Cost-effective building without loss of quality, architect's house

The neighbor's house doesn't necessarily have to be good. Even in direct conversation, only a few admit that the companies really botched the job for them... apart from that, a company that did good work 15 years ago can do complete rubbish today.

Over time, it's also always a bit of an issue. Usually, you pay rent, then after a year, provisioning interest. That makes it hard to take your time, compare offers, etc.

The biggest problem in the end is that a lot of small stuff adds up to a large sum. Here 1,000, there 500, here 750. Because everyone thinks, "Well, if I'm already building, then the 1,000 now won't make a difference..." And so every craftsman manages to squeeze a few thousand euros out of you, after all, you only build once...

The neighbor's house does not necessarily have to be good. Even in direct conversations, very few admit that the companies have botched things badly for them... aside from that, a company that did good work 15 years ago can do complete crap today.

It was exactly the opposite with us. The builders spoke openly about problems and why a craftsman should suddenly no longer master his craft would also be unclear to me.

Because a craftsman rarely works alone, but usually employs journeymen or skilled workers. And occasionally some of them retire, others quit because they are offered better elsewhere, others get sick (craftsmanship is a tough job) and have to leave, etc.
So it really depends on how long the experience with the company is. That’s what I wanted to say.
Some companies also rest on their good reputation, you get the feeling. Our civil engineer supposedly had a very good reputation here and is now bankrupt... he installed our cistern so amateurishly that it can hardly be used properly (too high, inlet had to be connected in such a way that you can only use about 4 out of 7m³, overflow in the wrong direction and it’s also a bit crooked) and it’s not sealed properly either... that can happen too ;)
The second civil engineer, who laid the rainwater pipes, has an even better reputation here in the neighborhood... and left me leaking pipes that now plop into the cistern at high groundwater levels. Apparently people were at work who usually only do foundations (the workers’ own statement), we were “squeezed in quickly”...

Reputation is no guarantee for good work.

I don't want advice on how to save costs because of the hillside location – I want to save costs everywhere else and get ideas and tips on where that might be best done.

The thing is simply that you save costs most effectively or at all when you look at the project holistically. There is luxury that is expensive in a standard house but means little or no additional effort in a hillside house, or vice versa (which is more likely, since a hillside location makes things more complicated, not easier). Or, conversely, omitting different details saves a different amount in a standard house than in a hillside house. That’s why the question about the plot and so on is asked.

That’s why there is the option to look elsewhere... Then you won’t get any further answers, or just the standard answers you can find with 5 minutes of Google. Or you sit down and see if you can get a height plan (for example, as you could get it from Bayernatlas; other regions generally also offer such portals! Bayernatlas is simply probably the best known).

The picture you showed as an example includes a residential basement, etc. If I understood correctly, I think there’s a difference in definitions between basement and ground floor between you and the members, but I’m not so sure about that.

So my tip: Accept that you have to look at the project as a whole. Only then will you find more than the run-of-the-mill Google savings values. A good architect and your own open attitude towards suggestions will bring you more than an omitted laundry shaft (which isn’t in the standard house anyway for €2800/sqm). And now you can decide whether you want to drop your pants and seriously tackle, search for, and share the desired details or whether you’d rather just discuss it with an architect/general contractor.

Maybe this sounds harsher than intended…

Thank you very much for the tips! Even rather general recommendations help me, after all, this is my first house.

Regarding asking the "neighbors"... that's not so easy, everything that has been built in the last ~15 years has been built by the same local construction mogul, they are all smaller (luxury) residential complexes with 4-15 apartments, which are sold as investments to wealthy people... I don't know if the Pricewert wants to build a single-family house?


Dear people, miracles happen. I might have something that can help you, it was about 2 hours of Googling, but maybe it helps.
Before I am accused here again of secrecy - I really created this myself today and did not know until now that such a thing is publicly available, I went looking due to the criticism here and then I found it.

The elevation map has been somewhat pixelated, but not the plot. Paranoid in some eyes, but whatever :D
If you need other profiles/maps, let me know.

Elevation profile + elevation map.



The black box is my plot (roughly drawn, approx. 950m2 in size)
The gray box in the middle of the plot is the cabin from the known photo!



Explanation of the lines from left to right:
1. Black horizontal line = approx. northern boundary of the plot
2. Red vertical line = where I think the house belongs, the line is 7m wide/long
3. Black vertical line: approx. southern boundary of the plot.
4. The gray vertical lines I added so that it is easier to read.



The elevation profile was created at the right edge of the drawn cabin, which in my opinion better shows the steepness - I believe the small dark gray hill (at meters 18-20) could maybe be the cabin... the house is supposed to stand there as well. The slope does indeed get somewhat "flatter" towards the west.

Is the property now accessed from above or below?