ᐅ Building an End-Terrace House as a Self-Managed Project with a General Contractor
Created on: 27 May 2019 10:48
G
goalkeeper
Hello everyone,
some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.
The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.
After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).
As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.
We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.
I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.
The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.
After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).
As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.
We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.
I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
G
goalkeeper14 Aug 2019 18:05Zaba12 schrieb:
How are your neighbors building?The middle house is not sold yet – the others are about 50:50 slab-on-grade / basement.
Let’s see what our general contractor and structural engineer say about this.
Who was the seller of the plots? The city? The municipality?
It seems unreasonable to have to install L-walls just because the neighbor isn’t there yet. Is it not possible to organize a joint effort for all the affected plots? And together raise the ground by 150 cm (5 feet), with those who need to build their houses 150 cm (5 feet) lower at their position adjusting accordingly.
It seems unreasonable to have to install L-walls just because the neighbor isn’t there yet. Is it not possible to organize a joint effort for all the affected plots? And together raise the ground by 150 cm (5 feet), with those who need to build their houses 150 cm (5 feet) lower at their position adjusting accordingly.
G
goalkeeper14 Aug 2019 19:31kbt09 schrieb:
Who was selling the plots? The city? The municipality?
It seems unreasonable to have to install L-shaped retaining walls just because the neighbor isn’t there yet. Isn’t it possible to organize a joint effort for all affected plots? And together raise the ground level by 150 cm (59 inches), taking into account those who will have to dig 150 cm (59 inches) deeper at their house positions. The municipality is selling all the townhouse plots in this area and is now facing difficulties selling the remaining middle units, as the roof designs are already decided and the end units have already started their planning. Since there are many townhouse groups and the end units are being built sometimes with and sometimes without basements, the middle units require substantial support or underpinning work, which is financially significant. Furthermore, the plots are very small, only 141 sqm (1,518 sq ft).
A joint effort is difficult also because the houses already sold are at very different stages of planning. Some were added at the last minute and haven’t even had their first meeting with a builder, while others, like us, are about to start construction. There are about 20 plots in this townhouse area in total — that’s hard to coordinate properly. Therefore, many will probably choose the L-shaped retaining wall option or build a basement — which was clear from the start, given the nature of the plot allocation and the complete freedom in construction.
G
goalkeeper14 Aug 2019 19:57kbt09 schrieb:
Respect ... but I would also explore all channels to at least involve the seller of the plots in a shared responsibility. You can forget about that. They won’t do anything voluntarily. I already contacted the mayor because the raised road wasn’t mentioned anywhere before buying the plot.
He didn’t see it as a problem, but rather as an advantage for the basement builders. If we don’t like it, we could just cancel the purchase at our own expense. So there is no support to be expected here.
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