Are rooftop terraces useful?

It doesn't matter whether you can choose to stay upstairs or downstairs. Whether it’s nice... Plants require work: whether it’s the few individual trees in the garden with lawn (not to mention a beautiful garden layout), even a roof terrace looks miserable and is not cozy without greenery.

You mow the lawn downstairs 2-3 times a week, water the trees (flowers?, perennials?, shrubs?) every day in summer, pinch off blossoms, chase ants, and weed, only to then be exhausted watering the plant containers upstairs?
The one who plans/has a roof terrace as the actual garden either has an expensive irrigation system or money for a gardener.
Let me put it this way: if you don’t feel like watering the bamboo up there in the south-facing spot daily, fertilizing it weekly, and sweeping and fishing out dead leaves from the drain every other day, then just don’t do it.

A garden takes work, a roof terrace even more.

A terrace is only worth as much as how quickly you can reach the kitchen for a sundowner.

Regards, Yvonne

We have automatically watered the garden and roof terrace. Especially the containers upstairs would be difficult without it with a south-facing orientation. The necessary short way to the kitchen for the sundowner does not make sense to me. Occasionally filling the fridge upstairs and washing the dishes by hand is not so bad. However, I would not grill with six people upstairs...

I also believe that a rooftop terrace is only worthwhile under certain conditions.

Thanks to our rooftop terrace, we have a beautiful distant view over the river valley, which is still possible from the living room, but no longer from the normal terrace.
The main terrace is completely visible to the neighbors (parents and a 3rd party, in the future also 5 more parties of a multi-family house nearby) because they are also located at a higher level.

Due to the flat roof and these conditions, the rooftop terrace almost imposed itself.

The following things were important to us for the rooftop terrace:

- Complete privacy from the neighbors.
- You can get up there without getting your feet wet, so there must not be only an outside staircase as the only access.
- Water and electricity connections for garden shower/whirlpool/sauna.
- An anteroom with space to store plants/cushions/etc. and to have a refrigerator on that level.

We have now managed to get all that, and on top of that, we will now also plan a sewage connection in the anteroom as a safety measure, in case someone someday decides to turn the refrigerator area into a small kitchenette.

We are aware that a rooftop terrace stands or falls with its ease of use.
If I have to go down for every little thing, the fun will eventually be gone.

Looking at the costs:

- Additional cost for walkable surface ~ €3500
- Masonry parapet ~ No idea (€1000?)
- Additional half staircase ~ €3000
- Additional cuboid as an anteroom and extension of the staircase ~ 9.5m² at €2000 = €19,000

So the rooftop terrace probably costs at least €30k. In that sense, that’s an enormous amount of money.
For that, we are only building with a carport and without a basement.

Who knows, in 5 years I might have to admit that this was the most expensive mistake of my life so far. Given the conditions, however, we do not expect that.
And since we have already stood up there by now, we are all the more looking forward to the terrace.