House building for nerds - experiences wanted!

A construction manager relieves you regarding coordination. But if you want something truly individual, you are still always involved.

Yes, construction coordination is overwhelming for the layperson. We commissioned this with the carpenter because this company also offers turnkey buildings and has the appropriate experience and resources.

Yes, anyone who wants a truly individual house is inevitably involved down to the smallest detail. Anyone who wants to build as economically as possible and still well is as well. seems to me a perfect example of that. This involvement is a form of self-performance.

Yes, selecting the craft companies is not easy. Anyone who builds truly individually has a unique challenge for each trade and simultaneously creates a potential reference project for the future. This way, companies can be found that are not only interested in the money for the project but also in the project itself. Then reliability potentially improves as well.

Topic effort & money: Problems that can only be solved with money should be solved with money. Problems that cannot be solved with money should not even be attempted to be solved with money. Construction problems fall sometimes into the first category and sometimes into the second. Those who order the trades themselves potentially have significantly higher communication effort. It does not necessarily become more expensive.

Design freedom and risk are connected. The more you take into your own hands and decide, the higher the risk of having to bear the consequences – whether you saw them beforehand or not.

My conclusion: Self-contracting has both savings and risk potential. If it goes well, it was better afterward; if not, then it was worse.

Surprisingly, equity of €100,000 has now resulted in the form of an early inheritance.

Congratulations!

Did you still provide a lot of own work? How long was the planning phase? How long was the pure construction time?

With individual contracts, you can save money but above all you can implement more individual wishes.

Don’t confuse individual contracts with own work.

I believe some people here in the forum have done own work. Whether built with a general contractor or with an architect: painting and floors, usually at the end of the construction period, sanding walls or expanding the electrical installation... you could, if you wanted to, also install interior doors.
Usually, you take a block of time, like 3 weeks of vacation, or disciplined every evening 4 hours, to expand the electrical installation for example, while other craftsmen are working on the construction site.
The problem is: building a house with an architect often takes a little longer than building a house with a general contractor. In our settlement, all houses built with an architect and open contracting took about 18 months. Accordingly, you also have to service the bank during that time.
What you want, to replace many craftsman services with own work, in order to save money or have free choice, makes the house building process very slow. You all work? In crafts or office? I think a house project is different from a garden project or simply renovating a bathroom or a room. Building a shell is not comparable to assembling a kitchen. Physically and logistically a challenge. Craftsmen in your own network (who work somewhat "cheaper") also don’t usually have time exactly when you need them.

Additionally, there is help from the family, as we are currently raising a house and almost renovating it with own work.

With a renovation you are much more flexible. I don’t want to call it fiddling... and help?! … help is doing the dishes during cooking, cooking you have to do yourself. Help is a helper activity…

Hand on heart: Did we save costs with this approach - no. We definitely spend more.
As you write, we are not dependent on material specifications and often choose - let’s say - not the cheapest. In this way, considerable additional costs arise that would not have occurred with a pragmatic construction method.

I think so too.

As I said, it’s possible. However, all the other “more do-it-yourselfers” exceed our construction time by several months, sometimes a year; simply because someone was sick and couldn’t do it or a company didn’t deliver as expected…

Why would I not recommend such an approach? Building a house is too complex, there are so many details to consider. For a normal person, scheduling trades is impossible.

Important words from Zaba and Maria!

I (we all in my family) always have the strong desire to get the perfect optimum for our hard-earned money

I want to have free choice and decision-making options (especially regarding materials and equipment).

Oh, I understand everyone who doesn’t want to or can’t build this way! Unfortunately, I would feel very restricted by a general contractor. The same applies to sample selections for prefabricated houses.

It is a problem not to be able to hand over work or tasks. Usually, this ends in burnout and results in many started construction sites or partially finished projects, which, however, show amateurish workmanship.

Even with a general contractor you have decision options: where should one start? Heating, floor plan, all kinds of equipment… for example, we have a washbasin, inexpensive with a worktop at 170 cm… the sanitary guy installed it for us. Roof covering, roof battens, plaster and façade design… you only have to choose the general contractor afterwards who works with the preferred brick and insulation. Everything else is optional. There are enough projects such as built-in cupboards, sauna construction, garden, terrace and entrance, through which you can give the house an additional personal touch.

Our neighbor did a lot himself. Starting with Ytong walls, ended with the brick veneer façade in the 5th year. He didn’t manage the window edges anymore. The driveway is not paved and the terrace is not yet present. The house was now sold for €200,000… maybe less, you never know. Basically, you have to tear everything inside out again because the tiles in the bathroom were laid amateurishly and you also don’t know if he sealed the surfaces.

Therefore, I would refrain from substantial own work. You don’t want a DIY-brand house for your money, do you?

The question was about architect, individual contracting, and own contribution. My comment referred to building with an architect and individual contracting. So don't confuse it. A lot of own contribution is exhausting. All free time goes into it and often there are time problems as well. We are not even talking about warranty.

A construction manager relieves you in terms of coordination. But if you really want something individual, you are always involved anyway.

I am also sufficiently involved. I don't want to imagine the burden without my construction manager if I really had to take care of everything myself. Purchasing coordination (and supervision and quality control) is not contradictory to individual contracting.

I didn't write that either. I would never do it without a site manager. Just from a knowledge standpoint... But still, it's not like you could completely take it out (if you want your individual house). Only the coordination effort will be significantly less.