ᐅ Building an End-Terrace House as a Self-Managed Project with a General Contractor
Created on: 27 May 2019 10:48
G
goalkeeper
Hello everyone,
some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.
The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.
After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).
As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.
We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.
I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.
The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.
After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).
As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.
We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.
I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
Tina mit K15 Oct 2019 11:47kaho674 schrieb:
The fact that everything goes relatively smoothly—hats off! Just quickly setting up and dismantling the crane, and pulling the next machine out of the crate—I already feel like I made the right choice. I agree. As long as fast solutions can still be found, it is frustrating and sometimes hard to understand, but work can still continue.
You can still see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if something occasionally falls from the ceiling. So far, the general contractor has been able to clear everything away.
goalkeeper schrieb:
Unfortunately, he is using the phrase "I haven't experienced this in 25 years" more and more often.
He is fully dedicated to construction work, so he can’t understand the way some “desk workers” operate, which often has little to do with reality.
Especially regarding the crane. The building authority said it’s fine to place it four meters (13 feet) in front of the house. They measured it on-site themselves. However, they forget that a scaffold has to go there first, plus a construction fence including its feet. So we are well over the four meters (13 feet). In other words, it’s often far from reality. When he can’t think of a clever comment, that phrase always fits. I’ve heard it so many times from different trades.
As if they were all virgins.
G
goalkeeper15 Oct 2019 19:13We really have no complaints about our general contractor: when the foundation recommendation from the soil engineer was rejected by the structural engineer, he put in a lot of effort to find a way to keep the current foundation solution from becoming more expensive. He strictly adhered to our scheduled start date, and now the matter with the crane.
Truly very professional. Especially since it probably won’t cost us anything extra. He’s likely counting this as experience as well.
Thinking about the other construction companies we had to choose from back then in similar situations makes me a bit uneasy. They probably would have tried to pass the additional costs onto us.
It would be nice if the rest of the process isn’t quite as bumpy—but wait—the neighbor is still building his basement.
Truly very professional. Especially since it probably won’t cost us anything extra. He’s likely counting this as experience as well.
Thinking about the other construction companies we had to choose from back then in similar situations makes me a bit uneasy. They probably would have tried to pass the additional costs onto us.
It would be nice if the rest of the process isn’t quite as bumpy—but wait—the neighbor is still building his basement.
goalkeeper schrieb:
Especially since this probably won’t cost us anything extra. He will probably count it as experience.This experience, multiplied by the number of building plots, will cost a contractor their livelihood in this development area. When things are managed like this, it’s no surprise if later on you hear: imagine, it’s local elections and nobody shows up.https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
goalkeeper schrieb:
It would be nice if the next steps weren’t so bumpy – but wait – the neighbor is still building their basement.