ᐅ Single-Family Solid Construction House with 142 m² Living Area – Questions About Floor Plans and Construction Costs
Created on: 26 Sep 2013 14:27
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baumann2013
Hello everyone,
After browsing the forum a bit and mostly reading along, I would like to share our building project and ask for your opinions on our floor plan idea and the roughly calculated costs so far. The house will have the following key features:
We have put together the following floor plan, which best matches our current ideas:
What do you think? Some users have mentioned that it is not ideal for the staircase to be right next to the front door. I can understand the argument about dirt being tracked in. However, this layout seems to us to be the best option in terms of minimizing space used by the entrance area and stairwell. Increasing the house’s external dimensions would also significantly increase costs.
Regarding the guest room, we prefer to have it on the ground floor. We are also thinking ahead to when we get older and would then have a potential bedroom on the ground floor. That is also why there is an additional shower in the guest bathroom on the ground floor.
We have not given much thought to the windows yet. The windows shown on the floor plan are therefore not final, and we would appreciate any ideas or suggestions.
Concerning the overall costs, we would like your opinion on how realistic the following breakdown is:
205,000 € house price (= 1,450 €/sqm (135 USD/sq ft) – offer already received)
30,000 € additional building costs
15,000 € specification buffer + extras
10,000 € materials for outdoor facilities, mostly done by ourselves
-------
260,000 € total costs excluding land costs
Do you see any potential to reduce these costs? It all seems a bit high to us overall. We would also be grateful for any further suggestions.
After browsing the forum a bit and mostly reading along, I would like to share our building project and ask for your opinions on our floor plan idea and the roughly calculated costs so far. The house will have the following key features:
- Solid construction detached single-family house with approximately 142 sqm (1,528 sq ft) of living space and a gable roof
- No bay windows/balconies etc.
- Building location: Saxony/Chemnitz
- A "normal single-family house" for 4 people plus a guest/office room
- Slightly sloping plot from north to south – about 700 sqm (7,535 sq ft) in size
We have put together the following floor plan, which best matches our current ideas:
What do you think? Some users have mentioned that it is not ideal for the staircase to be right next to the front door. I can understand the argument about dirt being tracked in. However, this layout seems to us to be the best option in terms of minimizing space used by the entrance area and stairwell. Increasing the house’s external dimensions would also significantly increase costs.
Regarding the guest room, we prefer to have it on the ground floor. We are also thinking ahead to when we get older and would then have a potential bedroom on the ground floor. That is also why there is an additional shower in the guest bathroom on the ground floor.
We have not given much thought to the windows yet. The windows shown on the floor plan are therefore not final, and we would appreciate any ideas or suggestions.
Concerning the overall costs, we would like your opinion on how realistic the following breakdown is:
205,000 € house price (= 1,450 €/sqm (135 USD/sq ft) – offer already received)
30,000 € additional building costs
15,000 € specification buffer + extras
10,000 € materials for outdoor facilities, mostly done by ourselves
-------
260,000 € total costs excluding land costs
Do you see any potential to reduce these costs? It all seems a bit high to us overall. We would also be grateful for any further suggestions.
One more question for clarification regarding the current floor plan: Is it intended to be a 1.5-story house or a full two-story house?
Here are a few tips for designing:
I also planned my own floor plan, and after many drafts, it ended up being almost a standard layout. I probably could have found something similar online.
It is especially important to consider elements that span multiple floors, such as the chimney, staircase, and load-bearing walls. To minimize circulation space, the staircase should ideally end near the center.
You should also think about which rooms are needed and in what size on each floor. If more space is required downstairs, a 1.5-story design makes sense. If more space is needed upstairs, then a two-story design is better. If you definitely want an additional guest room downstairs that can later be used as a bedroom in old age, then the bathroom downstairs should be accessible and suitable for aging in place. In that case, you need more space on the ground floor than upstairs.
The utility room is a flexible space that can be located upstairs or downstairs.
In general, 1.5-story houses tend to be somewhat more cost-effective per square meter (square foot) of living space than full two-story houses. I suspect this is due to the more complex rafter roof construction of the two-story design. An advantage of the 1.5-story house is the larger storage space in the attic. The downside is the larger foundation slab and thus less garden area with the same amount of living space.
Of course, you also need to check what is actually permitted according to the building regulations or zoning plan (building permit / planning permission).
Here are a few tips for designing:
I also planned my own floor plan, and after many drafts, it ended up being almost a standard layout. I probably could have found something similar online.
It is especially important to consider elements that span multiple floors, such as the chimney, staircase, and load-bearing walls. To minimize circulation space, the staircase should ideally end near the center.
You should also think about which rooms are needed and in what size on each floor. If more space is required downstairs, a 1.5-story design makes sense. If more space is needed upstairs, then a two-story design is better. If you definitely want an additional guest room downstairs that can later be used as a bedroom in old age, then the bathroom downstairs should be accessible and suitable for aging in place. In that case, you need more space on the ground floor than upstairs.
The utility room is a flexible space that can be located upstairs or downstairs.
In general, 1.5-story houses tend to be somewhat more cost-effective per square meter (square foot) of living space than full two-story houses. I suspect this is due to the more complex rafter roof construction of the two-story design. An advantage of the 1.5-story house is the larger storage space in the attic. The downside is the larger foundation slab and thus less garden area with the same amount of living space.
Of course, you also need to check what is actually permitted according to the building regulations or zoning plan (building permit / planning permission).
B
baumann201327 Sep 2013 13:43ypg schrieb:
3. Guest toilet, assign the blind spot to the utility roomCan you explain what you mean by that?
ypg schrieb:
5. Guest room, which is intended to serve as a bedroom later, should be furnished with a 2-meter-long bed and a wardrobe about 65cm (26 inches) deep. So it should be at least 3.50 meters (11.5 feet) wide. Correspondingly long so that a (double) bed fits.That’s certainly true. But if you really think about it, moving all living areas exclusively to the ground floor in old age is hardly practical. Who actually lives only on the ground floor and has an entirely unused upper floor? Maybe you should consider installing a lift to the upper floor or changing the property. In that sense, the smaller guest room is alright and provides an occasional sleeping possibility if someone temporarily can’t use the stairs (e.g., with a broken leg).
ypg schrieb:
6. Bedroom: Where exactly is the spacious 3-meter (9.8 feet) wardrobe supposed to fit? With your slanted wall, you’ll bump into the wardrobe when going through the door. You should plan that wall straight in the next design.That should actually work. I’ve attached partially furnished floor plans below in the post.
ypg schrieb:
7. Orientation of the living and ancillary rooms is not right. This results in a lower quality of living space.Do you mean that the south and west sides should have more living and dining areas?
ypg schrieb:
As Musketier already mentioned, the elevations with the windows should be planned at the same time. Also, walls on the upper floor should be aligned with the load-bearing walls on the ground floor. Otherwise, you’ll spend a lot of money on structural engineering that won’t benefit you later.So that means the upper floor would theoretically need to be completely redesigned.
Jaydee schrieb:
There are estimated billions of floor plans online that include a guest room on the ground floor. They have been built hundreds of times and work well.
Just google for a 140 sqm (1506 sq ft) house with 4 bedrooms.Thanks for the tip! We’ve already spent hours searching for floor plans. Surely there are plenty with a guest room on the ground floor. However, those houses often have bay windows, which we don’t really want, and more importantly, our furniture doesn’t fit in those layouts. Except for the kitchen, we’d like to keep our existing furnishings.
Musketier schrieb:
Just for clarification regarding the current floor plan: Is it planned as a one-and-a-half story or a full two-story house?It is intended as a one-and-a-half-story house with a pitched roof.
Musketier schrieb:
In general, of course, you have to check what is actually permitted in the zoning plan.Our zoning plan is not very restrictive regarding the building itself. We are still unsure about the positioning of the building on the lot. We would like to attach a carport (with an adjacent shed or similar) directly to the building on the south side. We know this will block a lot of sunlight on the south side, but we haven’t found a proper solution yet.
So, here are the partially furnished floor plans. Our existing furniture is shown to scale. The kitchen is just a concept since we would have to buy a new kitchen anyway.
baumann2013 schrieb:
It will be a one-and-a-half-story house with a gable roof.Then your square meter measurements upstairs represent the floor area, but not the living area.
Spaces under sloped ceilings between 1m and 2m (3.3ft and 6.6ft) in height are counted as half the area.
Most of your bathroom is likely unusable space, for example.
B
baumann201327 Sep 2013 14:56Musketier schrieb:
Then your square meter figures for the upper floor are the floor area, but not the living area.
Between 1m (3.3 feet) and 2m (6.6 feet) height under the sloped roof, the square meters are counted only at half value.
Most of your bathroom, for example, is probably unusable.Exactly, those are the floor areas on the upper floor. We are planning the upper floor with a knee wall height of 1.00 m (3.3 feet) plus possibly an additional row of bricks.
baumann,
lower the horizontal wall between the utility room and the toilet... so that the entrance to the shower, which is enclosed by three walls, remains accessible (keep the placement of the washbasin in mind), but a shelf could fit immediately to the right of the utility room door.
A knee wall height of 120cm (47 inches) is quite manageable.
Regarding age and guest rooms: a better option is to get a small bungalow for later in life.
lower the horizontal wall between the utility room and the toilet... so that the entrance to the shower, which is enclosed by three walls, remains accessible (keep the placement of the washbasin in mind), but a shelf could fit immediately to the right of the utility room door.
A knee wall height of 120cm (47 inches) is quite manageable.
Regarding age and guest rooms: a better option is to get a small bungalow for later in life.
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