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.
S
Scout
22 Oct 2019 08:05
Understood. So, there probably won't be a gap with mineral wool between the two parts anymore? Does your slab also extend exactly to the boundary, or is a gap planned there?
G
goalkeeper
22 Oct 2019 09:10
Scout schrieb:

I see. So, there probably won’t be a gap with mineral wool between the two sections anymore? Is your foundation slab also placed right up to the boundary, or is a gap planned there?

12cm (5 inches) thick stone wool strips will be glued and reinforced. That should eliminate any gap. Once the neighbor has built their house, we will render the overhanging section on our side.
Y
Yosan
22 Oct 2019 13:56
Don’t you need a fire barrier wall between the houses anyway?
G
goalkeeper
22 Oct 2019 14:21
Yosan schrieb:

Don’t you need a fire protection wall between the houses anyway?

On the side facing the neighbor, we have a sand-lime brick wall with 12cm (5 inches) insulation and reinforcement. That serves as the fire protection wall.
G
guckuck2
22 Oct 2019 14:23
There are two separate walls with insulation between them anyway. Whether there is any offset is not that problematic. The only issue with the idea is exposing mineral wool insulation to the weather for months, which can be a bit challenging.
G
goalkeeper
22 Oct 2019 14:26
guckuck2 schrieb:

Only the idea of exposing insulation wool to the weather for months seems a bit questionable.

Will it? Did I write that anywhere?