ᐅ House extends above ground level – how much soil can be backfilled (with shallow basement)?

Hello everyone,

we are now in the final phase of our house construction.

Because the sewage system on our property is not far below ground level and we did not install a sewage lift system, our basement was only excavated to a shallow depth.

The ceiling height of the basement rooms is 2.50m (8 feet 2 inches), as these areas are intended to be living spaces, unlike the neighboring houses, whose basement heights are lower.

As a result, our front door and the two patio doors are positioned much higher than those of the neighboring houses. In the next few days, soil will be filled up to the level of the terrace and front doors.

I do not want this to turn into a discussion about different construction methods; instead, I am looking for advice on how to best handle this somewhat unusual situation.

First, some photos:



Marked in red are the two patio doors. Soil will be filled up to just below these patio doors, except, of course, at light wells and shafts. The terrace will be paved around the corner, following the two indicated patio doors (because we wanted two sunny sides on the terrace for different times of the day). To the left of the single-leaf patio door (where the exterior plaster ends), a retaining wall will be built from the terrace level down to the ground.



This is a front view. On the left, the construction staircase leads up to the entrance door. The front door is at the same level as the two patio doors.



Here is the view from the back.



This is the view from the back toward the front door.



And here is another rear view including the neighboring houses.

As planned, as mentioned, soil will be filled up to the level of the house and terrace doors, and at this level the garden will be designed on the side of the large double patio door as well as behind the house, with steep slopes created just before the property boundary.

On the front door side, soil will also be filled up to front door level.

Toward the "front" (the side with the single patio door), the street level will be reached by terrace-like steps with 2-3 slope terraces supported by walls/granite.

Our concern now is: if we fill soil all around the house at door level on the side with the double patio door, at the back, and on the front door side, our garden height will be so high that, compared to the neighbors, our house will stand out significantly due to the very elevated ground level.

We are now considering ways to soften this.

One idea is to fill soil to door level only at the terrace wrapping the corner and directly at the front door, and to fill soil, for example, 50cm (20 inches) below door level everywhere else.

This way, the garden level would not be so dramatically higher than the neighbors’.

The problem with this is that we would partially expose the "basement" and areas without exterior plaster would become visible. We would likely need to hire a plasterer on our own to plaster additional areas and paint them with gray base paint. Time is tight because the soil will be delivered for filling within the next days/weeks. How long would such plastering take and what would it approximately cost?

Question to the forum: What do you think about this? Do you have other solutions? Or are our concerns unfounded?

Thank you very much in advance for any advice.

Machu Picchu schrieb:

and only steeply slope just before the property boundary.

Is that even allowed?

Machu Picchu schrieb:

then our garden level is so high that we stand out completely in the street compared to the neighbors due to a very high ground level.

Exactly for this reason, in the zoning plan (or does the state building code apply?), the amount of sloping is often heavily restricted—unless it’s a hillside property, in which case the zoning plans tend to be somewhat more lenient. Still, they usually limit height so that neighbors don’t have to look at a retaining wall or get cast in its shadow.

Machu Picchu schrieb:

Question to the forum: What do you think about all this?

I think anything done would be either half-measures or not consistent.

Machu Picchu schrieb:

Or are our concerns completely unfounded?

No, on the contrary, I see it as a serious issue and would be concerned that you can actually create anything remotely like a “garden” there. Because what you’d have to do is a roller coaster of elevations within a very small area. Either with slopes, which would be steep and barren due to dryness and unusable for walking, or with retaining walls, which would basically mean balconies on walls. The lower level would then stand alone. Stairs would also take up space...
Railings would probably be necessary in both cases...

Please show the site plan with the house floor plan included, so we can see how much space remains to the property boundary.

From a planner’s perspective, I find this layout terrible and would be very upset and consider claiming damages. The lot is almost fully covered with the house. You can hardly use anything. Who wasn’t paying attention here? And all this just to save on a sewage lift station?

Edit: Basically, you would have to slope as much as possible to the right from the street side and become flatter to the left. Then at the back all the way to the rear left corner of the property. However, there isn’t enough area at the back to make it completely level.

That is so high that I would rather plan a rooftop terrace.
Where does the water go with that slope when you have heavy rain?
It’s almost like a tidal island.

Where exactly is the front door? Is that the patio door on the entrance side? Again: a plan would be helpful 🙂

ypg schrieb:

Where is the front door actually located? Is it the patio door on the entrance side? Again: a floor plan would help 🙂

If I understand correctly, it’s on the side where the construction staircase is.

This is really difficult. How high exactly above the current ground level are the doors?