Prefabricated house: first architectural planning and then selection of prefab house provider, or the other way around?

The development plan specifies the maximum eaves height, not the total height of the house, as 6.60.

Oh, indeed. :o I can also make mistakes, and it’s better if I make them than the expert advisor on site.

that sellers are not infallible

No one is infallible, and it’s good if the seller also deals with the development plan – that’s not always common practice.

Seller at Weberhaus saw no problems and studied our development plan thoroughly

Why are you so sure that a city villa is not desired?

Because of the roof pitch. As already said: a roof of 33 degrees is a traditional roof under which living space is also created. City villas usually look quite modest if you put a hat on them with more than 25 degrees. However, it would be feasible in terms of the eaves height. Sorry again if I have caused any confusion. Maybe one should read the passage about hipped roofs again.

Regarding the draft, even though I lost a point on credibility with you: I find Weber's original draft better.
Kids' rooms in the west, no filthy and space-consuming hallway, shower toilet where you need it. Direct access to the kitchen.
If you left out the damn pantry, you would even get a spacious and functional kitchen.

Now the floor area is about 180 sqm, so the Balance 300 belongs to the larger houses, which make many things possible and more generous.
The wrong approach is to orient yourself to 180 sqm and then try to reduce it. That doesn't work. In this respect, I don't see the Balance 300 as a good model.

Requirements of the builders

Be clear about what you want. I read nothing about garages/house passages, pantries or pantry substitutes; all of that bloats a house.
A large spatial requirement must be streamlined to 160 sqm without frills.

First of all, thank you for your exemplary participation in your own thread. I did not scroll through the various Weber Balances 300, it is best if you post the original used yourself. So you are planning 2E2K, but with two home offices. This is somewhat beyond the scope of the typical catalog construction proposals. I will not say anything in detail about the floor plan here, since you will have to change the base model anyway: catalog houses are regularly not reducible; if they are larger than desired, it is better to take a smaller model and extend (not: widen) it. Did you choose Weber because they still have their headquarters reasonably close in Rheinau? (from that point of view, BZ in Schlüchtern would be closer). So, regarding the floor plan only this much: I would want to avoid a change in construction method on the house-garage passage, which I do not like anyway. And the utility room irritates me: didn’t you write that it was not located on the exterior wall?
33° DN are neither fish nor fowl, what exactly is the specification?

Currently 110 km from the construction site, are you possibly not far from me (Rhine km 610)?
The phase of finishing trades does not differ so dramatically between construction methods that the wooden construction would really offer an advantage there. I would recommend a construction supervisor anyway, no matter how renowned the quality seals of the house providers are. And especially given the distance to the construction site. I would also be happy to find you a contractor around LU/MA.

Are the children already a reality? – and are the estimates regarding visits from your mother based on habits that will still apply after a 110 km move?

P.S., oh, I just forgot: whether it pays off to "stay true to the series" with the changes is at least provider-specific.

As I said (that was your original question), I wouldn't start with a catalog model anyway, but would first look after an (only LP 1 and 2!) individual planning which catalog models come closest. For a target size of 160 sqm with a second home office, this probably means, as mentioned, "extending" a basic model of about 130/135 sqm.

So. As promised, here is the rest of my two cents:

We are currently planning a single-family house, the plot already exists, the development plan is comfortable (large building window, we are allowed two full floors with a pitched roof…).
Now we have spoken with some prefab house providers and also gone through the preliminary sampling process and actually wanted to decide soon. We are basically laymen, but have continuously informed ourselves a lot, so I noticed that in a floor plan as offered, the utility room has no exterior wall (unfavorable because of the heat pump, right?).
Generally, it is always said that the "detailed planning" will be done with the architect afterwards. Slowly, I am wondering whether it wouldn't be smarter to first do the planning with an architect we pay, and then get offers from prefab house manufacturers to implement those?

There was a recent discussion about this where I shared my experience. Let's see if I can manage the link:



Brief summary: We started similarly at first, then took the architect route and have not regretted it. Financially, it has also been a gain so far. But since the house isn’t built yet (construction starts soon... finally...) I can’t draw a final conclusion yet.

What I urgently want to advise:
The exterior dimensions should be more or less final. So: length, width, height, roof shape. Fine-tuning after completion is fine. If a few interior walls are moved, that’s not a big deal for many providers.

But if something changes in the exterior appearance, some providers charge a lot extra.

We met builders in the area who signed for another house and were also told adjustments were no problem – and then it got five digits more expensive.

We were also shown this trap. For example, an offer for a house with a clear knee wall height of 230 cm. After we repeatedly pointed out that we are not allowed to build a knee wall and must build two full floors, we then got the offer for the same floor plan with two full floors; that was roughly €35,000 more at that company. (At another company only €5,000. I cannot and do not want to judge the calculation or fairness behind this.)

Preferred heating technology: We are still undecided whether to go with an air-air heat pump (Proxon by WeberHaus) or an air-water heat pump (Tecalor). Currently, we lean more towards the air-water heat pump. The price above already includes the air-water heat pump (about €13,000 extra compared to the air-air heat pump)

My usual note:
With an air-air heat pump, without very high investments you are tied to the technology or even less efficient alternatives (e.g. infrared heating).
With an air-water heat pump, you are open to technology. And whatever will be fashionable in 20 years will probably be easy to integrate.

(For us, for several reasons—this was one of them—an air-air heat pump was out of the question.)

Currently, we are at about 180 sqm. We think that we should also manage well with 160–170 sqm and hope for ideas on how we can save space.

Uff. I would rather start with directly fitting floor plans or smaller floor plans and enlarge them as needed.

The problem with downsizing is: you only have the option to save on exterior dimensions. That means the house must become shorter or narrower. But suddenly many things stop working. I looked into it: I do find many saving potentials, but as soon as I think them through properly, rooms elsewhere (other side of the house, or other floor) no longer really work well.

I am quite sure though that the actual room program for 160 m² could be implemented well (possibly without the second garage entrance, which consumes a lot of space).

Regarding the draft, even though I lost a point on credibility with you: I find the original draft from Weberhaus better.
Kids' rooms in the west, no messed-up and space-consuming hallway, shower toilet where it’s needed. Direct access to the kitchen.
If you leave out the darn pantry, you even get a spacious and functional kitchen.

Now the floor area is about 180sqm, so the Balance 300 is one of the larger houses that allow more and are more generous.
The wrong way is to orient yourself to 180sqm and then want to shrink it. That doesn’t work. In that respect, I don’t see the Balance 300 as a good template.

Be clear about what you want. I don’t read anything about garages/house passage, pantry or pantry replacement; all that just inflates a house.
A large space requirement must be streamlined to 160sqm without frills.

Whoever can admit a mistake gains credibility with me ;-) I made a quick draft again, thinking of a pantry under the stairs. We will also take 180sqm if it is used sensibly; if we can manage it significantly cheaper with 160, gladly that too – these are our current thoughts. I will attach the draft from my phone shortly. The WC can’t stay in the original place because we don’t have daylight there (due to the garage).

Be clear about what you want. I don’t read anything about garages/house passage, pantry or pantry replacement; all that just inflates a house.
A large space requirement must be streamlined to 160sqm without frills.
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