ᐅ Hiring trades separately or using a general contractor / turnkey solution?

Hello everyone,

What would you recommend for our situation? We are currently renting and have purchased a plot of land about 50 minutes away in another town, where we want to build a single-family house. Our architect lives just a few minutes from us (so also in our current town, not the new one).

I have already contacted about 10 companies from the area near the future construction site. Only two of them could build as general contractors on a turnkey basis, and they only have availability at the end of the year. I would actually prefer this because a) we don’t have much experience with building projects, b) the architect cannot supervise construction, and c) we cannot be on site every week. However, first of all, there aren’t many companies currently able to build this way for us, and secondly, I recently read an article stating that turnkey construction often leads to more defects because there is little control over the subcontractors used.

What would you do in our case? Go with turnkey construction or invest some time to learn about the process and handle everything by requesting and awarding contracts separately?

Thank you very much!

Best regards

Elias_dee schrieb:

or do a bit of reading

That alone is not enough. Build with a general contractor.

Managing subcontractors individually requires a lot of work, considerable knowledge, an expert consultant, and constant presence on the construction site. Just the phrase "a bit of reading" already shows that you are seriously underestimating the task.

If you want more details, I can gladly provide some examples, as I built with individual subcontracting myself last year.

I would lean towards using a general contractor (GC). The advantages of contracting individual trades are significantly reduced in this situation. Given the distance, the architect would have to assign jobs to unfamiliar tradespeople, and the supervision wouldn’t be done by the planner themselves. Therefore, I would look for a GC from the local area.

Of course, a GC has some inherent conflicts of interest. Their goal is to build cost-effectively, and an unscrupulous GC might try to cover up poor workmanship. However, as far as I know, this is not the norm. A construction project without any problems wouldn’t make it onto TV anyway 😉

We also have a 45-50 minute commute to the construction site. So far, it’s been quite manageable to make occasional visits during the week. Leaving Konstanz against the morning rush hour around 7 a.m., returning past the big wave at about 8:15 a.m., and sitting at the desk by 9 a.m. Luckily, work on the construction site starts earlier than in IT 😉

Well, it depends.
1. There are general contractors (GCs) who work with local tradespeople (the same ones you would have hired individually), some GCs employ many of their own workers, and others simply choose the cheapest provider.
2. Some GCs have permanent site managers who take care of everything, while others only have a site manager on paper whom you never actually see.
3. A reputable GC who collaborates with local trades and provides you with a dedicated contact person (not a salesperson), combined with an independent expert, should deliver very good quality.

An architect who supervises construction works for you; the GC and their site manager work for themselves. The latter, if committed to quality, will deliver it.

As for you: Who should take on the site management? Who will coordinate? Who will oversee the work? You have two options: either hire an external site manager or choose a reliable GC plus an independent expert. It’s not something you can handle just by reading up a bit.
Do you know how high the screed in each room needs to be so that the selected floor covering fits afterward?
Do you know when each tradesperson has to do their part?
Do you know exactly how each tradesperson should carry out their work? On-site, the knowledge and skills of 8 to 10 different trades are involved.

No matter what you choose, you need someone to supervise the construction for you. Ideally, a project-managing architect or construction engineer appointed by you (who is also logistically capable of handling the task), or at least a building expert you hire for important appointments.

My current preference would be direct contracting with an architect, but I have had bad experiences with general contractors (GC) or general subcontractors (GSC).
I am sure there are good GCs/GSCs out there; however, I suspect that due to the increasingly unfavorable balance between demand and available tradespeople, even the good ones will struggle to maintain quality because they simply cannot secure enough qualified staff and materials quickly enough.

Okay, that was very helpful. Thanks for your answers! I also think that working with a general contractor (GC) from the region, who collaborates with reputable subcontractors, is the best approach, plus having an independent expert appointed by me.

Question: Does the GC usually list the individual subcontractors in the quote? That way, you could research the companies the GC would select for the project directly. Or do they usually not appear in the quote at all?