ᐅ Floor plan for a single-family home with two full stories and a recessed/stepped top floor

Created on: 15 Mar 2021 22:05
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StephanM
Dear Homebuilding Forum,

As a newcomer to your group, here is the completed profile of our building project:

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 637sqm (6860 sq ft)
Slope: no, completely flat
Site coverage ratio: 0.4
Floor area ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: street frontage 17.6m (58 ft), 3m (10 ft) setback on left and right sides, building window 11.6m (38 ft) wide x 12.5m (41 ft) deep
Adjacent buildings: single-family houses
Number of parking spaces: two possible
Number of floors: 2 full stories plus 1 setback floor with flat roof (minimum 1m (3 ft) recess on all four sides)
Roof type: gable roof & flat roof
Architectural style: many options allowed as long as aligned with design guidelines
Orientation: south-facing
Maximum height/limits: 9m (30 ft)
Other requirements

Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof form, building type: simple, timeless, flat roof, cube-shaped
Basement, floors: basement, ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor as setback level
Number of people, ages: 2 adults, 4 children between 1 and 6 years
Space requirements ground floor, upper floors: ground floor approx. 105-110sqm (1130-1180 sq ft), 1st floor approx. 100-105sqm (1080-1130 sq ft), 2nd floor approx. 40-45sqm (430-480 sq ft)
Office: family use or home office? 1 home office
Guest bedrooms per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: open concept
Conservative or modern construction: conservative design
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island
Number of dining seats: at least 6, extendable to 8-9
Fireplace: maybe, but chimney routing is a bit complicated
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on 1st floor to soften the building volume, possibly a roof terrace on the 2nd floor if not too complicated
Garage, carport: originally planned garage on one side including storage and carport on the other side, now tend to only carport as garage affects overall appearance
Utility garden, greenhouse: kindergarten ;-)
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons for why this or that should or should not be included

House Design
Who designed it:
Do-it-Yourself
What do you like most and why?
That it was possible to arrange spacious children’s rooms and create space for two bathrooms. Public living areas on the ground floor, children’s floor on the 1st floor, and parents’ area on the 2nd floor.
What do you like least and why?
I’m uncertain about the positioning of the bathrooms relative to each other (complexity due to drainage pipes), and which staircase best serves the 1st floor layout. The building volume is still not ideal, but I have no further ideas on how to meet the zoning requirements.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 640,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: approx. 700,000 EUR
Preferred heating system: geothermal

If you have to give up something, which details or extensions
- can you do without: additional room in the setback floor, terrace in the setback floor, already gave up on double garage as it overly restricted the floor plan :-( possibly external basement stairs
- cannot do without: 4 large children’s/teenage rooms, setback floor because we can’t fit all rooms on just 2 floors, basement as a lot of stuff accumulates with 4 children...

Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Because after many nights of planning I couldn’t come up with a better solution...
What makes it in your opinion particularly good or bad?
It meets our requirements on paper, but I lack the experience to judge whether it will work well in practice, which is why I’m asking for your opinions.

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How can I best organize the living space (especially but not only the 1st floor) and use the proper staircase design to create a spacious hallway without wasting area?

That was quite a bit of work ;-) I hope this information is useful for the further discussion.
In the next post I’ll share the floor plans and some exterior views (if I manage the attachments...)
Thank you in advance for your time reviewing this and for your honest and constructive feedback on the current design!

Best regards
Stephan
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StephanM
16 Mar 2021 09:39
bra-tak schrieb:

I did a rough calculation of the floor area. Including the basement, you’re looking at around 350 sqm (3,767 sq ft). With a budget of 700k, that’s just about €2,000/sqm (€186/sq ft). I don’t think that’s nearly enough for the clearly intended standard. I would estimate around €2,500/sqm (€232/sq ft). That would put you at €875k (€81,346) just for the house itself. On top of that, there are additional construction-related costs and so on.
Is it still appropriate to budget €2,500/sqm (€232/sq ft) when including a usable basement, or can you manage with less?
Additional construction costs, the inevitable topic... I had included these on top of the mentioned budget as well. I suspect your cost estimate is based on experience and is therefore much more reliable than my rough calculation—so it feels more realistic. Thanks for that bitter pill! Better now than later in the process!
Regards, Stephan
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haydee
16 Mar 2021 09:46
A basement used for storage is cheaper in terms of construction costs, but
excavation work and the big question mark of waste disposal remain.
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Myrna_Loy
16 Mar 2021 09:47
StephanM schrieb:

You might have a point about the living room. The basement walls are drawn just for formality, without any claim to accuracy...

Friends of mine had a small extra living room for their five children. But they also had almost 200 sqm (2,150 sq ft) on the ground floor.
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haydee
16 Mar 2021 10:00
I also prefer a separate kitchen and living room, or at least a sliding door to separate the two areas.
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icandoit
16 Mar 2021 11:57
Here is a suggestion without an attic floor


Hand-drawn floor plan of a two-story house with furniture, doors, and stairs.
K1300S16 Mar 2021 12:25
StephanM schrieb:

I understand that this development plan is stricter than the state building code, which only applies to 75% of the underlying floor area. How do you assess that?

Okay, you're right. This morning, I probably didn’t get the complete planning document in my hurry and therefore didn’t see this specification. So that’s probably how it is.
StephanM schrieb:

You’re probably right about your assessment regarding the flexibility of general contractors for a family with four children. At least you won’t find that on catalogue page 17.

Well, there are also "good" general contractors who work like architects but still provide everything from a single source and offer a fixed price guarantee. You could inquire with a company from Marl whose name starts like the vehicle registration code from Sprockhövel. They don’t have a catalogue, and they generally operate in the mid-range/upscale (not luxury) segment.