ᐅ TV show about tips and tricks for building a house...

I share a similar view as Nordlys. The chemistry between the general contractor and the tradespeople needs to be right, with regular inspections based on common sense and, if possible, some acquired knowledge. For everything else, an independent expert is available. Anything that still goes wrong after that is just bad luck.

But we also had (fortunately few) issues that I pointed out. In other cases, I saw the site manager call out the tradespeople. It often comes down to the motivation of each trade. Are the workers genuinely passionate about their profession, or are they just temporary helpers who mechanically carry out assigned tasks without thinking for themselves? As the client, you can also have some influence by interacting with the tradespeople on equal terms, being friendly and fair.

Cake, sweets, and coffee often help too... 😉

haydee schrieb:

Small, flexible general contractor with a good reputation
+ Expert consultants
+ Daily presence and attentive management

Architects including construction supervision, who have known their local trades for years. Everything runs smoothly and the willingness to make corrections is high.

guckuck2 schrieb:

Architects including construction management who have known their local trades for years. Everything runs smoothly, and the willingness to make corrections is high.

I forgot to mention the local aspect.

It already helps if the different trades have worked together on other construction sites, regardless of the general contractor (GC).
In our case, everyone knew each other.

Yes, I agree with that.
You need to make sure you still get competing offers and don’t just go straight to the architect’s best friend. That way, you can limit favoritism.
Most problems usually come from the homeowner’s trades, whether it’s due to owner-provided work or because the brother-in-law is an electrician... The truth is, most people don’t really know if the brother-in-law, father-in-law, or friend is skilled at the job. People like them, they speak positively about themselves, and everyone else is always the one who’s incompetent... We also fell for this once on a (less important) trade.

bibi80 schrieb:

I also find the naive approach of many homeowners quite alarming.

We also managed each trade separately and I actually learned the basics for every trade, had our structural engineer explain everything to me in detail, and was on the construction site every day talking to the craftsmen. Whenever something was unclear or I had doubts, I questioned it.

Things don’t always run smoothly, but if you’re not present and don’t check, you won’t notice issues and will have problems later on.

Our plasterer insulated one side of the house, started on the second side, and then ran out of materials.

The additional insulation delivered was 2cm (1 inch) thinner.

He put Styrofoam underneath so it wouldn’t be noticeable next to the thicker insulation on the wall and covered the sides nicely with plaster.

We looked at the new insulation in the evening and realized something was wrong.

Then we went up on the scaffolding and discovered the Styrofoam. Visually, everything looked fine.

There was an immediate stop to the work.

In the end, the plasterer had to remove everything and redo it.

Of course, he didn’t want to cheat us; insulation is insulation after all. And his workers were really angry. But I didn’t care.

I simply believe that if you invest that much money, you have to get involved yourself.

And if you’re not a professional, you need to bring in an independent expert.

You were lucky that a work stoppage on the exterior plastering didn’t really have major consequences...

Even now, I often don’t know what I could have done better, and there are still some trades I could strangle...

With us, it was precisely the ones who always worked together badly because A didn’t want to upset B; after all, they meet on the next site, but the homeowner you only meet once.

guckuck2 schrieb:

Architects including site management, who have known their local trades for years. Everything runs smoothly, and the willingness to make corrections is high.

Yes, but the willingness to challenge them is very low... What does the site manager do if they upset the trade during the current build site for the next house they want to build?

Better to have an architect who doesn't care at all about whom they work with.