The living space is approximately 8 m² smaller in the application drawings compared to the draft (GU).

Classic December 2024 (primary before drawings)

This passage may be an indication that the contracts can deviate from advertising images – which is completely normal as soon as you want a detail different from the prospectus. The question of in which medium exactly the advertising images appeared and at what time and for what purpose they were created remains open in this thread.

I can hardly imagine it without massive discussion. If it already starts like this, one will probably not shy away from discussions and let it come to that.

I share your view. You can avoid the massive discussions and ensure they do not repeatedly arise by being clear about what you really want and expressing that clearly. The additional 6.5 cm apparently concern only a kind of personal negotiation success as compensation for a less important square meter price, but not the essential or fundamental issue. Your construction partner currently has no chance to satisfy you, even assuming he is a very fair construction partner. You yourself direct a part of the maneuver into your stress. That is the part you have 100% influence over. I can only recommend taking some time to collect yourself, establish clarity and priority of your own goals, and use the opportunities contained therein. Problems on site – and there always are some – can be solved not only faster but also much better on such a basis. More than that: Overcoming a first crisis – no matter who caused it – strengthens the basis for cooperation. Consider the early irritation as an opportunity. If you have encountered a professional construction partner – and that seems to be the case – you will achieve a lot, experience a good construction period, get decent quality, have little discussion about follow-up work (there are always some), and move in happily without any feeling of resentment. If this prospect is more important to you than, for example, a square meter price, my recommendation could help.

I see it the same way as "MachsSelbst" on page 8. I lose about 8 square meters gross. If you want, that would be about two guest WCs. Based on the sketches, the fixed price was surely also calculated by the general contractor. After all, I could also simply say that I no longer want the KfW 40 stuff. Then the general contractor would have to use the originally calculated amount of material including labor time again. Expanding the house 6.5 cm in all directions should cause lower costs in relation to my overpayment in the currently planned state.

And let's be honest. We have several people here in the forum who advise their customers accordingly, e.g. 11ant, so that they don’t get screwed by the builder or the general contractor. I really can’t imagine that the customer or builder is simply told to accept it in such a case. Or would that be so? And again, the general contractor knew from day one how I wanted to build. The KfW 40 thing didn’t just come from me "yesterday" out of the blue. It also was not meant as a joke or "just as an idea" before. You just can’t tell a prospective customer beforehand, here is your floor plan including area according to your specifications and then present a smaller interior house for the same price after signing.

Regarding stone, nothing else comes into the house for me. Thanks for the tips and others but I would like to stay with the stone. And yes, the general contractor also knew this beforehand, + insulation + clinker. I wouldn’t know how else I could have told the general contractor more precisely what I wanted. I can’t exactly lay a sample wall on our property for him as a professional to understand.

Your construction partner currently has no chance of satisfying you, even if one assumes that he is a very fair construction partner.

Huh? That's nonsense? He’s supposed to enlarge the house with the thicker stones on the outside, keep the original square meter number, and everyone is happy?

Where’s the problem? That he has to have the roof recalculated?

That seriously can’t be the conclusion now; it is absolutely uncommon in the construction of detached single-family houses to realize thicker walls at the expense of the square meters.

It seems to me that you also want to be annoyed to some extent. It is the way it is now and it cannot be definitively clarified who made more or less of a mistake here, and even in court it is like being at sea. So.....what do you want to do now? If you have an alternative house builder, then go to them, because with this mindset you will continually run into such problems from now on. I do not want to deny that you may be justified in being upset, but rather look at how things will continue from now on... or not. Do not guess so much, but create clarity with the house builder. Maybe he is an unpleasant character but still builds good houses. At the time, I distanced myself from a company whose boss behaved, in my opinion, very unpleasantly here in Saxony; but his house building was really good, as I know. If you really cannot leave the annoyance behind, I strongly recommend that you change the building partner, because you will have to deal with him for a while and then live in what he – as always – has built. What use is it to you if I or anyone else shares your opinion here? Create clarity for yourself and then decide!

Where is the problem supposed to be? That he has to recalculate (get recalculated) the roof?

Then everything is okay and a conversation will clear that up; then the whole fuss here was for nothing if it is not a problem.

You can't just tell a potential customer beforehand here, that this would be their floor plan including areas according to their ideas, only to present a smaller interior house after signing, for the same money.

You say that you feel misled, but even when asked you provide no evidence – neither regarding the "colorful pictures" that you claim as your basis for decision, nor any specific clause in your contract that guarantees the living space according to your expectations. So no one can help you except getting upset and writing "oh, that’s bad" and suggesting demands that they don’t have to support and that are not enforceable. I would consider it harmful to encourage someone in false expectations, and I do not want to harm anyone here in any way.

Huh? That’s nonsense?

You didn’t want to understand, or didn’t understand what I wrote. We both know that already.

I am speechless. Sure, if a wall is already standing and is 2 cm too far to the left or right, or the window is 5 cm too far to the left. Let it slide, it's not something that can be changed without major effort.

But if the planning simply deducts 6% of the living space because he doesn't feel like recalculating the static calculations?

I would find a new building partner, this has nothing to do with fairness. He simply doesn't want to, and this will come back to bite you more often during the construction process.