ᐅ Design of a Semi-Detached House

Hello everyone,

we have now finished the preliminary plans for our semi-detached house.
Overall, we were quite satisfied with them.
However, a few minor changes still need to be made.

So, I’m interested in your opinions or suggestions for improvement.
I appreciate any kind of feedback…

Hi,
I would skip the floor-to-ceiling window in the bathroom. A regular one should be sufficient. Personally, I wouldn’t be so fond of the entrance area, as you see or immediately face the stairs right from the front door. Otherwise, I think it’s quite well designed.

Thanks Wastl for the reply,
the bathroom window definitely will not be floor-to-ceiling either. It will probably be a wide, low window like the one visible in the other semi-detached house.

I know this post from another forum 🙂

And I think the people are right to doubt where the wastewater from the upstairs toilet is supposed to go. When you look at proper construction drawings, there is always a sewage pipe shown. Of course, you won’t see this in brochure drawings. So the location would probably be in the kitchen corner where the door is (I’m not an expert, so if I’m wrong, I apologize in advance!)

Then the kitchen door would also have to be moved. And since the staircase with 14? steps might already be quite steep, it would have to be relocated towards the living room.

I’m familiar with this program; when an amateur uses it, we are working with rough construction dimensions, meaning screed is not included. Measure your staircase on the plan—below 3.80 meters (12.5 feet) I wouldn’t plan as an amateur if you want to get a proper construction drawing. So you’ll have to give up a few centimeters (probably 40/50 cm (16/20 inches)) of the living room space. And consequently, also some space in the upstairs rooms.

Otherwise, I would also avoid a floor-to-ceiling window in the bathroom. Maybe you could swap the shower with the toilet? I would design the large side windows more centrally on the wall, not so prominently positioned outward, and/or make them narrower.

That was a statement from a layperson (with a bit of construction understanding) 🙂

Yes, that's right, I also posted the draft there.
The more opinions, the better 😀
I need to check if the staircase is too steep, but I thought there is a certain standard for stairs that must be followed.
In the plan, the staircase is just under 3.70 meters (12 feet).
Positioning the side windows a bit more centrally sounds like a good idea.
Swapping the shower and toilet... not really keen on that.

Thanks to you too, ypg, for your input.

Then take a look at the rise and tread width in the software.
As mentioned before, the rough construction measurements do not include the screed, and theoretically, one step would be eliminated because of that.
Fifteen steps with the correct proportions are more comfortable. I once visited a show home exhibition, and every staircase had 14 steps; not very comfortable for me, but they were all winding stairs, so it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Maybe count the number of steps on staircases at friends’ houses sometime 🙂 Ours has 15!