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

I want to buy a land near Warsaw 1000 m2 - I was told I can only use 40% of it for the construction of a house; however, it seems it is different if I want to build a semi-detached house. Anybody can explain that to me?

Paul

I guess it is set this way so that two families get housed on the land, not just one...

If you need any design, building law or construction advice, please do not hestitate to write to me . I am licenced architect with experience of consultancy & cooordination for international companies. Best Regards, Piotr , pmatkiewicz@onet.pl

This is the best moment to construct... you are not gonna get this low prices from builders any more

Three years ago I bought a house in Northern Poland which needed to be completed. It has been an absolute nightmare. The builders are badly trained and in effect "jobs of all trades and masters of nothing". Everything is done at least twice. Materials and tools acquire legs. They charge non-Poles or Poles returning from working abroad much higher rates. They are arrogant and think every woman client is a fool.

My advice to anyone building is to bring tried and tested builders from somewhere outside of Poland. If you must use Polish builders 1. Set up an account with a building merchant for materials and ensure you get an invoice (up to 6 years you can get VAT back). 2. Check all materials coming onto site and give out only when they are needed - I lost 150 kilo of render for my elevation which is now sitting on the walls of the builder's nightclub. 3. Hide all your own tools. 4. Ensure you have a legally binding contract with everything spelt out in detail. 5. Tell the builder he does not get paid until he produces an invoice. 5. Ban the drinking of alcohol on site

Cats&dogs,

A lot of truth in your post. Those thinking of building in Poland should take heed of it.

davidpeake: Try es polska. It is a Czech company and they build a house for you on your land (your project or theirs). I think that they have some price info on their webpage and even if you are not interested ultimately in their service, you can still get an offer from them and get the info you need out of them. I am sure that they have an office in Wroclaw.

About the concrete second floor. I have a normal "upstairs" and a loft. We exposed the wooden beams everywhere and replaced the wooden floor upstairs with....another wooden floor of wide planks. Yes, you can hear everything but it is not just because of the wood. It is because the wooden planks were installed directly on the beams. There is insulation but the planks are directly on the beams with no cork or anything to absorb sound.

Good luck

I have a friend in Poland(lublin) who built a wooden house for 35000 thousand euro..I will see it in two weeks time,,to see if it is still standing.

rinty
sorry just 35.000

Wow you are brave, I am English and lived in Poland 6 years now, have done around 5 building and renovation projects around the Kujavia Pomorski region.

Best advice never ever part with any money up front regardless, walk away if they insist. If you buy materials make sure you get the faktura in your name with your NIP number on it as you can claim the VAT back later well a percentage anyway.

Always always make the person or company sign a reciept for any money paid regardless of any excuses. Live on site if possible and watch them closely. I am thinking of writing a book on what has happend to me here and other peoples experiences with builders. A friend was quoted 700,000 zloty to build a complete house, everything all the installations the lot.

Two years later he has the shell of the house and is minus 700,000 zloty and is broke and going to return to England.........a common story. If you are doing anything up around our way give me a call 698 295 117 for a chat, Steve

Just about sums up the Polak.
Stubborn, knows best and can totally cock up everything at someones expense.
I have over 30 years experience of the building industry, but they still know better than me.
Native English speaker, but they claim they can speak better than me.
I simply give up when it comes to Poles ( you can,t educate pork ).

We just finished building a house here in Poland (Warsaw), went very well, quality of construction is very good for a reasonable price. In my view, Polish builders are very good, you do need however to have certain rules (no alcohol..). We also had some building work done 10 years ago in the UK, had to kick out the british builders and we took out a polish team to finish the work..

No doubt related to the wife.

Hiya Sue. Im in Elblag just the other end of the canal from you. Its provincial and cheap like Olsztjn. Ive just handed over the building of my house, to a small firm today, and they are gonna finnish off for me to stan surowy. basically closed and roofed but not finished(no money up front). This has to be done before the winter as breez blocks blow apart in frost(the big crate bricks dont). By the time id got permission it was half way through the summer, so me and my wife couldnt have got finnished. we built massive foundations 2.2m (on a hill) each block 25kg,50 ton total. got a bit of help after that from two part time firemen and got to lintels , I was stubbornly against it cos it was my everest. but if your working with em... Put an ad in village, No Drinkers.

What Im trying to say is Do it;
The most important ive found so far are;

The land must have A road and electric + water (piped water not a well)directly accessible from your plot (have the vendor agree to put services to the land in the contract) or you wont get the second permission, the first permissions mean nowt,(this is the mistake we made we thought we could start building and came to poland and had to wait) ie buying the land budowlana doesnt always get permission (normally yea)theyll tell what you can build so dont by plans till then(ready plans are about 2-3000zl)

Try and buy flat land and the adaptation of plans to the land by another arcitect will be cheaper + dont make changes.
do all the paper chasing in the winter and you may be able to do all the building yourselfs, but even if you cant good strong helpers are only 10zl/hr.

I recon a 100m2 house costs about 100,000 land, 100,000 stan, 150,00 finish doing it yourself add about 100,000 for labour if not.

Weve had a lovely expirience doing it , felt like a real prospector, but im glad i no longer have to live in a wooden hut, My wife dealt with the merchants and although she would never be regarded as builder she was most of the time treated great respect and kindness ,me even more so, yes you do feel some people ********** (all the way back to their comunist holes) but you get that when you do anything out of the norm, THE NORM FOR ENGLISH HERE IS TO BE A NATIVE SPEAKER AND SIT IN A BAR LORDING IT UP, like that fella with nowt nice to say.

Good luck

Hi,

Much like everyone im trying to get a free bit of information to help me make a decision on a builder,/costing my project,

Does anyone know about cost of septic tanks and installation. i found a few sites, but trying to work out a guide price or just get info from people who have experience with this,

will be building a 3 bedroom house, on 1000sq m, plot of land. obviously no sewage there but we have water, gas, electric.

Im looking for an info please,

Ta very much,

Neil

places like Castorama sell them and all the fittings.

castorama.pl/produkty/

Cheers for that,

i found a few places that sell them, was after some info about installation really if anyone can help,

ie:

How deep it has to be buried?

size of chamber for 3 bed house?

Minimum distance form house?

Do you need foundation?

does it have to be inspected by clerk of works before covered over and buried?

I know its asking a lot, and im sure when we get to the point of needing a architect he will answer this, but
im trying to cost as much as possible and getting as much info as possible..

thanks all


Great forum on the site,

Thanks Wroclaw,


Stumbled across this should anyone need the info.

eko-sum.pl

Hello:

I live in Ciosta Rica and I know how they build homes there with reinforced steel, lots of it, pblus blocks and cement. They are strong and can withstand earthquakes and storms. it is NOT like the crap they build in the USA, false foundation, and all the material are synthetic and fragil so the hurricanes blow them away.

How do they build homes ins Poland? I want to build my own. Please advise me.

Thanks

Carl Lawrence

PS: My wife is Polish

usually brick or brick and block

apartments: concrete

special homes (usually in the mountains) wood.

Can anyone update me with costs on building houses, now it's 2011? Looking to construct something in the region of 150m2, brick-and-blockwork, probably beam-and-block floors for the second storey.

I've heard wild estimates for the shell, from as little as 100,000zl to as much as 500,000zl, so I'd like to have some idea what the expenses are.

We built a couple of years ago. 105m2, block, concrete ceiling. We had internet-bought house plans modified by an architect so we got what we wanted. We spent about 200k on the house.

Zloty or Euro??

PLN. The land was an additional cost.

Steel reinforced poured concrete i believe.

Most houses in Poland are built of brick, have concrete floors and an attic in a wooden structure with a roof of ceramic or metal tiles . The cost of building such a house of aprx. 200 square meters, with the use of Polish materials is a about 1 million PLN plus in Warsaw area . Employing , of course, construction crews by yourself but not construction companies .

Ps With low or medium quality and price of materials , of course .

Depends a lot on where you want to build, of course. The cost of land can be extremely high. You should always agree on a total price for building the basic structure and roof. We were lucky to find a good builder who built our little place for 33k.

Yeah, the price I'm looking for will not include the cost of the land or purchasing the plans. So Monia, does your 1million+ PLN include the land as well, or is that just the materials and the construction crew?

Basically, I have my eye on a few plots of land in and around Warsaw, and want to know what's within my budget. I don't think I can quite afford 1million PLN...

Thats for a house only ,a land is appx. 200 $ per square meter ( very close to Warsaw , the further from Warsaw the lower the price ) 25 km from Warsaw you can get a land for 10 - 20 $ PLN per sq. meter .

Like I said , all costs depend what kind of material you want to use . Building very cheap , maybe you could spend like 800 000 PLN total .

I am sure that people looking for advice are getting rather confused about now as to how much a house would cost to build.

Just to clarify, it is the same in every country, the price depends on where and what kind of house you are looking for. A master masonry stone built house in the centre of Athens, is of course more expensive than in the countryside.

Check out how much houses were sold for in the area you are thinking of building and check what standard it was when it was sold. This will give you a much better idea of how much it will cost.

You can hear horror stories here, like anywhere in the world. Do some research on the builders you are going to use, ring up previous clients of the builders and ask them how they got on, this alone could save you a lot. Alcohol is a problem but that can be dealt with contractually.

My advise is to buy a house that's already standing, the fact that you don't have much of a clue as to how much it would cost to build, leads me to believe that you are out of your depth.

You have probably heard stories that Mr. X built his own house for a small fraction of what the selling price is and think you'd save money doing the same. I don't think you will, shop around and see if there are any deals to be done on buying an existing house.

If you really insist on building your own house, you need to do a lot of leg work. Buying existing plans and having them modified by an architect, is probably the cheapest way to deal with the drawings.

Make sure that you have connections to water, sewage, electricity and gas (if applicable) BEFORE you start.


When buying land, it is best if the local town council has a general plan (has designated the land for particular use), it is different in every place and many places do not have this, so you will have to apply.

You probably have it that you can build one building on 40% of the land plot but it can be divided into two semis.

Again I repeat, if you are asking such basic questions, buy an existing house, it will save you money in the long run.

Hi Sean,

I appreciate the detailed answer, although I'll put your mind at rest and let you know I'm not out of my depth here. This won't be the first build I've been involved in, and I'm familiar with the different styles of construction used in Poland, I just wanted some examples of what people have paid in the recent past, since costs of labour and materials have been swinging all over the place recently.

I intend to do the draughts myself, although I know that Polish law requires me to have an approved and registered Site Engineer to be "responsible" for the build. I'm also familiar with the legal costs regarding registering the build, getting media to the site and so on.

I'm simply looking for some anecdotal tales of costs. As I said, I've had wildly differing quotes for essentially the same work (100k vs 500k for a block shell with roof) so I'd like to hear what the average seems to be, and just how rip-off the rip-off merchants around me are.

I'd build the whole thing myself if I could get the time off work.

Very important point, and you probably can switch construction styles depending on the situation.
this alone will come in very handy, I have several guys working with me on one project that have worked in the U.S., the Polish way of building is to solve all problems with concrete, where as other materials can save you time and effort, even though many builders will not be used to them.


Kierownik budowy are a dim a dozen, you won't have a problem there, that's where negotiation skills come in.


You'll have to be there to make sure it's done properly, you know yourself, nobody will ever care as much as the owner.

I didn't mean to come off telling anyone that they can't, I don't know any of you and I just wanted to be clear on what I thought would save the people reading the thread.


Your best bet is to check prices of sold house in the area.
There are just too many factors to give you any exact idea of price.