Hello and good evening!
I just registered in the forum because we are about to start building a house, and I’m having trouble with one thing. Somehow, as a layperson, I just can’t seem to understand it.
It’s about the calculation of “single-story” status.
The development plan for our plot requires that the building must be single-story.
Originally, we wanted a townhouse with the same amount of square meters downstairs as upstairs. Since that was ruled out by the development plan, we decided on a Tuscan-style house, hoping to maximize the square meters on the upper floor.
I understand that the upper floor is only allowed to be two-thirds the size of the lower floor for the “single-story” requirement to be met. So, if the ground floor is 90 sq m (970 sq ft), the upper floor may only be a maximum of 60 sq m (645 sq ft), right?
Now, I have come across a provider who offers Tuscan-style houses in their catalog with
GF 83 and UF 64 sq m (892 and 689 sq ft)
or
GF 100 and UF 82 sq m (1076 and 883 sq ft)
or
GF 114 and UF 96 sq m (1227 and 1033 sq ft)
All of these houses are labeled as “single-story.”
So my question is:
How can this be? Is there a trick to the calculation?
Or am I missing something or misunderstanding this?
I just registered in the forum because we are about to start building a house, and I’m having trouble with one thing. Somehow, as a layperson, I just can’t seem to understand it.
It’s about the calculation of “single-story” status.
The development plan for our plot requires that the building must be single-story.
Originally, we wanted a townhouse with the same amount of square meters downstairs as upstairs. Since that was ruled out by the development plan, we decided on a Tuscan-style house, hoping to maximize the square meters on the upper floor.
I understand that the upper floor is only allowed to be two-thirds the size of the lower floor for the “single-story” requirement to be met. So, if the ground floor is 90 sq m (970 sq ft), the upper floor may only be a maximum of 60 sq m (645 sq ft), right?
Now, I have come across a provider who offers Tuscan-style houses in their catalog with
GF 83 and UF 64 sq m (892 and 689 sq ft)
or
GF 100 and UF 82 sq m (1076 and 883 sq ft)
or
GF 114 and UF 96 sq m (1227 and 1033 sq ft)
All of these houses are labeled as “single-story.”
So my question is:
How can this be? Is there a trick to the calculation?
Or am I missing something or misunderstanding this?
But don't Tuscan-style houses usually have no sloping ceilings? It was actually very important to me to have an attic with straight walls, which is why we initially considered Tuscan-style houses. Is it then common for all of them to have very low ceilings in the attic? (As I said, complete beginner here... sorry if this is a silly question ^^; )
B
Bauexperte4 Mar 2016 11:37Hello,
In the NRW building code, it says about recessed/top floors: “(5) Full stories are floors whose ceiling upper edge extends on average more than 1.60 m (5.25 ft) above the ground surface and have a minimum height of 2.30 m (7.55 ft). A top floor set back from the exterior walls of the building (recessed/top floor) is only considered a full story if it maintains this height over more than two-thirds of the footprint of the floor below. A floor with sloping roof surfaces is considered a full story if it maintains this height over more than three-quarters of its footprint. Story height is measured from the upper edge of the floor to the upper edge of the floor above, or in floors with roof surfaces, to the upper edge of the roof covering.
The Tuscan house you described “disguises” (usually with an added roof overhang above the ground floor) the two-story nature in terms of appearance so that it looks like a two-story building to the observer but technically remains a single-story building. Because a recessed/top floor has no sloping ceilings, the usable area is reduced to about 66% of the ground floor area.
Be careful that recessed/top floors may be excluded by your local building regulations; not every municipality allows bypassing the intended appearance of a new residential development through this loophole.
Regards, Bauexperte
Samsoon schrieb:You are confusing a “normal” single-story building with a recessed/top floor. The latter has no sloping ceilings, and its definition always depends on the respective building regulations or regional building codes.
Originally, we wanted a townhouse with the same square footage upstairs as downstairs. Since that was not allowed due to the building regulations, we decided on a Tuscan-style house, hoping to maximize the square footage on the upper floor.
I understand that the upper floor is only allowed to be two-thirds the size of the lower floor to meet the "single-story" requirement. So, if the ground floor is 90 sqm (970 sq ft), the upper floor can be a maximum of 60 sqm (645 sq ft), correct?
In the NRW building code, it says about recessed/top floors: “(5) Full stories are floors whose ceiling upper edge extends on average more than 1.60 m (5.25 ft) above the ground surface and have a minimum height of 2.30 m (7.55 ft). A top floor set back from the exterior walls of the building (recessed/top floor) is only considered a full story if it maintains this height over more than two-thirds of the footprint of the floor below. A floor with sloping roof surfaces is considered a full story if it maintains this height over more than three-quarters of its footprint. Story height is measured from the upper edge of the floor to the upper edge of the floor above, or in floors with roof surfaces, to the upper edge of the roof covering.
The Tuscan house you described “disguises” (usually with an added roof overhang above the ground floor) the two-story nature in terms of appearance so that it looks like a two-story building to the observer but technically remains a single-story building. Because a recessed/top floor has no sloping ceilings, the usable area is reduced to about 66% of the ground floor area.
Be careful that recessed/top floors may be excluded by your local building regulations; not every municipality allows bypassing the intended appearance of a new residential development through this loophole.
Regards, Bauexperte
Hello,
I’d like to join in with a question for clarification, as we are unfortunately having an issue with our development plan regarding the number of storeys :-(
So, for calculating the area of the attic and checking whether the two-thirds rule is met, only areas with a height of at least 2.30 m (7.5 ft) are included? Are the other areas completely disregarded or only partially counted?
Which type of area does this refer to? Gross floor area or living area?
Do you happen to know if there is an online calculator for this? I would like to verify the figures provided by our company and also experiment a bit with the knee wall height.
Thanks in advance!
I’d like to join in with a question for clarification, as we are unfortunately having an issue with our development plan regarding the number of storeys :-(
So, for calculating the area of the attic and checking whether the two-thirds rule is met, only areas with a height of at least 2.30 m (7.5 ft) are included? Are the other areas completely disregarded or only partially counted?
Which type of area does this refer to? Gross floor area or living area?
Do you happen to know if there is an online calculator for this? I would like to verify the figures provided by our company and also experiment a bit with the knee wall height.
Thanks in advance!
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