ᐅ Building plot acquired for the construction of a single-family house, next steps in the planning process
Created on: 9 Oct 2023 19:19
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Bauneuling2024
Greetings everyone,
and first of all, THANK YOU for all the valuable information available in this house building forum. Truly priceless! I hope I am in the right section, Planning Your House, as we are still in the initial phase of our project. We like looking at floor plans but have not yet created any concrete designs and would probably leave that to a professional anyway. We have put our main ideas and wishes on paper and will outline them below in the questionnaire.
After a two-year search for a building plot, we were finally able to purchase our lot at the end of September in a quiet suburb of Bielefeld. Now we want to start planning. Our goal is to complete the project by the end of 2025. Since we are still unsure about how to proceed, we are seeking advice in this forum. I am attaching the development plan as well as the excerpt of the textual stipulations from the zoning plan. Unfortunately, the parcels are not yet registered in TIM or BORIS, so I cannot provide a larger spatial overview.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 530 sqm (5,700 sq ft)
Slope: No
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line, building boundary: 3 m (10 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 2-4
Number of floors: 1.5
Roof style: Gable roof
Architectural style: Modern single-family home
Orientation: Driveway to northeast, garden/terrace to west, ridge runs east-west, gable sides facing east and west
Maximum heights / limits: 4.5 m (15 ft) wall height, 11.0 m (36 ft) overall height
Other requirements: Roof pitch 35–48 degrees, mandatory photovoltaic system
Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: Modern single-family house; gable roof; KfW40 standard (German energy efficiency standard)
Basement, floors: 1.5 floors; basement is a nice-to-have but not mandatory
Number of occupants, age: 31 years male, 30 years female; from 03/2024 one child, others to be decided (We need support with the construction as neither we nor our family or friends have any handyman or construction background)
Space needed on ground floor and upper floor: 160-170 sqm (1,720-1,830 sq ft); we plan to have two offices and two children’s rooms. The offices can be smaller.
Occasional overnight guests: 6-8 people annually
Open or closed floor plan: Both preferred
Construction method: Wood or masonry is entirely open to us
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Open kitchen but not necessarily with an island
Number of dining seats: 6-8
Fireplace: Nice to have but not essential
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Single carport or double carport with storage room. To have a larger garden, we may opt for a single carport.
Garden: Ornamental garden
House Design
So far, we have reviewed various floor plans from large-scale builders of both solid construction and prefab houses. The design we like best so far is the "Eibenallee" by Gussek Haus. I am also attaching an image of the floor plan excerpt from the website and would be happy to discuss it here. However, since key dimension information is missing, it has limited usefulness.
What do you particularly like? Why?
- Very spacious living-dining area, bay window facing the garden, storage/technical room behind the kitchen, half-landing staircase, office on the ground floor, master bedroom with generous walk-in closet, two equally sized children’s rooms.
What do you dislike? Why?
- No direct access to the technical room from the entrance hall. We would like an adjacent laundry room off the family bathroom upstairs for washing machine and dryer.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: TBD
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: €600,000
Preferred heating system: Air-to-water heat pump + photovoltaic
If you had to give up features or expansions
- Can give up: dining area for 6-8 persons is enough, walk-in closet, half-landing staircase
- Cannot give up: large kitchen-living-dining area, two offices, two children’s rooms
Now for the further questions:
1. Should we first approach an architect, or
1.1 Since the above design comes very close to our ideas, should we go directly to a general contractor and have the desired modifications made?
Best regards and have a nice evening!
and first of all, THANK YOU for all the valuable information available in this house building forum. Truly priceless! I hope I am in the right section, Planning Your House, as we are still in the initial phase of our project. We like looking at floor plans but have not yet created any concrete designs and would probably leave that to a professional anyway. We have put our main ideas and wishes on paper and will outline them below in the questionnaire.
After a two-year search for a building plot, we were finally able to purchase our lot at the end of September in a quiet suburb of Bielefeld. Now we want to start planning. Our goal is to complete the project by the end of 2025. Since we are still unsure about how to proceed, we are seeking advice in this forum. I am attaching the development plan as well as the excerpt of the textual stipulations from the zoning plan. Unfortunately, the parcels are not yet registered in TIM or BORIS, so I cannot provide a larger spatial overview.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 530 sqm (5,700 sq ft)
Slope: No
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building envelope, building line, building boundary: 3 m (10 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 2-4
Number of floors: 1.5
Roof style: Gable roof
Architectural style: Modern single-family home
Orientation: Driveway to northeast, garden/terrace to west, ridge runs east-west, gable sides facing east and west
Maximum heights / limits: 4.5 m (15 ft) wall height, 11.0 m (36 ft) overall height
Other requirements: Roof pitch 35–48 degrees, mandatory photovoltaic system
Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: Modern single-family house; gable roof; KfW40 standard (German energy efficiency standard)
Basement, floors: 1.5 floors; basement is a nice-to-have but not mandatory
Number of occupants, age: 31 years male, 30 years female; from 03/2024 one child, others to be decided (We need support with the construction as neither we nor our family or friends have any handyman or construction background)
Space needed on ground floor and upper floor: 160-170 sqm (1,720-1,830 sq ft); we plan to have two offices and two children’s rooms. The offices can be smaller.
Occasional overnight guests: 6-8 people annually
Open or closed floor plan: Both preferred
Construction method: Wood or masonry is entirely open to us
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Open kitchen but not necessarily with an island
Number of dining seats: 6-8
Fireplace: Nice to have but not essential
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Single carport or double carport with storage room. To have a larger garden, we may opt for a single carport.
Garden: Ornamental garden
House Design
So far, we have reviewed various floor plans from large-scale builders of both solid construction and prefab houses. The design we like best so far is the "Eibenallee" by Gussek Haus. I am also attaching an image of the floor plan excerpt from the website and would be happy to discuss it here. However, since key dimension information is missing, it has limited usefulness.
What do you particularly like? Why?
- Very spacious living-dining area, bay window facing the garden, storage/technical room behind the kitchen, half-landing staircase, office on the ground floor, master bedroom with generous walk-in closet, two equally sized children’s rooms.
What do you dislike? Why?
- No direct access to the technical room from the entrance hall. We would like an adjacent laundry room off the family bathroom upstairs for washing machine and dryer.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: TBD
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: €600,000
Preferred heating system: Air-to-water heat pump + photovoltaic
If you had to give up features or expansions
- Can give up: dining area for 6-8 persons is enough, walk-in closet, half-landing staircase
- Cannot give up: large kitchen-living-dining area, two offices, two children’s rooms
Now for the further questions:
1. Should we first approach an architect, or
1.1 Since the above design comes very close to our ideas, should we go directly to a general contractor and have the desired modifications made?
Best regards and have a nice evening!
Bauneuling2024 schrieb:
I’m happy to share this with you, although the dimensions are missing here and there are probably countless planning mistakes included. I’m amazed by how few errors your redesign* suggests, despite the fact that relocating the entrance has triggered a whole cascade of changes. The overall quality of the design appears to have been maintained, but the alterations are so extensive that the similarity to the original plan—for the construction process, even using the same building method—is now only visual. Structurally, hardly any beam (or stone) remains in its original position; technically, you have created a completely different model and could therefore just as well have started designing from scratch. The matching external dimensions only help with fitting the building on the plot, but beyond that offer no real advantage or value.
Bauneuling2024 schrieb:
I’m still not quite sure how to handle the estimated knee wall heights. Ultimately, this encouraged us even more to consult an architect. Yes, see an architect (and I mean without quotation marks). The term “knee wall” caught my attention—I initially thought a two-story design might still be possible. Now I understand the "Eibenallee" design: it’s clearly aimed at zoning plans that allow only one full floor. That’s why the ground floor is enlarged with the bay window, and in some federal states you can order the knee wall to be higher than in others. Your shower would need a dormer here, and children's rooms wouldn’t extend beyond a knee wall height of 160cm (63 inches). Also, the wardrobe near the eaves in the dressing room would, with the original knee wall height of 110cm (43 inches), only have space for a chest of drawers.
Bauneuling2024 schrieb:
We have now contacted two architects and scheduled initial consultations; their portfolios appealed to us. Please let me know—which you can also do as a comment on "Bauen jetzt"—which architects you found. Online references (portfolios) are something that suitable architects for single-family homes rarely have, so the mere existence of such portfolios makes me cautious or skeptical. The best architects for this field tend to be “solo practitioners” with perhaps a draftsman and a part-time secretary, or themselves plus a employed architect or structural engineer, two draftsmen, and a full-time secretary. Online references—sometimes even with ratings like those for doctors—are more commonly found among larger architecture firms organized commercially. These firms usually specialize more in commercial buildings, public construction, or multi-family housing—and may design architecturally flashy houses, sometimes bordering on the “designer” blacklist ;-)
Bauneuling2024 schrieb:
Thanks also from us for your detailed explanations, which encouraged us to take the first step toward an architect. Your advice and blog are really great and especially helpful for us as beginners. I’m glad to hear that. Following user demand, more and more services are now listed there. Unfortunately, the comment function for dialogue is still rarely used. Nevertheless, my recent posts have become shorter, which is not really my strength ;-)
Bauneuling2024 schrieb:
P.S.: Sorry, but I still need to review the quoting function more carefully. I think you handled it very clearly here. Many newcomers find their way quite quickly but then often quote entire posts. In principle, it’s quite simple: you highlight the relevant passage in the text and then select the “Quote” option. Due to ad content, it sometimes takes quite a while for the option to appear here (from a gamer’s perspective, it must feel like ages).
* A small tip (especially less suitable in this particular case, because relocating the entrance side inevitably makes the “Rubik’s Cube” quite colorful): some DIY planning software allows you to use the floor plan template as a background image and trace over it. Such transparent overlays should ideally be shown here (in addition) in the discussion to illustrate the extent of the changes.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Bauneuling2024 schrieb:
I’m still not entirely sure how to account for the estimated knee wall heights.I have marked for you the zones where the roof pitch (38° in both cases) rises from a knee wall height of 110cm (43 inches) and 140cm (55 inches) to a headroom of 1.6m (5 ft 3 in) and 2.0m (6 ft 7 in): https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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Bauneuling202411 Oct 2023 22:0811ant schrieb:
Technically, you have created a completely different model and could have just as well started planning from scratch.I realized that when creating the plan. Limiting the design of the building volume to the format of the model house floor plan gave me, as a layperson, a sense of planning security. So I didn’t have to think too far outside the box 😉.
11ant schrieb:
The word “knee wall” caught my attention; at first glance, I would have thought a two-story design was possible. Now I understand the "Eibenallee" design: it’s clearly intended for development plans restricting construction to only one full story.Exactly. We selected the model floor plan, specifically the "Eibenallee," based on its compatibility with the development plan and our space requirements.
11ant schrieb:
A shower here would require a dormer, and the children’s rooms would no longer start at a knee wall height of 160cm (63 inches). Also, the wardrobe closer to the eaves in the dressing room would, with the original 110cm (43 inches) knee wall, be just a chest of drawers.I had imagined the ridge running in an east-west direction. Thanks for your illustration in #8, though—it really helps to get a clear overall idea of the roof slope zones.
11ant schrieb:
References (online) are something suitable single-family home architects hardly ever have, so just the existence of such references makes me a bit cautious, even skeptical.The references I mentioned are personal, from real-life experience. I also struggled quite a bit with online research, especially nowadays with search engine marketing controlled by Big Tech.
11ant schrieb:
I’m glad to hear that, as per visitors’ requests, there are now increasingly more services listed there. Unfortunately, the comment function for dialogue is still hardly used. Still, I’ve been able to make my newer posts shorter, which isn’t really my strength ;-)Thank you for the offer to get in touch—I gladly accept!
P.S.: Quoting works, thanks a lot!
Bauneuling2024 schrieb:
I had originally planned the ridge direction to run east-west in my mind. However, thanks for the illustration in #8, which provides a good overall understanding of the roof pitch zones. Ah, I see—my misunderstanding. Then my previous comments don’t really apply: the children’s room, dressing area, and bathroom are outside the risk zone, a dormer might be more suitable for the study rather than the bathroom, and the utility room ends up being the one affected, like the dog-bitten last area. The dimensions remain the same due to the square attic layout.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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