Almost final floor plan for our house

Hello everyone,

I have asked two questions about our house in the past and it took a very long time (first contact with the architect was September 2021), but we now have almost finished plans for our house.

Most of the problems we had were because we are building in Belgium, in the German community, and hired a German prefabricated house company. They first assigned us a German architect who unfortunately had no idea how a building application in Belgium should look and cost us a lot of time... Since April we have a Belgian architect and things are progressing very quickly with him.

Furthermore, we spent a lot of time with the municipality regarding the "waters". In fact, they are two small streams, but since July 2021 the municipalities have become extremely cautious. We were still in the purchase process during the flood and visited the plot during the flood, and even then it was just trickling along. The waters also have no natural springs, but are simply rainwater from the few surrounding (maximum 10) houses, but after a long back and forth we agreed on this bridge, which will cost us a whopping €15,000. However, we will live with a provisional piping and embankment for the first years and will complete that part at some point.

I had already asked about the roof overhang and as you can see, the house has changed significantly. The municipality eventually put a stop to the plans because we should not embank so massively. The German architect we had was not able to create proper site plans and so the whole issue was noticed very late and we had to completely redesign in April this year because we had to become significantly smaller and therefore could not build a garage. That is why there is the basement and a more compact house.

Of course, the basement costs more than a simple concrete slab, but since we would probably have had to do a deep foundation anyway due to the slope, the additional cost is probably manageable (I never had a concrete offer for the deep foundation, but it was supposed to be very expensive).

On average, you can see the ceiling heights, insulation of the exterior walls and the basement. The ceilings are still shown incorrectly in the plans, they are supposed to be exposed wood, as in the attached pictures.

I came across the forum again because I still had questions about basement insulation .

If there are any questions or suggestions regarding our plans, go ahead! I am looking forward to your comments!

Hello everyone,

I had already asked two questions about our house in the past and it took a very long time (first architect contact was September 2021), but we now have almost finished plans for our house.

Most of the problems we had were because we are building in Belgium, in the German-speaking community, and hired a German prefabricated house company. They first assigned us a German architect who unfortunately had no idea how a building permit application in Belgium should look and cost us a lot of time... Since April we have had a Belgian architect and things have been progressing very quickly with him.

Furthermore, we spent a lot of time with the community regarding the "waters." In fact, these are two small streams, but since July 2021 the communities have become extremely cautious. We were still in the purchase process during the flood and visited the plot during the high water and even then it was just gently trickling. The streams have no natural sources but are simply the rainwater from the few surrounding (maximum 10) houses, but after much back and forth we agreed on this bridge, which will cost us a whopping €15,000. However, we will live with a temporary piping and embankment for the first few years and eventually complete this part.

I had already asked about the roof overhang and as you can see, the house has changed a lot. The community eventually put a stop to the plans because we were not supposed to embank so massively. The German architect we had was not able to create proper site plans and so the whole issue was only noticed rather late and we had to completely replan this April because we had to become significantly smaller and could not build a garage. Hence the basement and a more compact house.

The basement of course costs more than a simple slab, but since we might have had to do deep foundations anyway due to the slope, the additional cost should be within reason (I never had a concrete offer for the pile foundation, but it was supposed to be very expensive).

On average, you can see the ceiling heights, insulation of the exterior walls and the basement. The ceilings are still incorrectly shown in the plans, they are supposed to be solid wood, as in the attached pictures.

I came across the forum again because I had questions about basement insulation .

If you have any questions or suggestions about our plans, go ahead! I look forward to your comments!

I find the 2 storage rooms thought out too complicated. How about designing one storage room as kitchen cabinets... They can partly be walk-in. You don't need the space in the kitchen for that. And the other storage room as a room. It can then be storage room, office, guest room, etc.

Would change the swing of the door to the garage. Otherwise, something gets blocked when you want to bring something into the storage room.

I wouldn't consider the trickle as irrelevant as it might seem. If rainwater from other houses runs along there, my alarm bells would go off. Flooding is not just flooding. Climate scientists agree that extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. If you have an extremely dry summer and the soil dries out significantly, and then an extreme weather event comes in the form of an extremely heavy downpour (see flood areas: sometimes the rain of an entire year falls in one day), then the soil can't absorb this rain because it is dried out, and your little trickle might possibly take the whole house with it :/

I would also not underestimate the trickle. In our community, the result of the flash flood management has been available for over 1 year. What our little brook should reach in height not even 2 km from the source. Unimaginable. Many do nothing because the water has never been that high.

Regarding the floor plan. A completed questionnaire would be helpful. I find the dressing room in the master bedroom just a dark hole. Does the bathroom have no bathtub? Draw the desired or existing furniture to scale in all rooms. In the open-plan room, I miss space for a cupboard, shelves, TV, etc.

The problem with trickles is not continuous rain. The problem is a thunderstorm with extremely heavy rain. It comes suddenly and after half an hour everything is gone again. You will never see this during an inspection. We have a small stream in the village, which is inconspicuous even during heavy rain. Nevertheless, it floods the village center about every 50 years.