Building plot 1.5m below street level - Basement yes/no

Hello everyone,

after initial floor plan designs without a basement, we have now received the ceiling height plan from the building authority (see attachment).

It shows that our building plot (new development area) will lie a whole 1.5m below the street level.
According to the development plan, filling up to street level is allowed.

We would definitely do that! Being below street level, especially as the last plot on the slope, doesn’t seem ideal to me during heavy rain...

Under these conditions, I almost have to build with a basement! Right?
Otherwise, I would have to fill up and compact the entire plot, etc...
That would be madness!?

The basement excavation should be cheaper this way, as it’s not so deep and hardly any soil needs to be removed... Correct?

What do you think?

There will surely be plots in the construction area (if it is at least somewhat large) whose basement excavation you can make use of? At least that is the case with us. Our plot needs to be filled up by about 80cm (700sqm garden) and we have by now scavenged about 5 truckloads of fill soil. This has the advantage for the other families that they do not have to pay for the removal (excavation from basement diggings).

Only useful for the garden though. Under the house you will have to buy gravel. At 1.5m under the house you can expect around €15,000.

We filled 300 sqm on average about 1.10m, and paid €12,000 including delivery, compaction, and plate load test. Biggest advantage, no standing water around the house. In total, almost 750 tons of gravel/sand/split mixture were needed.

At 1.5m below the house, you can expect around €15,000.

I feared that order of magnitude as well! Just so you know...

My plan was to get two quotes.
1x with cellar, 1x without.

But with that amount, I can almost save myself the trouble...

Um, the basement will cost you - without groundwork - ideally around €30,000. Then there are the earthworks, which have to be done anyway.

Our earthworks were also very expensive, but the costs of a basement would still have been higher.

Well, who has, has.

For us, it would (unfortunately) not have been possible.