Removal of the crane on the sidewalk

I have always said, my purchased site manager helps me reach inaccessible places and I can get it dirty. That was a real added value. The site manager provided for the house construction mainly excelled at sugarcoating botched work and blaming me for his interface problems. So always buy the site manager yourself!

I definitely didn’t say that, just pointed out that not everyone can be on the construction site all the time. An existing house here is not necessarily the solution either. With young used ones in good condition, it is actually a help. But with full renovations you have the same problem. Building further away from your place of residence is simply stupid, but for many financially mandatory. An expert also helps only to a limited extent. They come maybe for 10 appointments. In my opinion, the only help here is to work from the start with individual contracts and your own site manager who comes to the site every day. With a general contractor, the problem cannot be solved economically.

Forgive me, it was HeimatBauer who wrote that. I got it mixed up. Sorry!!

Building farther away from the place of residence is simply silly, but for many financially mandatory. An expert also helps only to a limited extent. They come for maybe 10 appointments. In my opinion, the only help here is if you work from the outset with individual contracts and your own site manager who comes to the construction site every day. With a general contractor, the problem cannot be solved economically.

The aspect of awarding the scopes of work individually or to a general contractor has nothing to do with this. In principle, no one should omit a site manager just because the contractor employs someone he labels the same way. A burglar remains a burglar, even if his accomplice stands guard in a police uniform.

Well, in this case it probably would have been enough to at least drive to the construction site once and take a look at the crane or simply take care of extending the permit for the crane placement in time.

The expert doesn’t come daily or weekly, but after certain work has been completed. And whether the electrician did his measurements properly or the plumber correctly pressure-tested the underfloor heating, he can only check based on the protocols. Unless something starts leaking after just 2 days, but even a layperson would notice that ;)

You really should go to your construction site weekly, though. You just have to make the time, there’s no way around it. How do you actually handle ventilation once the screed is in place if you live 150 km away?

How do you actually ventilate once the screed is laid, if you live 150km away?

Ask neighbors. It's also worthwhile well under 150km.

Forgive me, it was HeimatBauer who wrote that. I got it mixed up. Sorry!!

Yes, and I still stand by that. Of course, you can’t look inside the wall of a used house you buy – but at least there is a chance that the builder did. When you buy a house like a steam iron, it is already certain that it was NOT done.

Before I built, I struggled for years with the thought "how do I actually do this" and whenever I passed a masonry construction site in my area, I noted the place and time. About 1.5 years after moving in, I went there, rang the bell, introduced myself as a neighbor and asked how the experiences with the house were now. The most striking experience was a property with two virtually identical single-family homes, same location, same basic house, only minimally different in fittings, but diametrically different assessments: The first builder shouted like a fishwife, nothing was as agreed, and so on. The second builder just laughed and said, "well, with me everything was as desired – I was also on the construction site every day and not only at the acceptance like the neighbor."

If you can’t or don’t want to do that yourself and also can’t or don’t want to afford a value-added webcam, then IMHO you are better off with a ready-made house.