ᐅ Single-family house with a stepped upper floor – Feedback/Discussion/Tips/Ideas

Hello dear forum community,

it seems there are quite a few building novices, construction experts, or those aspiring to become experts here. We currently belong to the last group, aiming to become more experienced. We are a young family with one child so far but plan to have a second child in the near future.

Therefore, we would like to present our design to you, hoping it can be thoroughly reviewed.

First: This drawing is the initial draft, which we can still change and for which we already have some ideas for adjustments.

Regarding this:
1) The children’s room on the ground floor is intended to become the master bedroom.
2) The master bedroom will accordingly become the children’s room.
3) The shower should be moved upstairs, the bathtub downstairs, making the bathroom slightly larger, with a window, located along the right side of the house extending to the lower exterior wall.
4) The utility room should be roughly halved, remaining in the center, possibly integrating the small storage room.

These are our ideas so far. What do you think?

Hello,

toxicmolotow schrieb:

These are our ideas so far. What do you think?

If you are not allowed to build two stories, you can of course work around this regulation by using a setback floor; in my opinion, however, that would make it too large—if that applies in your case.

Is it generally permitted to build in the Bauhaus style—so why the step-back of the upper floor towards the existing buildings? And do you have an exemption allowing you to reduce the setback distances to the neighboring property, or what do the black building drawings to the left of the kitchen-living area represent?

I would be interested to know how much budget you are calculating for your design?

Regards, Bauexperte

Does the recessed upper floor have to step back on all exterior walls? Structurally, this is rather problematic.

The Berlin building code requires this, but here it is approved everywhere without a stepped-back floor on all sides.

I find the hallway on the ground floor too long and narrow. There is no space for a wardrobe. I would arrange the access to the bedroom/bathroom differently, if possible.

I realize I perhaps should have written a bit more.

The building site is located in a residential area where originally classic single-story semi-detached houses with extensions were constructed. Over time, various houses have had their attics converted, some have created living spaces above the garages, others have built single-story Bauhaus-style extensions behind the house, and overall different architectural styles have been more or less mixed. This kind of development has been more or less approved by the planning authority.

The setback distances to neighboring properties are appropriate and meet the required distances to property boundaries; on the left side, the adjacent property belongs to us.

The setback on the right side (3m (10 feet)) is necessary and mandatory due to the required distance to the neighbor. On the ground floor, there is even an obligation to build an extension in that area. The upper floor setback follows the original building line; we are only allowed to extend further on the ground floor because the neighbor was also permitted to do so based on our consent at that time. The setbacks at the front and left side are based on the architectural style; there might possibly be an exception granted, but we wanted to limit the missing setback to the staircase area.

For structural reasons, the ground floor will be constructed as a solid build with a concrete ceiling, while the upper floor will be built using a lightweight timber frame construction.

Regarding the capital investment: we estimate about 180,000 EUR (approximately) in pure construction costs including engineering services, but excluding the land, garages, utility connections, and extras such as geothermal systems, fireplace, and photovoltaics. In total, we are looking at about 250,000 EUR (approximately) excluding the land.

I will leave the insulation and KfW (energy efficiency) calculations to a specialist who is experienced with that. This also relates to considerations on how the roof terrace fits in with the insulation.

We are probably close to exceeding the floor area ratio with the double garage, the existing building, and the new build area. Our budget doesn’t allow for much more. We prefer something smaller (our requirements for the number of rooms are met) and to have a few dollars left over rather than getting heavily into debt. Better to keep it small but nice. We would like to have a bit more... but, but, but...

The lower right corner of the ground floor will definitely be revised. We don’t like it either. New drawings will surely follow when available.