Award trades individually or general contractor / turnkey?

I have already contacted about 10 companies from the area around the upcoming construction site. Only 2 could build as general contractors turnkey and also only have capacities for that at the end of the year. Actually, I would prefer that, because a) we are not very familiar with construction topics, b) the architect cannot supervise the construction, and c) we are simply not on site every week. But firstly, there are currently not many who could build it for us this way, and besides, I just read an article in Spiegel yesterday that turnkey construction usually brings significantly more defects because you have no control over the subcontractors used. What would you do in our case? Go turnkey after all, or read up a bit and request everything / award separately?

Asking ten companies (GC) is already a bit (too) much, in my opinion. Why can't the architect supervise the construction? - Planning, detailed planning and supervision should ideally come from the same source. Incidentally, I would always leave it open in the tender as to which bidders want to bid as GCs on all lots. Whether they organize themselves as joint ventures, consortia or whatever is less important. Ideally, they should all be known to your planner. You don't need to know the contractual relationships between the GC and subs; your contracting partner is only the GC.

A GC naturally has a certain conflict of interest. Their goal is to build cheaply and an unscrupulous GC can also try to cover up botched work.

An architect who supervises the construction works for you, the GC and their site manager work for themselves. The latter with the claim to deliver good quality, then he will do so.

I already wrote about this in "Von Bauleitern und ... Bauleitern" (best to google with the quotation marks). The site manager and the "site manager" have the same name but different tasks: the one from the contractor should, in case of doubt, ensure with the highest priority that an error does not become apparent before the warranty period expires. This is not the same as fixing the error even at the expense of reduced profit. Avoiding errors may be Plan A for both, but Plan B is where opinions then differ.

Clearly the main contractor, that is less stressful for you. Best to then hire an independent person who supervises the construction.

It is best to hire an independent person to supervise the construction

As an add-on, an expert as a construction supervisor is highly recommended, but they still do not completely replace an architect construction manager (or you have to take a large number of additional appointments).

Hello everyone,

a few months have now passed and I wanted to give the nice people here, who helped me a lot with the decision, a short update: we are building with a local general contractor who works with local subcontractors :)

We are building turnkey; the only thing we took out are the laminate floors (the general contractor is doing the tiles).

The building permit is already approved, the construction contract with a fixed price guarantee has been negotiated (it was reviewed by a lawyer from the [Bauherren-Schutzbund] and renegotiated by us), construction starts in September and the construction time is scheduled for 12 months.

We have also commissioned a [Bauherren-Schutzbund] inspector who will be on site 8 times to approve the various construction phases.

I will keep you updated.

Regards!

Hello everyone, a few months have passed now and I wanted to give the nice people here, who helped me a lot with the decision, a short update: we are building with a local general contractor who works with local subcontractors :) We are building turnkey; the only thing we excluded are the laminate floors (the GC is doing the tiles). The building permit is already approved, the construction contract with a fixed price guarantee has been negotiated (it was reviewed by a lawyer from the Homeowners Protection Association and renegotiated by us), construction starts in September and the construction period is specified as 12 months. In addition, we have commissioned an inspector from the Homeowners Protection Association, who will be on site 8 times to approve the various construction phases. I will keep you updated. Regards!

May I know which GC it turned out to be? We are also near the district of Kelheim and are currently looking.

May I know which general contractor it became? We are also near Landkreis Kelheim and are currently looking.

Just send me a quick PM (somehow I can't send any).