Building without work plans

Next week, construction of our house is supposed to begin. In advance, there was a dispute about the performance of the architect hired by the general contractor. Therefore, I looked for and hired an architect to supervise the construction. The construction contract states: "With the start of the house construction, detailed plans in scales 1:50 and 1:20 will be created, which will become the property of the client." However, I did not receive these plans. Instead, the site manager sent me an email with plans that hardly differ from those of the design planning. There are only the floor plans and a section of the house (see attachment). As confirmed to me by "my" architect, these are not construction plans, and yesterday the site manager told me on the phone that detailed plans will only be created for the roof truss. Everything else will be built without detailed plans. However, I am not going to accept that. What do you think? Has anyone had similar experiences?

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Good day,

considering that you post here under a nickname, in my opinion, you are dealing lightly with your real data! I have taken the liberty to depersonalize the attachments.

Rhenish greetings
Construction expert

That is exactly in line with my views, thank you Bauexperte!

Do you have a structural analysis, energy saving ordinance, etc.? You can certainly build it that way, but it carries risk. At the latest when you yourself commission a trade like that...

We can only hope for very few plans, but we have not been promised any. Structural planning programs are used by the carpenters or supplied by structural engineers. We received several thick folders from the carpenter; these contain the static calculations. We were told that our heating is planned by the manufacturer after the installer wants to place an order with him. The electrical system is developed after the electrician has his additional contract secured. Our civil engineers have their little problems trying to read from the drawings, which almost appear as illustrations to us, how they are supposed to work.

Somehow, a house will result in the end; I just don’t know why.

Good luck, maybe with persistence you can still squeeze the plans out of someone. Sometimes we do get a crumb after all.

Gabriele

In the construction description, which is part of the building contract, it is explicitly stated that detailed plans will be created. Based on what I have experienced with the architect of the construction company, I now consider it quite possible that they are incapable of producing such plans. An example: In the draft planning, the draftsman drew the front door too low. It is below the finished floor level. When I pointed this out, she wrote to me: "The representation in the view is program-related. I ask for your understanding." If she can’t even do that, how is she supposed to draw correct plans? She also moved the basement windows without informing us. Ingeniously, the light wells would now be exactly in front of the patio doors! Fortunately, the project manager of the basement company brought this to my attention. And if the suggestion now comes up that the step between the garage and the house is awkward – that too is a creation of the architectural office, which I will not accept. I have been arguing with the construction company for months over the architect, whom I now consider having been a wrong choice. I have no desire to continue anymore. Therefore, the day before yesterday I went to a lawyer who has requested the construction company to hand over the working plans by no later than July 4th.

You may have a claim to that - but that's a different matter. Just meant that you can manage without building...