A series of questions that a builder or architect should easily answer in front of a client when you want to build anything: a fence, a house, a residential complex, a guesthouse, a laundry, or a pool.
What does a walk through the urban landscape show us today? Apart from parks or relaxation areas, apart from shopping sessions? Apart from admiring the holiday pageant with flags, lights and temporary props?
We see everywhere, even in the countryside, the struggles of our fellow citizens to build a home, simple or complex, some boutiques, shops, malls, and here and there some Investments: industrial halls, rarely schools , kindergartens and hospitals, roads or other infrastructure works, ghost highways. Do you still remember the expression “The whole country is a construction site”?
We see enough agitation everywhere that the construction sector is called a “priority sector”, in an agreement concluded by the Romanian Government with the Federation of Employers of Construction Societies. The agreement is a public document. We also present it here.
When the Government concludes such an agreement, it means that it is “thick”. And it is so “thick” because a lot is being built, with fewer and fewer people, with less and less qualified people. Although the requirements regarding architectural aesthetics and the degree of comfort are increasing, although the performance of building materials is increasing, although technologies are developing fiercely, we could not say that the quality of constructions has also increased in the same proportion.
Below we try to outline the details of the “landscape”, we try to bring you closer, to put the visible and invisible details under the magnifying glass, to challenge you to analyze all, or almost all, the details that characterize this world of builders. Ask yourself questions, beyond the statistics presented. Clarify to what extent you want to approach and understand the issues of construction processes. Determine what position you take when you have something to build.
We are trying to help you get into the “system”. We try to open the opportunity to make the right choices when you want to build anything: a fence, a house, a residential complex, a guesthouse, a laundry, or a swimming pool.
The media space offers a lot of information about construction. You can find anything on the internet or in publications. The announcements of the construction companies, the portfolio of their achievements, information about “turnkey” projects, even “turnkey” prices. Apparently… it’s very easy to choose.
After questions left and right, after the classic recommendation “I know someone”, you have the discussions with the specialists: architects or builders. With a coffee, you also find out the final price and it seems to you that you have grabbed God by the leg. The communicated and negotiated price “beats” your savings or the amount with which the bank is willing to credit you. Savings or loans, sums that have taken you, or will take you long years of work to dispose of them.
What does a year or two matter, until our investment will be put into use? What does a year or two matter until our dream becomes tangible? Done, we sign the contract. We are on the right track. We have successfully completed the penultimate step: deciding how, with whom, and in what time you will make the dream investment.
But in building the arguments for making the decision, did you ask yourself and ask all the questions? Did you get all the answers? Were these the correct ones?
Below are a series of questions to ask architects, builders, which we think you need to have in your “quiver”, when you go “hunting”:
How long have you been building? What experience do you have?
What field did you build in?
What sets you apart from other builders?
What warranty and maintenance programs do you have? What services do you offer during the warranty and post-warranty period?
Who supervises the site? What training and professional experience does the person have?
How long has your team been working together?
Who do I contact during the execution of the tasks? Will the person have decision-making authority?
What is the duration and periodicity of the training and professional training courses that you and the team you coordinate participate in?
What qualifications do the people on your team have?
Can you provide a list of references from clients, suppliers, subcontractors, architects and engineers you work with?
Un interviu util din care puteți afla cu cine intrați in „horă”.
Cu cât mai multe lucruri știi despre trecut, cu atât mai in siguranță poți merge mai departe. Întebarile pot continua cu următorul set:
Have you been or are you insolvent?
Do you have quality management programs in place? Who have you implemented them with and since when?
Have you implemented environmental policies?
Do you recycle materials that remain on construction sites or from the production process?
There are other questions to harmonize and update the selection of builders:
Do you have knowledge about energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption at home?
What is the level of technological and logistical endowment? What tools and equipment do you work with?
Have you implemented OSH measures, risk and accident insurance, individual work protection equipment?
What is the level of training and professional training of your team members? How many people with higher education do you have in the company?
What are your concerns regarding the legislation? What are the up-to-date standards and norms that we must apply and respect. How often do you consult them?
We at Romeho.ME are ready, after so many years, to answer these questions positively and honestly. Because we built, together with the completed constructions, a TEAM. A team that counts 22 colleagues with higher education, from various specialties, people who put their experience into the products we select and the services we provide to customers.
These are questions that a builder should easily answer in front of a client. The constructor will have to add the documents, the evidences attesting the efforts made and the results obtained in his activity to the answers. References.
With these references you will “buy” the peace of mind of the best decision you could have made. You have to ask these questions to several builders, whom you, the CLIENT, will put in a real competition.
You, the CUSTOMER, will be the winner of this competition!
Arch. Viorel Pleșca
Romeho.ME
