ᐅ Raising Knee Wall Height After Building Permit Approval – Excessive Additional Costs?

Hello,

I will try to describe my situation as briefly as possible.

We found and contracted a home builder. Everything has been planned so far, and the building permit application was submitted to the building authority last week.

Now we would like to increase the knee wall (dwarf wall) height to 1.25m (4 feet) or 1.5m (5 feet). The planned and approved height in the building permit is only 1.00m (3 feet 3 inches).

I communicated our request to the builder today. So, to raise the knee wall height while keeping the roof pitch at 45°.

The builder said this would cost us a hefty €6,000. The building permit has only just been submitted... how do they arrive at such a high amount? They justify it with the following services:

- new thermal insulation certificate
- building permit amendment
- quantity calculation

Does anyone have experience with this? Is the amount justified?

Thanks in advance for reading and for any informative replies.

Regards,
Enrique

I would have said 1000€.
But in the developer system (more likely general contractor or main contractor), any change after the contract is signed will cost a small fortune.

Well, those who arrive late are punished by life. Apart from the fact that it is actually much more effort than you might think (the surveyor still has to update the site plan, print it, fold it, stamp it, sign it, deliver it to the planner, issue the invoice ... ; ) you have no choice. Either you pay what they ask for, or it stays as it is.

Hello,
we have a relatively affordable building contract. We planned a bungalow of 140 sqm (1507 sq ft). I asked about raising the knee wall by 25 cm (10 inches). The additional cost was 3,000 €. More masonry work, facing bricks or brick slips, insulation—everything costs money. We did not go ahead with it because we didn’t want to convert the attic.
All of this was before the building permit / planning permission application.
The second building contractor (relatively expensive) did not charge extra for raising the knee wall, as he most likely included everything in the initial quote.

brokeron schrieb:
How do they come up with such a high amount?
They justify it with the following services...
- new thermal insulation certificate
- building permit amendment / planning permission change
- quantity survey

They must value you highly; this is more like a special price for the effort involved. Additionally, there will likely be an exceptional approval required, which I don’t consider guaranteed: a 45° roof pitch and knee wall height of 1.50 m (5 feet) suspiciously suggests a full additional story. Besides, this knee wall height practically only works if you limit yourself to gable windows exclusively.

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Hello again,

thank you for your replies.
What Escroda wrote probably sums it up best: "Life punishes those who come too late."

I spoke with the builder again.
Fortunately, they made some concessions, and raising the knee wall to 1.25m (4.1 ft) will cost me "only" 4800€.
(including thermal insulation certification, building permit/planning permission amendment, and quantities)

Thanks again for your time

‍♂️