Hello everyone,
We are currently planning the construction of our house and many questions keep coming up.
Our plot (approximately 770 m² (8,293 ft²)) is on a slope, which, based on quite a bit of reading, leads us to consider building our house with a basement, as we would rather not have to dig the house into the hill and look out onto an earth wall. I have attached some excerpts from the development plan.
The plot is rather elongated (about 20 m (66 ft) wide and 40 m (131 ft) deep) and slopes upward from the street. According to the Geoportal Hessen, we have an elevation difference of about 3 m (10 ft) over the 40 m (131 ft) depth.
Our first thought was: "Well, then we’ll just build with a basement." However, after examining the specific height specifications from the development plan, the eaves height of 5 m (measured from the street’s road surface edge, the highest point, measured vertically in front of the building center) might cause an issue. With the 5 m eaves height limit, wouldn’t we have to embed about half of the basement underground?
Our idea was that the basement (lower ground floor) would be level with the street at the front, allowing direct access from there, and at the back, the living area (ground floor) would have level access to the garden.
How do you assess the dimensions and requirements in the development plan?
Over the weekend, we visited a model home exhibition in Bad Vilbel and spoke with a representative from Fingerhaus, who suggested a kind of compact basement with access only from the outside, not from inside the house. Does anyone know this type of basement or have experience with it? Would it also be possible to build a “regular” basement in that case?
We roughly calculated the costs:
House (turnkey) according to Fingerhaus (Type Sento B): about 300,000€
Foundation + walls: about 20,000€
Additional features: about 50,000€
Basement + incidental building costs: about 80,000€
Do you consider these figures roughly realistic?
Can anyone recommend building companies from the Mittelhessen (Central Hesse) region? Can construction companies provide cost estimates based on the available data, or do we first need a soil survey and precise height measurements?
So many questions, but you have to start somewhere.
Thank you very much in advance for any tips or answers!
We are currently planning the construction of our house and many questions keep coming up.
Our plot (approximately 770 m² (8,293 ft²)) is on a slope, which, based on quite a bit of reading, leads us to consider building our house with a basement, as we would rather not have to dig the house into the hill and look out onto an earth wall. I have attached some excerpts from the development plan.
The plot is rather elongated (about 20 m (66 ft) wide and 40 m (131 ft) deep) and slopes upward from the street. According to the Geoportal Hessen, we have an elevation difference of about 3 m (10 ft) over the 40 m (131 ft) depth.
Our first thought was: "Well, then we’ll just build with a basement." However, after examining the specific height specifications from the development plan, the eaves height of 5 m (measured from the street’s road surface edge, the highest point, measured vertically in front of the building center) might cause an issue. With the 5 m eaves height limit, wouldn’t we have to embed about half of the basement underground?
Our idea was that the basement (lower ground floor) would be level with the street at the front, allowing direct access from there, and at the back, the living area (ground floor) would have level access to the garden.
How do you assess the dimensions and requirements in the development plan?
Over the weekend, we visited a model home exhibition in Bad Vilbel and spoke with a representative from Fingerhaus, who suggested a kind of compact basement with access only from the outside, not from inside the house. Does anyone know this type of basement or have experience with it? Would it also be possible to build a “regular” basement in that case?
We roughly calculated the costs:
House (turnkey) according to Fingerhaus (Type Sento B): about 300,000€
Foundation + walls: about 20,000€
Additional features: about 50,000€
Basement + incidental building costs: about 80,000€
Do you consider these figures roughly realistic?
Can anyone recommend building companies from the Mittelhessen (Central Hesse) region? Can construction companies provide cost estimates based on the available data, or do we first need a soil survey and precise height measurements?
So many questions, but you have to start somewhere.
Thank you very much in advance for any tips or answers!
H
Hausi19092 Mar 2020 11:09Thank you very much for your comments! They really help us a lot.
Why is Ytong not considered the best building material? From what I have read, Ytong, like sand-lime brick and others, each has its own advantages and disadvantages (thermal insulation, soundproofing, etc.). The three local construction companies in our area that we are in contact with all build using Ytong.
We will probably have to wait for the construction manager to send us the detailed scope of work before we can assess this more precisely.
We are currently leaning towards raising the level of our plot slightly. For a house length of about 10 meters (33 feet), we would raise it by 1 meter (3.3 feet) at the front of the house and reduce this by 10 centimeters (4 inches) per meter towards the back. Of course, the question then is what kind of fill material would be needed, but it would likely be significantly cheaper than building a basement. This way, there also wouldn’t be so much soil to be transported away. We have also thought about creating two levels at the back of the garden to use the excess soil there. Currently, we have requested several quotes for a soil survey.
It is quite difficult for us to estimate what costs to expect for the earthworks. We have tentatively set 30,000€ in our budget list but have no idea if that is too little or too much.
I have tried to sketch the house idea. In this version, the house would be 0.80 meters (2.6 feet) above the maximum terrain height, but that is the concept. I’m attaching the sketch here.
Thank you very much again for your comments and advice!
Why is Ytong not considered the best building material? From what I have read, Ytong, like sand-lime brick and others, each has its own advantages and disadvantages (thermal insulation, soundproofing, etc.). The three local construction companies in our area that we are in contact with all build using Ytong.
We will probably have to wait for the construction manager to send us the detailed scope of work before we can assess this more precisely.
We are currently leaning towards raising the level of our plot slightly. For a house length of about 10 meters (33 feet), we would raise it by 1 meter (3.3 feet) at the front of the house and reduce this by 10 centimeters (4 inches) per meter towards the back. Of course, the question then is what kind of fill material would be needed, but it would likely be significantly cheaper than building a basement. This way, there also wouldn’t be so much soil to be transported away. We have also thought about creating two levels at the back of the garden to use the excess soil there. Currently, we have requested several quotes for a soil survey.
It is quite difficult for us to estimate what costs to expect for the earthworks. We have tentatively set 30,000€ in our budget list but have no idea if that is too little or too much.
I have tried to sketch the house idea. In this version, the house would be 0.80 meters (2.6 feet) above the maximum terrain height, but that is the concept. I’m attaching the sketch here.
Thank you very much again for your comments and advice!
Hausi1909 schrieb:
-Electrical installation work (e.g., Merten Atelier series) [...]
-Premium cantilevered solid wood staircase in beech [...]
-Security package: smoke detectors, front door with triple locking system, windows with mushroom-head locksThe design of the switch frames says very little about the quality of the electrical planning. Currently, there is a case where "telephone connections" are included in every room: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/lan-Dosen-setzen-noch-zeitgemaess-WLAN-drahtlos-ist-die-Zukunft.33656/page-21#post-380589 "Solid wood" may sound valuable, but secondly it relies on laypeople equating solid wood with hardwood and, firstly, it doesn’t seem to be an advantage here. With "beech," a veneer is probably meant, and another engineered wood product in between would not necessarily be worse. Here someone tries to override reason with romantic notions.
The number of locks alone says little about a front door’s burglary resistance, for example, nothing about its core. Only five locking points would exceed standard. Mushroom-head locks are simply state of the art but only make sense on the ground floor or in upper floors accessible from the outside. See above.
ypg schrieb:
Ytong is not the best building material...Hausi1909 schrieb:
What I had read was that Ytong, like calcium silicate bricks and others, each has its pros and cons.The latter is correct.ypg schrieb:
Non-load-bearing interior walls as drywall are economical.Constructing mostly non-load-bearing interior walls as drywall is not fundamentally negative and is time-saving in pitched roof spaces, as well as providing more structural freedom when combined with a truss roof.ypg schrieb:
I would also recommend a split-level design.I agree, @RomeoZwo has already mentioned Laux’s examples. Hausi1909 schrieb:
We are currently leaning towards raising our plot a bit.I wouldn’t do that, especially not with a slope on the garden side.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Just regarding the staircase: I have one made of beech, real wood. Since I didn’t want the natural color either, I ordered it stained white. But since that somehow didn’t work out, it was finally white waxed. It looks nice, very bright, and no one can tell it’s beech anymore. The steps aren’t too smooth either, so you don’t slip.
The price was very reasonable.
The price was very reasonable.
H
Hausi19092 Mar 2020 13:15Thank you all for your responses!
We will probably have to take another look at the split-level design, even though I’m initially a bit skeptical because of the many stairs. But I’m happy to be convinced otherwise .
Could you please elaborate on that? What exactly speaks against it?
Thanks!
We will probably have to take another look at the split-level design, even though I’m initially a bit skeptical because of the many stairs. But I’m happy to be convinced otherwise .
11ant schrieb:
Not me, especially not with a garden-side slope.
Could you please elaborate on that? What exactly speaks against it?
Thanks!
Hausi1909 schrieb:
Even though I’m a bit skeptical at first because of all the stairs. Four half flights of stairs add up to two full flights – although they don’t necessarily have to be evenly divided – and this design makes the house compatible with the fact that the plot is on a slope.
Hausi1909 schrieb:
Could you explain that a bit more specifically? What exactly speaks against it? Because rainwater relies on gravity. Think it through: how much landscaping would be required all the way to the terrace’s edge if you don’t want to end up sitting in a hole.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
H
Hausi19092 Mar 2020 13:3911ant schrieb:
Four half flights of stairs are also two full flights – although they don’t necessarily have to be evenly divided – and this is what makes the house compatible with the fact that the plot is on a slope.
That rainwater flows by gravity. Think this through to the end, how much landscaping that means all the way to the edge of the terrace if you don’t want to end up sitting in a hole there.Yes, you're right again about the four half flights of stairs.^^
However, I still don’t fully understand the second part, sorry! The landscaping from the edge of the terrace to the end of the plot (meaning the garden) should be independent of the decision “split-level or not,” since the height of the terrace would be the same in both cases. With split-level, only the front part would be lower. We can’t go any higher towards the back anyway, due to the eaves height limitation. Maybe I’m just missing something here...
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