What is needed to build your own home? Project documentation, budget, materials, equipment and, of course, performers - builders. You can build your home yourself, without resorting to outside help, or use the services of construction workers. About how to hire builders to build a house, and the conversation will begin.
Decide on the type of construction
To begin with, when starting to build a house, you must already clearly define what problems need to be solved and what opportunities your budget provides. For example, you want to build a turnkey house, starting from the design and ending with landscaping, or carry out only individual construction work, or build the house in parts, in stages, hiring different contractors, or you need a comprehensive team. Consider whether you are ready to organize and monitor the construction process on a daily basis or whether you need the services of a foreman, a supply manager and independent technical supervision over compliance with the construction according to the project. Based on these goals, you must understand who you need.
There are only three main options in ascending price of services:
Wild brigades, guest workers, “shabashniks” and other unskilled workers.
A team of two or three people (on the recommendation of those familiar with an oral agreement, often without a foreman), private teams with a foreman, possibly registered as an individual entrepreneur (IP), etc.
Construction companies (LLC) with a package of necessary documents.
Who to hire is a different question that deserves a separate article. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. The simplest and cheapest way of construction is a household one - hire a team of guest workers and organize all the construction yourself. In this case, all responsibility for the decisions made will rest with you. And what you end up with is also your responsibility.
Let’s say you are confident in your abilities and are ready to act as a foreman, manager, purchaser of materials, etc. Further, your responsibilities will include:
search for and select people for your team within the limits of your financial capabilities;
low cost of services implies an appropriate level of qualifications (without claims from the customer);
purchase, deliver construction materials and monitor their safety, prevent theft;
independently control the construction process;
perform independent technical control over compliance with the parameters in accordance with technical documentation;
provide construction equipment and tools
Teams consisting of skilled workers who can be found through recommendations are already more expensive. Even more expensive are such teams with a foreman, since his services will have to be paid, or teams of individual entrepreneurs. And finally, the services provided by the company are more expensive than the crew. The same house can be built for different prices. The larger the budget, the wider the possibilities in choice.
Of course, in the construction market, among firms and individual entrepreneurs, there are unscrupulous contractors (as well as customers), who recruit the same migrant workers from the street as workers, engage in fraud and deceive customers, etc. A professional won't work for food, but that doesn't mean a hack can't be expensive. Therefore, you need to approach the search for good builders with the utmost care. Below are a few simple tips and rules that will help you weed out unreliable contractors.
Search for offers
So, you will have to spend effort and time searching for good builders, regardless of who you need: highly specialized craftsmen, private teams or companies. You will not use the services of unknown people based on the first ad that comes up. It is necessary to hire masters of their craft for construction. It doesn’t matter whether they work themselves, privately, or are employees of a company.
Finding qualified and ethical contractors who are committed to doing their jobs conscientiously is a difficult and painstaking task. You need to start your search in advance, several (4-6) months in advance. Good builders have orders for the season ahead for various projects. And if you have missed time, and you need to build this season, finding suitable specialists will be very problematic.
The main source remains reviews and reputation, regardless of whether it is a company or private individuals. A recommendation from a satisfied client is the best advertisement for smart builders. Serious contractors value and care about their reputation. Look for them on the recommendations of established friends, acquaintances, neighbors. If you need local builders, find out which ones are in your region, who built with their help, and if they are being built, visit the construction site.
A construction team or firm may be considered as a potential contractor based on recommendations received from several previous clients. On the other hand, you should not trust the advice of strangers or people who do not understand construction.
There are other resources to use. Visit contractors' websites, discussions on forums, arrange an online tender. The contractor’s website should not contain beautiful photographs purchased from a photo bank, but real photos of their work.
It is advisable that the construction organization has permission from a self-regulatory organization, because joining a self-regulatory organization of builders already means that this construction company is serious in the market and can be trusted.
If you find it difficult to determine the level of professionalism of builders or do not want to waste time figuring out how to hire builders to build a house, work with a foreman or construction expert - someone you can trust in this matter. Later, this person will be useful in drawing up estimates, studying the contract and supervising construction. To put it simply, it’s to find an intelligent friend or relative who has construction experience, both as a builder and as a customer who has gone through the stages of construction.
Select builders from your list whose reviews satisfy you, and they themselves made a convincing, adequate impression. Then you can get to know the contractor better.
Selection and narrowing down the choice
When it comes to the final selection of a contractor, it is important to have several conversations and meetings with potential contractors whose candidacies you are considering. Be sure to visit the site together. By doing this you achieve three main goals.
Firstly, it will help the contractor understand what type of housing and where the client wants to build, on what terrain, in what time frame, etc., that is, decide whether he will undertake construction.
Secondly, the client will receive more information about this contractor, his experience and reputation, possible budget and construction time frame. It is recommended to consider the following details:
Explore the portfolio of completed projects. What kind of houses, what complexity? Ask for addresses of previous jobs where the contractor worked, and contacts of clients who ordered them. Visit these facilities to evaluate the quality and talk to previous customers. Honest builders have nothing to hide; they themselves can offer to visit their sites.
If this is a team with a foreman, is this specialist a good one? Or just an intermediary?
Who will work and on what basis? Students, migrant workers, skilled workers? What specialty does each employee have?
How long has the company been in business? The presence of a company in this market segment for more than 3-5 years is considered optimal.
Does the contractor guarantee the required level of quality of work, warranty period?
The preliminary cost of work (with some error), provision of building materials, tools, equipment and additional services - all this is agreed upon in advance.
Discuss the terms of the future contract, as well as the terms of reference, preliminary estimates for all services and how the work schedule will be carried out, the form and time of payment, the delivery and acceptance procedure.
Thirdly, you will personally get to know the contractor, and answer your question - will you be able to see and collaborate with this person every day for a long time? Therefore, choose workers with whom you can maintain formal relationships at a minimum. After all, it’s not very pleasant to communicate with an unceremonious person.
If hired workers for some reason do not want to look at the site, determine the scope of work, agree on an estimate, or draw up a contract, this is a reason to doubt their competence.
Once you collect this information, this will give you the opportunity to select the most suitable 2-3 performers, and make the final choice in favor of the one that suits you best in terms of budget, estimate, terms, and terms of the contract.
After the final selection of the contractor, a contract can be concluded.
Conclusion of an agreement
Once you make your final decision, it is important to have a detailed written contract that spells out all the terms and conditions of construction. In addition to the contract, all necessary documentation is drawn up, an estimate is drawn up, controversial issues are discussed and all this is signed before the work begins. The contract does not relieve you of risks, but it is a guarantee for both the client and the contractor. In the future, you will use the contract and accompanying documents when monitoring the work throughout the entire construction and paying for it.
Typically, the contract specifies the details of the contractor, specific types of work, payment terms, deadlines, responsibilities of the parties, and quality assurance issues. It is important to discuss all issues regarding specific construction work and record this in detail in the contract, so that later you do not have to pay extra for the required work.
When considering how to hire builders to build a house, the owner of the site has to choose, as was written above, from individual workers, construction teams or firms. The contract is concluded with a construction company, an individual entrepreneur, or, if it is a recommended team, with each specialist individually, indicating in the contract the amount of work and paying for it only after the completion certificate is issued. With unskilled workers, as a rule, only verbal agreements are made.
Strictly adhere to the payment schedule. Remember: you only need to pay for work done on time with guaranteed quality. It is highly advisable to include a clause in the contract regarding penalties for failure to complete work on time. If this is done, it will be much easier for you to control the construction process.
Of course, one article will not cover all the aspects of searching and hiring builders. And it is impossible to take into account all the moments and unforeseen situations that are sure to arise. This is just general advice on how to hire builders to build a house. To agree with them or not is everyone's business.
Construction or renovation of a house can deprive a person of peace for a long time.
Firstly, this is a rather lengthy process. Secondly, it is expensive. Thirdly, responsible.
Before starting construction or renovation, the question arises: do everything yourself or hire professionals? Both options have their advantages and disadvantages.
Self-building a house
You can successfully build a house or renovate apartments in Samara yourself. But you should do this only when you understand at least something about this issue and are familiar with the main stages and technologies of construction. Otherwise, you can only ruin everything.
Doing the work yourself has a number of advantages:
- Repairs can be done in stages. This makes it possible to invest money gradually, as it becomes available.
- From a financial point of view, this option may be less expensive.
- You are independent from third parties, which means there are no downtime or delays.
On the other hand, this approach also has its pitfalls:
- Construction and repairs include a wide range of works: electrical, plumbing, plastering, roofing work, etc. Some of them are quite difficult to carry out on your own, while others can be downright dangerous.
- All types of work require special tools. In a normal household, many things simply do not exist, which means they will need to be purchased or rented.
- Self-repair or construction will require a lot of time and effort. By and large, either the repair will take longer, or it will only be necessary to deal with it.
Construction of a house by hired workers
All or at least part of the work can be entrusted to professionals. Especially if you are a person far from construction. In addition, hiring workers can be beneficial because:
- Today, the construction of cottages in Samara is gaining momentum, and professionals have extensive experience in building houses from scratch in a short time.
- A construction team most often brings together specialists of several profiles, so one team is able to perform all types of work.
- The construction team foreman will help you select and purchase all the necessary materials.
If you manage to find good specialists, then the customer’s business will be only periodic monitoring of the process and timely cash injections. However, there are also some disadvantages:
- Unscrupulous workers may steal construction materials.
- It is a rare company that starts working without advance payment.
- It is problematic to hold “left” companies accountable in case of violation of deadlines for the delivery of an object, damage to property or any technological violations.
You can only trust construction or repairs to companies with reputation and experience. It would be a good idea to get acquainted with already completed projects or get recommendations from friends.
How do you plan your renovation? You will not be a rare exception if you say that you have little time for it: you spend weekdays at work, and there are also delays at work, and when you finally get home, you have no strength or desire left to carry out repair work .
Having visited a hardware store on the weekend and purchased some materials for repairs, we plan to finally start it, but first we put it off for the evening, then for the weekend, and it can last forever. If, of course, you have good willpower and organization, then by finding snatches of time, you can start and finish the renovation yourself. Or give him your entire vacation, but this option is one of the most cruel to yourself. A more gentle option is to turn to the services of construction companies and teams. Remember that it is safer (for you, the customer) to turn to serious repair companies that have been working on the market for many years. Of course, there are always two sides to a coin and such an organization, as a rule, charges a larger amount for its services than a private team, and this can also steal (due to financial expenses) your vacation. The solution may be to hire a small private team that works independently without intermediaries, however, in most cases they work without contracts and you will work only by verbal agreement.
Let us make a reservation once again that choosing builders to renovate your apartment or house is a very important and responsible matter; both your financial situation and the quality of the work itself in which you will live will depend on the outcome of your decision. Often crews are hired based on advice from friends and relatives. Therefore, it will never be superfluous to find out the opinion of the selected professionals about the repair from clients for whom they have already done repairs; sometimes the team itself even gives their numbers when they are confident in their reputation. It would also be absolutely normal to ask the builders for diplomas about the relevant education.
After the final selection of the team, be sure to discuss the exact volume of work to be done, the materials that will be needed to carry it out, as well as clear prices for all services. If the team you choose is a legal entity, then it must have the appropriate license to carry out repair and construction work. Always enter into an agreement with a clear list of rights and responsibilities. If you work with a team that acts as an individual, then it is logical to conclude a similar agreement with the provision of services to you in this case by an individual.
In general terms, any repair is characterized by 3 main parameters:
- its value
- timing
- quality of work.
Of course, if you do not resort to hiring third-party workers, you can very well reduce the cost only to the price of materials and tools. And the timing of the repairs in this case will depend on your workload, the free time available for repairs, as well as your skills in certain construction works, the latter, by the way, will also determine the quality of the repairs.
If you decide to resort to the work of professional construction teams, the cost of repairs increases significantly, the time frame, on the contrary, is reduced compared to the work you carry out yourself, but the quality in this case should be of a high professional level. The choice, of course, is yours, but, of course, it is much better to relax and get a quality repair done on time than to spend every free minute and get a non-professional, albeit cheaper, repair.
Problems can be very diverse, one such problem, although insignificant, is the problem of choosing which house to live in, buy an already built one, build a house on your own, or hire a design and construction company.
Build a house yourself
Let’s say right away that it’s unlikely to be possible to build a house on your own; you’ll still need to call friends, relatives, and acquaintances for help.Pros:
You can proudly declare that the house was built with your own hands.
The house is built exclusively for oneself, therefore, the best building materials that the builder can afford to buy are selected. Hackwork is completely eliminated during work, every little detail is taken into account, the right place is glued, a nail is driven in, a screw is tightened, etc.
A person knows his house completely, from the foundation to the canopy on the roof.
With this choice, the monetary costs are minimal; only building materials are purchased.
Cons:
Only a person with at least minimal experience can make a cottage for themselves.
Even if a person is an experienced and professional builder, he cannot avoid mistakes associated with the design and construction of a house, he may not take something into account, and all responsibility will be his alone; there is no one to blame for mistakes (although some manage to do so).
Only those people who have a sufficient amount of free time can start building a house.
Hire a construction company
The option that occurs most often. Hiring a construction team consisting of migrant workers can also be classified in this category.Pros:
The construction of a house begins with the selection of a location; for future housing, you can choose the one that best suits the tastes and needs of the future homeowner (the same applies to the option when the house is built independently).
You can build your dream home even without any construction experience. Choose or create a project yourself, take some image you like as a sample.
A good construction company will do everything, from the design to the turnkey delivery; there is no need to waste time, only monitor the progress of construction and current issues.
If the contract is drawn up correctly, the company will bear responsibility for its mistakes.
The likelihood of errors during construction is minimal, unless of course it is a good company.
Cons:
This option is the most expensive; you need to purchase not only building materials, rent equipment, but also pay for the labor of workers involved in construction, from the designer to the assistant. Naturally, the construction company must also have some kind of profit from its work.
The disadvantages also include choosing a high-quality and professional construction company; when searching, you can make a big mistake; this is unlikely to have a positive effect on the quality of your future housing.
Buy a ready-made house
This means a turnkey house, with finishing and at least some communications. New or recycled makes a difference, but that's a topic for another comparison.Pros:
There is no need to wait for the house to be built, for it to shrink and for repairs to be made. You can move in immediately after completing all the documents. Repairs and furniture are optional (unless, of course, you bought an unfinished house, or just its walls).
Cons:
It is possible that you bought a pig in a poke. The house may leak, the site may flood in the spring, there were shortcomings or a banal defect during construction. This had to be taken into account when choosing and inspecting before purchasing; it’s a good idea to ask your neighbors before making a choice.
