House on a narrow plot in Batumi: designed around the zoning rules and the neighbours

A house on a narrow plot turns out well if you first work out what can be built on that land at all. In the old neighbourhoods of Batumi, in Makhinjauri and in Gonio, plots are often narrow and stretch back a long way from the street, while the neighbouring houses stand close to the boundary. On a site like this, the zoning rules and the neighbours shape the house more than your wishes for the layout do.

What the zoning rules allow you to build

The development rules give a plot three main parameters: what share of the land the building footprint may cover, how much floor area across all storeys can be built relative to the plot area, and what part of the land must stay as open ground. The values depend on the zone. On a small plot each of them makes itself felt: the footprint is limited, and the floor area has to be made up with extra storeys.

We look up the zone in the Public Registry extract, the architect checks the figures against the current version of the rules, and we go through difficult cases with our partner lawyer. This is best done before you buy, or at the latest before the concept sketch. Sometimes the floor area the owner needs only fits into three storeys, while the zone allows two. If the plot hasn't been bought yet, it is convenient to run the check together with transaction support.

Setbacks from neighbours

Along the boundary with a neighbour, the rules leave a strip where a house usually isn't placed, but they allow exceptions in some cases, for example for a blank wall with no windows or doors facing the neighbour. The depth of the strip, and whether your plot qualifies for an exception, are checked by the architect against the current version of the rules.

For a narrow plot this is the key question. Setbacks on both long sides can eat up a noticeable part of the width, and if the rules allow it, it is better to place the house with a blank wall on one boundary and leave the free strip on the other side for a passage and windows. This arrangement is close to terraced housing, which we describe on the page about townhouses. A wall right on the boundary can't be repaired later without the neighbour's consent, so we give it a durable finish and complete it before the neighbour builds. We direct the roof drainage onto your own plot, so that the water doesn't run off to the neighbour.

Windows facing the neighbour

The rules also restrict windows in a wall facing a neighbour, and what is allowed depends on the distance to the boundary. The architect checks this together with the setbacks. But even a permitted window may end up facing a wall in time: the neighbour will build too, and in a few years the view of their garden will become a view of their house.

So the main windows of a narrow house face the street and the courtyard. On the side walls we fit high strip windows just below the ceiling, and frosted glass in the bathrooms and on the stairs. Light reaches the middle of a long house through a staircase with a double-height space and a window at the top, or through a small inner courtyard. We don't point outdoor air conditioning units or extract outlets at the neighbour: noise and warm air under someone else's windows quickly become a reason for a dispute.

Number of storeys and a narrow plan

The floor area that didn't fit into the plan is made up with storeys, if the zone allows them. We put the staircase along the blank side wall, the rooms run one after another towards the back, and the floor slabs span the short distance across the house, which makes them simpler. The staircase needs to be compact: a straight flight along the wall or a flight with winder steps at the bottom.

In an earthquake, a narrow, tall house sways more across its width. The structural engineer adds shear walls, most often in the blank walls along the boundaries and by the staircase, and checks the frame for this shape. Bay windows and cantilevers over the courtyard complicate the calculation and appear in the estimate as a separate surcharge. The roof of a narrow house can be put to work too: a terrace on a flat roof replaces the courtyard there wasn't room for on the ground.

Foundations next to someone else's house

Next to someone else's house, the main thing is not to disturb its foundations. A deep excavation by the neighbour's wall and the vibration of pile driving are dangerous for an old house, so on tight plots we usually bore piles and tie them together with a cast-in-place ground beam: little soil is removed, and the excavation doesn't come near the neighbour's foundations. Why piles are bored rather than driven in dense development, and when a slab still makes more sense, is explained in the comparison of pile and slab foundations.

Before work starts, we record the neighbouring walls and fences on the side facing your plot in photos and on video, mark existing cracks and show the recording to the neighbour. If a dispute arises later, it protects both sides. We lay the paved apron and the drainage so that water from your plot doesn't flow under the neighbour's house.

Parking and building in a tight space

On a narrow plot the car is usually parked by the gate, under a carport or in a recess in the ground floor. A carport is simpler and doesn't take up living space; there is more about it on the page about carports. A garage inside the house takes up width on the ground floor but frees up the courtyard. We check the parking area against the share of open ground the zone requires straight away: paving reduces it, and concreting over the whole courtyard usually isn't possible.

We deliver materials to a narrow plot for the coming week of work: there is nowhere to stack blocks and reinforcement, and a lorry shouldn't block the street for longer than it takes to unload. Concrete is pumped from the street. If machinery has to stand on the roadway, we arrange this in advance. We warn the neighbours about the days of boring and pouring, and do noisy work during the day.

How long it takes to build on a tight plot

Tight conditions make a build longer. The piles are bored one at a time, it is harder to run outside and inside work in parallel because the crews and materials have no room to spread out, and every delivery has to be fitted to the schedule. The shell of a 120–160 m² house of two or three storeys on piles usually takes us 4–5 months, and the whole house through to turnkey handover about 10–13 months. Even before construction, the design takes longer than usual: we draw the placement of the house in several versions until the setbacks, the windows and the space for the car all work together.

How much a house on a narrow plot costs in Batumi

On a narrow plot the price is driven above all by the shape of the house. A mid-range turnkey house of this kind starts from 1,680 ₾ per m² of total floor area, and that price assumes a house designed around the setbacks from the neighbours, on piles instead of a wide excavation, and with a compact staircase. A narrow, elongated plan, bay windows and cantilevers add 18–24% to it. The plot is not included in the price, and a complete design package covering all disciplines costs from 100 to 130 ₾ per m² and is paid for separately.

Separate lines in the estimate: a bored pile with reinforcement costs from 540 to 720 ₾ each, and the number of piles depends on the ground survey and the load. A compact steel frame staircase with timber treads costs from 12,900 to 19,200 ₾, and a house on three levels needs two of them.

Cantilevers over the courtyard, a garage on the ground floor and a house squeezed between two close neighbouring houses cost more; a simple rectangular volume against one boundary costs less. The City Hall fee for the building permit is paid separately and isn't included in our price; for reference, for a private house it is 1–4 ₾ per m². On a tight plot a lot can only be seen on site: whether a concrete mixer truck can get through, what condition the neighbouring walls are in, where the water from the neighbouring yards drains to. So we give a preliminary estimate from photos and a plan, and the final cost is set on the basis of the design, after a visit to the plot and once the estimate is agreed.