ᐅ Planning a Gable Roof House on a 600 m² Plot – What Does a Preliminary Building Inquiry Allow in a Section 34 Zone?

Created on: 27 Dec 2025 09:47

Development Plan / Restrictions
Section 34 Building Code area, preliminary building inquiry submitted, especially regarding ridge height, eave height, and gable orientation.
Plot size: 600 sqm (6458 sq ft)
Slope: none, flat
Site coverage ratio: >0.4
Floor area ratio: not relevant
Building envelope: approx. 10.3 x 14 m (34 x 46 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 1.5
Roof type: gable roof
Orientation: gable end facing east-west
Maximum heights / limits: ridge height 9.1 m (30 ft), eave height per inquiry (4.5 m / 15 ft)

Homeowners’ Requirements
We enjoy following the discussions here and, after receiving the approved preliminary building inquiry, are now entering the crunch phase of planning.

The facts:

600 sqm (6458 sq ft) plot, relatively narrow (about 17 m / 56 ft), oriented east-west, low traffic nearby, helicopter view and west-facing outlook attached.
Section 34 area; we are allowed 1.5 m (5 ft) knee wall on the first floor with 40-degree roof pitch, within a ridge height of 9.1 m (30 ft). Due to narrow plot, we want to build with the gable end facing the street.
Wood frame construction; exterior walls are excluded on the floor plans.
Notes about floors included in the images.
We need two separate offices (lawyers, extensive home office).
Two adults, two small children.
No basement planned; the plot is nearly level – 0.6 m (2 ft) fall over 35 m (115 ft).
More roof windows on the upper floor would be nice, but this is the south side with photovoltaic panels. With the high knee wall, outlook will be limited anyway.
We want a hallway on the upper floor since we both loved having a “neutral” play area there as kids.
The pantry size is sufficient for us; we currently have a smaller one, and the technical room is not far away.
Guest room 1 and guest bathroom might be converted with two walls into a separate apartment for KfW297/298 funding, house itself is KfW300.
Soil survey is underway.
The architect has so far handled the preliminary building inquiry and knows the floor plan; we have not yet taken the plans to the architect/interior designer in person.
The guest room on the ground floor is relatively small; it is sufficient as an office, and just about acceptable as a guest bedroom. Overnight guests about 6–8 times per year.
An interior toilet in the upper floor bathroom is my wife’s wish; I understand the arguments against it but won’t fight that battle.
We want the staircase from the upper floor to the attic to be permanent as the attic might be used as an office. Also, there is no basement.

Why is the design like it is now?
We started about 8 months ago based on the Medley 410 by Fingerhaus, as it provides a fairly good starting floor plan for us. Since then, my wife has rebuilt it in 3D over many hours and repeatedly adjusted it following input from planners/architects, etc. We also have proper plan drawings already but did not want to share them yet unless it makes sense.

We have made some compromises, especially the small, somewhat awkward office/guest room downstairs – we can’t become wider, but it works as an office. According to two construction companies, it might even be possible to use the guest room and bathroom downstairs as a separate apartment with two doors from the hallway later in life (then a KfW297 scheme could be considered). We’ve requested the extra costs for this in offers as a contingency item – I know some members here don’t support this, but we would only do it if it can be done without major extra effort.

Regarding costs: we already purchased the plot. We currently estimate the house to cost about 650,000 (offers from Isowood, Büdenbender, and Nordhaus received). Garage and landscaping are separate.

[ATTACH type="full" width="500px" alt="Upper floor plan: two children's rooms, bedroom, bathroom, hallway, staircase; notes on the right.">

Attic floor plan with staircase, office, and storage room on drawing

Section drawing of a two-story house with roof and foundation

Wide green meadow landscape with edge trees and blue sky with clouds.

Aerial photo of a grass-covered plot with trees at the edges and road to the right.

Aerial photo of an open green landscape with fields, trees, and sun rays on the horizon

Aerial photo showing green fields, trees, and distant houses at sunset

ypg27 Dec 2025 17:52

#13

Lsawesome schrieb:

Ok, ok, you convinced me to share the detailed planning here

Thank you. This clearly shows that marking up plans is not always beneficial, as it can distort many things and make certain details appear standard in the detailed planning stage when they actually are not, or vice versa.

Lsawesome schrieb:

It also shows that the narrow spot in the guest bathroom isn’t that bad.

Not that bad… Yes, it’s different. Sometimes just a few details, or even just one, can make all the difference.

kbt09 schrieb:

Where does the water for the washbasin come from and where does the wastewater go? Also, plastering and tiles need to be calculated.

Water pipes are allowed inside interior walls as long as the structural integrity isn’t affected. This means there is no space to place anything on or around the washbasin or shower, which I personally don’t find problematic. Still, this is a general note—not directed at you Kerstin, but also for @Lsawesome or others—to be aware of. Because someone who wants a staircase made of a high-gloss material and is already planning water connections for a cleaning robot might also wish for features typical of a simpler or smaller house, simply because “you can see everything and it looks good.”

kbt09 schrieb:

The office space… 185cm (73 inches) rough construction. With a desk depth of 80cm (31.5 inches) and 90cm (35.5 inches) clearance from the wall, that leaves about 90cm (35.5 inches) movement space for the chair. Not really suitable in a new build.

Exactly. I just stood up from my office chair and measured. The chair would hit the back wall.

Are we talking about a 195sqm (2,100 sq ft) house? My software says 98sqm (1,055 sq ft) of living space, and that includes many irregular shapes. I’ve only shown the ground floor here. I adjusted the cloakroom to improve usability and circulation, copied the walk-through closet into the pantry so you can see that there is only space for a small "CD" shelf, but not much more. Then I opened up the long corridor at the back to allow a direct line of sight from the staircase to the dining area and gave the guest bathroom an 80cm (31.5 inches) door.

Floor plan of a house with dining room, kitchen, living room, hallway, and ancillary rooms

I think there is a lot more potential here. Simple and straightforward design without a pantry.

Floor plan of a house with dining room, living room, office, hallway, staircase, and WC.

Sorry, the hallway here includes the kitchen area.

As a regular contributor to floor plan optimizations, I’m reminded of the layout by @roteweste
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/grundriss-traumhaus-173m-mit-3-kinderzimmern.48333/page-17

A compact space solution for 5 people within 9.5 meters (31 feet). Although the upper floor can’t be implemented exactly one-to-one due to roof slopes, it shows how much more you can get out of less space.

roteweste27 Dec 2025 20:17

#14

ypg schrieb:

A compact space-saving design for 5 people on 9.5 meters (31 feet). Although the upper floor can’t be replicated exactly due to the sloping roof, it shows how you can get much more out of a smaller area.

Ah, I feel truly honored. But seriously: back then in the thread, I also received quite a bit of criticism. A large part of the points raised actually came from my wife (balcony, no direct sightline into the living-dining-kitchen area), but I think we were able to address some of the criticisms (bathroom on the upper floor) fairly well in the end. I’ll share an update once the shell is hopefully completed in February or March.

kbt0927 Dec 2025 20:24

#15

@ypg .. you picked a good example with roteweste’s floor plan. Because of the knee wall, some adjustments are indeed necessary on the upper floor, but the initial basis could work well.

ᐅ Planning a Gable Roof House on a 600 m² Plot – What Does a Preliminary Building Inquiry Allow in a Section 34 Zone?

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