Hello,
we are planning to build a single-family house in Bavaria, and due to groundwater pressure in the soil, the fully waterproofed concrete basement will be quite expensive. The general contractor said, "the basement costs more than the above-ground living space." Is it really possible that increasing the size of the above-ground house by nearly the same usable area that is lost by omitting the basement results in cost savings? In other words, is a 150 m² (1,615 sq ft) house with an expensive waterproof concrete basement more costly than a house without a basement but with 150 m² (1,615 sq ft) of living space plus 50-70 m² (540-750 sq ft) of utility rooms (the latter with cheaper flooring, etc.)? The general contractor only had a few rough rules of thumb, which obviously didn’t apply well in this case, and did not provide any actual cost calculations. Strangely, he also refused to calculate both options side by side, saying it would be too time-consuming.
Does anyone here have real experience with this? It would be very helpful, thanks in advance!
Best regards
we are planning to build a single-family house in Bavaria, and due to groundwater pressure in the soil, the fully waterproofed concrete basement will be quite expensive. The general contractor said, "the basement costs more than the above-ground living space." Is it really possible that increasing the size of the above-ground house by nearly the same usable area that is lost by omitting the basement results in cost savings? In other words, is a 150 m² (1,615 sq ft) house with an expensive waterproof concrete basement more costly than a house without a basement but with 150 m² (1,615 sq ft) of living space plus 50-70 m² (540-750 sq ft) of utility rooms (the latter with cheaper flooring, etc.)? The general contractor only had a few rough rules of thumb, which obviously didn’t apply well in this case, and did not provide any actual cost calculations. Strangely, he also refused to calculate both options side by side, saying it would be too time-consuming.
Does anyone here have real experience with this? It would be very helpful, thanks in advance!
Best regards
Hausbauer schrieb:
Good idea with the knee wall – but if you have one, the building regulations say it can only be up to 50 cm (20 inches). That would be a real setback... We still don’t know the building regulations yet. Am I right?
Why don’t you upload them so we can give you personal advice instead of guessing in the dark here?
Curly schrieb:
I wouldn’t want the washer/dryer upstairs because the appliances are just too noisy for me. Also, we sometimes have dirty garden clothes, dog blankets, dog towels for cleaning paws, and previously kids’ mud pants, so having the washer upstairs wouldn’t be practical for us.
Best regards,
Sabine And this shows how everyone has different needs. We have the laundry upstairs near the bedrooms and don’t hear it.
But I could also imagine it on the ground floor since we spend most of our time there.
Still, the space upstairs demanded it.
I definitely wouldn’t want to carry laundry up and down two floors – I had that before, and despite having a comfortable staircase, I found it impractical for daily use.
You can’t generalize here; some houses have kids’ rooms on the ground floor with a large utility room, storage, and an office upstairs. So the ground floor laundry works there, and so on.
You just need to think about what suits you best.
haydee schrieb:
New appliances are not noisy.
We bought our appliances new last year; they are from Miele, and we specifically chose the quietest models, but I still find them noisy.
Best regards,
Sabine
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