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.
K
kbt09
9 Mar 2020 06:06
I’m really curious to see how and when the central part gets started. I hope you’ll continue to share photos with us, even if there isn’t much left to document on your end. It would be just too interesting to follow the entire process.
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ypg
9 Mar 2020 07:47
The other person probably assumes that the party in the middle will not build... he has faced his side of the house with bricks.
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halmi
9 Mar 2020 08:12
I was also surprised, or is this common practice with clinker bricks? He already needed a few bricks for the side.
G
goalkeeper
9 Mar 2020 08:12
ypg schrieb:

The other person probably assumes that the neighbor in the middle won’t build... he has clad his side with bricks

That is unfortunately not correct. Since no neighbor has been confirmed yet, it had to be done this way. That is why our entire side facing the neighbor is fully insulated as well.
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guckuck2
9 Mar 2020 08:18
You have to insulate anyway, but is it necessary to install cladding right away?
I see houses with exposed insulation for quite some time until the neighbor is ready.
Instead of mineral wool, expanded polystyrene (EPS) or extruded polystyrene (XPS) is used.
tomtom799 Mar 2020 08:20
The houses are offset by 1 meter (3 feet), so it is probably easier to cover the entire exterior with brick cladding.