Construction Lesson: Which Build Route?

brabus

Extracted from an email correspondence

…I also noticed you’re making good progress on your Lekki project than the Ajao (Drab to Fab) project. Why is it so?
You started Ajao first and the building is smaller than Lekki project….

My reply:

…the Lekki project is Contractor-managed (provides labour, logistics and materials) while the Ajao project is a labour-only contract which means the Owner is the General Contractor/Project Manager.

There is more than one way to build a house. You can either DIY, contract it out or co-build with a builder. Whatever it is, you need to work out which route is best for you.

brabus

OWNER-MANAGED, SELF BUILD OR DIY

You take on the role of General Contractor/Project Manager. You will commission an architect to come up with a design scheme and when it comes to building the house, you will gather together a team of specialist contractors in their various fields: foundation, bricklaying, roofing, plumbing, electricals and so on. You will also buy all the materials and provide adequate site facilities and security.

The Demands
You will need to be a very good organiser, both on short term (day ahead) and long term schedules (next month and the month after).

You will also need to know material requirements — not just what you want but, more importantly, if you want to keep costs down, and by how much. You’ll also need an in-depth knowledge of the building schedule (i.e. what trades come after each other and which work together) and an eye for the paperwork involved in running a site — from finances to security and inspections.

More importantly, you must be prepared to be on site everyday to manage things yourself. Otherwise, there’ll be project delay.

brabus

CONTRACTOR-MANAGED

The contractor will work with you during the design stage, and will be responsible for getting the house built. This means the contractor will arrange a team of subcontractors to undertake different stages of the project; he will arrange the procurement/delivery of materials to the site and also coordinate the work flow.

This route places much more emphasis on finding the right main contractor.

brabus

The build cost of any project is largely dependent on any of the following factors:

Building Size and Design
Site Topography
Soil Condition
Finishing materials (standard, mid-range, or luxury)
Location/Proximity to building material market
Build route (contractor managed or DIY)

Which build route will you choose and why? Let’s have your comment below.

brabus

Case Study | Owner-Builder

Oga Brabus
I’m loving this post, spent the last 30 mins reading carefully. I happen to want to start fencing a plot in a water logged area, I knew the area was waterlogged right from the very start as that the nature of the terrain (Lekki).

My question is that whilst I’m not a millionaire that can afford to give a blank cheque to a contractor etc, what I want to do is supply materials to a builder, he builds it alongside my architect, he will build shell initially, I take a rest and gather more cash to complete the finishing 6-9 months later. My question is that what’s the best way to deal with a situation where I want to supply materials, the reason why I want to do this is that there are some things that you rightly mentioned I dont want to compromise on, I want to buy good quality materials irrespective of the costs and just want to pay for labour (someone to do the actual work).

I have someone who is a very good architect, he will do the supervision and drawing etc. Lastly when attemptiong to build in lagos state schemes, how do you know whether you are allowed to build what you intend to build without making so many trips to the approval people back n forth.

My response in the next post.

brabus

Dear Owner-Builder,

Congratulations on your new build! Wishing you more wins in life.

You can save money, time or quality, but you can’t save all three. Decide on your approach and accept that you will have to invest something.

In response to your question, I can see that the build-route you want to use is ‘Self-Managed/Owner-Builder Approach’ which means you’ll be responsible for physical construction of the building from planning to painting/move-in.

I can also see that you’ve tried to make it easier by engaging an architect to handle tasks that you won’t be able to carry out yourself. If that’s the only reason you’re engaging him, then he’s irrelevant in the project. He should have the same power as yourself or even more to take decision without waiting for your approval.

But in the real sense, water-logged site construction doesn’t really fit an Architect’s job description. You need a certified structural engineer to determine what’ll work for you based on your site challenges and soil investigation reports.

You’ve also gone a step further to define roles and responsibilities such as interpretation of design drawings, ordering of materials and building inspection, taking deliveries and organising the day-to-day running of the site.

By the way “Who will inspect the building - perform quality check?” Is it the Architect? - doubling as the referee and the skipper.

This approach is very good in theory but is it practicable and economical. Read on:

Cost and Cash-flow Implications: this approach is a sure way to build houses with very little budget. Cash-flow are much easier to manage using this approach than with the other routes, as the only outgoings are actual cost of materials, for which you are responsible.

However, you’ll need to factor into the equation, the losses you made when you order wrong items, incomplete materials or when delayed delivery of materials is holding up the build process.

If you must follow this route, you’ll need to ensure the following especially when building water-logged sites:

You must be available at all time to provide and take deliveries of materials as needed.
You must know more than just the basics to determine when you’re overspending or under-budgeting on a particular stage. You will need to know material requirements — not just the quality you want but, more importantly, the quantity.
You’ll need an in-depth knowledge of the building project schedule (i.e. what trades come after each other and which work are dependent on other)
Research your roles very well before starting out, because your life will no longer be your own till the end of the project. Managing suppliers, artisans, subcontractors when you have no knowledge of the subject matter may well leave you open to exploitation by unscrupulous men.
You need to know how to juggle the conflicting needs of your builder, architect, suppliers, subcontractors, and so on.

Now that you know, what’s your take on this build route? Please leave a comment below.

mank1234

brabus in my first building, I took the contractor manged approach because the site is in another town and I couldn’t have afforded the luxury of traveling to manage a project myself. The contractor was a very close friend. He did his best and delivered beyond expectations but there are aspect he failed, probably because he was managing multiple projects.

I took the ‘owner-managed’ route in my second building. I have little knowledge of project management and my background is engineering, so with knowledge gained from following seasoned professionals like n3xt, spyder880, rottech, segzy, abdulwastex, skimanski etc from nairaland, I couldn’t have gone wrong. My major consideration for taking this route was because I knew the project would take time to complete as there was no readily available funds, coupled with inflation.

Both approach have merits and demerits and none is superior to the other. It just depends on circumstances.