ᐅ Floor plan for a 190 m² single-family house with basement – any feedback?
Created on: 2 Oct 2022 22:26
B
BastianP
Dear community,
We are currently in the process of planning our house. The notary appointment for the plot is on October 7th, and after that, we want to decide as quickly as possible between one of the three potential builders. The plot is located in 95326 Kulmbach, and we aim to move in by May 2024 at the latest to enroll our son directly in the appropriate school.
Based on existing floor plans and various iterations and feedback rounds, we have developed this floor plan. Since we lack experience and the construction companies no longer provide useful suggestions for improvement, I hope for the collective feedback from this forum.
This is my first time collecting feedback – please be understanding if I have overlooked anything.
Zoning plan/restrictions
Plot size: 996 m2 (10,719 sq ft)
Slope: Yes – 5m (16 ft) height difference over 40m (131 ft) plot length, sloping down from the street (north) towards the south
Site coverage ratio: 0.3
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building envelope, building line and boundaries: 5m (16 ft) from the street
Adjacent buildings: west, east, south
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: gable roof
Architectural style: two-story
Orientation: west <-> east
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements
Homeowners’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: two-story, gable roof
Basement, floors: basement + 2 full floors
Number of occupants, ages: 39 y, 45 y, 4 y, newborn
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
* Ground floor: large room for living, dining, and cooking, plus office and shower bathroom
* Upper floor: 3 children’s bedrooms, 1 master bedroom, large family bathroom
* Basement: utility room, workshop, guest room, storage
Office use: family use or home office? Home office
Number of overnight guests per year: 12 times per year
Open or closed architecture: open living areas, closed sleeping rooms
Conservative or modern construction style: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: see-through fireplace between living and dining rooms
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: 2 parking spaces, undecided between garage or carport + bike shed
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, including reasons for or against certain features
House design
Origin of the design:
- Planner from a building company: initial idea
- Architect
- Do-it-yourself: significant modifications
What do you particularly like? Why? The room layout on the ground floor suits us very well
What do you not like? Why? Some rooms on the upper floor feel awkwardly arranged, bathroom is very elongated
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 650,000 €
Personal price limit for house, including equipment: 700,000 €
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump
If you have to skip anything, which details/extensions
- can you do without:
- cannot do without: straight staircase, high ceilings, symmetrical façade, large living/dining/kitchen area
Why did the design turn out the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner?
Which specific requests were implemented by the architect?
A mix of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it, in your opinion, particularly good or bad?
What is the most important/key question about the floor plan, summarized in 130 characters?
Feedback for refinement, critical questions, avoiding major mistakes
We are currently in the process of planning our house. The notary appointment for the plot is on October 7th, and after that, we want to decide as quickly as possible between one of the three potential builders. The plot is located in 95326 Kulmbach, and we aim to move in by May 2024 at the latest to enroll our son directly in the appropriate school.
Based on existing floor plans and various iterations and feedback rounds, we have developed this floor plan. Since we lack experience and the construction companies no longer provide useful suggestions for improvement, I hope for the collective feedback from this forum.
This is my first time collecting feedback – please be understanding if I have overlooked anything.
Zoning plan/restrictions
Plot size: 996 m2 (10,719 sq ft)
Slope: Yes – 5m (16 ft) height difference over 40m (131 ft) plot length, sloping down from the street (north) towards the south
Site coverage ratio: 0.3
Floor area ratio: 0.6
Building envelope, building line and boundaries: 5m (16 ft) from the street
Adjacent buildings: west, east, south
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: gable roof
Architectural style: two-story
Orientation: west <-> east
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements
Homeowners’ requirements
Style, roof type, building type: two-story, gable roof
Basement, floors: basement + 2 full floors
Number of occupants, ages: 39 y, 45 y, 4 y, newborn
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
* Ground floor: large room for living, dining, and cooking, plus office and shower bathroom
* Upper floor: 3 children’s bedrooms, 1 master bedroom, large family bathroom
* Basement: utility room, workshop, guest room, storage
Office use: family use or home office? Home office
Number of overnight guests per year: 12 times per year
Open or closed architecture: open living areas, closed sleeping rooms
Conservative or modern construction style: modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: see-through fireplace between living and dining rooms
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: 2 parking spaces, undecided between garage or carport + bike shed
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: no
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, including reasons for or against certain features
House design
Origin of the design:
- Planner from a building company: initial idea
- Architect
- Do-it-yourself: significant modifications
What do you particularly like? Why? The room layout on the ground floor suits us very well
What do you not like? Why? Some rooms on the upper floor feel awkwardly arranged, bathroom is very elongated
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 650,000 €
Personal price limit for house, including equipment: 700,000 €
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump
If you have to skip anything, which details/extensions
- can you do without:
- cannot do without: straight staircase, high ceilings, symmetrical façade, large living/dining/kitchen area
Why did the design turn out the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner?
Which specific requests were implemented by the architect?
A mix of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it, in your opinion, particularly good or bad?
What is the most important/key question about the floor plan, summarized in 130 characters?
Feedback for refinement, critical questions, avoiding major mistakes
ypg schrieb:
The budget is tight because of the basement. I would like to see the slope within the building plot! It looks like you could include it as living space, so the basement would be integrated as a lower ground floor, and you could avoid having an additional level. We would like to do that — but I’m missing a clever idea for the following issue:
I want to be able to access the garden at ground level from the main floor (the floor I enter from the street). Currently, we live about 1.2m (4 feet) above the garden, and the stairs are a significant practical obstacle to using the garden, which we definitely want to avoid again. At the same time, for us a terrace is not the same as a balcony — and houses on slopes with large balconies on the main floor simply don’t look good to me.
The terrace must therefore be at garden level on the main floor, which effectively rules out using the basement as living space. The only alternative would be to enlarge the basement under the terrace — then you would have 2 or 3 rooms on the south side free, but of course the costs would increase again. We cannot save anything more on the main floor footprint without reducing the size of the living room.
Do you have any good suggestions?
11ant schrieb:
There is a section called "Experiences with Construction Companies," where various companies are discussed, and you can also find additional companies by region. Kulmbach is not unusual in this respect; you might even find providers from there here already. The companies we are in contact with are "Büttner Massivhaus," "Probau Massivhaus," and "dechant hoch- und ingenieurbau gmbh." Only Büttner has some information available. However, all three companies are well known and popular in the region.
11ant schrieb:
Various rounds of feedback whatever, that sounds contradictory at first glance for initial feedback gathering (?) Sorry, that was confusing. We reviewed the floor plan with the planners from the three construction companies as well as with architect friends and have already gone through several versions. Now we need people who a) honestly share their opinions and b) bring a fresh perspective. That’s why I’m here. 😉
11ant schrieb:
Where does the perceived calling and suitability to modify the provider planner’s design come from (and what were the motivating points for it)?
Please send relevant comments to Irene Campregher, Peter Nidetzky, or Konrad Toenz 🙂 – what kind of feedback would you have expected from the construction companies? The planners’ approach is to take our wishes and then present a proposal. However, with requests like "large living room," "straight staircase," and "on a slope," we’ve introduced so many constraints that design freedom is limited. It felt like none of them were really interested in showing us alternatives—meaning providing 2 to 3 options for a specific wish and then letting us choose the one that fits best.
fromthisplace schrieb:
We are also building on a slope.
For a turnkey build including slope stabilization, the budget will not be sufficient. We have so far allocated €73,000 (about $80,000) for additional construction costs and slope stabilization, but we haven’t yet found a way to confirm this figure. How did you handle this?
driver55 schrieb:
As a contractor, I wouldn’t want to make changes to the floor plan either!
There are too many retaining walls and too much fill.
The site needs to be properly taken into account. This just won’t work! The initial suggestion with the retaining walls comes from one of the three construction companies. Do you have any ideas on how to properly incorporate the site conditions into the planning?
A few abbreviations beforehand:
Grundstück = plot
WZ = living room
Schlafzimmer = bedroom
Kinderzimmer = children’s room
UG = basement level
Gäste-WC = guest toilet
I’m afraid you’ll have to put the floor plan discussion aside for now and focus on the slope issue. Calculate how much material you need to fill under the terrace and garage if the ground floor is to be at street level. Just the material, and NO, you cannot just pile soil there. It needs to be compactable fill material, which you’ll have to purchase at a significant cost. All of this also needs to be properly founded and compacted—meaning someone has to walk or jump on it to achieve around 3m (10 feet) of compaction. As a rough guide: for every meter (3 feet) from the street, the ground drops by 12.5cm (5 inches). After 5m (16 feet), you are more than half a meter (1.5 feet) below street level, and that’s where your house plus garage would begin! This is far too expensive and also unattractive—in short, a bad idea.
You should also consider building a basement level (UG) for budget reasons. This is a full floor but has no windows on the slope side where it is against the hill. I could imagine the following layout:
Basement level (UG): living room, dining area, kitchen on the south side; utility room and stairs on the north side; possibly guest or parents’ room plus guest toilet under the garage.
Ground floor (EG): hallway, 3 children’s rooms, guest or parents’ room, bathroom, garage.
No cellar.
Still, considerable earthworks will be necessary for landscaping. You definitely should examine your slope carefully to get a feel for it. Take some graph paper (millimeter paper), sketch a cross-section of your plot, and overlay a simplified rectangle 10m (33 feet) wide and 6m (20 feet) tall — representing two floors — then move it within the building area.
Your slope would be quite ideal for a split-level design, but that’s not everyone’s preference. However, it’s worth having a look. Google is your friend.
This way, you could fit your house optimally into the slope and only need minimal terrain modeling.
Grundstück = plot
WZ = living room
Schlafzimmer = bedroom
Kinderzimmer = children’s room
UG = basement level
Gäste-WC = guest toilet
I’m afraid you’ll have to put the floor plan discussion aside for now and focus on the slope issue. Calculate how much material you need to fill under the terrace and garage if the ground floor is to be at street level. Just the material, and NO, you cannot just pile soil there. It needs to be compactable fill material, which you’ll have to purchase at a significant cost. All of this also needs to be properly founded and compacted—meaning someone has to walk or jump on it to achieve around 3m (10 feet) of compaction. As a rough guide: for every meter (3 feet) from the street, the ground drops by 12.5cm (5 inches). After 5m (16 feet), you are more than half a meter (1.5 feet) below street level, and that’s where your house plus garage would begin! This is far too expensive and also unattractive—in short, a bad idea.
You should also consider building a basement level (UG) for budget reasons. This is a full floor but has no windows on the slope side where it is against the hill. I could imagine the following layout:
Basement level (UG): living room, dining area, kitchen on the south side; utility room and stairs on the north side; possibly guest or parents’ room plus guest toilet under the garage.
Ground floor (EG): hallway, 3 children’s rooms, guest or parents’ room, bathroom, garage.
No cellar.
Still, considerable earthworks will be necessary for landscaping. You definitely should examine your slope carefully to get a feel for it. Take some graph paper (millimeter paper), sketch a cross-section of your plot, and overlay a simplified rectangle 10m (33 feet) wide and 6m (20 feet) tall — representing two floors — then move it within the building area.
Your slope would be quite ideal for a split-level design, but that’s not everyone’s preference. However, it’s worth having a look. Google is your friend.
This way, you could fit your house optimally into the slope and only need minimal terrain modeling.
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