Most investors search for Construction Company Pakistan from the local press and the Internet. References from friends who have already gone through the construction of their own homes are also very important.
Where to find qualified contractors to build a house?
If other houses are being built in the vicinity of our plot – it is also worth taking a Sunday walk and seeing construction sites. If one of them positively draws our attention – this is a great reason to add the team working there to our list of potential contractors.
Lists of certified contractors very often also have manufacturers of building materials. This is a particularly valuable source of information if we decide to build in a rarely used or very modern technology.
It’s also worth looking around on internet forums. Here, however, a large dose of distance and thorough checking of any information obtained in this way is recommended. Not all opinions contained therein are reliable (and I would even be inclined to say that a significant number of them are completely untrue).
This is basically for two reasons:
• First of all, contractors (especially smaller ones) quite often use for not very fair advertising – where dishonesty consists mainly in the fact that their representatives impersonate their clients. This does not necessarily mean that it is a bad company, but it is difficult to expect objectivity from such information.
• Secondly, very often opinions (especially negative ones) are more the result of “finding the guilty” and a sign of the investor’s construction frustration than the actual reliable assessment of the contractor. It happens, for example, that after a more precise “press” of the interlocutor, it turns out that the opinion “they are hopeless, I had to correct everything after them” means more or less than the employed construction team did not agree to “by the way” add a garage to the house (not covered by project or an earlier contract) or walked off the construction site impatiently waiting for the next tranche of payment.
What to watch out for when working with a construction team and an architect?
After creating the initial list, we can start talks with potential contractors. This will require the most accurate architectural and construction design possible. If we chose the so-called typical project – there is no problem, because immediately after the purchase, we have practically complete documentation in our hands (unless we decide to introduce major changes).
It is a bit worse if we cooperate with an Architects in Lahore who prepares a project on an individual order, and at that time we want to talk to contractors. Most often, however, an architectural concept with a specification of materials is sufficient for this. You can also ask the designer to prepare the necessary drawings in a “draft” version.
All these possibilities depend mainly on how the contract with the designer was structured. In extreme cases, it may turn out that he will require additional remuneration for this.
It is also good to obtain a cost estimate and bill of quantities. They will allow us to assess how attractive the contractor’s offer is and whether he is not trying to deceive us from the very beginning, for example by overstating the surface of the walls or roof.
If the costs presented by the potential contractor are significantly lower than the valuation we have – you should carefully check what costs the contractor has left on our side and what scope of work he has envisaged. If, on the other hand, the valuation of a construction company is significantly higher than ours. It remains to look for a cheaper team or find out what is the reason for such a high price. Perhaps it includes additional services that will make the offer attractive after all.
