ᐅ Single-family house floor plan approximately 165 m² plus basement
Created on: 30 Aug 2022 21:16
G
Gregor_K
Hello everyone,
My wife and I purchased a plot of land last year and are now ready to start the construction project. Over the past few weeks, I have spoken with four general contractors and gathered quotes. In the coming weeks, I plan to choose one general contractor; at the moment, two are in the final running. Several floor plans have been developed, and I have posted the one we like best here. The floor plan currently does not include furniture, but once we decide on a contractor, I will finalize it with the contractor/architect unless a better plan comes up.
Of the two general contractors we are considering, one offers a planning contract for service phases HOAI 1-4. The other does not provide this, so we will need to hire a separate architect (HOAI 1-3).
Having followed various discussions in this forum for a while, I would appreciate your feedback on the floor plan. This is our first build; my knowledge so far comes from seminars by the Builders’ Protection Association and this housebuilding forum.
Development Plan/Restrictions
Plot No. 194
Plot size: 680m² (7,300 sq ft)
Slope: yes, descending about 1 to 1.5m (3 to 5 feet) from the access road
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: N/A
Building envelope, building line and boundary: see blue line on the development plan; approximately 12.95m x 20m (42.5 ft x 66 ft)
Setback from boundary: 3m (10 feet)
Parking spaces: 1 to 2
Maximum building height: 2 full floors
Roof style: no specification in the development plan
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Single-family house, gabled roof with purlins if possible
Basement, floors: 2 full floors plus basement
Number of occupants: 5 people, 2 adults and 3 children
Office: Home office room
Occasional guests: none or at most 1 to 2 per year
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Yes, open kitchen, but kitchen island not absolutely necessary
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: no
Balcony, roof terrace: not required
Garage, carport: Single garage to be located on the east side, plus at least 2 additional parking spaces on the northwest side of the property
House Design
Designer:
- Design by a prefabricated house supplier
What do you particularly like? Why?
We like the appearance of the house with the bay window; it looks stylish to us. Overall, it includes everything we need, such as a pantry, a relatively spacious dining area combined with the living room, 3 children’s rooms, and an office.
What do you dislike? Why?
The staircase could be positioned further from the entrance, but this is acceptable. The bathroom design still looks unfinished.
Price estimate according to architect/designer: €620,000 without ancillary building costs (no price negotiation)
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: €650,000 without ancillary building costs
If you had to give up certain details/extra features,
- what you could do without: Items we can omit have already been removed, e.g., walk-in closet and storage room
- what you cannot do without: 3 children’s rooms, pantry, office, landing staircase, basement
Why is the design as it is now? For example:
Design from the planner following these specifications:
- 2 full floors or 1.5 floors with a high knee wall (e.g., 180cm (70.9 inches))
- Flexible roof type; we like a gabled roof with purlins or alternatively a hip roof or flat roof
- Ground floor plus upper floor should be between 165m² and 175m² (1,776 to 1,884 sq ft)
- open kitchen + living room + dining area
- guest bathroom with shower
- entrance area should be usable for 5 people (space for shoe cabinets)
- pantry
- office room that can later be used as a bedroom in older age
- dining area close to the kitchen
- kitchen and dining area should be near the terrace
- 3 children’s rooms (2 rooms at least 15m² (161 sq ft), 1 room at least 12m² (129 sq ft))
- master bedroom with or without walk-in closet, depending on what fits better into the floor plan
- optional laundry chute would be great but not essential
- preferably no separate children’s bathroom
- bathroom at least 10m² (108 sq ft), better if 12 to 14m² (129 to 151 sq ft), depending on the layout
- staircase should not be located in the entrance’s dirt zone. A comfortable staircase would be great; ideally a landing staircase
- space for a single garage on the plot, i.e., no double garage
- access from the garage to the pantry would be nice but not essential
- no gallery
- no conservatory/glass extension
- covered access from garage to front door is not absolutely necessary
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Can the staircase be placed further away from the entrance? What do you think about making windows in the bathroom, master bedroom, and office narrower (window sill height)? Are the basement windows well positioned, especially those near the terrace?
My wife and I purchased a plot of land last year and are now ready to start the construction project. Over the past few weeks, I have spoken with four general contractors and gathered quotes. In the coming weeks, I plan to choose one general contractor; at the moment, two are in the final running. Several floor plans have been developed, and I have posted the one we like best here. The floor plan currently does not include furniture, but once we decide on a contractor, I will finalize it with the contractor/architect unless a better plan comes up.
Of the two general contractors we are considering, one offers a planning contract for service phases HOAI 1-4. The other does not provide this, so we will need to hire a separate architect (HOAI 1-3).
Having followed various discussions in this forum for a while, I would appreciate your feedback on the floor plan. This is our first build; my knowledge so far comes from seminars by the Builders’ Protection Association and this housebuilding forum.
Development Plan/Restrictions
Plot No. 194
Plot size: 680m² (7,300 sq ft)
Slope: yes, descending about 1 to 1.5m (3 to 5 feet) from the access road
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: N/A
Building envelope, building line and boundary: see blue line on the development plan; approximately 12.95m x 20m (42.5 ft x 66 ft)
Setback from boundary: 3m (10 feet)
Parking spaces: 1 to 2
Maximum building height: 2 full floors
Roof style: no specification in the development plan
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Single-family house, gabled roof with purlins if possible
Basement, floors: 2 full floors plus basement
Number of occupants: 5 people, 2 adults and 3 children
Office: Home office room
Occasional guests: none or at most 1 to 2 per year
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Yes, open kitchen, but kitchen island not absolutely necessary
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: no
Balcony, roof terrace: not required
Garage, carport: Single garage to be located on the east side, plus at least 2 additional parking spaces on the northwest side of the property
House Design
Designer:
- Design by a prefabricated house supplier
What do you particularly like? Why?
We like the appearance of the house with the bay window; it looks stylish to us. Overall, it includes everything we need, such as a pantry, a relatively spacious dining area combined with the living room, 3 children’s rooms, and an office.
What do you dislike? Why?
The staircase could be positioned further from the entrance, but this is acceptable. The bathroom design still looks unfinished.
Price estimate according to architect/designer: €620,000 without ancillary building costs (no price negotiation)
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: €650,000 without ancillary building costs
If you had to give up certain details/extra features,
- what you could do without: Items we can omit have already been removed, e.g., walk-in closet and storage room
- what you cannot do without: 3 children’s rooms, pantry, office, landing staircase, basement
Why is the design as it is now? For example:
Design from the planner following these specifications:
- House with basement:
- 2 full floors or 1.5 floors with a high knee wall (e.g., 180cm (70.9 inches))
- Flexible roof type; we like a gabled roof with purlins or alternatively a hip roof or flat roof
- Ground floor plus upper floor should be between 165m² and 175m² (1,776 to 1,884 sq ft)
- Ground floor:
- open kitchen + living room + dining area
- guest bathroom with shower
- entrance area should be usable for 5 people (space for shoe cabinets)
- pantry
- office room that can later be used as a bedroom in older age
- dining area close to the kitchen
- kitchen and dining area should be near the terrace
- Upper floor:
- 3 children’s rooms (2 rooms at least 15m² (161 sq ft), 1 room at least 12m² (129 sq ft))
- master bedroom with or without walk-in closet, depending on what fits better into the floor plan
- optional laundry chute would be great but not essential
- preferably no separate children’s bathroom
- bathroom at least 10m² (108 sq ft), better if 12 to 14m² (129 to 151 sq ft), depending on the layout
- General:
- staircase should not be located in the entrance’s dirt zone. A comfortable staircase would be great; ideally a landing staircase
- space for a single garage on the plot, i.e., no double garage
- access from the garage to the pantry would be nice but not essential
- no gallery
- no conservatory/glass extension
- covered access from garage to front door is not absolutely necessary
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Can the staircase be placed further away from the entrance? What do you think about making windows in the bathroom, master bedroom, and office narrower (window sill height)? Are the basement windows well positioned, especially those near the terrace?
C
Christian 6513 Oct 2022 15:35Yeah, then both options are inconvenient. You can't reach the upper one, and the lower one is for "looking up the skirt" :-)
Christian 65 schrieb:
Both stairwell windows.
If the elevation is correct, all window tops are at the same height.
If your clear ceiling height is 2.50m (8 ft 2 in) and you assume the roller shutter box at 25cm (10 inches), then the window would be OK at 2.25m (7 ft 5 in).
On the stair landing, after 8 risers, you stand at about 1.48m (4 ft 10 in). With a sensible parapet height of 90cm (35 inches), the bottom of the window would be at 2.38m (7 ft 10 in). You can see that doesn’t add up.
Overall, this massive landing staircase takes up a lot of space. What will happen in the attic? Just storage, or will that be finished? With the roof pitch, you probably won’t be able to extend this stair run up to the top while maintaining sufficient headroom.
If a loft ladder is planned in the upper floor hallway, it might be possible to rotate the stair run and then build over the first part of the bedroom-side bottom stair on the ground floor—at least 26cm (10 inches), maybe more once the section is developed.
This would make the hallway space beside the bedroom door on the right wider. If you can build over 2.5 steps, the door could be moved all the way down, and behind the door leaf a full-width wardrobe could fit. That would also prevent bumping into a wardrobe corner. But the stair run would need to be shown in a section drawing, and headroom checked.
Finally, for anyone who wants, you could add one more step (= two risers) to the middle landing.
This would shorten the stair run.
Everyone as they prefer. As I said, this is a sales drawing. I could theoretically post the slightly modified floor plan from the other general contractor here, but I’m not sure if it would help since we haven’t committed 100% to a general contractor yet. Also, Katja’s suggestion was to first clarify whether to build against the slope or with the slope. The opinion was that this is a solid design for a flat lot, but we have a slight slope. The plot slopes downward slightly from the access road. Since we are building with a basement, the ground floor can be raised easily to street level, so it should actually work.
Regarding the landing staircase, I tried various stairs in model homes and found this one the best. We originally wanted a bungalow, but a) we couldn’t find a suitable plot and b) we need 3 bedrooms for our 3 children plus an office for me, so the landing stair is already a compromise for me. However, I’m more flexible now than five years ago. Basically, I don’t want to rule anything out and want to remain as open as possible.
The attic will only be used for storage and will not be finished, but thanks for the advice and the tip about rotating the stair run! I’ll keep that in mind. We changed the upper floor plan a bit, and I like it better.
11ant schrieb:
Tested typical building proposals are very valuable. There are thousands of ways to customize a catalog home so that it hardly resembles its "twin" three streets away. Giving up on “individuality” can therefore be convincingly minimized. But for a normal single-family house with around 3,800 (quarter to twelve) component connection points, you get the advantage that your house doesn’t become a guinea pig for the skills of the trades involved. Many owners underestimate that a general contractor usually does not have a constant team. It pays off to lay the foundation for smooth progress, at least for the shell construction stage. A building proposal from another general contractor brings a certain maturity—at least in terms of avoiding bottlenecks. Systematically, the hardest to “transplant” are plans you try to move “transgenically” from a timber builder to a masonry builder (or vice versa). It’s best to take a catalog design from the general contractor 1:1 if you don’t want custom planning—and your plot at least doesn’t require one. If none fit (with at most minor shifts of non-load-bearing interior walls), it’s better to choose a smaller plan and stretch it (in the “wheelbase,” i.e. along the ridge axis) than to take a larger one and shrink it. I always worry that with a “free design” I might forget or overlook something and end up dissatisfied. You have to keep in mind that it’s a sloped lot, but with the basement, the ground floor should easily be at street level. Nothing is worse than being unhappy after purchase. Considering the requirements I wrote in the original post, it’s hard to find a good floor plan; what I posted here is so far the best option for me, my family, and the plot.
Christian 65 schrieb:
Yeah, then both are problematic. You can’t easily reach the upper one, and the lower one is for “looking under the skirt” 🙂 That’s the question—what’s better? I can’t think of a better solution. I’ll probably have to choose between the front appearance of the house and easy access to the window, right?
Christian 65 schrieb:
Yeah, both positions are inconvenient. You can’t reach the upper one, and the lower one is meant for “looking up the skirt.” No, they are actually positioned quite well. The setup is not meant to please the installer but to serve the occupants. Cleaning a stairwell window twice a year is sufficient, and it can be done with an extension pole; but light enters every day, for a stairwell (here, between the ground floor and first floor) both from above and below. Feet with corns don’t gaze over the landscape, so the railing height for the view doesn’t matter here. Also, adding artificial light for the walk down to the basement does not really affect the livability of the house. I’m known for being critical, but here I read unnecessary nitpicking.
Gregor_K schrieb:
Moreover, Katja’s suggestion was to first clarify whether the building is to be constructed against or with the slope. The opinion was that this is a solid design for a flat plot, but we have a slight slope. The plot slopes down slightly from the access road. Since we’re building with a basement, the ground floor can be adjusted to street level, so it should work out. I would definitely not call this a slope. The elevations A through D show no gradient either across or along the site; the terrain has a contour variation of about 30cm (12 inches). The access road is on an embankment, but that does not make the terrain itself a “slope.” The basement will be set in a building pit not quite one meter deep (about 3 feet), and the surrounding ground will be filled sloping away from the house. Calling this situation a “slope” would be a distortion of the facts. However, it would be interesting to find out how the municipality envisions the final grading (and from where the maximum heights are to be measured). The sloping backfill also raises questions about drainage.
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C
Christian 6514 Oct 2022 04:3911ant schrieb:
No, they fit impressively well. The bait isn’t meant to please the angler, but the fish. Meaning: you clean a stairwell window twice a year,That was a good one :-)Form follows function is outdated.
If appearance matters more, then only this position works, I understand.
11ant schrieb:
No, the windows are impressively well-positioned. The bait isn’t meant to please the angler, but the fish. In other words: you clean a stairwell window twice a year, which can be done with an extendable pole; but natural light comes in every day, from both above and below for a staircase (here between the ground floor and the upper floor).That will make the discussion with my wife a lot easier. 😀;)
11ant schrieb:
I would not call this a sloping site at all. Views A to D show no cross or longitudinal gradient; the terrain has a cellulitis with a height difference of about 30cm (12 inches). The access road is on an embankment, but that does not make the terrain itself a "slope." The basement will be built in a construction pit less than a meter deep, and then the ground around the house will be filled in with a downward slope. Calling this situation a "slope" would be a distortion of the facts. However, it would be interesting to find out how the municipality envisions the finished terrain (and from where the height maxima should be measured). The sloping fill also raises questions about how drainage will be managed. The drainage is intended solely to connect to the sewer system in the street area.
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