ᐅ Floor plan design for 170 sqm, pitched roof, 1.5 storeys (1.5 floors)
Created on: 16 Feb 2025 20:46
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hannes28
Hello dear forum,
We have purchased a plot with an existing building (unfortunately in very poor condition) and plan to build a single-family house after demolition. In recent months, alongside preparations for the demolition, we have been working on plans for our new home, which we will soon present to several local general contractors. We are very interested in your honest opinions on whether our planning seems promising or if we are on the wrong track.
For the design, it is important to us that the ground floor allows for barrier-free living if needed in the future. In terms of layout, we want the house to open primarily towards the large, private garden. The garage of the existing house is currently located in the west corner; we would like to place it in the northeast next to the neighbor’s existing garage.
The existing house to be demolished is fully basemented, though the basement on the driveway side is only about 1.50m (5 feet) deep in the ground due to the sewer depth, and the ground floor is elevated around 1.20m (4 feet). This means there is already a foundation pit after demolition, which could support building with a basement. However, for our new single-family house, we definitely want a barrier-free, level entrance, so a basement would require a deeper pit and, due to the site conditions, a sewage lift station. We will discuss refilling the pit and the associated costs with the excavation contractor in the coming weeks, so there are no concrete figures yet. It might be possible to recycle demolition material on site for backfilling with our excavator. At the moment, we are leaning strongly towards building without a basement, as we prefer utility rooms and a workshop on ground level, and we are quite discouraged by many (including personal) experiences with damp or flooded basements.
Thank you very much for your feedback!
hannes28
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Development plan/restrictions: Old zoning plan from the 1960s with relatively few specifications. Only single-story buildings are officially allowed on the lot, but there is currently a house with ground floor plus attic on it, and there are many deviations in the neighborhood. Overall, the municipality is quite open to exceptions.
Plot size: 1100sqm (0.27 acres)
Slope: approximately 45cm (18 inches) downhill across the house width, see site plan
Floor area ratio: /
Gross floor area ratio: /
Building envelope, setback line, and boundary: not further southeast than neighboring developments
Edge development: /
Number of parking spaces: /
Number of stories: according to zoning plan ground floor only, but currently built with ground floor plus attic
Roof form: gable roof
Architectural style: /
Orientation: /
Maximum heights/restrictions: /
Further requirements: /
Homeowner requirements
Style, roof form, building type: traditional style, 1.5 stories, gable roof (current plan: 1m (3 feet) knee wall, 38° pitch), solid masonry construction
Basement, stories: currently tending towards no basement, 1.5 stories
Number of occupants, age: currently 2 × 30 years old, planning for 2–3 children
Room requirements for ground floor and upper floor: Ground floor: kitchen + dining, living room, "flexible room" (home office or barrier-free bedroom), shower bath, utility/technical room; Upper floor: master bedroom with home office corner, 2 children’s rooms, bathroom, possibly storage room
Office: Family use or home office?: 50% home office
Guest overnight stays per year: fewer than 5
Open or closed architecture: rather closed
Conservative or modern building style: rather conservative
Open kitchen, cooking island: preferably open with cooking island, but not a must
Number of dining seats: large table for 6–8 people
Fireplace: rather not
Music / stereo wall: yes for music, TV is not a priority
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage plus adjoining rooms for workshop and garden tools; possibly a carport between garage and house
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: approximately 50sqm (540 square feet) vegetable garden would be perfect
Further wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why something should or should not be included
- Living room as a retreat, e.g., for piano playing
- Large dining table is the central place
House design
Who created the plan:
- Do-it-yourself
What do you like particularly? Why?: separated living room (as a retreat & for music); barrier-reduced ground floor, living on one level possible in old age
What do you dislike? Why?: no possibility for a fixed staircase to the attic in case it is developed later; no pantry
Price estimate according to architect/planner: /
Personal budget for the house, including fittings: 750,000 including garage
Preferred heating technology: heat pump, preferably ground-source with underfloor collector
If you had to give up, on which details/expansions
- Could you give up: /
- Could you not give up: possibility for barrier-free living on the ground floor
Why is the design as it is now?
- many iterations of own planning
- orientation of kitchen/dining/living towards the garden
- staircase near the entrance (acoustic separation from living area, possibility to separate upper floor)
- we would like to place the garage on the northeast side, where the neighbor’s garage already stands
- layout not yet fully optimized to the last detail, e.g., exact window positions based on brick work pattern, etc.
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
Good:
- nice visual axis from entrance to garden
- living room as a separable retreat but still connected to the dining area
Bad:
- still unsure how to practically connect the garage/carport roofing to the house
We have purchased a plot with an existing building (unfortunately in very poor condition) and plan to build a single-family house after demolition. In recent months, alongside preparations for the demolition, we have been working on plans for our new home, which we will soon present to several local general contractors. We are very interested in your honest opinions on whether our planning seems promising or if we are on the wrong track.
For the design, it is important to us that the ground floor allows for barrier-free living if needed in the future. In terms of layout, we want the house to open primarily towards the large, private garden. The garage of the existing house is currently located in the west corner; we would like to place it in the northeast next to the neighbor’s existing garage.
The existing house to be demolished is fully basemented, though the basement on the driveway side is only about 1.50m (5 feet) deep in the ground due to the sewer depth, and the ground floor is elevated around 1.20m (4 feet). This means there is already a foundation pit after demolition, which could support building with a basement. However, for our new single-family house, we definitely want a barrier-free, level entrance, so a basement would require a deeper pit and, due to the site conditions, a sewage lift station. We will discuss refilling the pit and the associated costs with the excavation contractor in the coming weeks, so there are no concrete figures yet. It might be possible to recycle demolition material on site for backfilling with our excavator. At the moment, we are leaning strongly towards building without a basement, as we prefer utility rooms and a workshop on ground level, and we are quite discouraged by many (including personal) experiences with damp or flooded basements.
Thank you very much for your feedback!
hannes28
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Development plan/restrictions: Old zoning plan from the 1960s with relatively few specifications. Only single-story buildings are officially allowed on the lot, but there is currently a house with ground floor plus attic on it, and there are many deviations in the neighborhood. Overall, the municipality is quite open to exceptions.
Plot size: 1100sqm (0.27 acres)
Slope: approximately 45cm (18 inches) downhill across the house width, see site plan
Floor area ratio: /
Gross floor area ratio: /
Building envelope, setback line, and boundary: not further southeast than neighboring developments
Edge development: /
Number of parking spaces: /
Number of stories: according to zoning plan ground floor only, but currently built with ground floor plus attic
Roof form: gable roof
Architectural style: /
Orientation: /
Maximum heights/restrictions: /
Further requirements: /
Homeowner requirements
Style, roof form, building type: traditional style, 1.5 stories, gable roof (current plan: 1m (3 feet) knee wall, 38° pitch), solid masonry construction
Basement, stories: currently tending towards no basement, 1.5 stories
Number of occupants, age: currently 2 × 30 years old, planning for 2–3 children
Room requirements for ground floor and upper floor: Ground floor: kitchen + dining, living room, "flexible room" (home office or barrier-free bedroom), shower bath, utility/technical room; Upper floor: master bedroom with home office corner, 2 children’s rooms, bathroom, possibly storage room
Office: Family use or home office?: 50% home office
Guest overnight stays per year: fewer than 5
Open or closed architecture: rather closed
Conservative or modern building style: rather conservative
Open kitchen, cooking island: preferably open with cooking island, but not a must
Number of dining seats: large table for 6–8 people
Fireplace: rather not
Music / stereo wall: yes for music, TV is not a priority
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage plus adjoining rooms for workshop and garden tools; possibly a carport between garage and house
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: approximately 50sqm (540 square feet) vegetable garden would be perfect
Further wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why something should or should not be included
- Living room as a retreat, e.g., for piano playing
- Large dining table is the central place
House design
Who created the plan:
- Do-it-yourself
What do you like particularly? Why?: separated living room (as a retreat & for music); barrier-reduced ground floor, living on one level possible in old age
What do you dislike? Why?: no possibility for a fixed staircase to the attic in case it is developed later; no pantry
Price estimate according to architect/planner: /
Personal budget for the house, including fittings: 750,000 including garage
Preferred heating technology: heat pump, preferably ground-source with underfloor collector
If you had to give up, on which details/expansions
- Could you give up: /
- Could you not give up: possibility for barrier-free living on the ground floor
Why is the design as it is now?
- many iterations of own planning
- orientation of kitchen/dining/living towards the garden
- staircase near the entrance (acoustic separation from living area, possibility to separate upper floor)
- we would like to place the garage on the northeast side, where the neighbor’s garage already stands
- layout not yet fully optimized to the last detail, e.g., exact window positions based on brick work pattern, etc.
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
Good:
- nice visual axis from entrance to garden
- living room as a separable retreat but still connected to the dining area
Bad:
- still unsure how to practically connect the garage/carport roofing to the house
hannes28 schrieb:
Unfortunately, the garage is as dilapidated as the house to be demolished itself, so it probably isn’t worth investing any more money into it. I don’t recall any pictures (?)
hannes28 schrieb:
For backfilling, we could probably recycle the demolition material directly. I haven’t heard of “contract crushing” (meaning taking demolition rubble to a crusher yourself to have it crushed and then taking it back as recycled gravel). Using the demolished material directly again probably won’t work because the particle size distribution would be too wide. And would you even be allowed to reuse it without proper testing, just because it was originally there? – hmm. To me, that sounds like wishful thinking.
hannes28 schrieb:
The issue currently consuming most of our attention is how to proceed with the basement during and after demolition. The ground floor of the existing house is raised, accessed by seven steps; we would prefer to build as close to ground level as possible so that we can connect a terrace to the garden (whether we build with or without a basement). With a height difference of 40cm (15.7 inches) between the driveway and the garden, this should work if we raise the terrain slightly. The 40cm height difference also places us toward the lower end of @11ant’s basement rule, which generally suggests building without a basement. There is space on the lot for basement replacement rooms as well. The problem is the insufficiently deep excavation pit left after demolition – we estimate the pit to be about 1.70m (5.6 feet) deep on the driveway side and about 1.30m (4.3 feet) deep on the garden side. For a slab-on-grade structure, we would first need to fill about one meter (3.3 feet), but for a building with a basement, we would have to dig approximately one meter (3.3 feet) deeper. It seems to me the rule has been misunderstood or misapplied here, as it relates to a natural ground surface that doesn’t currently exist. After the basement is demolished, the relevant ground surface beneath the house footprint will be approximately 100 to 120cm (39–47 inches), so according to the rule, the basement cost weighing factor would be around 50 to 60 percent, not just twenty. If you add the slope to your reference height, resulting in an effective height difference of about 1.70m (5.6 feet), then the overall site assessment would clearly favor a basement at 80 or 90 percent. However, the more that the footprint of the existing house differs from the new building, the more the situation can change. In principle, the calculations for demolition depth and basement construction should only be considered together to a limited extent.
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hannes28 schrieb:
We could probably recycle the demolition material directly for backfilling. You mean bury it? As far as I know, that’s not simply allowed. Construction debris is basically classified as hazardous waste.
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hanghaus202323 Feb 2025 08:57Draw with realistic wall thicknesses. 50cm (20 inches) for the exterior? 25cm (10 inches) for the interior?
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Teimo198823 Feb 2025 12:35hannes28 schrieb:
For backfilling, we could probably recycle the demolition material directly. I’ve seen this done on demolition projects before, where a crusher is brought to the construction site and processes the material on-site.
The material needs to be sorted in advance, though. Concrete debris can then be reused. However, there must be no brick debris mixed in. Foreign materials like wood, plastic, etc., are also not allowed.
Whether a sample needs to be submitted or the recycled material tested has to be clarified, as I’m not sure about that.
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hanghaus202324 Feb 2025 09:28With this arrangement, you get much more out of the plot of land.
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