Townhouse floor plan 170 sqm - your feedback would be appreciated

Good Sunday afternoon, dear forum readers,

my wife and I have been following this forum for some time and have already been able to take various things into account in advance for our planning thanks to your posts.

Since this year, we own an urban plot, which we want to build a single-family house on within the next one to two years.

We have spent the last few weeks working on the floor plan. For this, we used the software "Home Design 3D."

Our plot is located in the middle of the city and is surrounded on three sides by other developed plots. On the front side, about seven meters away from the front door (according to current planning), runs the hardly trafficked access road.

A special feature of the plot is that it is relatively elongated (17.5 meters wide, 35 meters long).

We would greatly appreciate your critiques and suggestions for improvement, especially since this is our first (and hopefully also last) new construction project.

The questionnaire:

Development plan/restrictions

Size of the plot: about 600 sqm

Slope: no (level ground)

Building window: 9.5 meters wide, 17 meters long possible, 6 meters away from the street

Number of parking spaces: two parking spaces (including garage)

Number of floors: two full floors

Roof type: gable roof, between 27 and 34 degrees roof pitch

Style: townhouse

Orientation: see plan

Construction method: favorite prefab house



Requirements of the builders

Basement, floors: basement and two full floors
According to the plan currently at 30 degrees roof pitch and no knee wall

Number of people, age: currently three (40, 37, 1 year/s)

Space requirements on the ground floor, upper floor: total around 170 – 180 sqm

Ground floor: living room, kitchen and dining room, pantry, office, WC, cloakroom

Upper floor: two children's rooms, children's bathroom, master bedroom, dressing room and master bathroom (separated)

Office: home office

Open or closed architecture: not specified

Conservative or modern construction: not specified

Cookers: open L-shape with cooking island

Number of dining seats: 6 - 8

Fireplace: yes

Music/stereo wall: no

Balcony, roof terrace: no

Garage, carport: garage



House design
Who designed it: do-it-yourself the last three weeks…

What do you particularly like?
A large part of our personal wishes could be realized in this design (e.g. separated "parents' area")

What do you not like?
Relatively narrow living room, separation of living area to kitchen/dining area with sliding door (for noise/smell reasons) is not quite ideal yet, relatively small cloakroom

Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: 450,000 euros plus ancillary building costs and garden design

Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump (system in the building services basement)


Why did the design turn out the way it is now?
Brainstorming the last three weeks and then the attempt to accommodate this in a self-designed draft.


What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?

According to our current plan, this design has a living space of around 170 square meters on the ground and upper floors.

We would greatly appreciate your critiques and suggestions for improvement, especially since neither of us is really a "professional" and this field is still new to us.

Unfortunately, the program has divided various wall parts unintentionally into single pieces, which does not make it any clearer ;-(

Thank you already now for reading and your comments,

Best regards from today’s sunny Upper Bavaria!

Our property is located in the middle of the city and is surrounded on three sides by other built-up properties.

How should one imagine that? Are the houses standing in a row without any distance? Or is it a normal residential area development? My inquiry somewhat conflicts with the building envelope, but your city explanation confuses me a bit.

Well, basically I wouldn’t like this eternally long corridor, and the living room doesn’t need an extra door either. Nobody uses it. The small room is too tiny.

Relatively narrow living room,

Where? At 28sqm, it is twice as big as what is needed compared to many common house designs. What do you want to do there? For hobbies and sports, you have the basement. I take the basement unemotionally out of my comments, but I would be interested in how and where you want to store garden furniture, equipment, and bicycles. Upper floor: please pay attention to the fact that drains or wastewater also need a downpipe. Ideally, that would be near the toilet. So it makes sense to have one downpipe for two bathrooms. Two are possible too, but it’s annoying if the sofa is wedged between two downpipes. A third shaft is likely here for the laundry. Also annoying if there should ever be water damage. Damage can be minimized if the wet areas are planned one above the other. Ideally, load-bearing walls are also aligned vertically. 180cm for a dressing room with two opposite closets is too narrow. Basement windows have a grated light well. They don’t exactly put the terrace above in the best light.

I would first think intensively about where the terrace should be. At the moment, out of desperation, you have framed half the house. If the neighboring buildings on the left are relatively close, that is probably not the cozy spot at the fence. How come the building window is only 9.5 wide? (17.8 - 6 = 11.8?) I also find a small living room quite pretentious at 28m². I once had an apartment that was that big. So far, the thing seems rather uninviting. The long narrow hallway makes the ground floor unattractive. Does the staircase have to be straight?

How should one imagine that?
Are the houses standing in a row without any distance? Or is it a normal development in residential areas? My inquiry somewhat conflicts with the building envelope, but your city explanation confuses me a bit.

Hello Yvonne,
thanks for your feedback!
I was unclear, it is a normal development in a residential area (see attached map, our single-family house would be built at number 5 – here there is still an old building to be removed).

Well, basically I wouldn’t like that eternally long corridor; the living room doesn’t need an extra door. Nobody uses that. The little storeroom is too small.

By little storeroom you mean the storage room, I assume?

Where? With 28 sqm that is twice as big as many common house designs need. What do you want to do there? For hobbies and sports, you have the basement. I take the basement out of my comments without enthusiasm, but I would be interested in how and where you want to store garden furniture, equipment, and bicycles.

We would build a suitably sized shed behind the garage where these items will be stored year-round.

Upper floor: please pay attention that drains or wastewater also need a downpipe. Ideally, that would be near the toilet. So it makes sense to have one downpipe for two bathrooms. Two are possible too, but it’s annoying if the sofa is wedged between two downpipes. A third shaft nearby for laundry makes sense here.
It’s also bad if there should be water damage. Damage can be minimized if wet areas are planned one above the other.

You are right about the downpipes. Basically, we had planned to lead both downpipes in the interior wall to the drain in the basement (timber frame construction). But we will definitely discuss that again with the architect with regard to your point!

180 cm for a walk-in closet between two opposite wardrobes is too narrow.
Basement windows have a grated light shaft. They don’t exactly show the terrace above in the best light.

We should definitely widen the walk-in closet a bit more, that’s true.
Regarding the light shafts, we definitely have to reconsider their position as well as that of the terrace, I see that just like you.

Thank you for your points of criticism! Wish you a pleasant rest of the Sunday

I would first think intensively about where the terrace should be. At the moment, out of despair, you have framed half the house. If the neighboring buildings on the left are relatively close, the fence is probably not the cozy spot there.

Evening kaho, thanks to you too for your quick feedback! You are right, there is definitely a need for change regarding the terrace. The left side (south side) is about halfway relatively close to the neighboring house (7 meters distance between the two house walls), so for the reasons mentioned, we will probably save most of the terrace there.

How come the building envelope is only 9.5 meters wide? (17.8 - 6 = 11.8?)

Unfortunately, there is a setback area transfer agreement with the left neighbor, so you have to subtract nearly two meters from your 11.8 meters.

I find a small living room of 28m² quite arrogant as well. I once had an apartment that big. So far the thing looks rather uninviting. The long narrow hallway makes the ground floor unattractive. Does the staircase have to be straight?

You are of course right, my first apartment was even smaller. We chose the straight staircase on the north side because in our opinion, with the elongated building dimensions (9 x 12 meters), it best allows us to implement the separated parents’ area upstairs and on the ground floor the kitchen/dining room and also the living room do not become too narrow compared to if the staircase were, for example, horseshoe-shaped positioned in the middle of the house. This of course does not mean that our proposal is the only practicable one to implement the said points, unfortunately, we have not yet found a better staircase positioning. The long narrow hallway you mentioned is certainly no advantage with our plan, you are right about that.

Is the terrace allowed to be built on the boundary? Often not.

By "Kämmerchen" you mean the storage room, I assume?

No, I mean the office. If it’s not going to be a 109 sqm house, I wouldn’t plan for less than 12 sqm.

We would build a suitably sized shed behind the garage where these things can be stored year-round.

Please draw it in.

Timber frame construction

Especially with wood, I would zone wet areas.
Wood rot is not pleasant.