Property types
Creating a floor plan for a detached house
A house cannot be shown on one sheet. Ground floor, upper floor, often a converted loft and a basement are four separate plans that together describe one property. The mistake that costs the most trust is a set where the floors do not line up with each other.
People read a house plan differently from a flat: they look for routes. Where are the stairs, how do you get from the front door to the kitchen, is the guest WC next to the living room? A plan only answers that if the connections between rooms are drawn properly.
Every storey is its own drawing
Create one plan per storey and give each a clear name: basement, ground floor, first floor, loft. The editor keeps several floors in one project so they share a scale and an orientation instead of drifting apart.
Draw the staircase on every storey it touches, in the same place. A stairwell that has slipped two metres on the upper floor is the first thing an attentive viewer notices — and from then on they doubt every other dimension too.
- Align storeys — same north direction, same scale
- Draw stairs on every floor they connect
- Check that outer walls stack above each other
- Label each storey and give it its own total area
Basement, sloped ceilings and what counts as living area
Cellars, laundry rooms, drying rooms, boiler rooms, loft storage and garages are ancillary spaces under the German living-area regulation and do not count towards living area, however well finished they are. They still belong on the plan, because they explain the value of the property.
In a converted loft, clear height decides: full from two metres, half between one and two metres, nothing below one metre. In a house with a 45-degree roof that can shrink a loft room by a third on paper. Anyone who hides that calculation will be confronted with it later.
What a house plan should show beyond the rooms
Unlike a flat, a house has elements that sit outside the envelope: terrace, conservatory, carport, garage and the approach from the street. Draw at least the areas attached to the building, and mark them as unheated where that is the case.
An unheated conservatory counts at half under the German rules — a detail that regularly disappears from listings and then reappears during price negotiations. Terraces follow the outdoor rule and normally count at a quarter.
Output: one document for the whole house
For the listing, export the storeys into a single PDF, one page each, with a scale bar and a legend. The order stays obvious and nobody loses a floor in an email attachment.
For the building file or a contractor, add a DXF per storey. And if remote buyers need a feel for the house, a 3D view does more than another series of photographs.
Frequently asked questions
How many floor plans does a house need?
One per accessible storey — usually basement, ground floor, upper floor and, if converted, the loft. A single combined drawing of all levels is unreadable and makes a clean area calculation impossible.
Does a basement count towards a house's living area in Germany?
No. Cellars are ancillary spaces under the German living-area regulation and stay out of the figure regardless of how they are finished. You can state the basement separately as usable area, but never fold it into living area.
How do I handle a sloped ceiling on the upper floor?
Split the area by clear height: full from two metres, half from one to under two metres, nothing under one metre. The editor keeps those factors per room and reports raw and weighted area separately.