Real Estate / Building a house in Poland need advice from anyone that has built [100]

there is a saying in poland

"the first house you build is for your enemy"

what i experienced was 50% up front for foundations then 50% completion with 50% for next stage etc etc,
Poland are quite strict on regulations you have to have a 'clerk of works' to follow progress and sign your book. somebody totally seperate from your builder,

id say i paid almost 30-40% more than i should have done, lesson learnt painful but learnt.

think about getting a builder to build to wind and water tight for organising concrete etc

1 warning i never realised at the time, regarding the roof i have 9m trusses which arrived on site in a large pile and were fabricated there, roofs are expensive if you want to save on costs go for something simple it could save you a lot

i like the concrete floor upstairs the company that did mine it was almost polished,

getting housing plans in poland is easy there are magazines with loads of them, i paid 2500zl for 4 sets of plans.
but the price went up they tried to charge me 15000zl for the garage plans i wanted (my design)

oops last thing regarding the clerk of works make sure he has the qualifications to build a house to the size you want, i got caught out 1st guy didnt used a mate to 2nd stamp, then 'misplaced a set of drawings' when i got rid of him.

there are a lot of rogue builders out there pay your 50% upfront, next you see the town drunks leaning on shovels a week later never to be seen again, i heard of 1 local couple that this happened 3 times, so paying for what you want other than taking short cuts is advised.

Olsztyn i think thats where my father in law is from, it should be a lot cheaper over there.

good luck!

Real Estate / Building a house in Poland need advice from anyone that has built [100]

i was in the housing trade for 10years in scotland and found the way the house was built in poland was very different.

'nierozumiem'
i converted my attic it has the normal wooden flooring same as we do in UK i cant see any reason why a builder/joiner would not offer to do the same for you.

'bolek'
my workers were kept in check by the contractors father, no drinking on my site, that and the wife frequenting the building

i was also helped cost wise at the time my builders were being paid 5zl and hour (explains why most are in uk etc)

'sueswalkies'
check prices in kolobrzeg, it is unbelievable the cost of buying land or houses there, in a place like Olsztyn a 200% mark up in the last 2 years is probably still not in par. not that id believe an agent at this moment of time,

the one thing i could have done which would have helped was to build a large garage with apartment on top, then i would have met all the contractors and been able to live on site , lessons learned if you like, then built my humble abode, the builder i used was a crook but the outside contractors (apart from electricians) were top notch, i still use the joiner/carpenter for other tasks.

as i said earlier 'good luck' :)