It has been 2 years since we started writing articles and making videos to help and educate people. The main purpose of these videos and articles was to help those who are building their house themselves, or getting it constructed by a contractor, and to let them know the key factors they need to keep in mind while constructing or getting a house constructed by a builder. Another key factor of these articles and videos is that the client should know their cost of construction before starting and during their construction. After these videos and articles, people started approaching us and sharing their issues and concerns with us. Team Overc's, keeping in mind the distress of people, started to offer free online technical consultancy along with a free site visit. We wanted to update you on the site visits we did and the issues we found while doing our visits, and guide you on how we can get rid of these issues and technical blunders.
While studying our cases we found out that there are mainly 3 issues commonly faced by clients.
Value of Money
One of the issues being faced by clients is that they are not getting the quality of work they are paying for. Often contractors and builders charge clients for premium-plus grade and construct economical grade — hence clients are not getting what they are being charged for.
Technical Blunders
Due to a lack of technical staff and skilled labour, people face a lot of technical errors and blunders. Some of the main issues we found on almost every site were that walls were not at 90 degrees, doors were not at the same height, the roadmap/sequence of work was not correct (i.e. which work has to be done at what stage), lack of workmanship, misuse of good quality material due to inexperienced labour, and use of poor quality material on the recommendation of local contractors who in most cases have running commission arrangements with material suppliers/agents/dealers, etc.
Financial Uncertainty
Clients have no idea how much their house will cost them, and as a result significant delays occur due to uncertainty of funds and line of work. They're not told the amount of money they will require to construct their house, so they can arrange the funds accordingly.
The main reason for all of these issues arising is the client's pre-construction research. It is the client's duty to find the right builder — meet different builders and compare not just their rates, but also their scope of work and bill of material. It is strongly recommended to visit their ongoing projects to get an idea of how they work. For instance, if there are 10% good builders out there, it is your responsibility to reach out to them.
Here we will give you 3 main steps that will help you finalise and select a builder for your house construction.
First of all, a client needs to get at least three quotations from different builders. Please keep in mind to only shortlist builders who are willing to give a written and detailed quotation. The quotation should include the following three major points:
- It should mention the quality and brand name of the material that will be used in construction, and its price range.
- Secondly, it should mention details regarding the quality of work that will be done, for instance mixing ratios, thickness of slab, etc.
- Third and most important, the quotation should mention the builder's scope of work in detail — for instance it should be clearly mentioned what the builder will build during grey structure and what will not be in their scope. Some builders do not include water proofing, tanks and outside covered area works, and only inform the client after construction has started, creating an unpleasant situation.
It is very important that the client visit the builder's ongoing projects to get an idea of their labour and quality of work. The client should also take feedback from the builder's current or previous clients and ask them how their experience went.
Builders that fulfil all of the above requirements should then make a written, detailed and legal contract that provides financial security and safety for both the client and the builder. We hope clients will not have to face problems with the builders they finalise through this criteria.