Hello everyone, this is my first topic here:
We are planning to start building our house this year with a general contractor. The position of the building on the plot is fixed, and we are currently waiting for the building permit / planning permission.
Our plot is approximately 20m by 41m (66 feet by 135 feet) in size, located in a gap between buildings. The shorter side faces the street. The land slopes downward by 3m (10 feet) over the 41m (135 feet) length towards the back, with the steepest slope in the middle of the plot. The neighbors on the left and right have filled their land, which can be seen clearly by the height of the neighbor’s wall on the left side of the photo. The neighbor to the left has built a basement into the slope, the neighbor to the right has not.
According to the soil report, about 50cm (20 inches) of topsoil needs to be removed. Beneath that, the soil is stable. Frost protection material will be used to fill up to the average street level, so that the finished floor level will be about 20cm (8 inches) above the street. Due to the slope in the middle part, the backfill behind the house will be approximately 1.8m (6 feet) above the current ground level. According to the soil report, the fill should be either sloped back at a 45° angle or retained with a retaining wall.
In the rear area of the plot, we want to create vegetable beds and a wildflower meadow. We already established and harvested a small potato patch last year to pass the waiting time.
What do you think would be the most sensible and cost-effective solution in this situation?
I am looking forward to your suggestions and ideas!
We are planning to start building our house this year with a general contractor. The position of the building on the plot is fixed, and we are currently waiting for the building permit / planning permission.
Our plot is approximately 20m by 41m (66 feet by 135 feet) in size, located in a gap between buildings. The shorter side faces the street. The land slopes downward by 3m (10 feet) over the 41m (135 feet) length towards the back, with the steepest slope in the middle of the plot. The neighbors on the left and right have filled their land, which can be seen clearly by the height of the neighbor’s wall on the left side of the photo. The neighbor to the left has built a basement into the slope, the neighbor to the right has not.
According to the soil report, about 50cm (20 inches) of topsoil needs to be removed. Beneath that, the soil is stable. Frost protection material will be used to fill up to the average street level, so that the finished floor level will be about 20cm (8 inches) above the street. Due to the slope in the middle part, the backfill behind the house will be approximately 1.8m (6 feet) above the current ground level. According to the soil report, the fill should be either sloped back at a 45° angle or retained with a retaining wall.
In the rear area of the plot, we want to create vegetable beds and a wildflower meadow. We already established and harvested a small potato patch last year to pass the waiting time.
What do you think would be the most sensible and cost-effective solution in this situation?
- Slope everything back, add stairs and a natural stone wall later
- Build stairs and a wall directly on the right side, slope back the rest
- If building a wall: formwork blocks would be much cheaper than L-shaped blocks; regarding the earth pressure, a structural engineer would probably need to be consulted.
I am looking forward to your suggestions and ideas!
Eifelbau2023 schrieb:
What advantage do municipalities have in approving a basement instead of backfilling? Apart from the fact that the house can appear smaller above ground because some rooms can be located in the basement.
From the street view, I actually see a disadvantage in my case if there is a 1.5m (5 feet) ditch on both sides of the house instead of backfilling with planting at street level. The ditch only occurs if the neighbors on both sides backfill. Every avoided alteration to the terrain is also an avoided disturbance to the soil structure and consequently to the water cycle.
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Eifelbau20237 Feb 2023 12:21Point 1 is correct.
So the sealing caused by paving and the house’s footprint has a greater impact on the water cycle than a permeable frost protection gravel layer? And whether the local residents are really so bothered by that that they refuse the embankment and instead refer to a potential basement, which also requires ground alterations, I’m not sure…
To get back to the topic: I was actually only concerned with shaping my sloping little hill 😀 The embankment definitely won’t be any higher, lowering it slightly is worth considering.
So the sealing caused by paving and the house’s footprint has a greater impact on the water cycle than a permeable frost protection gravel layer? And whether the local residents are really so bothered by that that they refuse the embankment and instead refer to a potential basement, which also requires ground alterations, I’m not sure…
To get back to the topic: I was actually only concerned with shaping my sloping little hill 😀 The embankment definitely won’t be any higher, lowering it slightly is worth considering.
Eifelbau2023 schrieb:
Does the sealing caused by paving and the house's footprint have a greater impact on the water cycle than a permeable frost protection gravel layer?The sealing caused by paving is already recognized as an issue. And that's exactly why the patchwork of stacked layers with varying densities and permeability causes problems.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
O
Oberhäslich7 Feb 2023 12:56I would at least design the driveway/access path to be level so that it reaches approximately street level = finished floor height (a 1-2% slope towards the street can be planned). Adding 10-20cm (4-8 inches) to the large area involves a significant amount of gravel.
Eifelbau2023 schrieb:
@haydee
What do you mean by parallel to the house? Starting behind the house and stepping down in terraces was also considered.
Can you do that with shuttering blocks, or are L-shaped blocks absolutely necessary?
The plain 4 raised beds are because I was unsure during the design; there would be more added later 😀That’s exactly what I meant. You do need flat areas for the pond, lounge chair, trampoline, etc., but they don’t have to be continuous. It should look appealing from all sides.
We created two 40 cm (16 inches) level drops because it was much cheaper and easier than filling the entire area.
At first, those two 40 cm (16 inches) drops annoyed me, but now I love them. They’re comfortable to work with and don’t get in the way.
I have no idea which stones are necessary. It depends on the height and what you need to retain. We have sandstone walls.
The new ones are 40 cm (16 inches), 90 cm (35 inches), and 80 cm (31 inches) high; the old one is up to 300 cm (118 inches). However, according to a structural engineer, the old one should never have remained standing. Well, it has for over 100 years.
Don’t underestimate the costs for backfilling—the walls, the materials, and the transportation.
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WilderSueden7 Feb 2023 13:27haydee schrieb:
Don’t underestimate the costs for backfilling. The walls, the materials, and the transport expenses.And this is exactly where a house without a basement initially seems cheaper. But every embankment has to be properly supported. While steep graded slopes are possible, they are not ideal.