ᐅ Comparison Between Architect and General Contractor or Turnkey Construction
Created on: 23 Jul 2024 19:44
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Fabian3000
Hello everyone,
as is well known, general contractors or construction companies offering turnkey houses usually charge a certain percentage of the house price (in my experience 10-15%) for taking over the warranty, the risk of cost increases, site management, coordination of trades, and so on. The costs for an architect are in a similar range, but in my opinion they also offer additional advantages such as tendering the trades, independent site supervision, and ensuring that exactly what was planned in the design is carried out. A disadvantage might be that you don’t have a fixed price. Therefore, my question is: why would one choose to build with a general contractor? Am I missing something?
Thank you very much and best regards
Fabian3000
as is well known, general contractors or construction companies offering turnkey houses usually charge a certain percentage of the house price (in my experience 10-15%) for taking over the warranty, the risk of cost increases, site management, coordination of trades, and so on. The costs for an architect are in a similar range, but in my opinion they also offer additional advantages such as tendering the trades, independent site supervision, and ensuring that exactly what was planned in the design is carried out. A disadvantage might be that you don’t have a fixed price. Therefore, my question is: why would one choose to build with a general contractor? Am I missing something?
Thank you very much and best regards
Fabian3000
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nordanney24 Jul 2024 07:41Fabian3000 schrieb:
that you especially have the advantage of having an independent and detailed construction supervisionYou can get that with any project (except from the developer). Either you pay the architect for it or your own expert with the general contractor. So no advantage when it comes to an architect-designed house.N
nordanney24 Jul 2024 07:44Fabian3000 schrieb:
Sorry for the late response, but in our case, we already have a design from the architect that we want to implement, meaning the general contractor (GC) will also have to build it custom for us. Now I’m thinking about what happens after phase 4. So, I wouldn’t be wrong in my assumption, right?
I’ll start looking for related discussions. So the main costs for the architect will still be incurred — or at least for the GC. @11ant has several posts about the next steps.
In the end, the house will cost more or less the same. However, with a GC, you’ll have very little opportunity to influence additional custom requests that come up during construction.
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Fabian300024 Jul 2024 14:15nordanney schrieb:
You can get them for any project (except from the property developer). Either you pay the architect for it or your own expert with the general contractor. So, no advantage with architect-designed houses.But I would have to pay for that separately again....N
nordanney24 Jul 2024 14:20Fabian3000 schrieb:
But I would have to pay for that separately again... You will pay for it anyway – it’s part of phase 8 services with the architect or an expert during construction with the general contractor (although the expert’s fees are only a fraction of the architect’s – the architect accounts for about one third of the total invoice, since many trades need to be coordinated and supervised).
Comprehensive package from the Homeowners’ Protection Association (just as an example):
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Fabian300024 Jul 2024 14:31So the cheapest option would be to do phases 1-7 and then have an expert inspection, right? However, the inspection might not be as effective because the expert would need to spend a lot of time familiarizing themselves with the detailed construction plans. Would that be acceptable?
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nordanney24 Jul 2024 14:40Fabian3000 schrieb:
So the cheapest option would be to cover phases 1-7 and then hire an expert, right? Cheap yes, but not practical.
Phase 8 involves much more than just supervision:
If you have the professional skills and time to handle the most challenging part of an architect’s responsibilities and only need a third party to check quality, then you can do it that way—for example, site management, invoice verification, etc.
Fabian3000 schrieb:
But the supervision wouldn’t be as effective since the expert would need to spend a lot of time familiarizing themselves with the execution planning, right? Would that be acceptable? For me, that’s a no-go—see above.
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