Hello everyone, this is my first topic here:
We are planning to start building our house this year with a general contractor. The position of the building on the plot is fixed, and we are currently waiting for the building permit / planning permission.
Our plot is approximately 20m by 41m (66 feet by 135 feet) in size, located in a gap between buildings. The shorter side faces the street. The land slopes downward by 3m (10 feet) over the 41m (135 feet) length towards the back, with the steepest slope in the middle of the plot. The neighbors on the left and right have filled their land, which can be seen clearly by the height of the neighbor’s wall on the left side of the photo. The neighbor to the left has built a basement into the slope, the neighbor to the right has not.
According to the soil report, about 50cm (20 inches) of topsoil needs to be removed. Beneath that, the soil is stable. Frost protection material will be used to fill up to the average street level, so that the finished floor level will be about 20cm (8 inches) above the street. Due to the slope in the middle part, the backfill behind the house will be approximately 1.8m (6 feet) above the current ground level. According to the soil report, the fill should be either sloped back at a 45° angle or retained with a retaining wall.
In the rear area of the plot, we want to create vegetable beds and a wildflower meadow. We already established and harvested a small potato patch last year to pass the waiting time.
What do you think would be the most sensible and cost-effective solution in this situation?
I am looking forward to your suggestions and ideas!
We are planning to start building our house this year with a general contractor. The position of the building on the plot is fixed, and we are currently waiting for the building permit / planning permission.
Our plot is approximately 20m by 41m (66 feet by 135 feet) in size, located in a gap between buildings. The shorter side faces the street. The land slopes downward by 3m (10 feet) over the 41m (135 feet) length towards the back, with the steepest slope in the middle of the plot. The neighbors on the left and right have filled their land, which can be seen clearly by the height of the neighbor’s wall on the left side of the photo. The neighbor to the left has built a basement into the slope, the neighbor to the right has not.
According to the soil report, about 50cm (20 inches) of topsoil needs to be removed. Beneath that, the soil is stable. Frost protection material will be used to fill up to the average street level, so that the finished floor level will be about 20cm (8 inches) above the street. Due to the slope in the middle part, the backfill behind the house will be approximately 1.8m (6 feet) above the current ground level. According to the soil report, the fill should be either sloped back at a 45° angle or retained with a retaining wall.
In the rear area of the plot, we want to create vegetable beds and a wildflower meadow. We already established and harvested a small potato patch last year to pass the waiting time.
What do you think would be the most sensible and cost-effective solution in this situation?
- Slope everything back, add stairs and a natural stone wall later
- Build stairs and a wall directly on the right side, slope back the rest
- If building a wall: formwork blocks would be much cheaper than L-shaped blocks; regarding the earth pressure, a structural engineer would probably need to be consulted.
I am looking forward to your suggestions and ideas!
Eifelbau2023 schrieb:
The general contractor didn’t plan much more; the layout was largely specified by us, and we spent quite a bit of time adjusting it. The architect then improved some detailed solutions. Just for the record: that doesn’t surprise me.
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
An independent architect is obliged to provide you with a cost-optimized design.
That is not the case with your contractor. The Zeichenknecht designs are also cost-optimized, but from a different perspective: avoiding including items with low profit margins in the project scope. And: time is money, so no unnecessary extra rounds on the way to approval. A pleasant side effect is that the client feels like a skilled amateur architect when nothing essential is changed in their design.
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Do not buy plants with shallow root systems. Choose deep-rooted plants and provide them with enough soil. For example, my roses on the south side, receiving sun all day, were watered only twice from above in four months. If you have shallow-rooted plants, you need very resilient varieties to manage watering just once a week. It is better to use more soil instead of adding recycled material. Why is the vegetable garden located so far away from the house?
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Eifelbau20238 Feb 2023 13:1511ant schrieb:
Just for the record: I’m not surprised.
The planning by Zeichenknecht is also optimized for cost, but from a different perspective: avoiding including low-margin items in the contract volume. And: time is money, so no unnecessary detours on the way to approval. As a pleasant side effect, the client feels like a skilled amateur architect when nothing significant is changed in their design.It wouldn’t make sense for the main contractor to try to change a floor plan that we obviously want as is, just to create more work. That could even risk alienating customers if the contractor hasn’t been selected yet.
haydee schrieb:
Don’t buy shallow-rooted plants. Choose deep-rooted ones and give them enough soil. Just as an example, my roses on the south side with full sun were only watered twice from above in 4 months. If you have shallow-rooted plants, you need very resilient plants to get by with watering just once a week. Better put in more soil rather than recycled material. Why is the vegetable garden so far from the house?One option might be to distribute the 50cm (20 inches) of soil being removed directly to the spots where larger plantings will be. We don’t really want bigger trees; at the far end of the property there is a hiking trail lined with an orchard alley.
The vegetables are at the far end because no soil exchange is needed there (and our potatoes did really well there last year at harvest).
That area also stays somewhat moist due to a small stream behind the hiking trail.
Eifelbau2023 schrieb:
It wouldn't make sense for the general contractor to try to talk us out of a floor plan that we clearly want, only to end up with extra work because of it. This could even risk alienating potential clients if the contractor hasn’t been finalized yet. Exactly for this reason, the draftsman (even if he has been doing the job forever and can tell at a glance which cabinet door will pinch your fingers) must under no circumstances discourage the amateur architect from their stroke of genius—at least not as long as that person is only a “potential” client. Offended divas are dangerous. And it’s not uncommon that genuine blood, sweat, and tears go into the five hundred and thirty-eighth iteration of trying to adjust the house from Nikolaus to a Maxime or Jette. In such cases, it’s better for the general contractor to follow Willy Astor’s advice: send eels out one at a time ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
I can only recommend that to the OP as well. Unfortunately, this did not save us from excavating nearly 850 tons just for the flat garden area. However, as discussed here, we have a hillside house with a "bungalow" appearance from the street and living/kitchen areas located in the walk-out basement at garden level.