Building a house in Poland need advice from anyone that has built

Building a house in Poland, This year we are planning on building a house on our land in Poland. I would like to hear from anyone that has already done this, please tell me your story,

Hello sueswalkies,

Has the land been designated for building purposes (general plan)
or is there a house on the plot, which you can rebuild?.

Does it have services, sewage, electricity, water, gas?.

Find a competent architect and builder.

Hello SeanBM

The land owner is selling of plots of 14 in total, of land wich he had gotten permission to sell as indvidual building plots. There is a well, and there are at least 20 houses near by so i didn't think that electric connection would be a problem. Have you build in poland?how long will it take to get planning permission, and services connected

I recommend going to the town hall to find out what exactly you can build, how many floors, how many metres square, sometimes even angle of roof is important.

If they don't have a general plan, it is different.
Perhaps the seller could provide you with this information but you are better off going to the source for accuracy.


I am not trying to worry you but often towns and cities in Poland are not equipt to supply more houses.


Yes.


It has just been made more efficiant to get construction permission.
It really depends on the town hall and how efficient they are.
Service connections all depends on where you have to connect from.

I am not trying to be evasive, there are some general rules but I recommend finding out this information first.

Thanks Sean for your info, its hard for me to any research since i don't speak polish and am not in poland at the moment, I will get my husband to enquire. As for building we are planning on doing it ourselves. don't lol

I understand that this might seem a good idea because it appears to be cheaper.
I would recommend getting a qualified builder to do the job properly.
You can pick up architectural drawings, pre-made, they are cheap enough.
And you can make all of the applications yourself.
But I have to stress, that a competent qualified builder is very important, they will save you money in the long run.

Which general area is the plot in?, I understand if you don't want to say, this is the internet.

Its near Olsztyn, i can't find any good builders in the area i wouldn't trust them to build a chicken run,

Oh dear.
I would bring builders in from neighbouring areas, it is essential.
Is this house going to be your residence or a holiday home?.

oh sean just remember i did find an ok builder he wanted 70,000 euro to build a standard size house. Yeah it is going to be our home for a while i want to learn polish

How much do you think you can build a house for?.
Standard size houses in Poland is very different from Ireland.
They are generally very big here, housing three/four generations.
Do you have a rough size in metres?.

I don't know sean I really don't how much i can build for. The land has permission for a house of 80 sq meters, However i have the plans for a cottage roughly 70feet x 45 feet.I am trying at the moment to do a pricing to see how much i would need. Its all the hidden expenses i will come across i am trying to account for as well. Like the cost of septic tanks and electric connections and fees to all the powers that be. How much based an your experience can a person build a house for in poland

That should work out to be fairly cheap to build.


You are mixing Feet and metres.
Stick to metres, nobdy uses feet here.


Prices are completely different in that area, have never built there, it is the other side of the country.
I would assume, it would be cheaper than Małapolska.

Thanks, yes i have a feet block!

I am currently constructing, PM me for information.

our experience ...
- someone not 'on site' will probably get taken to the cleaners
- there are some unexpected moments e.g. garage floors are tiled.
- everything will be concrete. forget wooden floors upstairs, they're concrete here. This creates cost and schedule issues.
- the architect will not do anything much more than draw a pretty picture. the structural engineer prepares a report full of math and appears at regular intervals to peer meaningfully at the building progress

- some components which are mass-produced in other countries might not be so cheaply (comparatively) available here. For example, roof timbers : ours were build on-site rather than bought as 'standard' (and mass-produced somewhere else).

- you'll spend a lot on insulation ... or should.

Thats very interesting, concrete floors upstairs i bet thats not cheap,

It is the norm here.
There is a completely different way of building here, mainly due to the climate.
The house has to be able to withstand extreme temperatures.

There are different types of concrete floors.

We have just had a floor replaced. Wood for concrete. Steel girders (RSJ's), pre-cast slabs, polystyrene layer, concrete screed.

After dropping the old floor it took two days to finish the new one... couldn't walk on it for the next couple of days though.

To do this yourself would require the expense of lifting tackle and experience.

Think about how you would build a pitched roof with roof lights and provision for chimney.

Windows will probably be plastic (pvc) frames. When you order the windows, fitting is usually/can be part of the contract.

Some parts of your project will, as SeanBM says, be much cheaper, if you call in the experts.

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!

Wow. Building in Poland sounds like a nightmare.
And you guys have crooked contactors too!

What's the point of concrete second floors?

so when the enemy attacks and burns your house down you still have a house structure standing. like they do before it's finished.

Are you serious? And this is mandated?

Does anyone have the answer to Randal's question. Besides some of the obvious benefits like sound and fire proofing, why is this done, and is it mandated by building codes?

I have a 120 yr old house in Poland, single floor, with a massive beautiful loft above me which I would like to convert to living space within the next few years. The existing loft floor is supported by huge wooden beams, which may require some reinforcing, but would certainly be adequate to support a living area. I've had discussions with a few different Polish builders about the conversion process, and the first thing that always comes up is how I will put the concrete floors in. They cannot not get their heads around my "WHY?" question.


WHY?

[Guest #15 back again ]
Why concrete, I don't know. However ... a family friend (who is a builder himself) has recently built a house with concrete floors upstairs :D ... in NIreland

One guess I have is from observing the whole "house build" mental attitude here. What I see is people going for the 'best' in every part of the process ... they are building their palace, and only the best ideas / construction / finish will do. In direct contrast to this, I grew up in the UK and people economised where they could. (Or should I say, the builders economised ...)

As for the wooden approach -- I wouldn't even start with a 'normal' builder (whose comfort zone will involve lots of concrete). How about finding people in your area who already have wooden homes? There are people who sell old wooden homes from eastern areas -- for dismantling and reconstruction somewhere else. People who do that have to be comfortable with what wood can do. I know a family in my area (Trojmiasto) who have such a home -- two old homes from way east of here, joined together. They work with a carpenter who is comfortable with wooden-house building.

Best not seeing them again, than seeing them build your dream house in a drunken state, I have never seen sober workers on a building site.

It is exactly cos of the rogue builders or tooth less villge idots that have tried to convince me they are builders i realise that the only way my house stands a chance of getting built is to do it ourselves.


Every one says that to me Olsztyn is cheap. I don't think its cheap any more, the estate agents in Olsztyn told me that house and land prices have gone up 200% in the last two years.

If Olsztyn is cheap i can't imagine what the rest of poland prices are.

Heat gain and soundproof, concrete built is better built - timber floors are are a thing of the past, as you can hear those upstairs fart , and they creak after a while, so if you want privacy, and a cosier environment, build with concrete.

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' :)

Does anyone know a competent architect or building company in Wroclaw who could help me out with pricing?

Hi, we are just getting ready to lay the foundations to our polish house, We bought a plan of from a book, the web site for the plans is archeton.pl, the architect was very helpfull he got our water, and electric connected to the land for us. I know that this company has offices through out poland.