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?
It always depends on the federal state (and in our case probably also on the building authority/case officer) and is regulated in the state building codes. In Lower Saxony, it really only concerns the strict two-thirds rule.
For example, we have a kind of "cantilever" in the living room, with no living space above it, and the gable roof basically extends all the way down. This allowed us to achieve a knee wall height of about 1.6 m (5.2 ft) on the upper floor.
Right next door, a house is being built with a roof terrace above the living room – here the builders were able to achieve a full ceiling height on the upper floor (I assume this is a recessed or setback floor).
For example, we have a kind of "cantilever" in the living room, with no living space above it, and the gable roof basically extends all the way down. This allowed us to achieve a knee wall height of about 1.6 m (5.2 ft) on the upper floor.
Right next door, a house is being built with a roof terrace above the living room – here the builders were able to achieve a full ceiling height on the upper floor (I assume this is a recessed or setback floor).
The following applies for Baden-Württemberg:
(6) Full storeys are storeys that extend more than 1.4 m (4.6 ft) above the average ground level and have a height measured from the top edge of the floor to the top edge of the floor of the next storey above or to the top edge of the roof covering of the roof above of at least 2.3 m (7.5 ft). The average ground level is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the ground surface elevations at the building corners. The following are not considered full storeys:
1. Storeys used exclusively for housing building services equipment and heating systems,
2. top storeys where the height of 2.3 m (7.5 ft) is present over less than three-quarters of the floor area of the storey below.
Void spaces between the top ceiling and the roof, where the clear height is less than that required for habitable rooms according to § 34 subsection 1, as well as open galleries up to a floor area of 20 m² (215 sq ft) are disregarded.
However, I still do not fully understand it.
(6) Full storeys are storeys that extend more than 1.4 m (4.6 ft) above the average ground level and have a height measured from the top edge of the floor to the top edge of the floor of the next storey above or to the top edge of the roof covering of the roof above of at least 2.3 m (7.5 ft). The average ground level is calculated as the arithmetic mean of the ground surface elevations at the building corners. The following are not considered full storeys:
1. Storeys used exclusively for housing building services equipment and heating systems,
2. top storeys where the height of 2.3 m (7.5 ft) is present over less than three-quarters of the floor area of the storey below.
Void spaces between the top ceiling and the roof, where the clear height is less than that required for habitable rooms according to § 34 subsection 1, as well as open galleries up to a floor area of 20 m² (215 sq ft) are disregarded.
However, I still do not fully understand it.
@Bauexperte: Thanks for the great answer, that really helps me understand things much better. The development plan does not mention setback floors, but I have scheduled an appointment with the mayor next week to clarify exactly what is possible, how, and where.
@herann: I also find it very complicated and am glad I'm not alone with this.
@herann: I also find it very complicated and am glad I'm not alone with this.
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