ᐅ Estimated Construction Time for Building a New Semi-Detached House

Hello everyone,

We are currently building a semi-detached house. The site contractor started the earthworks on May 15th, and the foundation slab is already completed. The masonry blocks are on site, and the bricklaying will begin on Tuesday (to give you an idea of how fast or slow our construction company is working).

I would like to get an estimate of how long the entire construction period will take since we will be doing some tasks ourselves and need to schedule everything carefully. What is a realistic construction time frame for a project like ours?

The house is being built on its own (the neighboring plot has not yet been sold) and has a living area of approximately 115 m² (1,237 sq ft). It is a one-and-a-half-story house with a roof. We are not including a basement.

We will do the flooring ourselves in the living room and similar areas (kitchen, bathroom, and hallway will be tiled by the construction company), the painting (the house will be handed over with plastered walls), and the insulation of the partition wall (which currently appears like an exterior wall to us).

Thank you in advance for your help.

It depends on how well your contractor is organized, how much availability their tradespeople have, and whether any unexpected delivery issues occur. All the work you do yourself usually happens after the house handover. It’s best to get a schedule from the site manager for this. However, don’t rely on it too much 😉

The timeline can range anywhere from 6 months to over a year.

Based on experience, the initial stages usually progress quite quickly (earthworks, foundation slab, erecting the shell). The roof is often completed quickly as well, especially if the company handles it themselves or the subcontractor is available and well organized.
After that, many tasks are typically handled by subcontractors (electrical, plumbing). Again, it depends on how well this is organized.
There will be unavoidable waiting periods in between, when the house needs to dry out (plaster, screed).
A realistic timeline is 7-12 months, assuming there are no delays due to unavailable materials. No one can give you a definitive answer. 😉

Bauherrin_987 schrieb:

I would like to have an estimate of how long the entire construction process will take, since we will be doing some work ourselves and need to schedule everything carefully. What is a realistic building time for our project?

42 weeks, plus or minus (approximately). It’s difficult to be more precise given the limited information. From your perspective, we know few details, but essentially enough about the house.

Bauherrin_987 schrieb:

The house will be built individually (the neighboring plot has not yet been sold) and has a living area of about 115 sqm (1,238 sq ft). It is a one-and-a-half-story house with a roof. We are opting out of a basement.
We will complete the floor coverings ourselves for the living room etc. (kitchen, bathroom, and hallway will be tiled by the builder), the painting (the house will be handed over with plastered walls), and the insulation of the partition wall (which currently looks like an exterior wall to us).

So, this appears to be a “shell plus” house — that is, a weather-tight shell plus tiling (and plumbing?). Without plans, it’s impossible to predict variables like the complexity of the masonry corners or other details. Find a construction consultant who is also an architect and can prepare a construction schedule for you; otherwise, you risk running into serious delays.

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We received a schedule from the general contractor that included the start and end dates for all trades. This was mostly accurate.
We moved in 5 months after the start of construction. This was also a condition for us before signing the contract, as we had agreed on a maximum construction period of 6 months in the contract.

Bauherrin_987 schrieb:

What is a realistic construction time for us?

I’m not sure about your situation, as I don’t even know which type of brick you’re using or whether many recesses and projections are planned.
We started around the same time of year, but due to different roof slopes and parapet heights, our shell construction phase took longer.
I would expect that the building could be completed by the winter break. That would be realistic.