Floor plan design for a single-family house with a basement on a sloped plot

Hello!

Last year we bought a 709m² sloping plot and are now dealing with the floor plan design and obtaining offers from regional house providers. I created a rough floor plan with MS Visio and made it available to the providers. This floor plan was allowed and intended to be modified and optimized by the providers based on their experience. We have now received a draft and an offer that already corresponds quite well to our ideas. In my template, I used a U-shaped staircase; the provider’s employee has now equipped the floor plan for the offer with a straight staircase. However, this staircase from the basement to the ground floor opens right in the middle of the living/dining room.
This raises the question of how it looks with cold from below, drafts, and other negative aspects? The provider said that nowadays basements are not as cold as they used to be. What if the door downstairs is left open and there is a draft upwards? What if our children come home with friends and stand right in the middle of the living room?

Otherwise, we are already very satisfied with the upper floor and the layout on the ground floor. Minor optimizations can still be incorporated in the basement, e.g., access from the carport to the basement room, etc.

Now here are the details:

Development plan/restrictions: Yes
Size of the plot: 709m²
Slope: Yes
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Plot ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary:
Edge development: Garages/carports permitted
Number of parking spaces
Number of floors: 2 full floors
Roof shape: Gable roof 28°-38°
Style
Orientation
Maximum heights/limits: Eaves height 6m above the natural ground
Further specifications: Cross gable and roof structures only permitted on the slope side, due to noise protection

Requirements of the builders:
Style, roof shape, building type: Single-family house with basement
Basement, floors: Basement, ground floor, attic
Number of persons, age: 2 adults 36, 37; 2 children 1, 3;
Room requirements on GF, UF
Office: Family use or home office?: Family use
Sleeping guests per year: 5–10
Open or closed architecture: Open
Conservative or modern construction: Conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Yes
Number of dining seats: 6-8 seats
Fireplace: Yes
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Double carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: No
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should not be: WC in the basement so that the children don’t have to run through the whole house when playing outside. Storage room on the ground floor with space for a case of water and the vacuum cleaner. Children’s rooms of equal size with a view of the greenery.

House design:
From whom is the planning:
- Planner from a construction company: Yes
- Do-it-Yourself: MS Visio drawing
What do you particularly like? Why?: Small hallway on the upper floor, layout and size of the rooms upstairs; orientation of the rooms on the GF/UF according to cardinal directions, open design; large window areas facing south; office in the basement; hidden wardrobe in the basement under the stairs,
What don’t you like? Why?: Staircase exit on the ground floor; entrance area in the basement possibly too small,
Price estimate according to architect/planner: €280,000 incl. carport
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: €360,000 for everything complete, excluding outdoor facilities.
Preferred heating technology: Air-water heat pump with ventilation system and heat recovery (Proxon). The Proxon from Zimmermann Lüftung.

If you have to waive something, which details/extensions
– can you do without: Fireplace, stove on the ground floor; double carport (possibly later)
– can you not do without:

Why did the design turn out the way it is now?: Received template and optimized with own ideas.
Standard design from the planner?: No, customized for the customer

What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes?

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
- The floor plan for the offer features a straight staircase. However, this staircase from the basement to the ground floor opens right in the middle of the living/dining room.
This raises the question of how it looks with cold from below, drafts, and other negative aspects?

I look forward to your suggestions and constructive criticism.

Best regards Cherio

The best thing is to scan all of this (or convert the drawings immediately into suitable formats), then you can view JPEGs or PNGs here that are actually recognizable. Photos of prints taken with a phone, then compressed again because of their gigapixels, lead to images that only the painter himself can recognize. And dimensions would be really great.

Grundflächenzahl: 0.4
Geschossflächenzahl: 0.8

... are already good prerequisites – also to afford a generous garage roof terrace. Does this also fit with the setback?

The staircase has too little space in front of the first step.

€280,000 seems a bit tight for 160 sqm plus the basement.

€280,000 seems a bit tight for 160 sqm plus basement.

That is the "pure" house price. Of course, additional costs such as connection fees, earthworks, heating, tiles, sanitary installations, etc. will quickly cause the total amount to rise.

It’s best if you scan everything (or convert the drawings directly into suitable formats), so one can look at JPEGs or PNGs here where something is actually recognizable. Photos of printouts taken by phone, then compressed again because of their gigapixels, result in images where only the painter himself can see something. And dimensions would be really great.


... are already good prerequisites – also to afford a generous garage rooftop terrace. Does that also comply with the distance to the property boundary?

The stairway has too little space in front of the start.

Unfortunately, we only received a DIN A1 printout with the house images and floor plans. I think we will only get electronic documents if we give the provider a commitment.

I am also not yet satisfied with the reception and entrance area. I also found the space quite tight. I think we will have to revisit this and find another solution.

Thanks already for the contributions!

Best regards Cherio

I consider the estimate of €280k possibly unrealistic given the photos I have seen. To give you an idea of the offer price our architect received from the shell builder, here are our plans...

We pay €146k for a shell construction including terrain modeling, house connections (only trenching), filling, compaction, L-stones (also for the carport), terrace edging, rainwater cistern, drainage, etc. According to the architect, €126k should be allocated to the shell construction.

Now imagine you have 20 sqm more than us and a much more demanding architecture. So I would assume €160k. That leaves you with €120k for the rest. How is that supposed to work? €30k of yours will already go to ventilation and heating. €10k goes to the fireplace. Double carport €20k. That leaves €60k for everything else.

I created a rough floor plan with MS Visio and made it available to the providers. This floor plan was allowed and intended to be changed and optimized by the providers using their experience.

What you have shown here so far was only the response of a provider - so what did your original draft look like before its variation? - why don’t you post it here.