ᐅ Construction period

Our builder estimates a period of 9 months from the delivery of the foundation slab to moving in for a semi-detached house (solid construction). Is this realistic? Please share your assessment.

I am wondering how a delivered concrete slab is transported...

Aside from that, it probably depends on the logistics. It can work well, but it doesn’t have to.

How are we supposed to assess that? The best advice can come from previous homeowners of the general contractor.

Hello,

jomeier75 schrieb:
Our developer estimates 9 months from the delivery of the foundation slab to moving in for a semi-detached house (solid construction). Is that realistic? Please share your opinions.

You probably mean "pouring" the foundation slab?

For the rest, I would say—unless the semi-detached house has many projections and/or a curved design—your general contractor is quite clever 😀

Easter greetings from the Rhineland

Sure, I meant the pouring of the foundation slab. That was in April, with move-in planned for December. Now it’s April again, and we are still in the interior finishing stage (screed dried, walls prepared for painting). We sold our apartment with a three-month buffer for the end of March and are currently living in temporary accommodation. I just wonder if this delay could have been anticipated. Only now have we learned that our developer did not include penalty clauses for delays with the contractors, and we ourselves did not have such an agreement included in our purchase contract. Otherwise, someone else probably would have been awarded the contract.

Hello,

there probably wasn’t much information provided to you in advance, right?

jomeier75 schrieb:

I just wonder if this could have been foreseen. We only recently found out that our general contractor hadn’t agreed on any penalties for delays with the subcontractors, and we also didn’t include such an agreement in our purchase contract. Otherwise, someone else would probably have been awarded the contract.

It doesn’t matter at all to you what your general contractor agreed with their subcontractors or not; you should have insisted on a fixed handover date / guaranteed construction period before signing the contract!

To answer your question: this kind of approach is generally not unusual if no construction period is guaranteed in the contract. Why should your general contractor hurry when they have all the time in the world?

“Would have” and “if” won’t help you now...

Easter greetings from the Rhineland

I would have definitely preferred a contractual agreement on the completion date. However, when demand exceeds supply, we did not feel able to enforce this and now have to deal with the consequences.