciate the stairs either.

Families with small children seem on the fence when it comes to three-story homes. The layout can be great in some respects, keeping kiddos in a more confined area and away from rooms they shouldn’t visit (at least for a while). But the multiple levels also mean you’ll be running up and down stairs a lot and may end up sleeping on a different level than small children–something some parents may not find ideal. Without the clear sightlines of more wide open floorplans you may have more limited supervision of small children, depending on the layout of the home. Bottom line: if you have little kids go into a three-story home with a critical eye to determine if they layout will truly work for your family, both now and in years to come.