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
Thanks for the compliments, everyone. 🙂
I have to admit that we’re not yet sure exactly what we’ll eventually put into the outdoor areas. However, the plan is to avoid spending a fortune on that for now. That makes it easier if there’s still a lot left to do at the end of the budget. 😉
Our builder has spread the excavated soil around the property and temporarily terraced it. This should help avoid having to haul too much away since truck trips to the landfill are currently very expensive. We’ll review later how he arranges and “hides” the soil on the property as we progress. And if there’s still too much, we’ll remove some more. I’ll try to share some drone photos soon. Our excavator work has already created a slight slope up to the neighbors’ property. It’s surprising what turns up.
I have to admit that we’re not yet sure exactly what we’ll eventually put into the outdoor areas. However, the plan is to avoid spending a fortune on that for now. That makes it easier if there’s still a lot left to do at the end of the budget. 😉
Our builder has spread the excavated soil around the property and temporarily terraced it. This should help avoid having to haul too much away since truck trips to the landfill are currently very expensive. We’ll review later how he arranges and “hides” the soil on the property as we progress. And if there’s still too much, we’ll remove some more. I’ll try to share some drone photos soon. Our excavator work has already created a slight slope up to the neighbors’ property. It’s surprising what turns up.
haydee schrieb:Exactly, I actually like that a lot. You enter the hallway from the garage/front door, and downstairs are the living areas that also lead out to the adjacent garden. And if you bypass the stairs through the hallway, you reach the bedrooms and the bathroom.
above all @kati1337 has the entrance on the ground floor and the living areas in the basement how it would make sense for you.
C
chand19863 Oct 2022 16:53BastianP schrieb:
The plan so far: The plot is 40m (130 feet) long and slopes down by almost 5m (16 feet). Then I don’t understand your approach. You mentioned wanting the ground floor level with the terrace and garden. If you raise the terrace, you’ll still have to go down to the garden using stairs.
A level exit to both the terrace AND garden is only possible if the front is lower (meaning the basement is used as living space).
At the very least, your idea doesn’t really follow the natural slope of the land. Designing with the terrain can save significant costs that you otherwise wouldn’t get any value from. If you want to add as much fill as you do, that’s definitely far from an optimal solution considering the site.
It might be worth consulting a proper architect who works without preset proposals and just follows your spatial requirements. Under the current conditions, you will most likely exceed your budget anyway.
BastianP schrieb:
I want to have direct, level access from the ground floor (the floor I enter from the street) to the garden.You won’t have level access to the garden if you raise or fill in your terrace.BastianP schrieb:
At the same time, for us, a terrace is not the same as a balcony—None of us are recommending a balcony.BastianP schrieb:
We would like to do that—but I’m missing a good idea for the following problem:BastianP schrieb:
Do you have a good suggestion?Yes, as already mentioned by me and others: two floors—one at street level, the other in the basement with access to the garden and terrace.There are plenty of floor plan discussions here dealing with sloped sites, optimizing living space without wasting money on an expensive finished basement. The most recent one is by @kati1337. It’s best to check the threads “below” yours; there are some great ideas there, though often hidden in the discussion pages. I always recommend looking at other discussions as well to get a fresh perspective and remain objective.
Regarding your explanations, your layout doesn’t really fit for an au pair or visiting parents. You’d be stepping on each other’s toes in the sleeping area and have no privacy—in a 130sqm (1400 sq ft) house, that might be acceptable, but not in a larger 190sqm (2045 sq ft) house.
At the very least, the office should be multifunctional.
F
fromthisplace3 Oct 2022 17:22BastianP schrieb:
For additional construction costs and slope stabilization, we have so far budgeted €73,000, but haven’t yet found a way to verify this figure. How did you handle this?We hired a general contractor experienced with building on slopes and agreed on a fixed price for the turnkey house and support measures. Both were delivered on budget and executed very well. We designed our floor plan ourselves. We were very satisfied with it, as was most of the forum.
By the way, I agree with the other users:
If you feel like you’re not at least 99% really happy with your floor plan, I fully support @chand1986 (go to an architect with your budget and room requirements and have them design something tailored to your plot). Here, I see more of a (large) two-story house with bedrooms upstairs and living/dining areas downstairs with ground-level garden access. I always wonder if and when homeowners realize their house doesn’t truly fit their land. There are many high-rise residential buildings around here that clearly follow the “House A must be placed on our plot” approach.
For you, I would plan only two rooms for a third child/au pair/guests instead of 2+1 backup rooms. The money is better spent elsewhere. Generally, I’m in the camp of “sending (in-law) guests to a hotel” rather than planning an extra room for them. Though I can understand the point if visits happen 12 times a year (wow, that’s once a month!).
BastianP schrieb:
The companies we are considering are "Büttner Massivhaus," "Probau Massivhaus," and "dechant hoch- und ingenieurbau gmbh." Only Büttner has some information available online. However, all three companies are well-known and popular in the region. Locally well-known and respected companies are very valuable. I couldn’t find anything to recommend Dechant; their focus seems to be clearly outside the scope of single-family houses. Büttner and Probau are already mentioned here:
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/empfehlungen-bauunternehmen-aus-der-region-franken.27790/page-2#post-562343
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/bauen-mit-probau-massivhaus.1192/
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/baufirma-fuer-massivhaus-im-bamberger-raum.33182/
BastianP schrieb:
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 already brought so many constraints that the design freedom is limited. It felt like no one was really interested in showing us alternatives—meaning, for one request, offering 2 or 3 options for us to choose the best fit. *LOL* The expectation many prospective builders have—that building companies will present three design options just to win the contract, as if they were advertising agencies in a Hollywood comedy competing for the worldwide budget of the Biggest Business International Corporation over the next five years—is almost adorably naive. Then you add to that—even with friendly architects involved—the challenge of a sloped site combined with a very traditional drafting approach, which borders on madness. Additional design constraints like a "straight staircase" could easily be classified as nice-to-haves at best.
Considering the distance of the house from the street, an entire basement height is already used up just to level the building, resulting in the garden connecting “straight on” to the living area (to quote Chief Inspector Anton Stadler), placing the living room in the basement. Certainly, even with clever planning, significant costs for landscaping (which I personally prefer over retaining walls made of L-shaped blocks) are inevitable.
From my perspective, any builder who does not clearly recommend designs with a living basement disqualifies themselves right away. Such designs rarely appear in their standard building proposal catalogs. Using catalog designs usually leads to overly expensive houses with unnecessarily large underground levels and extensive terracing work. Designs appropriate for flat plots—regardless of origin—should simply be discarded when dealing with sloped land.
Make sure to work with self-funded architects at least through planning stages 1 and 2. You absolutely need a spatial concept that actively integrates the basement as mixed-use space (i.e., living areas oriented toward the valley side)!
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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