Execution planning, scope

Hello everyone, maybe someone can give me information about how the execution planning is supposed to take place. We are building with a general contractor and the architectural services are part of the contract. In my opinion and that of everyone who is directly or indirectly involved with the construction (except for the construction company of course), the work done so far by "our" architect is rather poor. He has only been here once because he comes from 700 km away. Regarding the height alignment of the house, our wishes were not met (which we only noticed very late) and this delayed the approval process by at least 2 months. Now we have also learned that a construction management declaration should have been submitted and again we have to wait longer for the building permit. Once we finally have it, the execution planning (or shop drawing planning) must take place. I always assumed that there would be another consultation and today the general contractor told me that the architect will not come to us again because it is not necessary. The house is mostly planned anyway and if we have changes for the interior, we should communicate them by phone or email. Is this common practice or can I demand a consultation?

Hello,

what does "common" practice even mean? Every provider handles that individually.

You can only "demand" what your provider owes you under the service contract including annexes. If no classic service planning is provided, you have no leverage to successfully enforce this.

Rhenish greetings

Is that common practice or can I demand a consultation?

In my experience, your experience corresponds to common practice ;-). You can demand anything; what must be fulfilled for you results from the contract and maybe also from other commitments (if they are verifiable/effective and the general contractor doesn't weasel out now).

I also have to say that we were a bit naive - there was a very comprehensive structural analysis, the energy saving regulations, and an execution plan, which was more of a measured floor plan. There were no detailed plans (at least I never saw any).

Maybe to reassure you: it can still work out well! Apart from the fact that at the time we would have liked the window in the stairwell to be a bit bigger (but now we are happy that it is as big as it is), we had no problems. I believe it very much depends on you engaging in dialogue with your construction manager and frequently asking him to explain the next steps so you can possibly adjust things. For example, we had more or less regular short meetings every Friday. Also, it probably depends on the craftsmen of your main contractor coordinating and understanding each other well.

As I learned today in my training: in inexperienced teams it is more necessary to break down large work packages into smaller ones and specify them better than in well-practiced teams.

The contract-related construction description states: "With the start of the house construction, detailed plans in the scales 1:50 and 1:20 will be prepared, which become the property of the builder." The detailed plans are created according to the specifications of the contractor for the craftsmen. They will receive a copy. Nothing else has been agreed.

Our detailed planning has so far required about 10 appointments, each lasting 3 or more hours ;) And we are not quite finished yet..