Elevations and Sections — When Banks and Building Authorities Require Them

What elevations and sections show

A floor plan cuts the building horizontally, roughly at window height, and shows the rooms from above. That answers how the areas are distributed — but not how high they are. The other two drawings close that gap:

When building authorities require them

For projects requiring approval, elevations and sections form part of the submission documents. Exactly what must be filed is governed by the building submission regulations of the individual German states. They differ in detail but follow the same pattern: floor plans of every storey, at least one section, all elevations, usually at a scale of 1:100.

Typical occasions:

• Building application for new build, extension or additional storey
• Pre-application enquiry, where the basic developability is to be clarified
• Change of use, for example from retail unit to dwelling, or from loft to habitable room
• Retrospective approval of building elements for which no documents survive

That last case is in practice the most common reason for having elevations and sections drawn up again: for existing buildings the original plans are often lost, incomplete, or no longer reflect the current condition.

When banks and valuers require them

For an ordinary flat or a terraced house built in recent decades, a floor plan with an area calculation is usually enough for the bank. Sections and elevations are called for where the property departs from the standard — the more unusual the geometry, the more likely.

In practice that means three groups above all:

• Historic buildings — old farmhouses, villas, fabric that has grown over time. Storey heights, extensions and roof forms follow no present-day standard here, and the floor plan alone does not capture the building.
• Apartment buildings, because several levels, the access arrangement and the allocation of units have to be assessed together.
• Atypical detached houses — split levels, staggered storeys, hillside sites, converted lofts with unusual layouts.

The common denominator is always the same: as soon as volume and vertical development cannot be inferred from the floor plan, the valuer needs the vertical drawing. This is not a formality. In the depreciated replacement cost method gross volume is floor area times height — and those heights appear in the section, nowhere else.

The link to living space

Elevations and sections are not merely a matter for the authorities. Wherever sloping ceilings are involved, the section is the document that makes the living space calculation verifiable at all: it evidences where the clear height reaches 1 metre and where it reaches 2 metres — and therefore which part of the floor area was counted at which proportion. [§ 4 WoFlV]

An area calculation without a section can be checked arithmetically, but not geometrically. That is precisely why reviewers ask for both on loft flats. More on this on our page about sloping ceilings and living space.

What a usable drawing has to contain

• Scale and scale bar
• Dimensioned storey heights; for elevations, the overall building height
• Height datum, usually top of finished floor level per storey
• Ground line along the building, both existing and proposed
• North point, or a label identifying the elevation shown
• A note on what the drawing is based on: survey, scan or existing records

Frequently asked questions