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Tassimat schrieb:

I consider the original poster diplomatic enough not to come across as aggressive and to politely ask for some information. In my building services office, there are also different people involved than just the application processors.

I personally experienced how the city official was nice to me, while the architect sitting next to me was constantly being scolded for not knowing this or that, even though she was an architect and should have done more, etc. It was only about the preliminary question of how much I could enlarge the dormers. I wanted them bigger than all the neighboring buildings. Later, I went back alone with new plans, and it went very smoothly in my favor.

However, the original poster wants to significantly exceed the floor area ratio and the building envelope. That is different from just enlarging a dormer.

Myrna_Loy schrieb:

But the original poster wants to significantly exceed the floor area ratio and the building envelope. That’s different from just having a larger dormer.

Of course that's different, but you can still ask about it quite straightforwardly in a personal conversation. Especially since some neighbors have done the same, right?

gregman22 schrieb:

That’s why the current strategy is to adjust the building envelope through an approval process (although to a lesser extent than some neighbors).

As I said, this isn’t an official preliminary building request but a general advisory discussion. From my experience: I had some ideas, went to an open consultation without an appointment (even before the meeting with the architect), and they reviewed the neighboring development hands-on using Google Earth, checked if there was a zoning plan, and gave a non-binding indication of whether it’s worth continuing with this planning. Nothing more was intended. In my case with dormers, the answer was “maybe,” because eventually that floor would have counted as a full story. Later, it turned out the ceiling height in the hallway wasn’t sufficient, so I was allowed to build two very large dormers with standard ceiling heights in the pitched roof 😀

Back to this case: It’s suggested that neighbors were allowed to build more, so the original poster has to find out if that’s possible for them too. Perhaps the mentioned neighbors fall under a different zoning plan or something else… this can be clarified quickly and easily.

Additional note about the building service: In my city, there is always a firefighter present who immediately notices that the original poster’s attic, as planned, does not have a valid second emergency escape route (in North Rhine-Westphalia). The dormers are set too far back (>1 meter (3 feet)), so an extremely ugly roof ladder step has to be installed to allow access by ladder.

Thank you for the many comments this evening! I will go through them tomorrow.
Maybe a brief background on why I decided to lean towards a general contractor.

At first, I was also talking to architects and had already chosen a preferred design firm. However, to be honest, from my perspective, the budget didn’t stretch far enough for us. All the architects were on a similar level. For a 1.65m (5 ft 5 in) building, they planned 300m2 (3,229 sq ft) of living space (including a separate apartment) without adding a number of extra costs: no kitchen, no furnishings, no pool, no sauna, no special architectural requests planned so far, and so on. Plus – no price guarantee, since it was only architectural planning. Honestly, when I added up my assumptions for additional costs, I would have ended up between 2.0 and 2.2 million – WAY too high.

That really discouraged me, and I started comparing with initial offers from general contractors. I was very aware of the tradeoff, but at least I found their price estimates more conceivable...

And honestly – to get a first cost estimate without detailed planning and extras at 1.65 million for 300m2 (3,229 sq ft) feels simply too high. Three architects roughly agreed on that.

Working backward, that would have meant reducing the total space to around 250m2 (2,691 sq ft) including the separate apartment, and with that budget many of our room preferences would have been lost.

Can you relate to this, or was I on the wrong track?

Myrna_Loy schrieb:

Regarding the construction budget, I would rather consider building an underground garage instead of using the space above.

The area for the garage would be calculated separately anyway.

Sunshine387 schrieb:

It’s nice to see you are open to a somewhat different layout.

I don’t think he is open to such an orientation (NE)... and I wouldn’t be either, by the way.

gregman22 schrieb:

Can you relate to this, or was I completely off track?

Wrong. I’ve already said that it is negligent. A general contractor is cheaper because, for logistical reasons, they simply can’t handle certain specific tasks. But I don’t want to repeat myself here: you seem to consider yourself capable of making your own decisions.

ypg schrieb:

The space for the garage was calculated separately.

Sure, but why should cars get a nice, level 35 sqm (375 sq ft) area? I would rather put them in the basement.

gregman22 schrieb:

Can you relate to that, or was I off track?

Well, if several experienced architects gave you the same result, I would be suspicious if a general contractor promises to meet all your wishes.
Does it really have to be such a massive structure? Bigger doesn’t always mean better.