Proper drying / tilting the window?

A project that runs without delay (in Time), without unexpected costs (in Budget), and without defects (in Quality). I think that with good planning you can prevent a lot, but not everything. Yesterday, for example, the bill for our electricity connection arrived, €50 more than the supplier's estimate, not bad but a bit surprising. A friend had a house accompanied by architects that was six months delayed because there was a bottleneck with the windows. The number of defects per construction is well known. Depending on the person and situation (for most it is a life project and not the 10th house), it affects one more or less... it hardly matters whether the expert takes over the arguing for you or you do it yourself.

I don’t believe that will happen.

The problem, however, is that many people calculate both financially and in terms of time with the optimum and then get repeatedly "angrily" surprised.

When you keep hearing that the rental contracts of the previous apartment are terminated shortly after the planned completion date of the house and then are surprised by a construction delay, in my opinion, that is a bit of self-inflicted. Then the planned own contributions for the painting work no longer fit within the timeframe and actually the old apartment should also still be painted by the handover date. In the end, the painter does it anyway because there is no more time for own work and the 1-2 months saved rent are gone because of the painter’s labor costs. The already stressful move becomes a horror and you are actually ready for a vacation, although then vacation days and budget are missing.

Regarding additional expenses and planning buffers, the construction expert provides enough information here in the forum.

We have planned generous buffers (for which we were laughed at by the bankers), decided not to stress ourselves and rather use the apartment for 1-2 months longer. However, with a 2.5 months construction delay (despite agreed penalty payments) we eventually became unpleasant with the general contractor, but we didn’t have the internal pressure to necessarily have to move out of the apartment.

We have a Viessmann Vitovent 300-W with an exhaust air filter. Just as a side note. However, the system will only be accepted by Viessmann itself before it goes into operation. Until then, hopefully the drying issue will be resolved.

At the moment, we are heating up properly again. The heating curve after the screed drying had already dropped again. The heating phase was probably sufficient for the cement screed itself, but the walls are probably still really wet. Let's see how much moisture we can still get out in a week. Then the drywall builder will start. If it is still over 80%, we will probably have to resort to construction dryers.

BTW: I don't want to jinx anything, but we are exactly on schedule 1:1 with our construction company without a single day of delay. We have 3.5 weeks from the planned house handover to handing over the apartment. (Floors, painting work in EL are already included in the construction plan until handover)

We also thought long about whether to choose an extra month for safety, but almost 8 weeks for the move seemed a bit excessive to us. But just OT.

A project that runs without delay (in Time), without unexpected costs (in Budget), and without defects (in Quality).

Then our construction project was apparently almost perfect:

[*]in Time: planned completion was end of November - move-in in October. [*]in Budget: with a detailed calculation and an additionally planned buffer - a five-figure amount is still left. [*]in Quality: apart from a few normal cracks that will be repaired by the general contractor after 2 years, everything is fine.

However, you need to have a general contractor who delivers very good quality work (this does not work with the cheapest), consistently follow up, negotiate prices with every craftsman, openly address problems, and fix appointments early.

Hello,

A project that runs without delay (in Time), without unexpected costs (in Budget) and without defects (in Quality).

If you have chosen a reputable provider, definitely not a cheapo, all of this should be fulfilled. Additional costs can always arise due to the soil survey as well as the patterning, which is why I always recommend a buffer for additional foundation costs (included in my list) as well as a reserve for extras.

A price that is valid from day 1 until moving in only guarantees you a genuine developer project. Everything else is window dressing and in my opinion unprofessional.

I think that you can prevent a lot with good planning, but not everything.

That is the mistaken assumption that quite a few builders - despite freely accessible information on the internet - keep falling for again and again. Often the "informed" layman is also a disruptive factor in an otherwise well-running construction project.

For example, yesterday we got the bill for our power connection, €50 more than the supplier’s estimate, not bad but you do wonder.

There are only people there as well; incidentally, quite a bit has become more expensive again this year; an increase in construction costs of 2-3% in 2016 is unavoidable.

A friend had a house accompanied by architects delayed by 6 months because there was a bottleneck with the windows.

I don’t understand - there is Weru®, Kömmerling®, Veka® (the profiles always come from the same 3 manufacturers anyway) and many more window suppliers. The bottleneck is therefore probably due to the architect’s preference.

The number of defects per building is well known.

As long as a single-family house has not been handed over, there are no defects.

... it’s almost irrelevant whether the expert disputes on your behalf or you do it yourself.

No.

It also requires a lot of trust, the “courage” to let the contractual partner do his job without objection* and an expert who meets his client and the general contractor on equal footing. Of course, this is not available free of charge; but those who know and internalize this will hardly encounter any significant annoyances; nor will they have to claim defects after handover.

*The best construction projects are those where the builder has no time to visit the construction site due to distance/job and an additional (external) expert who understands his job

Rhenish greetings

So I am very glad to have a competent expert by my side who is very confident and sure in his field and also accordingly presents himself in front of the construction company. It must be said, of course, that a decent construction company is also necessary, one that takes care of things, wants to deliver good work, and does not ignore experts or engage in endless discussions. (this is said to exist as well)

Anyone who builds a house for hundreds of thousands should not save in the wrong place in the end. Although I am quite surprised at how few people actually build with an external expert in the end.