ᐅ Nearly Final Floor Plan for Our House

Hello everyone,

I have asked two questions about our house in the past, and the process has taken quite a while (our first contact with an architect was in September 2021), but now we have almost finished plans for our house.

Most of the difficulties arose because we are building in Belgium, in the German-speaking community, and hired a German prefabricated house company. They initially assigned us a German architect who unfortunately had no idea how a building permit application in Belgium should look, which cost us a lot of time... Since April, we have been working with a Belgian architect, and things are progressing much faster with him.

Furthermore, we spent a lot of time dealing with the municipality regarding the "watercourses." In reality, there are just two small streams, but since July 2021 the municipalities have become extremely cautious. We were still in the process of purchasing the property during the flood and visited the site at that time; even then, there was only a gentle trickle. The watercourses have no natural springs and merely consist of rainwater from the few surrounding houses (maximum 10), but after a long back-and-forth, we agreed on this bridge, which will cost us around 15,000€ (about $16,000). However, we will live with a provisional pipe culvert and embankment for the first few years and complete this part eventually.

I had already asked here about the roof overhang, and as you can see, the house has changed significantly. The municipality eventually blocked the original plans because we were not allowed to build up the terrain so heavily. The German architect we had was unable to produce proper site plans, so this issue only came up quite late, and we had to completely redesign in April this year because we needed to reduce the size considerably and could no longer build a garage. Hence, the basement and a more compact house.

The basement naturally costs more than a simple slab foundation, but since we might have needed deep foundation anyway due to the slope, the additional cost is probably manageable (I never had a concrete offer for the pile foundation, but it was expected to be very expensive).

On average, you can see the ceiling heights, insulation of the exterior walls and basement. The ceilings are still incorrectly shown in the plans; they will be exposed wood, as shown in the attached pictures.

I came across the forum again because I had some questions about basement wall insulation.

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding our plans, feel free to ask! Looking forward to your comments!

Narnulf1368 schrieb:

Hello everyone,

I had already asked two questions about our house in the past, and the process has taken quite a while (our first contact with an architect was in September 2021), but now we have almost finalized plans for our house.

Most of the problems arose because we are building in Belgium, in the German-speaking community, and hired a German prefab house company. They initially assigned a German architect who unfortunately had no idea how a building permit / planning permission application in Belgium should look and caused us a lot of delay... Since April, we have been working with a Belgian architect, and things are progressing much faster.

Furthermore, we spent a lot of time with the municipality regarding the "watercourses." In fact, these are just two small streams, but since July 2021, the municipalities have become extremely cautious. We were still in the purchasing process during the flood and visited the plot during the high water—at that time, the streams were just gently trickling. The streams have no natural sources but are simply rainwater runoff from the few surrounding (at most 10) houses. After a long back and forth, we agreed to build this small bridge, which will cost us around 15,000€ (about 15,000 USD). However, for the first few years, we will live with a temporary culvert and embankment and plan to complete this part later.

I had already asked here about the roof overhang, and as you can see, the house design has changed significantly. The municipality eventually blocked the plans because we were told not to add such a large embankment. The German architect we initially had was not capable of creating proper site plans, so this issue only became apparent quite late. We had to completely redesign the plans in April this year because we had to reduce the size significantly and could no longer build a garage. Hence, the basement and a more compact house.

The basement, of course, costs more than a simple slab foundation, but since we might have needed deep foundations anyway because of the slope, the additional cost will probably be manageable (I never received a concrete offer for the deep foundation, but it was expected to be quite expensive).

The plans show average ceiling heights, insulation of the exterior walls, and the basement. The ceilings are incorrectly depicted in the plans; they will be exposed timber beams, as shown in the attached photos.

I found this forum again because I have questions about basement insulation here.

If anyone has questions or suggestions regarding our plans, feel free to ask! I look forward to your comments!

I find the two storage rooms to be overly complicated. How about making one storage room as kitchen cabinets—some of which could be walk-in. You probably don't need that much space in the kitchen anyway. The other storage room could be used as a room, which could serve as storage, an office, guest room, etc.

I would change the door swing to the garage. Otherwise, it will get blocked when you try to bring something into the storage room.

I wouldn’t consider the small stream as irrelevant as it might seem. If rainwater from neighboring properties flows through it, that would definitely raise alarm bells for me. Flooding isn’t just flooding. Climate scientists agree that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. If you have an extremely dry summer and the soil dries out significantly, followed by an extreme weather event such as a very heavy rainfall (see flood zones: sometimes an entire year’s worth of rain falls in one day), the soil can’t absorb this water because it’s too dry, and your small stream could potentially take your whole house with it :/

I would not underestimate the small stream either. In our municipality, the results of flash flood management have been available for over a year. According to this, our little creek is expected to reach a height less than 2 km (1.2 miles) from its source. Unimaginable. Many people do nothing because the water has never been that high before.

Regarding the floor plan, a completed questionnaire would be helpful. I find the walk-in closet in the master bedroom just a dark, unusable space. Does the bathroom not have a bathtub?
Please draw the desired or existing furniture to scale in all rooms. In the open-plan area, I miss space for a wardrobe, shelves, TV, etc.

The problem with trickles of water is not continuous rain. The problem is a thunderstorm with extremely heavy rainfall. It comes suddenly and is gone after about half an hour. You will never see this during an inspection. There is a small stream in our village that remains inconspicuous even during heavier rain. Nevertheless, it floods the village center approximately every 50 years.