ᐅ Shell construction – final inspection – what questions should we still ask?

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow we have the final appointment with our preferred general contractor.

In your opinion, what questions should be asked before signing the contract? Looking back, what would you have liked to know beforehand?

I couldn’t find a suitable thread; if there is one, I would appreciate a link.

Otherwise, thank you very much in advance.

Yaso2.0 schrieb:

We have the final appointment with our preferred general contractor tomorrow.
What questions do you think should still be asked before signing?

What questions have you asked in the previous meetings? If this is the final appointment, then ideally everything regarding the planning, the house, and the costs should have been discussed, and only signing the contract remains.

nordanney schrieb:

What questions have you asked during the previous meetings? If it’s the final meeting, everything regarding the planning, the house, and the costs should have been discussed already, and only the contract signing should remain.

I have noted the breakdown of additional construction costs in more detail since the general contractor kept it quite vague.

For example, there is no mention of a crane setup area (which I had read about here in the forum), and the earthworks were initially estimated at 5,000 euros (or equivalent), but this hasn’t yet been updated.

The costs for the house itself are known so far.

My question is whether there are things that one can or should ask about in addition to the standard items.

Since there were two other general contractors in the selection process, I would say the discussions were rather superficial otherwise. Or maybe I just want to know too much.

This is how our final meeting went.

Ms. W. served coffee. Mr. Sp. appeared, and we sat at a round dining table in his office. Small talk, then he asked: Is the house plan finalized, or are there any changes? No. Then let’s plan the process: building permit/planning permission, foundation... We planned. I asked if he had visited the site and estimated the earthworks. Yes, he had, approximately xy.

I asked if he saw any room for adjustment downward. He offered standard smooth white Jeld-Wen doors for the interior and suggested Veka windows from Stettin instead of Rehau from SH. We agreed to this. He recalculated. The house now comes to xy, additional costs roughly sososo, earthworks etc. estimated at sososo. Start in December, move-in late summer. Payment schedule is sososo on his side. Then the three of us stood up, shook hands on what was discussed, and that was it. I will now prepare the building application; please come next Tuesday to sign it. Both of you. K.

I would ask...
- whether the start date is confirmed in writing in the contract (we didn’t do this and ended up with a 3-month delay)
- the timeline between signing the contract and the start of construction
- where there is a current construction site you can visit. This allows you to get an idea of the site cleanliness and, if you’re lucky, speak with a homeowner for additional tips
- what obligations you have as homeowners to contribute (we had to take care of some additional tasks related to site development that we only learned about by actively asking)
- if it is possible to replace contractors or tradespeople if you are not convinced by them after a project meeting

Yaso2.0 schrieb:

I have noted the breakdown of incidental construction costs in more detail, as the general contractor kept it quite general.

For example, there is no mention of a crane staging area (which I had read about here in the forum), and earthworks were initially estimated at 5,000 (currency) but have not yet been updated.

To me, these questions somehow don’t seem to fit with a final appointment.