Hello everyone,
we are planning to convert our basement into a granny flat for guests or to rent temporarily to a single person. We donât have any tenants yet as we are still in the planning phase. Due to some nearby industrial companies, the apartment will still be suitable for one person despite a rather limited floor plan. The basement will get natural daylight through a light well on the southeast side, where we have planned to install as wide windows as possible during construction.
Here is some information about the planned layout:
We have designated the left room (110170) as the living and dining area. We plan to place the kitchen unit directly to the left of the entrance door, with the dining table opposite. Additionally, we want to set up a small lounge area with a TV here (an extra TV outlet is planned for the right room).
The bathroom layout is quite fixed due to the existing drainage pipes, so there is little room to change the position of the fixtures. We might reconsider the shower and swap it with the washbasin.
The right room (110169) will be used as a bedroom. Given the limited space and the need to fit a wardrobe or similar furniture, nothing more will fit here. We are still unsure how to best arrange the space to use it as efficiently as possible.
As mentioned, the flat will be rented out temporarily for the next few years and later will become a private apartment for our child once they are older.
Thanks in advance for your support and advice.
Best regards
we are planning to convert our basement into a granny flat for guests or to rent temporarily to a single person. We donât have any tenants yet as we are still in the planning phase. Due to some nearby industrial companies, the apartment will still be suitable for one person despite a rather limited floor plan. The basement will get natural daylight through a light well on the southeast side, where we have planned to install as wide windows as possible during construction.
Here is some information about the planned layout:
We have designated the left room (110170) as the living and dining area. We plan to place the kitchen unit directly to the left of the entrance door, with the dining table opposite. Additionally, we want to set up a small lounge area with a TV here (an extra TV outlet is planned for the right room).
The bathroom layout is quite fixed due to the existing drainage pipes, so there is little room to change the position of the fixtures. We might reconsider the shower and swap it with the washbasin.
The right room (110169) will be used as a bedroom. Given the limited space and the need to fit a wardrobe or similar furniture, nothing more will fit here. We are still unsure how to best arrange the space to use it as efficiently as possible.
As mentioned, the flat will be rented out temporarily for the next few years and later will become a private apartment for our child once they are older.
Thanks in advance for your support and advice.
Best regards
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
Why start a new thread then?Because some original posters are pathological single-question spammers...hanghaus2023 schrieb:
Iâm not @11ant.
I just donât want to search through all the OPâs posts....and when they, like the OP here, also combine that behavior with constantly asking for advice illustrated with the narrowest possible margins only after the fact, I mark their previous posts in my memory as âincurable case.â To some extent, Iâm happy to help difficult users during the pro bono consultationâbut some belong more appropriately with Darwin. For those, I wonât bother for any compensation. Theyâre the same ones who, when returning leased vehicles, always have 0 km on the hour meters of the turn signals.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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goldfisch13826 May 2025 11:49hanghaus2023 schrieb:
Where are you building?
Who would want to live in the basement? Your child certainly wouldnât later on. Renters? You donât want to deal with that. They keep changing anyway, if you even find anyone. Besides, such an investment never really pays off.
Is there a separate entrance for the granny flat?
How much does the basement stick out of the ground?
You should only plan something like this if you are building on a slope.
Show us the plot and the entire basement.
Mark the intended furniture layout on the floor plan.First of all, thank you for your reply. In principle, I believe that living space is never a mistake in the current times. The usefulness of a basement apartment can certainly be debated, but the space does not necessarily have to be used as living quarters. For social reasons, we consciously built a multi-family house because, in addition to the factor of additional living space, ongoing costs can also be shared. We have a secondary apartment of about 100cm (39 inches) well over 100 square meters (more than 1,000 square feet) with a spacious terrace and garden, which is currently sufficient for two people. It is even possible to live there with a child. This is where the currently planned basement apartment/space for rent comes into play. It can easily be used as a study, ironing room, or recreational room without disturbing the main tenants upstairs.We installed a daylight well consisting of 1m (3 feet) wide concrete panels positioned with a 2-meter (6.5 feet) gap from the basement wall. Additionally, there is a step created by a row of shorter concrete panels, with space between them for planting later on. Thanks again to everyone who contributed ideas in one of my other threads. Fall protection will be installed later.
H
hanghaus202326 May 2025 11:54Donât forget to plan for a drain in the light well and preferably also a drainage system underneath.
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goldfisch13826 May 2025 11:57wiltshire schrieb:
You can proceed as plannedâI wouldnât change anything.
For renting, I recommend furnishing the apartment to ensure legal capacity. The basement location is not very attractive, but someone who uses the apartment during the workweek and spends weekends at home could adapt well. Itâs ideal if the company leases the apartment for the tenant.
Providing the apartment later to a teenage child is a good and generous idea. I hardly know any teenagers who wouldnât want that despite the limited natural light. One of my two boys even explicitly prefers it because of the monitors...
For the furnishing, use a generally appealing modern style such as IKEA and stick to features most people want (dishwasher, fridge-freezer combo, large sink, induction stove, oven with microwave function, corner sofa, large TVs in living room and bedroom, big bed, plenty of closet space, fewer shelves, pleasant artwork, functional lighting with small accents, smaller dining table, many coat hooks, shoe cabinet, large floor tiles in entrance and bathroom, laminate flooring in living areas, large washbasin, walk-in shower without a step, no bathtub, own LAN connection with personal Wi-Fi router on shared internet, separate sub-distribution for electricity possibly including electricity and water meters, roller shutters). @wiltshire thank you for your feedback. Iâm actually new to renting out properties, so I really appreciate these tips. Are you generally a supporter of laminate flooring in rental apartments? We could also consider tiles. In the basement, we will definitely use laminate, but weâre still undecided about the upper floor apartmentâwhether to go with tiles (wood look, which is a matter of taste) or just install laminateâexcluding wet rooms where tiles are unavoidable. We have several industrial companies in the region, all of which regularly look for worker accommodation. There is ample natural light in the apartment until midday in summer, so Iâm not worried that it will be too dark. We donât have a private entranceâthe access would be via the staircase (visible in the picture). We deliberately avoided a separate entrance to prevent potential issues with leaks.
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wiltshire26 May 2025 12:41goldfisch138 schrieb:
Are you generally in favor of laminate flooring in rental apartments? No, for my own living spaces, I prefer real hardwood flooring.
We built two apartments with separate entrances and no internal connection in our house for the kids. I installed the laminate flooring there myself with the boys so they would develop respect for their generous living situation. Laminate is affordable and durable. Those were the criteria.
My younger son chose wood-look tiles for his bathroom in his apartment. I donât like this kind of imitation. Tiles have so many distinct, material-appropriate appearances that I personally prefer to avoid this âfakeâ look. Admittedly, it does look quite nice in my sonâs bathroom.
You have to be prepared that some tenants may not treat your property very carefully. Unfortunately, we have already had this experience. From my point of view, laminate flooring has the least potential to cause frustration or financial loss.
G
goldfisch13826 May 2025 12:51wiltshire schrieb:
No, for my own living spaces, I prefer real hardwood flooring.
We built two apartments with separate entrances and no internal connection within our house for the children. I installed laminate flooring there myself with the boys to help them appreciate their generous living situation. Laminate is affordable and durable. Those were the main criteria.
My younger son chose wood-look tiles for his bathroom in his apartment. I donât like this kind of imitation. Tiles have so many authentic material appearances that I personally avoid this "fake" look. Admittedly, it does look quite nice in my sonâs bathroom.
You have to be prepared that tenants might not always treat your property with care. Unfortunately, we have already experienced this. In my opinion, laminate flooring has the lowest risk of causing frustration or losses in such cases. I agree with you there, I also chose hardwood flooring from Parador for my apartment. We share a common stairwell since we might want to manage without tenants entirely in the future if financially possible. Then we could consider finishing the other floor. Honestly, you build for about 15-20 years, and then the space often becomes too large again. Our children are also welcome to live above us later and access the apartment via the stairwell. Otherwise, it will be rented out again. A single-family house is not an option for me due to cost reasons. We now have 100 sq m (1,076 sq ft), and the only thing I miss is a proper dressing room and a storage room. However, there should be room for a pantry cupboardâhaving a cellar is an advantage here. I would say I count among the younger home builders and probably didnât double-check everything during the planning stage, but Iâm simply proud of my project 🙂
Maybe Iâll end up moving somewhere else after allâwho knows... thanks for your advice.
I will install the laminate flooring in the rental apartment; it might need to be replaced in a few years, but that is manageable.
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