ᐅ Building an End-Terrace House as a Self-Managed Project with a General Contractor

Created on: 27 May 2019 10:48
G
goalkeeper
Hello everyone,

some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.

The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.

After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).

As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.

We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.

I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
kaho67420 Feb 2020 16:12
goalkeeper schrieb:


No – I was thinking more that he means insulating towards my side.
I would insulate back in that case.
K
kbt09
20 Feb 2020 18:38
Maybe you should also show the plan to your general contractor. They might notice something that could become critical for you.
G
goalkeeper
20 Feb 2020 19:32
kbt09 schrieb:

Maybe you should also show the plan to your site manager. They might notice something that could become critical for you.

That was the plan as well.
G
goalkeeper
25 Feb 2020 10:13
We now have the planning documents from the middle house neighbor: it appears that their architect has designed the basement 30cm (12 inches) deeper than our foundation.

Our structural engineer is reviewing this again. But as it currently stands, we will likely file an objection to the building permit / planning permission.
kaho67425 Feb 2020 10:34
goalkeeper schrieb:

It looks like his architect planned the basement 30cm (12 inches) deeper than our foundation.

I’m not familiar with this at all. Can you explain why this might be a problem?
A
Altai
25 Feb 2020 11:10
But hopefully only after you have discussed the issue with your future neighbor? That would be more than a bad start... or has the conversation already failed?