Construction of a turnkey single-family house

Hello prospective homeowners,

as expected, our house construction is progressing much slower than advertised. I would like to hear some experiences in order to realistically look into the future. We are building a solid turnkey house with a construction company, which is led primarily by an architect’s office. We signed the contract in mid-March 2015, with a construction time of 9 months from groundbreaking. Some things (soil survey, heating, structural engineering, civil engineering) are handled externally (commissioned by us) or semi-externally (i.e., commissioned by the architect’s office).

Land, notary, construction financing, surveying – all taken care of directly.
The building application is approved, geothermal probe/pump applied for and approved.
The (external) soil survey has taken from the end of April until now (!!!!), and the surveyor has exceeded his promised timeline by 5 weeks.
Now we are waiting (again) for the structural engineer, only after that can the civil engineer be commissioned... The structural engineer apparently has a long queue, and thanks to the soil survey we are now at the very end again.
In March, before signing, it was said the house should be finished by the turn of the year.
I have calculated an additional two months on that, so until now I assumed moving in by the end of February/March 2016.
The crucial point is that I then have to move and apply for a new job.
What do you think is a realistic goal?

Hello Nina,
the answer to your question is, as so often: "it depends."
It can go very quickly once it starts. But it can also drag on forever.
For us, it started in mid-February. However, there was a break of a good three weeks because a condition in the building permit was not correctly interpreted at first.
By now, the screed has been drying for over a week. Originally, our move was planned for the end of November. Now we are expecting it at the beginning of October.
But there are also plenty of examples here in the forum where it’s the other way around.
I can only give you the tip to keep on top of it constantly and always ask the companies about the status of the processing.

Hello,

that is of course a bit annoying, but honestly waiting times are unfortunately quite normal during construction... EVERYTHING running smoothly hand in hand is rather the exception.

You will probably only be able to start building the house in July. That means by the end of February it would only be 8 months of construction time... I don’t know how fast everything goes for you, but I would calculate at least 9 months of construction time for a solid house. Honestly, I would even prefer 1-2 months more, you still have to choose and set up furniture, maybe paint or wallpaper... Imagine you can’t immediately decide on certain sanitary fixtures and that takes maybe 2-3 weeks longer than planned... For example, the screed alone has to dry for at least 6 weeks before you can lay floors on it. For example, we needed a total of 3-4 weeks for the electrical work, even though the planning was finished and the work itself could have been done in a week... We did a lot ourselves and the electrician didn’t always have time to come to the construction site immediately, so we also had waiting times there.

Hello Nina,

unfortunately, as long as not everything is complete, your project keeps ending up on the company’s waiting list. Like every company, no work hours are wasted as long as everything is not secured. Surely your project is in sight, but it simply has no priority. Now that everything is in place, the project is being pursued again. It can happen that you get a call on Friday saying that earthworks will begin on Monday. However, it may still take a few weeks.

We forget that building a house is usually a one-time thing for us, but the construction company builds several projects with overlapping schedules. In March, you were told that you would move in by Christmas – but that was before the delay of the soil investigation report.

I don’t want to take away your hope, but underestimating the construction time can be costly for you next year. If you currently have a 3-month notice period, you should only use it at the end of the year, so only give notice when the interior trades begin. You can certainly apply for jobs now or before the move; you probably already know the address.

Good luck wishes Yvonne, who was in the same situation and had to temporarily store her furniture for several months...

Thank you very much for your assessments! So my gut feeling isn't entirely wrong that it's going to be tight. Of course, the construction company won't wait for us all day....you just often feel totally up in the air. Above all, I have the feeling that the good building months are slipping away from us (summer). And I also understand that their commitments usually are not kept. We will do little ourselves for reasons of expertise...actually only the floors. The question is whether that is good or bad.

I will definitely quit my current employer in November (I only reluctantly extended the contract for that long), but after that I have a 3-4 month buffer in which I want/need to finish my dissertation. I would have liked to apply by 15.02./01.03., but I think that will be tight. Of course, I also don’t want to "hang around" for longer than 3-4 months. My boyfriend commutes to the middle of the current place of residence and the future place of residence, that is not a problem. In the new place we do have his parents’ house, which offers enough space for all of us, but we are moving with two free-roaming cats, to whom I don’t want to put more stress than the actual move. Also, I don’t know how long I can stand staying at his mother’s place. We do have space to temporarily store furniture somewhere thanks to parents in both places, that’s not a problem.

I will definitely quit my current employer in November (I reluctantly extended the contract for this long), but then I have a 3-4 month buffer during which I want/need to finish my dissertation.

Sigh, I would also like to have those three to four months

Oh, regarding the topic ... Since the first statement "we could be finished by February 2016" we have spent easily two months in planning. Mid-July should finally be the signing, then it will only really start.