Floor plan for a two-story single-family house without a basement

Hello forum community,

I want to draw the floor plan for a 2-story single-family house without a basement.
Are there things I need to pay special attention to?
For example, does the utility room always have to be adjacent to the kitchen or the guest toilet? (at least this seems to be the case in all prefabricated houses)
If someone could at least answer this question, it would be more than helpful!

Thanks in advance!
Regards
Daniel

Yes, but it is a four- to five-year study program

Unemployed architect who now thinks that all hobby planners want to take his job away? At least this answer sounds exactly like that

I certainly don't want that, but I would like to go to my architect with a few reasonable ideas and save him some work...

Not a good way - by now I am convinced of that too. They usually can do it better and feel constrained in the process. Sort of like: I want a circle, but it has to have four corners. What I do find quite useful about drawing it yourself is to get clear about what you want or maybe also to be able to evaluate results. If someone says the draft is rubbish and seems to know what they’re talking about, then that’s often the case and you shouldn’t start justifying but rather start over (normal creative process). What to pay attention to? Best start with your space program - what rooms do you need, how big are they for you currently, are they too small, too big, what is missing? Then I found it helpful to learn certain standard dimensions - for example a double bed needs 3.7 * 3.1, a WC should not be less than 1.15 m wide, stairs should follow stair formulas (nothing worse than having a finished floor plan that falls apart because the stairs have one step too few), a bright room has 20% window area relative to the room area (very rough statement), bathrooms should be stacked or at least have a room that can accommodate a soil pipe (so not over the living room or entrance area), depending on the tool realistically plan wall thickness... If you don’t enjoy the whole thing, then better leave it.

Hello Daniel,

at the beginning of our planning, we also drew quite a few floor plans.

They were nice for orientation, but not much more.

It is precisely things like the chimney flue, water and sewage pipes, stairs, etc. that regularly ruin the designs made by us amateur architects.

The reason why utility rooms and kitchens (bathrooms, toilets, etc.) adjoin each other in many designs is simply that you only need one common installation line and can thereby save a lot of money.

We then did quite well by creating a requirements catalog in which we defined the desired rooms, living space, technical equipment, etc. and gave this as a basis to construction companies that interested us.

The results then partially surprised us very positively.

Regards,

Dirk

Don't think about how the floor plan of your house should look. Others = architects can usually do that better and you even pay them for it. Rather, think about what the house should offer you (large living room, rooms filled with light, windows, entrance area with or without windbreak, open kitchen or closed, number/size of children's rooms, utility room or just technical room, utility room needed on the upper floor, etc.) and how your life in the new house should be. This way, you will get a reasonable design from the architect that includes your wishes.