Hello,
we are planning to build a single-family house with a secondary apartment (with around 180 sqm (1,940 sq ft) of living space) as a replacement building in the Osnabrück district, but we have no knowledge about construction, which is why I ended up here hoping to get some advice.
So far, we have had an appointment with a local Town & Country provider as well as with a well-known civil engineer. With the former, we do not have a very good feeling, partly due to their apparently limited experience with the legal specifics of building in rural areas, but also because of the many compromises that such a house would involve. With the civil engineer, we feel much more comfortable, but we are unsure whether it even makes sense to build with someone like that and how realistic the quoted price of about 1800 euros per sqm (only for the house, excluding additional costs, landscaping, etc.) is.
Therefore, at the moment I am mainly interested in whether it would be sensible to consult another provider, for example an architect, or if we can confidently proceed with the next steps (land surveying and preliminary building inquiry) with the civil engineer? Additionally, due to our lack of knowledge, I would be very grateful for any tips on what to consider.
Thank you very much in advance and best regards.
we are planning to build a single-family house with a secondary apartment (with around 180 sqm (1,940 sq ft) of living space) as a replacement building in the Osnabrück district, but we have no knowledge about construction, which is why I ended up here hoping to get some advice.
So far, we have had an appointment with a local Town & Country provider as well as with a well-known civil engineer. With the former, we do not have a very good feeling, partly due to their apparently limited experience with the legal specifics of building in rural areas, but also because of the many compromises that such a house would involve. With the civil engineer, we feel much more comfortable, but we are unsure whether it even makes sense to build with someone like that and how realistic the quoted price of about 1800 euros per sqm (only for the house, excluding additional costs, landscaping, etc.) is.
Therefore, at the moment I am mainly interested in whether it would be sensible to consult another provider, for example an architect, or if we can confidently proceed with the next steps (land surveying and preliminary building inquiry) with the civil engineer? Additionally, due to our lack of knowledge, I would be very grateful for any tips on what to consider.
Thank you very much in advance and best regards.
Schrandt is also a solid company. Definitely a reliable builder.
The included services from Schmieshaus were simply "a bit" better (and that with only an extra €5000) — for example, a standard KFW55 energy efficiency rating, better bathroom fixtures, a higher budget for tiles/flooring/bricks/doors/etc., and temporary construction power included.
With Schrandt, you have to remember to arrange temporary construction power yourself. Our direct neighbor and the neighbor across the street are currently "left in the rain" because Schrandt did not inform them that they need to organize the construction power themselves. I'll give you three guesses which meter one of them is connected to now (all of this was coordinated with our builder, of course).
But with both companies, you should first have a conversation to see if they are familiar with your specific circumstances.
The included services from Schmieshaus were simply "a bit" better (and that with only an extra €5000) — for example, a standard KFW55 energy efficiency rating, better bathroom fixtures, a higher budget for tiles/flooring/bricks/doors/etc., and temporary construction power included.
With Schrandt, you have to remember to arrange temporary construction power yourself. Our direct neighbor and the neighbor across the street are currently "left in the rain" because Schrandt did not inform them that they need to organize the construction power themselves. I'll give you three guesses which meter one of them is connected to now (all of this was coordinated with our builder, of course).
But with both companies, you should first have a conversation to see if they are familiar with your specific circumstances.
Schmieshaus is not a general contractor! They are a construction facilitator. Apart from minor tasks (for us, for example, grouting the brickwork), all trades are subcontracted.
But they really take care of EVERYTHING.
All applications for utilities and so on are completed. You really only have to sign...
But they really take care of EVERYTHING.
All applications for utilities and so on are completed. You really only have to sign...
@houser
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Yes, the legal aspects are quite complex and quite specific for us, although after our contact with the district authorities, we are currently quite optimistic that it should be approved—unless there are major errors in the application process.
Does GC stand for general contractor, or something else? In that case, our civil engineer probably wouldn’t be considered one either.
Can you explain the general pros and cons of building with a general contractor versus not? What you describe—basically not having to do anything yourself—sounds much more appealing to me at this point, given our lack of experience. But with smaller firms or companies as construction managers, insolvency risk might be a bigger issue, right?
Thank you for sharing your experiences.
Golfi90 schrieb:
But with both companies, you would of course first need to have a conversation to see if they are familiar with your specific circumstances...
Yes, the legal aspects are quite complex and quite specific for us, although after our contact with the district authorities, we are currently quite optimistic that it should be approved—unless there are major errors in the application process.
Golfi90 schrieb:
Schmieshaus is not a general contractor (GC)! It is a construction manager. Except for minor tasks (for example, grouting the bricks in our case), they subcontract all trades.
Does GC stand for general contractor, or something else? In that case, our civil engineer probably wouldn’t be considered one either.
Can you explain the general pros and cons of building with a general contractor versus not? What you describe—basically not having to do anything yourself—sounds much more appealing to me at this point, given our lack of experience. But with smaller firms or companies as construction managers, insolvency risk might be a bigger issue, right?
Lololein schrieb:
So far, we have had appointments with the local Town & Country provider and a well-known structural engineer. We don’t feel very confident about the first one, partly due to their seemingly limited experience with the legal complexities of building in protected rural areas, and also because of the many compromises involved in such a house. With the structural engineer, we feel much better, but we are unsure whether it even makes sense to build with someone like that, and how realistic the quoted price of about 1800 euros per square meter (only for the house itself, excluding additional costs, landscaping, etc.) is.
I would be surprised if that price holds. With some selections and upgrades, you’re typically looking at around 2000€/m² (2000 euros per square meter). That is also the rough benchmark communicated here in the forum. If you can avoid unnecessary extras and gimmicks, 1800€ is definitely achievable.
However, with a granny flat/in-law unit, you have to comply with specific regulations, and you often need duplicates of many installations. This ranges from plumbing fixtures to the electrical system and the required fire separation walls. Because of this, the price per square meter increases quite rapidly. We had considered building like that ourselves, and for us, the cost was closer to 2500€/m². We only had a few conversations, though, as we eventually found another property where a granny flat was not possible.
Golfi90 schrieb:
Schmieshaus is simply not a general contractor! [...] But they really take care of EVERYTHING. Then, according to your description, they actually are one—a general contractor who just, as is common nowadays, is not also a main contractor.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
danixf schrieb:
I would be surprised if the price can be met. With some selections and extras, you’re typically looking at around €2000/sqm (approx. $190/sqft). That’s also the rough benchmark often mentioned here in the forum. If you can avoid fancy upgrades and extras, €1800/sqm (approx. $170/sqft) is definitely achievable.
But with a granny flat, you have to comply with specific regulations, and you also need to duplicate many installations. This includes everything from plumbing to electrical systems and appropriate fire-rated walls. That causes the price per square meter to rise quite quickly. We also considered building something like that once, and our estimate was closer to €2500/sqm (approx. $235/sqft). However, we only had a few discussions because we eventually found a different property, where a granny flat wasn’t possible. Oh, that would be a significantly different figure and would blow the budget unless we secure very favorable financing terms or the demolition turns out to be much, much cheaper than initially planned. But that is exactly our current concern—that the final costs will be much higher than expected and become unmanageable for us. The plan was budgeted at €400,000 (approx. $376,000) including all expenses, and as we understood from the engineer, a (small) contingency is included with an assumption of mid-range finishes.
For Town & Country, the price per square meter would be quite a bit lower than the mentioned €1800/sqm (approx. $170/sqft), so we hoped that figure would be reasonably realistic.