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.
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.
G
goalkeeper4 May 2022 23:42tumaa schrieb:
What happened to the pipe? Better to fix it beforehand.
All the best!I had to tape it over a year ago because otherwise, it was in danger of slipping out.
C
chand19865 May 2022 05:56goalkeeper schrieb:
As expected, no basement insulation was installed four weeks ago.
I contacted the site manager of the shell construction company directly this week, and lo and behold – the basement insulation has been installed since today.What interests me is this: Why was your contact enough to get the work done, while the homeowner (apparently) was unable to achieve this?Did you have any unbeatable arguments?
G
goalkeeper5 May 2022 09:07chand1986 schrieb:
What I’m curious about: Why is just one contact from you enough to get work done, when the builder (seems to) not be able to do it?
Did you have unbeatable arguments? Good question… I can’t really say that in general. Probably just asked at the right time.
bortel schrieb:
well, the “basement insulation” is a joke^^ The basement insulation on our side wasn’t possible any other way since he had to stay on his property line. So it is only 3cm (1 inch) thick. A thicker insulation was planned – I had suggested using our property for the insulation, but he didn’t want to agree to that at the time, so he couldn’t insulate “properly.”
Fascinating and somewhat alarming at the same time that after almost 2 years I’m finally checking the forum again and you still haven’t completely finished because of all the back and forth and complications with the neighboring buildings. Hopefully, it will have a good conclusion for you soon with the construction :-)
G
goalkeeper5 May 2022 11:12[Fascinating and frightening at the same time that after almost 2 years I finally look at the forum again and you still haven’t completely finished because of all the back and forth and complications with the neighboring buildings. Hopefully the construction will finally have a good outcome for you soon 🙂]
Oh… we just try to see the bright side: increased interest rates, construction, and land costs, but fortunately we did everything right from the start — we just had to endure a bit more “bleeding” for it.
And when we see that a mid-terrace house in the street sold a few weeks ago for almost €800,000 (about $860,000), we know we built here relatively “affordably,” although it cost a lot of patience.
Besides our own, we have a really lovely neighborhood where the children can play together on the play street or just quickly visit each other’s garden or house. That means a lot to us. Only young families with children live here — and it’s wonderful to see our kids grow up in such a great environment.
Oh… we just try to see the bright side: increased interest rates, construction, and land costs, but fortunately we did everything right from the start — we just had to endure a bit more “bleeding” for it.
And when we see that a mid-terrace house in the street sold a few weeks ago for almost €800,000 (about $860,000), we know we built here relatively “affordably,” although it cost a lot of patience.
Besides our own, we have a really lovely neighborhood where the children can play together on the play street or just quickly visit each other’s garden or house. That means a lot to us. Only young families with children live here — and it’s wonderful to see our kids grow up in such a great environment.