During the last two-weekly progress meeting with stekke+fraas, team Building asked about the options we have for the finishing of the interior of our units. They are:
The unit gets delivered “casco” Y/N
Stekke+fraas do the interior design Y/N
The interior is built by the main contractor, who also builds the rest of the building Y/N
Part of the interior is built by the owners (DIY), e.g., the flooring Y/N
The architects would like us to decide on option 1 (casco Y/N) for each unit by the beginning of December. Our choice has an impact on the workload of the technical experts (who we are about to designate) and the overall cost calculation. The acoustics expert, for example, will have to be involved to determine whether a bathroom might be an acoustic nuisance for a neighbour.
There are cost and schedule advantages of having stekke+fraas do the interior design and having the interior built by the main contractor. Indeed, the finishing will be cheaper (because of economies of scale) and your unit is likely to be delivered sooner (because of fewer problems of coordination between suppliers)
The architects also indicated that:
They have a portfolio of interior design work (which they love to do)
They would conduct individual discussions with each owner to consider their needs, preferences and budget.
The request for the building permit needs to include a rough interior layout for the all of the units, to certify respect of the building code.
it’s part of their assignment for Stekke + Fraas to do the interior design to a certain level which goes quite far (tiles bathroom, plancher, …). What is certainly not part of their job (coming from the contract): ‘L’étude de la décoration et de l’ameublement.’ So this is for me not a choice.
all units are delivered ‘casco’ and if I understand well , even maybe some extra’s to avoid problems like “there is a leak, who is responsable”, to make sure that the acoustics are ok for the whole building (so not to be seen as a thing unit per unit)
The questions to be asked for me are:
Do you want to stop at the casco level ? (maybe still to be cleared out what this exactly means). This means, doing the walls, electricity, floors, ceilings , … I think they prefered showers and the acoustics to be done by them/a company.
If not: do you want to work with one company, the same as for the casco. This means one contract between the group and the contractor (as for the casco, no individual contracts). This will lead to faster delivery, and cheaper price. Downside: limited choices (e.g. of kitchen, of tiles, …). He indicated that Spiegel had worked with individual contracts, because one wanted a ‘pompe a chaleur’ and another one a ‘chaudière’, so for me this means all chosing for the same ‘technical solutions a bit’. For me this doesn’t mean every one has to do the same: sb can decide for a wooden floor (parquet), another one for concrete… (also maybe to be cleared out with the architects still)
if you don’t want to stop at casco level, and have a bit more individual choices, than every unit will has its own contract with 1-2-3-… companies. It can even be an individual contract with the same company as for the casco.
For these last two options you still can decide to leave certain things out: eg: you don’t want to go for an installed kitchen but buy a stove second hand and by some second hand furniture for in the kitchen. Or you want to do the plancher yourself. If you want to do that yourself, that would also mean you would need to do the doors, because that come after the plancher…
My feeling is that they want for us to know who will do the work themselves, and for those choosing for finishing, i think they - as a group- will need to decide between 2 or 3
ps i don’t know how to foresee what you want: work with your own interieur designer. I have the impression, you would need to go for casco, have your interieur designer do the design, you would need to find somebody to do the works and an architect to follow-up?
I think I had the same vision as Els.
Although I feel like it’s not so different from what Joannes is saying, maybe just a different angle? But I would indeed go with Els’ description.
I wasn’t clear about that part. I think it CAN be part of their assignment (and probably mostly it will be), but that we do have the choice (although they seem to think we were going to do this with them as well).
Hey, As shared with Els after the dinner, I didn’t fully understand a) at which point of the construction the “dividing line” between casco or “all in” runs and b) what the exact implications for the group would be - so I guess we take it back to the architects? Sorry to not be able to shed any more light on this.
