Building a prefabricated house on an existing basement - experiences?

With us, it is more common to see a new house on an old basement. Both solid houses and timber frame ones. Some build as large as the basement was, some smaller, some larger. In principle, this is possible. In all cases I know of, the basement is only accessible from the outside, not heated, and therefore only storage space that is not 100% free of moisture.

I cannot say anything about the costs; presumably, overall it is not much cheaper than completely demolishing.

Thank you all very much, that already helps!!! Phew, we had actually expected some savings since we wouldn't have development costs/filling in the basement/etc. as a cost factor. We also thought that the demolition / "dismantling" would be cheaper in the end?! It doesn't have to be a prefab house either. We are still at the very beginning, and originally we didn't want a basement at all since the land costs were already so incredibly high, and now we are seeing what is not absolutely necessary. But a basement in general is of course great. We are still at the very beginning, everything is open, and we are just gathering ideas and experiences for now. The floor area of the house definitely should be larger, i.e. the house should not be fully basemented in the end, but about 3 m longer. We were told that it is no problem to work with a slab foundation then. The question is also who can even do that. We don't have a construction company yet (as mentioned, we were only at the notary this week). Probably the best would be to ask an architect/structural engineer. I had hoped that someone here could share their experiences But apparently it is not even that common to use the basement.... By the way, the basement itself is great, an architect has already confirmed that to us, everything is super dry. One would only need to redo the walls/floors, it is heated and recently got new windows. So these costs are probably manageable.

The demolition will be more expensive or will cost the same, the disposal is cheaper. I would talk to demolition companies to see what they think. We need to approach this more carefully.

You would just need to redo the walls/floors, it is also heated and recently got new windows. So these costs are probably manageable.

However, it probably would not comply with the Energy Saving Ordinance. But it doesn’t have to. The basement is frost-free, the structural integrity would have to be checked, a builder has to be found who will build the house on the existing basement. Personally, I only see the problem that the existing walls are responsible for the load-bearing capacity of the entire house. Therefore, you won’t be free in the floor plan design. But maybe everything can somehow be made to fit - a house is a house is a house

See you then in the floor plan discussion

Thank you all very much, that already helps!!!

No, that can't help at all because the basis for speculation is "missing": let pictures speak more than a thousand words, then the crystal ball will become clear.

I would have to take the photos again, I don't have them available at the moment. They will follow....