Are the costs justified?

he is allowed to take a peek here at what can happen. with his 405k little house we will see something like this again

The idea that he looks at what can happen is good. Especially since he likes to calculate tightly (my impression from his thread).

However, I wouldn’t just generally "assume" that now, since it always also depends on the construction company. In the end, we ended up with about 10,000 euros in additional costs – about 7,000 of which for sample selection were on us.

he can take a look here at what can happen. with his 405k little house we will see something like this again

You can gladly copy this thread link into Henrik's post

Does this happen that rarely?

Yes, unfortunately. I'm glad it worked for you!

: Notified.

You lucky one

Rhenish greetings

You can gladly copy this thread link into Henrik's post

has already done that long ago.

Hello everyone,

I hope I am asking my questions in the right place.

The first question is whether we have to simply accept the increased costs for the foundation slab without consultation. At first, it was said that 40 cm had to be excavated. After the soil survey, it was then 70 cm, and during the excavation, it was 92 cm.... without prior notice. The entire foundation slab is now almost 9,000 euros more expensive than initially offered. We are upset that we were presented with a fait accompli.

Then there is the Telekom. The street will then be opened again for this connection, and of course, we are supposed to pay for that as well. The basic connection also costs about 700 euros. The civil engineer who opens the street for Telekom also issues an invoice, but we do not understand why all of this has to be done two or three times and why it cannot be better coordinated.

The surveyor or the architect, we are not quite sure... also made a mistake measuring. Our house was planned 37 cm too low.... so it has to be "set" higher... which means we have to fill in more soil in the garden to maintain the planned levelness with the terrace. Again, a cost that was not planned beforehand. Do we also have to just accept this?

We asked our municipal utilities what applications we need to connect a new building to the supply network. The municipal utilities then sent us applications for electricity and water. Costs almost 7,000 euros. Two weeks ago, we then found out from several neighbors (in a complete new development area) that drainage has to be done by the daughter company of the municipal utilities. One neighboring house had to pay an extra 11,000 euros in addition to the house connections... the invoice did not come from the subsidiary, but from the municipal utilities. It feels quite like being ripped off. For us, that also means roughly 8,500 euros on top.

Do we just have to accept all this, or what should we do? We are currently quite desperate and the cost spiral keeps turning, and it is not up to us to assess whether this is all justified and what else is to come. We thought we had planned well. We also sat down with various advisors and friends with construction experience... but at the moment, we really feel lost and more financing is looming.

Best regards

From my point of view, the question arises as to why they have to dig deeper. With us, they also went deeper than planned because the soil did not have the required load-bearing capacity. Unfortunately, I no longer know exactly how much, but it was probably in a similar range. Afterwards, X cm more gravel was then added.
For a 10 x 10m house, one can (I was told and it roughly matches) calculate about 350 - 400 € per 10 cm of gravel. Accordingly, it should have been about 30 cm for us. If I now assume about 50 cm for you, then I see additional costs of around 2,000 € (which you probably cannot avoid).

Regarding planning errors, some architects and planners believe that you should have seen this on the plan and that you signed off on it.
As for the backfilling later, sand does not cost much, so that is not a big deal...

With the connections, one sometimes has fun, gas and water usually don’t want to cooperate with Telekom, who is to blame for that I’ll leave open...

As far as planning errors go, some architects and planners think you should have seen that on the plan and you signed off on it like that. As for the filling later, sand doesn’t cost much, so it’s not a big deal...

that is, to put it mildly, nonsense. You hire professionals for really expensive money. Their sole task is to take the blame for mistakes. If I sign off on the correctness of the work, I might as well measure the house myself! You don’t hire the surveyor for €600 for 30 minutes of measuring so he does the work, but because his head’s on the line if he screws it up. The signature is only there to show that the work was done and an invoice can be issued. The signature NEVER exempts the contractor from their duty of care and liability. That’s just nonsense. The client is a layman and can’t really check the correctness. In court, none of these tradespeople would ever get away with that.

To the thread starter:

- The excavation/soil replacement costs are now known to always be the same. But you also know that can really cost a lot. But €9,000 extra for 90 cm depth? Bungalow? At 10x10 meters that should be considerably cheaper. The real depth of the excavation only becomes clear once you start digging. I consider the soil sample testing nonsense and money thrown away. You could have put the €500-1,000 directly into the excavation (everyone sees that differently here...)
- Does the plot need to be filled? Then use the soil from the excavation. That saves multiple costs. It doesn’t have to be hauled away, no disposal costs arise, and you don’t need (or need less) soil delivered. Also think about whether it makes sense not to raise the entire plot by 34 cm, but for example to step down with 1-2 steps from the terrace/entrance platform.
- Nobody can tell you who is at fault for the planning error with the height without more information.
- House connections cost money. That’s no secret and you could have asked them about it beforehand. If you plan things halfway properly, Telekom manages to throw their cable in there as well. That worked perfectly for us. I ordered water supply for Monday, on Tuesday informed gas/electric/fiber from the utility companies and Telekom that they should please put the cable in on Monday or Tuesday. By Tuesday noon the cable was in place. The planner at the water utility knows the planner from the city utilities (I do too, I trained with him at the utilities ^^) and they coordinated. The water company opened the trench, the utilities closed it. The head hole at the construction street remained open for 1-2 weeks until all connections were finished. Everything works...

Oh yes: welcome to building and unexpected costs. If the connection costs already shock you, I wonder how well you actually prepared.