ᐅ Hiring trades separately or using a general contractor / turnkey solution?
Created on: 1 Feb 2022 09:07
E
Elias_dee
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
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:
I have already contacted about 10 companies from the area near our future construction site. Only 2 were able to build as general contractors on a turnkey basis and they only have availability at the end of the year. Honestly, I would prefer that because a) we are not very experienced with construction topics, b) the architect cannot carry out site supervision, and c) we are not on site every week. But firstly, there just aren’t many companies currently who could build it turnkey for us, and also I just read an article yesterday in Der Spiegel saying that turnkey construction usually brings a lot more defects because you have no control over the subcontractors being used.
What would you do in our situation? Go turnkey or educate yourself a bit and request quotes / contract everything separately? Asking ten companies (GCs) seems a bit (too) much to me. Why can’t the architect supervise the construction site? Planning, detailed planning, and site supervision should ideally come from the same source. By the way, I would always leave it open in the tender whether bidders want to offer as a general contractor for all packages. How they organize themselves—as joint ventures, consortia, or whatever—is less important. Ideally, they should all be known to your planner. You don’t need to know the contractual relationships between the GC and subcontractors; your contract is only with the GC.
WilderSueden schrieb:
Of course, a GC has a certain conflict of interest. Their goal is to build as cheaply as possible, and an unscrupulous GC might try to cover up shoddy work. haydee schrieb:
An architect conducting site supervision works for you; the GC and their construction manager work for themselves. If the latter aims to deliver good quality, then they will. I wrote about this already in "About Construction Managers and ... Construction Managers" (best to Google with the quotation marks). The construction manager and the ‘construction manager’ just have the same title but different roles: the GC’s manager’s highest priority is to ensure that a defect does not appear before the warranty period expires. That is not the same as fixing the defect at the cost of reduced profit. Avoiding defects may be plan A for both, but when it comes to plan B, opinions differ greatly.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
H
HilfeHilfe2 Feb 2022 06:36Definitely a general contractor, that will be less stressful for you. It’s best to hire an independent person to supervise the construction.
HilfeHilfe schrieb:
It’s best to hire an independent person to supervise the construction.As an add-on, having an expert as a construction monitor is highly recommended, but they do not fully replace an architect or construction manager (unless you are prepared to schedule many additional appointments).https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
E
Elias_dee15 Jun 2022 12:38Hello everyone,
A few months have passed now, and I wanted to give a quick update to the kind people here who helped me a lot with my decision: we are building with a local general contractor who works with local subcontractors 🙂
We are building a turnkey house; the only thing we excluded are the laminate floors (the contractor is handling the tiles).
The building permit / planning permission has already been approved, the construction contract with a fixed-price guarantee has been negotiated (it was reviewed by a lawyer from the Homeowners’ Protection Association and renegotiated by us), construction starts in September, and the construction period is set at 12 months.
In addition, we hired a Homeowners’ Protection Association inspector who will visit the site 8 times to inspect the various construction phases.
I’ll keep you updated.
Best regards!
A few months have passed now, and I wanted to give a quick update to the kind people here who helped me a lot with my decision: we are building with a local general contractor who works with local subcontractors 🙂
We are building a turnkey house; the only thing we excluded are the laminate floors (the contractor is handling the tiles).
The building permit / planning permission has already been approved, the construction contract with a fixed-price guarantee has been negotiated (it was reviewed by a lawyer from the Homeowners’ Protection Association and renegotiated by us), construction starts in September, and the construction period is set at 12 months.
In addition, we hired a Homeowners’ Protection Association inspector who will visit the site 8 times to inspect the various construction phases.
I’ll keep you updated.
Best regards!
H
Höhlenbewohner26 Jun 2022 21:15Elias_dee schrieb:
Hello everyone,
A few months have passed, and I wanted to give a quick update to the kind people here who helped me a lot with the decision: we are building with a local general contractor who works with local subcontractors 🙂
We are having a turnkey build; the only thing we excluded was the laminate flooring (the general contractor is doing the tile work).
The building permit / planning permission is already approved, and the fixed-price contract has been negotiated (it was reviewed by a lawyer from the Homeowners’ Protection Association and renegotiated by us). Construction will start in September, and the construction period is estimated at 12 months.
We also hired an inspector from the Homeowners’ Protection Association who will visit the site eight times to approve the various construction phases.
I will keep you updated.
Best regards!May I ask which general contractor you chose? We are also near the district of Kelheim and are currently searching.
E
Elias_dee26 Jun 2022 21:34Höhlenbewohner schrieb:
May I ask which general contractor you chose?
We are also near Kelheim district and currently looking. Please send me a private message (I somehow can’t send any).
Similar topics