Reference current construction prices / Build now or wait?

If you have too much money and absolutely want to get rid of it as tuition fees, you can save yourself performance phases 6 and 7 through the architect and spend at least the "saved" fee as that very tuition fee because the offer and billing differ significantly from each other.

Does that mean that the craftsmen regularly cheat the builders?

Does that mean that the craftsmen regularly cheat the builders?

Do you know what service phases 6+7 are? That is the awarding of contracts. Do you, as a construction layman, trust yourself to: - include all (!) necessary points in a separate tender (this can be 25-30 pages just for the shell construction, the interior plaster should also be around two pages) - list all quantities correctly - specify qualities - compare all offers No, the craftsmen do not cheat. But the builders are not experts and make mistakes. And if then the craftsman says, "Oops, I now need the fourth amendment to the contract because you, dear builder, only ordered half of the necessary materials/work steps," then, as the builder, you are screwed and complain about the bad craftsmen and the spiraling costs. You only cheat yourself by pretending to have knowledge but having none as a layman.

I don’t need to add anything to the answer that has basically already done as my ghostwriter ;-)

Do you know what service phases 6+7 are? That is the awarding of the contract. Do you dare as a construction layman:

The main problem lies exactly in this overestimation of oneself (or misunderstanding of the scope of a tender). The layman does it for a complete new build the same way he is used to for a little painting or wallpapering. Only here you can add two zeros to the disagreements over the billing.

- to list all quantities correctly

... means something entirely different than sending a floor plan where the contractor is supposed to calculate everything himself.

By the way, the client regularly does not have the dimension “construction schedule” vs. bid binding on his radar.

Does that mean that the craftsmen regularly cheat the clients?

Basically, yes, that too. But I meant what my predecessor already explained to you. That the craftsmen you look for yourself probably cheat you significantly more often than those the architect finds for you (and knows their respective sloppiness or cunning tricks) and who also want to be included again in the next match lineup.

My parents had partially new windows and patio doors installed during the renovation of two apartments, and for this, an expanded opening had to be cut in the concrete ring beam by a specialist company. In the end, the patio door did not fit into the opening, and we ended up bearing the costs for that, for example. Also, another patio door does not fit properly, as you can hear the outside noise strongly. One room ended up too small; the effective room width was supposed to be 2 meters, but now it is 1.94 m. Most of the room doors rub on the floors or have hardly any clearance. All these problems could probably have been prevented by an architect through professional planning. PS: Every single trade massively botched the renovation project; a performance phase 8 would also have been a good idea.

PS: Every single trade botched massively on this renovation project; a service phase 8 would also have been a good idea..

A service phase 8 can indeed be obtained on the market separately – after all, there are several accompanying construction experts. However, it is a first-class punishment (because very difficult to accomplish) if you do not have service phases 5 to 7 on hand when completing service phase 8. By far the best way is if the person performing service phases 5 to 8 is the same. Setting a service phase 8 directly on top of service phase 4 will always, to put it nicely, result in imperfection.

By the way, renovations are fundamentally, in the truest sense of the word, "a different construction site" than new construction projects. Anyone who omits the architect during renovations (or only hires them to draw submission plans) cannot have the slightest clue about their own madness. Something similar applies, in essence, if you mandate the architect in the actually sensible scope but use, at best, a new-construction-experienced fair-weather architect for renovations. Renovation projects expose amateurs. "Service phase 4 only" can be done by any architecture student – walle, walle, some stretch ...

On the subject of self-awarding / external awarding: We also struggled for a long time whether we should organize the trades ourselves or not. My wife and I both have a business administration background and are executives at large employers in the corporate sector. That means we are not easily taken advantage of – but we had rather limited knowledge about construction. Our house was ultimately planned by an architect up to the building permit. From that point on, we organized everything ourselves. We held countless consultation meetings with craftsmen for the individual trades and mostly chose the high-quality execution of the trade. Usually, we proceeded as follows: We sought advice from a craftsman with a very good reputation and had him prepare an offer. Then we took the items from the offer (without prices) and sent them to other possible providers for the same trade. Depending on the trade, we then held 2-3 more consultation meetings and refined the scope of the trade until we knew exactly what we wanted. In the end, we had 2-5 offers per trade. We did not always choose the cheapest but rather the one with the best mix of competence, price (and honesty). We have a hillside house with 3 floor slabs (staggered construction) and top equipment (e.g. BUS system, large windows, wooden floors, large tiles, photovoltaics incl. 10KWP + storage, room height 2.8-3.2m). So far, we have had significantly fewer problems than our neighbors with a general contractor. In case of problems, the craftsmen are also much more accessible than with the neighbors who have a general contractor (they push down the prices, choose the cheapest if in doubt, and the craftsmen are frustrated because of small margins). According to the architect, the quality of the trades is also very good so far (we just finished the interior plaster). Price-wise, we are better off than our neighbors with a general contractor (even though we have much better equipment). It is certainly laborious, but with the necessary business acumen and motivation, in my opinion, self-awarding is always better than a general contractor.