ᐅ Floor Plan Design for a Single-Family Home (140 sqm Urban Villa) on a Slope with a Double Garage

kaho674 schrieb:
The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I would have valued your project at around 350K euros. At the moment, though, everything is still purely speculative.

That would certainly be great! For now, I’m heading to the building authority. Is there any other important information you would need from there?

Zaba12 schrieb:
...I had also planned to expose the basement and create a raised terrace on the ground floor. Unfortunately, I had to abandon this idea. Even though it would have eliminated the need for L-shaped retaining walls and backfilling, I would have had to remove and dispose of about 900 square meters (9,688 square feet) of loose soil. For soil classified as Z0, I had a quote of €23,000. The terrace itself would have cost an additional €30,000. On top of that, the basement side would have needed extra plastering, a staircase down to the garden. Still, retaining walls to support the carport would have cost around €10,000, and so forth.

However, since the soil analysis showed Z1.1 earth, the excavation and disposal costs would have tripled. That pretty much ruined the nice idea.

This really shows how important a soil analysis is. If the analysis is only done at the disposal site, then with such conditions you have already "lost" before starting.

Okay, but I already asked about this yesterday (I only have one soil analysis from the entire building area, tested at nine points) and am now waiting for an offer from them.

haydee schrieb:
What you might still consider is finding out the actual figures for the ancillary construction costs, especially for those expenses that occur regardless of the floor plan. For example, the telecom company wants almost 800 euros.

Most ancillary construction costs, like telecom and others, seemed to be accurate in the construction engineer’s quote, as I understood from reviewing the data in this forum. All the costs related to the plot, such as the notary fees, were well estimated. We even had some left over.

Hi Franky, you have to accept that some people see you as quite naive.

Okay, you have a quote from a structural engineer. Personally, I would have been suspicious about the keywords "from Lithuania," "kit house," etc. (and since I prefer to source my materials locally, it wouldn’t be an option for me anyway). At the very least, I would have compared the individual line items with quotes from other general contractors, modular home builders, or similar. There is plenty of information available online. You would have noticed right away that, for example, the mentioned costs for electrical work don’t add up properly (well, maybe for a Lithuanian doghouse they would). But to see that, you have to sit down and familiarize yourself with the trades, the offer, and the differences between quotes. You need to have a clear idea of what you want (and what you don’t). That isn’t very clear in your case.

You bought a plot of land without giving much thought to what is actually possible to build there or not. Honestly: I love a sloped plot because it offers great possibilities. But it doesn’t take much research to realize that those great possibilities are also going to cost a lot more. A Lithuanian doghouse was probably not designed for a sloped plot.
I wouldn’t have bought your plot for a different reason: roads on both sides! Are there sidewalks on both sides as well? I wish you snow-free winters because you do realize that as a landowner you are responsible for clearing the sidewalks on your property? Generally, there are snow clearance regulations, and at least where I live, sidewalks need to be cleared before 7 a.m. Maybe this is not so common where you are, but the site plan set off alarm bells for me. With the length of sidewalks to clear on that plot, you might even want to consider a snow blower. But that might be a very region-specific problem (perhaps more common in Bavaria or anywhere with actual snow).

You dream of a city villa, get an offer for a Lithuanian wooden house, but still don’t really know what the zoning plan for your plot requires. How does that work? I can understand snapping up a plot before realizing what you can build on it. At least where I am, people understand that because land is scarce. But after that, I would gather all necessary and possible information. You accept a dubious quote (what does that house even look like? Similar to the preferred city villa??? I can hardly imagine that. How do you come up with the absurd idea that this quote could serve as a benchmark?) without knowing the regulations or what building on a sloped plot entails.

You post the zoning plan and a quote here, and unfortunately, it looks like you haven’t dealt with any of this yourself and expect others to spoon-feed you the details. That’s the wrong approach! YOU (!!!) should familiarize yourself with the subject to the point that you could recite the specifics in your sleep.
You have been advised that within the now 34 pages, plenty of tips on prices and offers have already been given and you should look them up yourself. Your response: "Oh, that’s too complicated for me now; can you tell me again?"
Hello? And you don’t understand the sometimes somewhat sharp tone in some posts??? Honestly, you don’t?

Here’s a clear message from me now (this is not meant aggressively, but honestly):
Get off your backside! Make the effort, dive into the topic, walk around, look at places, ask naive questions but remember the answers, compare, weigh up (what do I want, what don’t I), but don’t expect to have everything served on a silver platter at a bargain price. That doesn’t work.
Of course, you can have everything served to you, but that service has a cost. You can even get that for an architect-designed house, but it will be expensive. Anyone with a limited budget (who doesn’t?) will have to take on many things themselves through personal commitment.
After these 34 pages, I still get the impression that you are waiting for others to deliver everything to you, and I still cannot see any willingness on your part to engage with the topic yourself (zoning plans, looking at model houses, asking around, gathering info, etc.). I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way. That doesn’t exactly motivate people here who are happy to support you.
It would almost be amusing that someone comes here with a plot that has special requirements, hasn’t even begun to deal with the zoning plan, wants a city villa, and thinks the (dubious and unchallenged) price from a quote for a Lithuanian kit house is a reference.
It would be funny, if it wasn’t obviously not meant seriously...

It was immediately obvious that the telecom setup didn’t fit. For the structural engineering on our sloped site, we also had to pay more; the geologist alone cost four figures, and without that report, there was no structural calculation. If the telecom doesn’t fit, the question is whether the connections for construction power, water, etc., are correct.

We really underestimated the additional construction costs. You get a quote, then months later you realize half of the costs are missing—some weren’t mentioned at all (if only we had read more here)—and others were estimated far too low.

Individually, these aren’t major amounts. But here 800 euros, there 1,500 euros, another 400 euros, and suddenly you have an extra five-figure sum on top.

It’s all small stuff. For you, it’s important first to clarify what happens with the filled excavation, how you will build afterward, and what the structural engineer advises. Our house cost about 40,000 euros more than a slab foundation on a flat site.
The retaining wall on the slope side was constructed as a waterproof concrete shell (“white tank”) with extensive reinforcement, as was the slab foundation, plus a thicker floor slab.

In Lithuania, there is one of the most modern plants for cross-laminated timber panels – not everything is bad.
I would rather ask, what about the warranty, etc.?
What are the payment terms?