ᐅ Floor plan for a single-family home with two full stories and a recessed/stepped top floor
Created on: 15 Mar 2021 22:05
S
StephanM
Dear Homebuilding Forum,
As a newcomer to your group, here is the completed profile of our building project:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 637sqm (6860 sq ft)
Slope: no, completely flat
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: street frontage 17.6m (58 ft), 3m (10 ft) setback on left and right sides, building window 11.6m (38 ft) wide x 12.5m (41 ft) deep
Adjacent buildings: single-family houses
Number of parking spaces: two possible
Number of floors: 2 full stories plus 1 setback floor with flat roof (minimum 1m (3 ft) recess on all four sides)
Roof type: gable roof & flat roof
Architectural style: many options allowed as long as aligned with design guidelines
Orientation: south-facing
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: simple, timeless, flat roof, cube-shaped
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor as setback level
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 4 children between 1 and 6 years
Space requirements ground floor, upper floors: ground floor approx. 105-110sqm (1130-1180 sq ft), 1st floor approx. 100-105sqm (1080-1130 sq ft), 2nd floor approx. 40-45sqm (430-480 sq ft)
Office: family use or home office? 1 home office
Guest bedrooms per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: open concept
Conservative or modern construction: conservative design
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: at least 6, extendable to 8-9
Fireplace: maybe, but chimney routing is a bit complicated
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on 1st floor to soften the building volume, possibly a roof terrace on the 2nd floor if not too complicated
Garage, carport: originally planned garage on one side including storage and carport on the other side, now tend to only carport as garage affects overall appearance
Utility garden, greenhouse: kindergarten ;-)
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons for why this or that should or should not be included
House Design
Who designed it:
Do-it-Yourself
What do you like most and why?
That it was possible to arrange spacious children’s rooms and create space for two bathrooms. Public living areas on the ground floor, children’s floor on the 1st floor, and parents’ area on the 2nd floor.
What do you like least and why?
I’m uncertain about the positioning of the bathrooms relative to each other (complexity due to drainage pipes), and which staircase best serves the 1st floor layout. The building volume is still not ideal, but I have no further ideas on how to meet the zoning requirements.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 640,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: approx. 700,000 EUR
Preferred heating system: geothermal
If you have to give up something, which details or extensions
- can you do without: additional room in the setback floor, terrace in the setback floor, already gave up on double garage as it overly restricted the floor plan :-( possibly external basement stairs
- cannot do without: 4 large children’s/teenage rooms, setback floor because we can’t fit all rooms on just 2 floors, basement as a lot of stuff accumulates with 4 children...
Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Because after many nights of planning I couldn’t come up with a better solution...
What makes it in your opinion particularly good or bad?
It meets our requirements on paper, but I lack the experience to judge whether it will work well in practice, which is why I’m asking for your opinions.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How can I best organize the living space (especially but not only the 1st floor) and use the proper staircase design to create a spacious hallway without wasting area?
That was quite a bit of work ;-) I hope this information is useful for the further discussion.
In the next post I’ll share the floor plans and some exterior views (if I manage the attachments...)
Thank you in advance for your time reviewing this and for your honest and constructive feedback on the current design!
Best regards
Stephan
As a newcomer to your group, here is the completed profile of our building project:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 637sqm (6860 sq ft)
Slope: no, completely flat
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: street frontage 17.6m (58 ft), 3m (10 ft) setback on left and right sides, building window 11.6m (38 ft) wide x 12.5m (41 ft) deep
Adjacent buildings: single-family houses
Number of parking spaces: two possible
Number of floors: 2 full stories plus 1 setback floor with flat roof (minimum 1m (3 ft) recess on all four sides)
Roof type: gable roof & flat roof
Architectural style: many options allowed as long as aligned with design guidelines
Orientation: south-facing
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: simple, timeless, flat roof, cube-shaped
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor as setback level
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 4 children between 1 and 6 years
Space requirements ground floor, upper floors: ground floor approx. 105-110sqm (1130-1180 sq ft), 1st floor approx. 100-105sqm (1080-1130 sq ft), 2nd floor approx. 40-45sqm (430-480 sq ft)
Office: family use or home office? 1 home office
Guest bedrooms per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: open concept
Conservative or modern construction: conservative design
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: at least 6, extendable to 8-9
Fireplace: maybe, but chimney routing is a bit complicated
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on 1st floor to soften the building volume, possibly a roof terrace on the 2nd floor if not too complicated
Garage, carport: originally planned garage on one side including storage and carport on the other side, now tend to only carport as garage affects overall appearance
Utility garden, greenhouse: kindergarten ;-)
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons for why this or that should or should not be included
House Design
Who designed it:
Do-it-Yourself
What do you like most and why?
That it was possible to arrange spacious children’s rooms and create space for two bathrooms. Public living areas on the ground floor, children’s floor on the 1st floor, and parents’ area on the 2nd floor.
What do you like least and why?
I’m uncertain about the positioning of the bathrooms relative to each other (complexity due to drainage pipes), and which staircase best serves the 1st floor layout. The building volume is still not ideal, but I have no further ideas on how to meet the zoning requirements.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 640,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: approx. 700,000 EUR
Preferred heating system: geothermal
If you have to give up something, which details or extensions
- can you do without: additional room in the setback floor, terrace in the setback floor, already gave up on double garage as it overly restricted the floor plan :-( possibly external basement stairs
- cannot do without: 4 large children’s/teenage rooms, setback floor because we can’t fit all rooms on just 2 floors, basement as a lot of stuff accumulates with 4 children...
Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Because after many nights of planning I couldn’t come up with a better solution...
What makes it in your opinion particularly good or bad?
It meets our requirements on paper, but I lack the experience to judge whether it will work well in practice, which is why I’m asking for your opinions.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How can I best organize the living space (especially but not only the 1st floor) and use the proper staircase design to create a spacious hallway without wasting area?
That was quite a bit of work ;-) I hope this information is useful for the further discussion.
In the next post I’ll share the floor plans and some exterior views (if I manage the attachments...)
Thank you in advance for your time reviewing this and for your honest and constructive feedback on the current design!
Best regards
Stephan
StephanM schrieb:
As far as I understand zoning plan No. 900 of the city of Bochum, the written regulation states the following:
"2.2.4 Top Floors
...
In general residential areas WA 1, for buildings with flat roofs, an additional story above the highest full floor is permitted, provided it is recessed on all sides by at least 1.00 m (3.3 feet) behind the vertically extending outer wall of the floor below." This sounds harmless but is quite explosive: when read carefully, it unfortunately means nothing less than that on all four sides A. there are exterior walls (i.e. load-bearing walls) that do not extend beyond their counterparts on the floor below, and B. within the recessed area there is a floor slab forming the roof, which leads to significantly increased insulation requirements—including the use of thermal insulation boxes ("Isokörbe"®). This becomes structurally and energetically very expensive, and the additional living space in the recessed story turns into a Pyrrhic victory in terms of cost per square meter. If the floor area of the recessed story is indispensable, this would be a decisive argument against this plot for me. I realize now that I probably should develop a sort of basic formula for recessed stories similar to the one I use for basements.
StephanM schrieb:
Do you have a ready-made idea for an "alternative staircase" that could be integrated more easily? The staircase is another issue: since the building recesses on all sides, it will also be pulled away from the exterior wall in the floors below, which can lead to awkward design challenges—see for example: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/einfamilienhaus-staffelgeschoss-sued-westlage-in-bonn.36685/page-25#post-452398
StephanM schrieb:
The transfer of ownership only occurs once the design has been "approved" by the project development company according to the "design guidelines" for this building area. Then the building permit (or planning permission) application can be submitted, and only then is the land purchase notarized. We’ve encountered similar bureaucracy here before in the thread https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/grundriss-wie-veraendern.24706/#post-209824 by @arnonyme (if I remember correctly, in the Pforzheim area): there, you had to compete with your preliminary house design to be allowed to buy the plot. That means a panel, somewhat like an architectural design competition jury, checked the plans for aesthetic quality to assess whether they fit well enough with the neighboring buildings to be deemed buildable in ensemble. Only after the "approval" from this panel (a rather Swiss-sounding term I had never heard in Germany before) was the humble applicant permitted to purchase the highly sanctioned building plot. Good heavens, I hoped such nonsense was at least unique—it appears such processes already exist in the Ruhr area, commonly regarded as the last refuge for “ordinary people.”
StephanM schrieb:
For a family with four children. You won’t find that on catalogue page 17, at least... No, page 17a—you have to unfold it ;-).
I wouldn’t give up on finding suitable standard designs just because of “two extra children”: in my experience, designs for families with two children plus a granny or rental unit are often quite adaptable with minimal changes. Unless there are quadruplets, families with four children usually have some who will soon become independent or won’t mind not sharing a room too closely with younger siblings.
StephanM schrieb:
I can understand the idea of downsizing. It will probably inevitably come down to that once general contractor (GC) or construction management (CM) offers are available... Houses are like breasts: downsizing is the much more difficult procedure. The same applies to the sequence of adjusting plans after receiving offers: that’s the absolutely wrong order. Tendering always follows planning—N.E.V.E.R. the other way around!
K1300S schrieb:
You could inquire at a company from Marl whose name starts like the vehicle registration plate for Sprockhövel. They don’t have a catalog, and generally they operate in the mid- to upper-market segment (not luxury). Always these riddles—EN or WIT?
K1300S schrieb:
By the way, the (junior) boss also has children but is a BVB fan. That doesn’t bother me one bit as a Bavarian when someone takes the mickey out of Bayern’s traditional lederhosen ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
Always these puzzles – EN or WIT?I’m not saying. :p But with WIT and the other clues, it would be quite difficult to find anything. 😉Dear Community and experienced homeowners,
Your advice in March was incredibly helpful for planning our single-family house with four (!) children’s rooms. Thank you very much again!
We are quite satisfied with the current design status, but I fear that after all the discussions, my wife and I have become a bit blind to the details. Therefore, I would like to get your unbiased and fresh perspective on our latest planning stage.
The following conditions apply:
I would particularly appreciate your opinions on the following design questions:
Knowing that many technical experts are here ;-) I also have some challenging (construction) technical questions at the end:
Attached are the documents to better understand the situation:
Thank you very much for your fresh ideas on these questions! I am sure you will have valuable insights that we no longer see ourselves, as we’re too close to the details.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Best regards
Stephan
Your advice in March was incredibly helpful for planning our single-family house with four (!) children’s rooms. Thank you very much again!
We are quite satisfied with the current design status, but I fear that after all the discussions, my wife and I have become a bit blind to the details. Therefore, I would like to get your unbiased and fresh perspective on our latest planning stage.
The following conditions apply:
- The building plot is about 11.6 m (38 feet) wide and 12.5 m (41 feet) deep
- The site faces south and is level
- The ground floor (GF) may be extended by up to 2 m (6.5 feet), reaching a maximum depth of 14.5 m (48 feet), but the first floor (1F) must remain within the 12.5 m (41 feet) building depth. The roof area created above the ground floor due to this extension may be used as a terrace
- Setbacks of 3 m (10 feet) on both the left and right sides
- Carport/garage must be set back 2 m (6.5 feet) behind the facade
- The building envelope is defined by building boundaries
- Maximum building height from the top edge of the finished floor (OKE) is 9 m (30 feet)
- Basement plus two full floors plus one partial floor with a flat roof
- The partial floor (setback floor) must be recessed by at least 1 m (3 feet) on all sides
I would particularly appreciate your opinions on the following design questions:
- Do you have other ideas for integrating the staircase into the floor plan while respecting the partial floor setback? The staircase may be prominent but shouldn’t start or end in the living room. We have excluded straight staircases as, in my opinion, we don’t have enough space for them to look effective.
- How critical do you see a stairwell with no natural daylight except through windows on the second floor?
- I find the generous circulation area on the first floor quite attractive for displaying pictures, placing sideboards, spaciousness, etc. However, do you have ideas to optimize this while maintaining the spacious character?
- I consider two bathrooms necessary for four children (three of them girls ;-) ). Do you have a different opinion besides “three bathrooms for three girls” ;-)?
- The layout of the partial floor is somewhat intricate due to the staircase location. Do you have suggestions to improve this while orienting the bedroom and dressing room (which is more of a multipurpose room) towards the south?
- We prefer horizontal window formats (mainly because they create usable desk space with a sill height of 90 cm (35 inches)). However, the arrangement might seem a bit “random.” What is your impression, and do you have tips?
- What options do you see to visually break up and add texture to the facade (street side) with plaster colors or materials?
- We want to integrate the carport (which might become a garage) into the house facade. We are thinking of using wooden slats in the area of the ground floor setback, extending over the garage door to create a continuous wooden surface contrasting with the plaster facade. The slats would be repeated on the left side in the utility/storage room (for bikes, trash bins, etc.). Do you have other ideas to solve this aesthetic challenge?
Knowing that many technical experts are here ;-) I also have some challenging (construction) technical questions at the end:
- Due to the maximum height of 9 m (30 feet) and the required parapet height of 0.4 m (16 inches), there is only about 2.5 m (8 feet) of clear ceiling height per floor. The floor structure height is assumed at 19 cm (7.5 inches) on all floors, including underfloor heating and floor covering, in a KfW55 standard house with a heated/insulated basement. Do you see any possibility to gain ceiling height by using a slimmer floor construction? Is a 19 cm (7.5 inches) floor buildup really necessary for the basement and other heated floors? Perhaps this thickness is needed due to drainage/ventilation pipes, cables, etc.?
- The exits on the first and second floors should be as threshold-free as possible. This seems somewhat more demanding technically since there is living space below the terraces. Do you have experience or suggestions on how to achieve this reliably?
- Wall construction: We are planning KfW55 with 17.5 cm (7 inches) calcium silicate blocks + 14 cm (5.5 inches) exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS), totaling 31.5 cm (12.5 inches). That’s not far from a monolithic 36 cm (14 inches) block, which I also like. However, the general contractor prefers the first option (due, among other things, to load-bearing capacity, sound insulation). I understand this question isn’t easily answered due to energy calculations, window areas, etc., but perhaps you have suggestions: What other wall construction options do you see to reach at least KfW55 without significantly increasing wall thickness?
- Future subdivision into two or three units: Unfortunately, our current stair concept is only partially suitable for splitting the house later into several units. Do you have any ideas on how this could be achieved?
Attached are the documents to better understand the situation:
- Site plan
- Floor plans
- Section
- Elevations
Thank you very much for your fresh ideas on these questions! I am sure you will have valuable insights that we no longer see ourselves, as we’re too close to the details.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Best regards
Stephan
StephanM schrieb:
Your advice in March was extremely helpful for planning our single-family house with four (!) children’s rooms. Considering over six million deaths, I prefer the abbreviation “children’s rooms.” A five-and-a-half month break is a good amount of time for a thorough revision. You should reference the post numbers of the previous drafts for that.
A uniform setback of the penthouse floor on all sides also poses a structural challenge. Even if it doesn’t become exactly feather-light because of this, I would consider constructing the penthouse floor using timber frame construction. Additionally, I once again see a lot of careless details “planned in,” especially in the wall sections between the window openings.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Great to see the story continuing. The drawing style of the design looks familiar to me. 😉
11ant schrieb:We did the same and are very satisfied with that decision in hindsight.
Even if it doesn’t make it feather-light, I would consider building the penthouse level with timber frame construction.
StephanM schrieb:From the elevations alone, I would just tidy up the north and east sides a little, but that would be it.
However, the layout might look a bit "wild." What’s your impression, any tips?
StephanM schrieb:The usual options: brick slips, wood cladding, aluminum cladding, or simply colored surfaces.
What options do you see to break up or add texture to the street-facing façade through (render) colors or materials?
StephanM schrieb:19 cm (7.5 inches) is already quite slim. We are currently at 25 cm (10 inches), so I don’t see much potential to reduce that further.
Do you see a way to gain ceiling height by using a slimmer floor construction?
StephanM schrieb:Does it have to be a flush threshold? Otherwise, there are these mini-thresholds (about 1.5 cm (0.6 inches)) — they can apparently be installed just like a regular window. It should be obvious anyway that careful and precise workmanship is essential at such a critical point, especially regarding sealing, whether it’s a regular door or one with a reduced threshold.
Do you have experience with this and possibly how something like this can be technically done solidly?
StephanM schrieb:I can understand that... autoclaved aerated concrete isn’t very stable if it also has to provide excellent insulation.
Only the general contractor isn’t too keen on it (e.g., because of load transfer, soundproofing).
StephanM schrieb:Timber frame construction. 😉 As mentioned above, it would probably make sense for several reasons for the penthouse level, which is the smallest floor anyway, but that alone probably won’t solve all the issues. Would a somewhat thicker wall (in the basement/ground floor/upper floor) not be acceptable?
What other options do you see for the wall construction to achieve at least KfW55 standard without significantly increasing wall thickness?
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