House planning. External inspector for approval?

Dear forum,

after our efforts to find an offer that meets both our requirements and our budget (300000€ turnkey with foundation slab, about 170 sqm living area, KfW55, timber frame "baubiologisch sinnvoll", underfloor heating, air heat pump, controlled living space ventilation), an acquaintance who is a construction technician advised us as follows. We should consider how our house should look and how we want to equip it. Then he will draw a plan and a tender for a turnkey house and we will send it to providers within a reasonable radius for us. He says that with this we will definitely get the offer with the best price-performance ratio. He also helps us to compare and check the offers. For this we would hire an external expert who will carry out the acceptance. What do you think about this approach?

Best regards,
Pipi

Hello,

I consider this approach extremely sensible.

We basically did almost exactly as your acquaintance suggests, but in solid construction.

After we had completed the entire floor plan according to building regulations, we were looking for a general contractor.

Gradually, however, we realized that it doesn't work with a general contractor the way we imagined.

We had many conversations, and on the surface everything was always possible, but when we inquired further, the restrictions and "catch" came to light.

Therefore, we decided to award the trades individually and hire our own construction management.

Many warned us against such an approach since we had absolutely no clue about construction and only knew that first the basement, then the ground floor, and only then the upper floor would be built. ;-)

With our floor plan, we turned to a planning office (not an architect) and ordered services 1-4 (planning up to obtaining the building permit).

After that, we found a shell builder who organized the detailed planning and statics, etc.

Based on the documents, we obtained offers for heating, sanitation, electrical, windows, roof, etc. under his supervision and awarded the contracts ourselves.

You can see the result on our construction blog at mybaublog.de.

About 1.5 years ago, I read a post here in the forum where a construction expert wrote... It will surely not be cheaper in total but significantly higher quality... and that's exactly how it turned out.

The advantages are:

- You choose the individual companies yourself and know the craftsmen personally (a huge advantage)
- You don't have to decide immediately on flooring, tiles, doors, etc. but can take your time and settle these points while construction is already underway
- You know exactly what you get and not "blaa blaa blaa" or "a similar product from a well-known brand manufacturer....." as is so often said in the descriptions
- You can save yourself the hassle with the pitfalls in construction management descriptions (We had none at all)

- You remain flexible, have no trouble and high costs if things come up during the construction phase that were forgotten/overlooked in the planning (usually more sockets here, switches there, etc.)

- We only paid after the service was rendered (e.g. payment to the shell builder: basement finished - basement paid, ground floor finished - ground floor paid, roof finished and covered - carpentry issued 1 invoice - paid and done, windows installed - joiner issues invoice - paid and done). This way we never had to make advance payments in the form of excessive installments and had no financial risk; moreover, we could benefit from early payment discounts ourselves.

The construction took from May to December and we would do it the same way again.

As I said, we built solidly; I don't know if that also works the same way in the prefabricated house sector.

Best regards

mybaublog

Reads well and is exciting, and we are in exactly the same situation. Somehow there are issues with the developers, building service descriptions, etc. (or we are stressing ourselves too much;-)). Only your approach is certainly planning-intensive and takes a lot, a lot of time, right? How much lead time did you have?

If the budget including ancillary construction costs is specified, I am not surprised that no offer fitting the budget comes in.

With the requirements, you are far from 170 sqm of living space.

Hello Emer,

the budget is rather without incidental building costs; the connection fees, development, notary, property transfer tax, etc. are included in our budget for the land. What is certainly still missing are the outdoor facilities. The carport should already be included with the house. However, we have now actually decided on a local provider (whom we had been leaning towards for some time) after receiving an offer from a well-known inexpensive timber house builder from the area. The price advantage was then not so big, considering that we definitely need help with the design planning and construction management. We have now ended up at 315K€ including the base slab, carport, and technical room in an annex. And the most important thing: we have a good feeling! And we have now also been independently reinforced (by two carpenters who do not know each other).
Best regards,
Pipi

@Leon

I don’t feel that our planning was more intensive and time-consuming than it would have been with a developer.

The most time-consuming part was actually the journey from purchasing the plot of land to the realization that there apparently isn’t a developer for us.

Not a single well-trained salesperson (who naturally calls himself a consultant) managed to “lull” us (despite our complete ignorance in construction matters), which these groups of people responded to with arrogance and/or aggression—no more “friendly” atmosphere.

We wanted transparency and openness, but no promises/lies that would promise us the blue from the sky... lies—and exactly this transparency and openness, unfortunately (from today’s perspective, thank God) we did not find.

I can’t remember ever in my life being lied to by so many people (brokers, house sellers, developers, etc.) in such a short time as during our house planning phase.

There were times when we simply didn’t know anymore what to believe and what not to.

It is important not to “surrender” to these people and sign anything.

Our timeline was as follows:

June 2011: Found and bought plot on [Immobilenscout]

(First untruths/lies regarding groundwater and building regulations – from the broker)

Our decision for solid construction was made, and first own floor plan drafts were created.

July 2011 – November 2011: Developer search (at house exhibitions, new development areas, internet, etc.) – without success

December 2011: Everything back to zero, including the drafts (floor plans), decision:

N O D E V E L O P E R

January 2012: Completely new floor plan created

February 2012: Searching for a planner for submission

March 2012: Building application submitted – approval came after (!!!!) 19 days (despite approval, still no builder in sight)

Looking for and found shell builder. This person created the 1:50 planning before contract signing (on their own initiative).

With this detailed plan, offers for shell planning sanitation, electrical, windows, roof were obtained.

April 2012: Earthworks offer obtained

May 2012: Construction begins.

May 2012 – end of July 2012: Shell is built including roof truss and roofing/tinsmith work, as well as window installations (the house is weather independent)

August 2012: Nothing happened – holiday season

September 2012 – mid-October 2012: Interior work begins (up to and including screed)

Mid-October 2012 – mid-November 2012: Nothing happened – the house must “dry”

Mid-November 2012 – mid-December 2012: Interior work continues (drywall, painting, floor coverings, electrical, sanitary installations, interior doors, etc.)

December 21: “Move-in”

May 20, 2013: Everything would be great if……..

we finally had a garden.

It is currently (for 3 months) not possible to get a gardener except at totally overpriced offers (differences up to a factor of 16 (not a typo)

Starting next Thursday, our outdoor area will be laid out…..FINALLY!!!!