ᐅ Floor Plan for a Single-Family Home, 240 m², with Partially Built-Over Garage
Created on: 3 Dec 2023 13:51
H
Haus 42
Hello everyone,
My wife and I are currently favoring the attached design for our house project. It is our own concept, inspired by forum discussions, catalogs, and model homes, but also discussed with architects and now unrecognizable compared to the first drafts.
A first detailed drawing is in progress (which may include structural and building services adjustments), so general criticism is welcome, but especially suggestions on potential problem areas or ways to achieve essential improvements through small changes: After all, we don’t want to build an expensive house only to regret it later, but rather invest in meaningful improvements (e.g., bay windows). At the bottom, I have listed some specific concerns.
Framework conditions:
Design:
Notes on the floor plans:
Development:
We had several designs, including with a basement, without construction over the garage (which was recently confirmed as possible), with open space, guest rooms on different sides, a 180° half-landing staircase, etc. – the current approach now seems quite logical to us and despite the naturally high costs, not extravagant. I grew up in a house with a full basement and converted attic, and the plan tries to provide similar spaces over two floors.
Ground floor details:
Upper floor details:
Concerns / Questions
We look forward to your comments!
My wife and I are currently favoring the attached design for our house project. It is our own concept, inspired by forum discussions, catalogs, and model homes, but also discussed with architects and now unrecognizable compared to the first drafts.
A first detailed drawing is in progress (which may include structural and building services adjustments), so general criticism is welcome, but especially suggestions on potential problem areas or ways to achieve essential improvements through small changes: After all, we don’t want to build an expensive house only to regret it later, but rather invest in meaningful improvements (e.g., bay windows). At the bottom, I have listed some specific concerns.
Framework conditions:
- Planned residents: two adults (working days home/office: 2/3 and 3/2), two (initially small) children, two cats, guests staying several weeks per year.
- Conditions: Small-town new development area in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, site coverage ratio 0.35, maximum one full story, eaves height max. 5m (16 ft 5 in), gable or half-hipped roof with 20°–50° pitch, minimum distance to street 5m (16 ft 5 in), to neighbors 3m (10 ft).
- Plot: 938 m² (10,094 sq ft), essentially flat, with utility garden and play lawn.
- Neighboring plots: Northeast (“right”) already developed (close to road and at distance from us, since their garage is on the side facing away from us), southwest (“left”) not yet sold.
Design:
- Footprint: approx. 15.5m×11m (51 ft × 36 ft) + garage overhang 2m×8m (6 ft 7 in × 26 ft), garage-boundary distance 1m (3 ft 3 in)
- Living and utility space: ground floor approx. 115 m² (1,238 sq ft), upper floor approx. 125 m² (1,345 sq ft), garage approx. 40 m² (430 sq ft)
- Ceiling height: ground floor approx. 2.60m (8 ft 6 in), upper floor approx. 2.50m (8 ft 2 in)
- Building services: ventilation system, photovoltaic panels on southeast roof, underfloor heating powered by air-source heat pump everywhere except garage/attic.
- Location: the house should be as close to the street as possible (see plan) with the main entrance facing it (southeast), to maximize garden space.
- Gable roof: rather flat (25°) to allow for a high knee wall (>1.20m (3 ft 11 in)), attic therefore only used for storage.
- We are foregoing a basement in favor of a larger footprint, which also enables a barrier-free guest area.
- Ground floor: the living area should get both sunlight and garden views, so it must be on the west side.
- Upper floor: usability of space is the priority, so we accept the narrow corridor (approx. 1.5m×8m (4 ft 11 in × 26 ft)). Still, generous dormers, including in the stairwell, should provide enough daylight.
- Exterior walls are brick-clad, interior rather modern: white walls/kitchen fronts, tiled floors on the ground floor, PVC on the upper floor.
Notes on the floor plans:
- Area measurements do not account for sloping ceilings on the upper floor.
- ⚡ means high-voltage electricity, W (waste) water
Development:
We had several designs, including with a basement, without construction over the garage (which was recently confirmed as possible), with open space, guest rooms on different sides, a 180° half-landing staircase, etc. – the current approach now seems quite logical to us and despite the naturally high costs, not extravagant. I grew up in a house with a full basement and converted attic, and the plan tries to provide similar spaces over two floors.
- What we like: the bright living room, purely functional generous sizing everywhere, especially for guests and thanks to the large room upstairs, the access from the garage.
- What we don’t like: see also the “Concerns” listed at the bottom. Otherwise, the “very generous” house (architect’s comment) might have few ‘eye-catchers’ for its price, e.g., no gallery or two bathrooms upstairs instead of one large. Therefore, general suggestions are welcome on how to enhance the design beyond the floor plan, for instance through lighting, mirrors, windows, external design.
Ground floor details:
- Living room with window fronts each with a door leading to terraces in the southwest (for sunlight) and northwest (toward the garden).
- Kitchen open to the living area; appliances located in a central niche—therefore, to minimize noise, the oven/microwave are there instead of the refrigerator.
- Room behind kitchen (separated by a slightly hidden door) serves as storage and a place for some kitchen appliances and an additional worktop.
- From the hallway, a doorless passage to the living room, doors to guest room, guest toilet, and utility room, also from there access to the garage.
- Large guest room with barrier-free bathroom and external access, potentially a one-room separate apartment.
- Garage for one car, e-scooter/bicycles and as a workshop/storage room, for example for garden tools.
Upper floor details:
- Children’s rooms on the sunnier gable side.
- Children’s bathroom with bathtub, master bathroom with washing machine/dryer (but space in utility room to allow for changes).
- Long dormers above bathrooms/stairwell and fitness/hobby room; no other roof windows.
- Access to attic via fitness/hobby room.
Concerns / Questions
- The (currently half-landing) staircase may need to be spiral to allow doors to fit under its end. Is preserving the half-landing for climbing safety worth a bay window?
- Prefabricated houses often have bay windows, although they might be energetically disadvantageous. Are they mainly for aesthetics, or have we missed practical opportunities by not including any?
- Is the staircase too close to the entrance, e.g., regarding dirt distribution?
- We would like remote/central control for roller shutters on all burglary-relevant windows. Would narrow windows be acceptable in the utility room, guest bathroom, and ground floor toilet, to prevent break-ins? Does anyone have experience with this?
- With a 25° pitch and 1.20m (3 ft 11 in) knee wall, is an overhanging roof suitable as a cover for the entrance and/or terrace without causing too much shading? What other canopy options would make sense, especially since the terrace is on the exposure-prone side?
- To prevent bicycles from scratching the car in the garage, should it be widened? This would reduce the remaining strip on the southwest side, where the tightest boundary distance (at the west corner, “top left”) is currently about 5m (16 ft 5 in).
- Is a TV placed directly next to the window front a problem due to the northwest orientation?
- Should the pantry behind the kitchen have a second sink?
- Would it be better to fill the garden-facing dormer entirely with windows rather than leaving corners open as planned?
- Which windows should be included in the bathroom dormer considering there are houses on the opposite side of the street?
We look forward to your comments!
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
I’m waiting for your reply. I’m waiting for the completed questionnaire 😉
Haus 42 schrieb:
Another reason for the orientation of the house That kind of information and others belong there, also out of respect for the users who spend their time helping you here, without necessarily receiving important information from you. Or also to gain the exclusive insight related to the plot.
Haus 42 schrieb:
also. (The only boundary line I know of is this building line.) That is not a building line, it is a building boundary. You are not required to build on it; it only marks a limit. Building lines are where construction is mandatory.
Haus 42 schrieb:
It would also be helpful to point out these mistakes I notice that you hardly accept any criticism. The only exception is swapping kitchen/living room... but even that suggestion isn’t meant to be implemented in the floor plan you drew, rather to keep it in mind from the very beginning of a new design.
None of the criticism here is abstract; it is all well-founded.
Don't you see that? Maybe it’s because you expected something different. You are convinced of your design, which is understandable, and it will probably stay that way—especially if your architect or planner friend flatters you and lets the trainee draftsman finalize everything neatly, or takes time during their lunch break to get everything looking nice. But you cannot really expect a lot of brainpower from employees who earn their living this way and still have a private life.
Haus 42 schrieb:
It’s clear it will be expensive. Why is that clear? You are making it expensive. Building a house costs money.
But if you have any amateur ideas in your head and refuse to change them, you pay for exterior walls on garages, complicated structural engineering that good planning could avoid, extra masonry allowances for corners that could be cleaner, multiple bathroom vents through the roof, more wastewater connections than usual, a garage inside the thermal envelope, dormers that are costly and should be used carefully, and so on.
The biggest and also expensive problem is the potential defects that good planning is meant to minimize.
Haus 42 schrieb:
But I can’t understand that given the variety of spatial design options. …because interior design isn’t just about placing furniture arbitrarily?! For example, under a sloping roof with 120cm (47 inches) calcium silicate blocks you’re not going to get a screen set up. And walking towards a closet right behind a door effectively reduces the room space by 1–2 square meters (10–20 square feet) in feeling.
Try sketching your “spatial design options” in your open plan living area... a nice, cozy TV corner where you can relax simply isn’t possible.
I think a lot has already been said here, even if not everything. It should also be mentioned that it’s relatively unimportant to us whether you get a nice and functional house for 600,000–700,000 euros or end up paying 100,000 euros more but no house. Additionally, there are the incidental building costs of roughly 50,000 euros as well as landscaping. But so be it—everyone is the architect of their own fortune.
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Nice-Nofret5 Dec 2023 18:42I completely agree with Katja – the design is beyond saving and needs to be started from scratch. It was just a nice exercise, nothing more.
Nice-Nofret schrieb:
The design is beyond saving; you have to start completely from scratch. It was a nice exercise, nothing more. I often and firmly recommend starting fresh on a blank sheet. If the design was indeed only meant as an exercise, then saving it is neither necessary nor advisable. However, we still don’t know what kind of exercise it was supposed to be: one aiming at gradually improving skills, or following the "infinite monkey" approach? – The statement...
Haus 42 schrieb:
... was also discussed with architects and bears no resemblance to the first drafts. ... leaves room to assume that, at least in the self-perception of the amateur designers, a learning curve is being observed.
Haus 42 schrieb:
A first final drawing is currently in progress (which may include structural and building services corrections), ... further suggests they believe they are approaching the target quality level for the design –
Haus 42 schrieb:
the plan tries to provide similar floor areas on two levels. ... which would indicate a lack of awareness of logical relationships or design fundamentals, since this obviously contradicts the fact that a full upper story (attic or second floor) is not possible here.
Even if the number “42” in the username probably just symbolically catalogs previous exercises like “4711,” “08/15,” or “148,713,” I would still be very curious to see a selection of iterations 1 through 41. Regardless of whether it’s a learning curve or infinite monkey approach, there should already be valuable ideas included. Or have they only refined the wall outlines?
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