Project: Single-family house with double garage at the Lower Rhine

Hello everyone,

I want to use this thread to share our construction project with you and at the same time ask questions.

I have been following the forum for about half a year now and have already taken away many good suggestions.

First about us:
My partner, 25 years old, and I, 28 years old, bought a plot of land in a neighboring village at the beginning of 2019. 1000 m², 90 €/m², additional costs covered by equity, 90,000 € variably interim-financed through the house bank, free building plot in the village area, courtyard on the right, another detached house on the left, and a view of the fields to the rear. Garden faces north. The development plan allows what we intend.

Requirements for our house:

[*]approx. 170 m² living space
[*]2 full floors
[*]hip roof
[*]brickwork
[*]double garage
[*]ground source heat pump and residential ventilation
[*]KFW 55
[*]ground floor (open kitchen-living-dining area, office with 2 workstations, utility room (technical), bathroom with shower, passage from utility room to garage)
[*]upper floor (2 children's rooms, bedroom with dressing room, bathroom with shower - bathtub - 2 sinks, utility room for washing/ironing)

After initial discussions with regional general contractors, property developers, and other builders, we found the offers and price information all too vague, and without suitable designs, with most general contractors you didn’t get far or the offers were far from what we actually wanted. We do not want a prefabricated house. Large solid construction companies like Viebrockhaus also could not convince us.

On the advice of several general contractors, we then decided to commission a recommended architect to create the designs (service phases 1-4). This is now in the final stages and based on the designs, we have had offers prepared by regional general contractors suitable for our project. I would now like to list the cost breakdown from our preferred general contractor and also the architect’s calculation for comparison. The general contractor enjoys a very good reputation in the area and, according to the architect, is somewhat more expensive than the competition. In return, high-quality work is always delivered with little stress for the builder. We had a very good feeling in the first discussions and everything is very transparent.

(All figures are somewhat rounded up/down from the original offer, we have all offers from the individual trades the general contractor works with and know exactly what we get for the money; for the first look, I do not want to list everything in detail here yet)

Architect

Residential house (167 m², 2010 €/m²)	335,700 €
Garage (47 m² at 585 €/m²)	27,495 €
Additional costs (architect, structural engineering, authorities, surveying, KFW support, safety coordinator, house connection, soil survey, outdoor facilities [...])	35,000 €
Total	398,195 €

General Contractor

Shell construction (calcium silicate blocks, brick, concrete staircase, earthworks, sewer)	170,000 €
Roof (clay tiles)	30,000 €
Windows, front door, electric shutters, terrace sliding door, window sills	35,000 €
Heating, deep drilling, ventilation, sanitary, wastewater	59,000 €
Electrical, satellite system, shutter controls, network	11,500 €
Interior plaster	13,000 €
Screed	5,000 €
Roof insulation and walkable attic insulation	7,000 €
Tiles (all floors tiled/baseboard, bathrooms tiled wall to ceiling, tiles equity 30 €/m²)	24,000 €
Metalwork (stainless steel/glass railings)	5,800 €
Interior doors	4,600 €
Sealing windows/brickwork	1,500 €
Painting (painting fleece without painting work)	4,000 €
Total	370,400 €
	2231 €/m²

Additional costs (architect, energy saving regulation certificate, structural engineering, safety coordinator, efficiency house support, blower door test)	20,000 €
Other additional costs (authorities, outdoor facilities …)	20,000 €
Total house costs	410,000 €
KFW 55 subsidy (efficiency house support, heating, residential ventilation, etc.)	30,000 €

Painting work and outdoor facilities will be done as DIY.

Thus, including the remaining debt for the plot and a bit of buffer, we come to about 500,000 € for the entire project.

We set this limit at the beginning and I think it is realistically achievable with this general contractor. Basically, we have already mentally decided on this general contractor, but I would still like to put this list up for discussion, and I am happy to answer any questions you may have. I will keep updating this thread with current information in the future.

PS: Unfortunately, I am not allowed to publish the architect’s designs. As soon as it is possible, I will make up for it. Thanks to all the planning threads here in the forum, I have already identified many possible mistakes.

Best regards!

It matches up well what the GU and the architect calculate.

What other questions do you have? By the way, I find a bathroom with floor-to-ceiling tiles relatively ugly.

P.S. You can send me the GU by email @t-online.de. I myself come from Niederrhein and know one or the other GU here by reputation.

Through all the planning threads here in the forum, I have already had many possible mistakes in mind.

One is that you are in the wrong subforum if you are talking about floor plans.

One thing is that you are in the wrong subforum if you are talking about the floor plan

Of course, I meant from discussions in the floor plan planning subforum

It fits well together what the general contractor and the architect calculate.

What other questions do you have? By the way, I find bathrooms tiled up to the ceiling relatively ugly

Yes, that's true.

I think more questions will arise when we choose the fittings in more detail. I also want to present prices from practice to other builders, as I often read the question here about what expenses one must expect for a single-family house.

Such hints like bathroom tiled up to the ceiling = ugly also help us to reconsider. I have seen bathrooms tiled up to the ceiling and found them very pleasant, although the walls there were also completely tiled white. Other colors would probably look different.

Hello everyone,

I’m bringing the thread back up. A lot has happened since June.

Brief summary:

In September 2020, after going through a few more rounds with the architect, we signed the building application and decided on the general contractor (GU) we preferred. From then on, we held the first appointments with the individual trades for sampling. (The list is not complete, just everything that comes to mind right now.)

Single-family house without basement with double garage, 170 m² living space, KFW 55, 2 full stories, hipped roof on about 1000 m² plot, garden to the north, main road in a village of 1000 inhabitants in the Lower Rhine region, fields to the north only, horse farm on the right, single-family house on the left.

GU planning – The GU named all the companies we were supposed to contact. All companies knew the project and what needed to be offered. We could express wishes everywhere and, if necessary, add or remove samples. Static and energy consultants ran in parallel.

Shell construction – strip foundations and reinforced concrete floor slab, 80 mm perimeter insulation under the ground floor slab, 15 cm calcium silicate masonry, clinker brick (Muhr – Friesland, joints in anthracite), clay roof tiles.

Electrician – GU equipment was presented to us, we communicated our calculated sockets etc. based on our own planning, network sockets, cables for outdoor facilities, positions of the access points, satellite system, electric shutters with app control, no further smart home planned.

Windows/doors – triple glazing, plastic, anthracite outside, white inside, 4m tilt-and-slide door to the terrace, a mix of floor-to-ceiling windows, normal windows, fixed glazing.

Metalworker – We definitely wanted a steel stringer staircase with oak steps and handrail; the choice was still between steel railing or all-glass railing. It was purely a price question; all glass about 50% more expensive. We then decided on glass.

Sanitary – heat pump with geothermal probe, controlled residential ventilation. The calculation of the underfloor heating was presented to us and we agreed on the position of the heat pump and controlled residential ventilation in the utility room; the entire technology was explained to us. Here we still had to select the sanitary fittings at a wholesaler’s exhibition. The company took care of all Bafa applications – funding confirmations did not take long to arrive.

Interior doors – standard doors in white, no big wishes here. On the ground floor, hallway to living room glass door with glass elements on the side and above to the ceiling, glass sliding door to the dressing room.

Floor – Tiles with baseboards will be laid throughout the house.

Painting – will be done by ourselves.

Outdoor facilities – we will let this come to us first. This is the only area where we still have no good overview and have to deal with it. A rough budget is planned in the loan.

All selected trades/companies of the GU are without exception regional firms with many years of experience. All appointments were extremely positive and we felt excellently advised everywhere. Since the GU’s standard was already set high, there were no major unpleasant surprises during the sampling. Everything was always communicated very transparently.

We commissioned the soil survey ourselves, which found that about 1 meter of soil needs to be replaced; the GU immediately informed us accordingly and had to adjust their previous calculations. Costs so far have always been completely manageable and plannable.

At the end of November, the building permit came through after a little over 2 months of processing time. In December, the financing with a regional bank (check out my financing thread for that) was finalized and the GU contract was signed.

Then we relaxed over the holidays, and this week earthworks already started. Next week the crane is coming, and foundation work will begin. The weather looks good too. We are now very curious about how things will proceed. Construction time is agreed to be 10 months. If all goes well, we can already spend the next Christmas in the new house. :)

Total costs according to the current calculation are €535,000 + kitchen.

If you have any questions about the project, I will gladly answer them! I will post updates here from time to time and ask questions when we have them...

I read so many interesting threads in this forum that I just want to let you all take part in our project as a small thank you.

I’ve attached a picture of the earthworks and a spoiler of the future house (clinker not as planned, roof rafters gray).

Greetings!

Total costs according to the current calculation 535,000 € + kitchen

Thank you very much for the update. The costs of 535,000€ are to be understood in the sense of the mentioned 500,000€ total costs from the initial post?