ᐅ Street approximately 50 cm higher than the plot – options: raise the ground level or build a basement

Created on: 17 Oct 2020 20:33
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ValeolKB
Hello dear house building community,
I have been actively reading here for a few months now, and our project is finally starting.

This week we bought a plot of land from the municipality in a new development area (Northern BW).
We chose this particular plot because, unlike the others, it is "flat." (Most of the other plots are on slopes—either south or north facing; we chose the saddle point.)
Details about the plot are below.
Because of the limited ceiling height of 4.1m (13 ft 5 in), we will have knee walls about 1 to 1.2m (3 ft 3 in to 3 ft 11 in) high. Since we opted for a flat plot, we decided to build without a basement, aiming to make the house as large as possible so that the upper floor simply works (160-170 sqm (1722-1830 sq ft) building footprint = 140-150 sqm (1507-1615 sq ft) living space depending on knee wall height), plus a garage or carport with boundary construction.
That was the plan... However, I noticed something while measuring the plot myself with a ruler on the digital survey plan: The planned street is at an elevation of 303.49, which is at least 50cm (20 inches) higher than the plot level.
We have now asked three potential builders (one of whom will hopefully be selected in about four weeks) for their opinions:

Prefab timber frame house: The foundation slab works perfectly; the house will be elevated anyway due to the gravel foundation.
Prefab solid house: Please build with a basement so you can use the excavation material as fill. Otherwise, you will have to fill the plot for 15,000 with no added value. Also, below street level is always problematic because of rain.
Architect of a general contractor (solid construction, masonry): Avoid the basement due to possible rock and disposal fees. I can even raise your knee wall to 1.5m (4 ft 11 in), and filling won’t really be necessary. I also don’t see a problem if you end up slightly below street level.

Three answers, but I’m no wiser. (The only thing was that my wife was thrilled when she heard about a 1.5-meter (4 ft 11 in) knee wall.)

We plan to position the house as far to the north as possible and put the garage/carport toward the east next to the neighbor.
I’ve attached a section of the plot (including stipulated and planned contour lines).
Right now, I am hoping for advice from @11ant or @Escroda, as we are at a loss.

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Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 451 sqm (4850 sq ft)
Slope: 60cm (24 inches) over 20m (66 ft)—or even less
Plot ratio: 0.35
Floor area ratio: none specified in the development plan
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: see attached building envelope, otherwise 3m (10 ft) to neighbors
Boundary construction: no
Parking spaces: minimum 2 required
Number of floors: 2
Roof shape: gable roof, half-hipped roof (30-40 degrees)
Style: classic
Orientation: either parallel to the boundary or ridge direction per development plan
Maximum heights/limits:
Ceiling height: 4.1m (13 ft 5 in)
Ridge height: 8.9m (29 ft 2 in)
Other requirements:
Miscellaneous (tree planting types, etc.), but nothing relevant for the house
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Cadastral map showing plots, road edge, colored boundary and infrastructure markings
11ant18 Oct 2020 00:41
ValeolKB schrieb:

I have attached a section of the plot (including the required and planned contour lines).

Unfortunately, the plot boundaries and dimensions are missing – better tell me the name of the zoning plan so I can look it up myself in the original. As it is, this is not useful.
ValeolKB schrieb:

(The only thing was that my wife was over the moon when she heard about the 1.5 meters (5 feet) knee wall height.)

Pretty naive. A knee wall of one and a half meters means she will hardly be able to look "over the steering wheel," that is, from the windows you will only see the bottom edge of the frames. You only hope for that if you don’t understand the basics.
In the plan excerpt, I see a so-called “knödellinie” (knot line). Does this refer to the eaves height on the valley side or the mountain side?
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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ValeolKB
18 Oct 2020 07:26
Thanks in advance for the extensive input
@11ant: Rappenberg 4, municipality of Kirchberg Murr
Attention: the subdivision of the plots in the development plan is not yet final. However, there is a separate plot subdivision document available as a PDF.
The height of the eaves is based on the specified maximum floor height (304cm (120 inches) in our case)
@ypg: Two full stories are specified. However, I am unclear on how this should work technically with the eaves.

We will arrange a soil survey as soon as possible.
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Han Solo
18 Oct 2020 08:03
We had/have a similar situation, although only 30cm (12 inches) on our 840m2 (9,042 ft2) plot. We will roughly do it like this: "80cm (31.5 inches) of compacted gravel with a floating concrete slab on top." Unfortunately, I can't explain it in more detail, but this will put us exactly 10cm (4 inches) above street level. A basement was too expensive for us at around €60,000. We are getting a 12x6m (39x20 ft) driveway with excavation (driveway/house/rainwater cistern 9000l (2,378 gallons)) and will have to haul away the excess soil since it compensates for more than the 30cm (12 inches) difference.
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Escroda
18 Oct 2020 09:29
ValeolKB schrieb:

The planned road is at Visierbruch at 303.49 meters (997 feet), meaning at least 50 cm (20 inches) above the plot level.

However, that is also the highest point. After that, the road slopes down at 1.99%. Since the reference point is to be understood as the maximum height, I fully agree with the architect’s statement.
ValeolKB schrieb:

How the eaves are supposed to work technically is beyond me.

With dormers and/or cross-gables.
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ValeolKB
18 Oct 2020 09:40
@Escroda
How did you identify the 1.99% now?
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Escroda
18 Oct 2020 10:32
Road design with curves, arrows, elevation details, and construction zones (304.0/303.5).