ᐅ Floor plan of the ground floor and upper floor for a semi-detached house

Using a garage as a basement replacement is not permitted (not everywhere?). There are even court rulings declaring that owners unlawfully repurpose their garage.

DNL schrieb:
Did you create the plan yourselves? Or is the proposal from a designer?

The floor plan with dimensions of 7x10m (23x33 feet) and the staircase placement come from the general contractor. The arrangement of the rooms is more our own idea. It is clear that the living room faces south. This automatically leads to a similar layout.

FrankH schrieb:
The first thing I noticed:
Why do you need so much space for circulation and vehicle storage areas?

In the floor plan, the living spaces are way too small, and the hallways are proportionally too large. My bedroom at 18m² (194 sq ft) already feels cramped. A 2m (6.5 ft) wardrobe for two people is definitely nowhere near enough; I already had almost that much space alone as a student. Sure, you also have the attic and the storage room, but you probably don’t store clothes there, right? The kids’ room might be okay in size, and the office might work too (mine is about 30m² (323 sq ft), but it’s more like a second living room for hobbies, etc.).
Also, 23m² (248 sq ft) for the combined living and dining area? In my opinion, that’s already tight for a dining table, couch, and so on. Then there is the kitchen with only 8m² (86 sq ft). That might work if you don’t need a table in there. Still, it will probably be quite dark, even if the carport gets a glass roof. Maybe you can cleverly rearrange space to take a few square meters from the hallway and add them to the rooms?
If possible, I would build a bit larger and waste less space on parking areas. The garden access can only be through the garage if I’m reading this correctly. Or do you also have access from the south-facing side? You should consider this in your garden design because it will be difficult to bring heavy equipment or materials through later.

I would also like to make the hallway smaller, but how? For us, the bedroom is big enough. A 2m (6.5 ft) wardrobe is sufficient. Originally, that was part of the office.
We simply don’t have 200m² (2150 sq ft) of living space and we don’t need it. The size of the rooms is sufficient; it’s just the layout that’s less than ideal.
Building bigger means more costs, and our budget is already almost maxed out. We simply don’t want to build bigger, taller, and more expensive.
I don’t see it as wasting space on parking. It can hardly be wider because then the driveway becomes narrower, making it annoying to get in and out of the car. We might have to work with another general contractor to avoid relatively higher costs if we depart from the 7x10m (23x33 ft) grid.
The garden access will definitely be blocked. That’s usually the case with semi-detached houses.

emer schrieb:
Using the garage as a basement substitute is not allowed (at least not everywhere). There are even court rulings declaring owners’ repurposing of garages as unauthorized.

As long as no one objects, there are no problems. The building authority will probably ask why the garage is so small and what we plan to “park” in there.

Basically, the room sizes are sufficient for us. More space simply costs more money, and why should I take on more debt if I don’t actually need it later? We decided to live as centrally as possible, and the price per square meter is simply very high there. We prefer to invest more in the quality and features instead. What use is a 50m² (538 sq ft) living room or 20m² (215 sq ft) bedroom if it’s not necessary? Of course, if I got it for free, I’d be happy to have it. But at an average price of about 1600 EUR per square meter, every unnecessary square meter is just too expensive.

Your comments are all valid, though it depends on personal taste. And nowadays, most people want the maximum rather than the minimum! I feel good knowing that the house will be paid off with a low mortgage in 20 years.

So if anyone has ideas on how we can make the hallway smaller and brighter to create more living space… please share, I’m all ears.

The bathroom itself is large enough. But the layout doesn’t work.

Try arranging the floor plan with furniture.

Our TV area is now 4 x 3.70 meters (13 x 12 feet). Yes, it works – but for us, it’s just the TV corner. If I imagine the room being only about 2 meters (6.5 feet) longer and also having a dining table in there… oh dear.

Regarding the stairs: a standard walking width is 1 meter (3.3 feet). For a half-turn staircase, you would need a minimum of 2 x 2.25 meters (6.5 x 7.4 feet). From what your stairs look like, the walking width is barely 0.80 meters (2.6 feet). That is a no-go for a house – it’s only acceptable as a space-saving stair to the attic or in a maisonette apartment.

As for the utility room: you want an air-source heat pump. Indoor or outdoor installation? Depending on that, you’ll need space inside for the fans. Water and electrical connections (a large fuse box and probably a separate meter for the heat pump), telecom connections – all of these require space. Plus, you still need room for the dryer, washing machine, possibly a second refrigerator or freezer, laundry basket, drink crates, brooms, vacuum cleaner, and maybe a small shelf for quick-access items like toilet paper, shopping baskets, and supplies...

In our house, we planned a separate technical room, a storage room, and a utility room of more than 12 m² (130 sq ft).

What do you want to do with this 1-meter (3.3 feet) wide niche in the utility room? Dryer and washing machine won’t fit side by side across the short side. They fit lengthwise, but then nobody can load or unload laundry because with only 0.40 meters (16 inches) clearance, no one can stand there and open the door.

Your bedroom: there is only a walking space of 0.60 to 0.80 meters (2 to 2.6 feet) around the bed. That’s enough to walk, but not comfortable. Not to mention, if you ever need assistance or crutches, this won’t work.

Depending on how old your child is, you still need space for a stroller, car seat, muddy clothes, etc. If the child is older, you obviously don’t need this space anymore.

Honestly, if the room sizes are sufficient, you are better off with a condominium. You don’t lose so much space for hallways and stairs there.

If you want to keep the floor plan largely as it is, then put the door to the front, where you planned the parking space. Then you could create a functional utility room next to the kitchen. On the left, you would have room for a technical room or you could enlarge the staircase. For the coatroom, I would only make a niche instead of a separate room.

And will the staircase be a spiral staircase? That is quite narrow (and steep) in design.

Tichu78 schrieb:


Your comments are all valid, although they depend on personal taste. And nowadays, most people want the maximum rather than the minimum! I feel good knowing the house will be paid off with a low monthly rate in 20 years.

So if anyone has ideas on how we can make the hallway smaller and brighter to create more living space... please share, I’m all ears.

I think it’s perfectly fine when you say: better small and mine than large and too expensive. You can also be happy with smaller living areas. I do like to have more room and space around me, but I’m sometimes surprised when people say “I need over 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft), and we are only four people.”

Now to your semi-detached house: You should get the most out of your minimal space. You have a nice southwest orientation, so you should be able to make the best of it. Say goodbye to a huge hallway and limit it to an entrance area/coat storage. With one child and no basement, you can make the staircase open, for example in the dining area—it doesn’t need to connect to a hallway! In the bathroom, you can skip the T-layout; a simple arrangement of the sanitary fixtures looks more elegant and spacious than adding extra walls in the bathroom.

I’d be interested to see the floor plan from the builder!

A small addition to YPG: either you set a certain amount of space and try to get the maximum benefit from it, or you define the benefit and try to minimize the space. Getting the maximum benefit from a minimal area is not possible. You have to limit one of the two factors; otherwise, the calculation won’t work, and you’ll get lost in the details.