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.
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.
U
UpperEast12 Aug 2020 12:55In your case, everything is already built, so it doesn’t really matter.
Future home builders should still consider building without cavity insulation. Under the same conditions you describe, this is at least possible in northern Germany.
The owner at that time was the city. But it doesn’t matter, they probably wouldn’t have approved it anyway.
Future home builders should still consider building without cavity insulation. Under the same conditions you describe, this is at least possible in northern Germany.
goalkeeper schrieb:
And since the plot was not yet sold at the start of construction in October, it was not possible to coordinate with anyone.
The owner at that time was the city. But it doesn’t matter, they probably wouldn’t have approved it anyway.
U
UpperEast12 Aug 2020 12:58And of course: Good luck!
I hope everything works out well for you! I’m really sorry about how things escalated.
I hope everything works out well for you! I’m really sorry about how things escalated.
G
goalkeeper12 Aug 2020 13:03UpperEast schrieb:
In your case, everything is already built, so it doesn’t really matter anymore.
However, future home builders should still consider building without intermediate insulation. Under the same conditions you describe, this is at least possible in northern Germany. Many other home builders in our area do it the way you described—it would have suited us too, saving us from installing 12cm (5 inches) of insulation and spending 5,000 €.
goalkeeper schrieb:
Many other builders in our area do it the way you described – we would have been fine with that too, saving us 12cm (5 inches) and 5,000 € on insulation.But that is currently your smallest problem. I’m also keeping my fingers crossed and hope for a happy ending.
Of course, it was somewhat foreseeable, but you can’t really blame him for that. At least he tried everything to accommodate the neighbor. However, the municipality probably should have designated areas with basements and without basements separately from the start. Such a mix was bound to cause trouble.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly somehow. No idea how the legal details will play out in the end!?
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly somehow. No idea how the legal details will play out in the end!?
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