ᐅ Prefabricated House – Removing Plumbing Services from the Contract?

Hello everyone,

We have our final selection appointment with our house provider tomorrow, so I would really appreciate hearing your opinions today.

Our project manager pointed out to us that, to save costs, we could exclude the plumbing work from the contract. This way, we could buy the fixtures and related items cheaper online and save a lot of money—provided we find a willing plumber. When we asked if they would still handle the connections and piping (timber frame construction), the answer was yes: everything would be ready for connection, so only the fixtures would need to be installed. One additional note was that the shower drain needs to be installed in time before the tiler comes.

This sounds almost too simple to us, which makes us suspicious again. We estimate we could save several thousand euros, but is it really that easy? What do you think? And how would you assess the warranty situation if water leakage occurs somewhere?

We do have a plumber in our circle of friends, but of course, we would have to talk to them, which unfortunately isn’t possible before tomorrow.

I would be very, very grateful for any replies...

Best regards

Calculate exactly how much you save. In case of warranty claims, you will at best have a chance to obtain cost coverage through expert assessors.

Fertighaus123 schrieb:

if we can find a willing installer.

Do you see any chance there? It could be a problem sometimes. Most don’t really like doing it.

@SoL
We definitely need to do the calculations. For this, the house manufacturer first needs to prepare a list once we finish tomorrow.

@ismon_rlp
As I mentioned before, we have a plumber friend whom we could ask...

How do you assess the situation? I’m a complete beginner and don’t want to overestimate my abilities. With a prefabricated house manufacturer, is it really so well pre-installed that you just need to “simply” screw on the fittings, toilet, drain, etc., and everything else should fit?

I’m especially concerned about the concealed shower fittings...

Fertighaus123 schrieb:

I'm especially concerned about the concealed fittings in the shower...

I think I wouldn’t remove something like that, even if it probably offers a lot of benefits. I also wouldn’t expect everything to be delivered fully ready for connection. They would be foolish to do all the work up to the point where the real money is made.

However, if that is the case, then the remaining work should definitely not be too difficult for a moderately skilled DIYer.

Another option could be to only choose the minimum standard and then purchase the fixtures yourself afterward if you don’t like them. All extras (accessories such as soap dispensers, toilet brushes, etc., vanity cabinets, shower baskets, and whatever else) obviously have to be bought separately. The prices are beyond unreasonable.

Unfortunately, I’m not entirely sure about that either. He described it very simply and said that the margin for the projects goes only to the installer.

As I said, it also sounds way too easy to me, which is why we’re not fully trusting it. We’re just afraid of ending up in the house with nothing done—that would be a complete disaster—and in the end, we’d still be blamed if there are delays. We have no idea what that worst-case scenario could look like: no pipes in the walls at all; no proper connection point; the wrong fittings for these fixtures...