ᐅ Build a house with a knee wall of 75 cm (30 inches) or two full stories? Your opinion?
Created on: 9 Jun 2018 06:32
D
Donradon
Hello,
according to the building plan, we are allowed to build either a house with a knee wall up to 75cm (30 inches) or two full stories.
Therefore, we are currently considering the following two options.
- House with a 75cm (30 inches) knee wall, a 45-degree roof pitch, and a dormer with a flat roof
- House with two full stories, a gable roof with approximately 22-degree roof pitch
We are building without a basement and therefore rely on storage space in the attic. For this reason, a Tuscan-style house is probably out of the question.
I won’t go into our pros and cons here, as I’d like to hear your opinions first.
Oh, and since we plan a utility room and an office on the ground floor, there will be no space issues upstairs in either option.
Good luck and thanks in advance!
according to the building plan, we are allowed to build either a house with a knee wall up to 75cm (30 inches) or two full stories.
Therefore, we are currently considering the following two options.
- House with a 75cm (30 inches) knee wall, a 45-degree roof pitch, and a dormer with a flat roof
- House with two full stories, a gable roof with approximately 22-degree roof pitch
We are building without a basement and therefore rely on storage space in the attic. For this reason, a Tuscan-style house is probably out of the question.
I won’t go into our pros and cons here, as I’d like to hear your opinions first.
Oh, and since we plan a utility room and an office on the ground floor, there will be no space issues upstairs in either option.
Good luck and thanks in advance!
So, I just double-checked the plan, and it refers to full stories. Two are allowed.
Unfortunately, I can’t upload the photo right now. But the companies we’ve talked to so far have all confirmed this as well.
In the same municipality, a new residential area was recently developed, featuring houses in the Tuscan style, mostly with two full stories.
Oh, and we don’t have exact dimensions yet, but it will be about 11x9m (36x30 feet). A single-family house.
Okay, here are our pros and cons.
Regarding the two full stories:
- It might look somewhat like a two-family house — quite bulky
- Upstairs you can arrange the furniture freely since there are no sloped ceilings
Regarding the knee wall house:
- Looks more delicate
- It will be somewhat cheaper
- Possibly better use of the attic space
- Upstairs you have sloped ceilings that require more adaptation when placing furniture
I hope I haven’t forgotten anything.
When I ask, I’m also interested in your experiences with attic use and with a knee wall of 75cm (30 inches) and arranging furniture.
As I mentioned above, for attic use, we mainly want to store moving boxes — that’s roughly the size.
We plan to access it only with a pull-down ladder.
Good luck!
Unfortunately, I can’t upload the photo right now. But the companies we’ve talked to so far have all confirmed this as well.
In the same municipality, a new residential area was recently developed, featuring houses in the Tuscan style, mostly with two full stories.
Oh, and we don’t have exact dimensions yet, but it will be about 11x9m (36x30 feet). A single-family house.
Okay, here are our pros and cons.
Regarding the two full stories:
- It might look somewhat like a two-family house — quite bulky
- Upstairs you can arrange the furniture freely since there are no sloped ceilings
Regarding the knee wall house:
- Looks more delicate
- It will be somewhat cheaper
- Possibly better use of the attic space
- Upstairs you have sloped ceilings that require more adaptation when placing furniture
I hope I haven’t forgotten anything.
When I ask, I’m also interested in your experiences with attic use and with a knee wall of 75cm (30 inches) and arranging furniture.
As I mentioned above, for attic use, we mainly want to store moving boxes — that’s roughly the size.
We plan to access it only with a pull-down ladder.
Good luck!
Escroda schrieb:
As I said, there are no full stories anymore in Bavaria. What do you mean by that? In our development plan dated 12.10.2015, for example, under section 2.2 Number of Full Stories it states: “For WA1, the number of full stories is set to at least II and at most III. ...”
Does that mean the development plan contains a formal error and would therefore be invalid?
If you plan to have a utility room and an office on the ground floor, you will have a large floor area. On the upper floor, however, it will be smaller.
If you build with a pitched roof and a knee wall, you will do well in this regard. You can easily build up or frame the sloped ceilings so that the internal knee wall is higher. This gives you more flexibility with the furniture.
I would plan in this direction. You can also use the knee wall areas effectively for storage. It is more practical to access storage space behind a closet on the upper floor than to use a wobbly attic ladder.
You can make very good use of the “space” in the sloping roof area, and you can install cabinets there as well. Where these areas are open, a room feels cozier.
For me, it’s definitely a pitched roof!
If you build with a pitched roof and a knee wall, you will do well in this regard. You can easily build up or frame the sloped ceilings so that the internal knee wall is higher. This gives you more flexibility with the furniture.
I would plan in this direction. You can also use the knee wall areas effectively for storage. It is more practical to access storage space behind a closet on the upper floor than to use a wobbly attic ladder.
You can make very good use of the “space” in the sloping roof area, and you can install cabinets there as well. Where these areas are open, a room feels cozier.
For me, it’s definitely a pitched roof!
Donradon schrieb:
Hello,
according to the development plan, we are allowed to build either a house with knee walls up to 75 cm (30 inches) or two full stories. That seems contradictory to me – is that really supposed to apply to the same building plot in the development plan?
In my opinion, planners who allow knee walls of this "height" belong to the pillory in the marketplace. A knee wall that does not fully replace a dwarf wall (or short wall) is nonsense. Common practice considers 1 m (39 inches) a practical height, so a 75 cm (30 inches) knee wall still implies the presence of a dwarf wall, whose depth would be pointless here as a storage area under the roof slope.
Donradon schrieb:
- House with two full stories, gable roof with about 22° roof pitch [...] Therefore, a Tuscan style house is rather unlikely. "Tuscan style" means that bay windows have sloped roofs; I do not see a 22° roof pitch ruling that out. Rather, a hip roof would be more typical. A hip roof fits a square floor plan better, while a gable roof "requires" a clear house axis (ridge direction), with a rectangle of at least roughly 5:4 in my view.
Donradon schrieb:
Regarding the two full stories:
- may somewhat resemble a two-family house – so quite bulky The two-family house association is easy to avoid – this is managed by the window arrangement.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Unfortunately, it is indeed the case that you are only allowed to build a maximum of 75 cm (30 inches) before you must have two full floors again—there is nothing in between.
This 75 cm (30 inches) knee wall with a 45-degree roof pitch is characteristic of the Franconia region...
This 75 cm (30 inches) knee wall with a 45-degree roof pitch is characteristic of the Franconia region...
Well, is that really so typical of Franconia if many homeowners place contemporary townhouses in between?
In the bathroom, you can effectively build a partition wall. In the bedrooms, you either have to be a fan of built-in wardrobes or bookshelves (or like it if the knee wall is low).
I would probably lean towards a two-story house here.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
In the bathroom, you can effectively build a partition wall. In the bedrooms, you either have to be a fan of built-in wardrobes or bookshelves (or like it if the knee wall is low).
I would probably lean towards a two-story house here.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Similar topics