It is a known fact that everyone including corporations at some point will be desirous of procuring buildings. Either for personal, commercial or public use.
There are two major ways of procuring a building. Potential owners can either purchase or construct. Sometimes, they can purchase an old or used building and renovate it.
Outright purchase is often easier, stress-free and faster. However, how often will a potential buyer come across buildings that fit their functional and aesthetic requirements?
Also how often would they have that lump sum to pay outrightly? As a result people in Nigeria, where mortgage services aren’t readily available, construct more and purchase less.
From the inception of a building to the delivery of that building, there are several stages involved. Also, several people trained to assist a potential building owner.
These professionals’ primary interest is to ensure the successful delivery of the project, within budget and on time. They can are divided into two broad categories; the building professionals and the building contractor. Among the professionals, you have the project manager, land surveyor, architect, quantity surveyor, structural engineer, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and estate surveyors/valuers.
Other specialists include landscape, interior and furniture specialists. While among the contractors you have the builders and their subcontractors.
5 Stages to follow when desirous of a building
STAGE 1:
Individuals desirous of owning a building should contact any professional in the building industry you know. This is so because they might not readily have links to all the professionals at the same time. Thus, trying to seek out a specific professional may scare or frustrate you.
STAGE 2:
Within the comfort of this familiar professional, they can request an introduction to a qualified architect. Remember, your ideas and desires are still just ideas. No other professional can guide you to convert that idea into sketches at this stage.
By the way, you will notice I used the phrase ‘qualified architect’. This is so because among professions there are statutory bodies whose sole responsibility is to regulate the practice and register trained professionals. Therefore, potential building owners are required to do the due diligence so they don’t deal with quacks that may endanger your project.
STAGE 3:
Here, either the architect or the prospective building owner can nominate other relevant qualified professionals.
The lead consultant in the building project is the architect. He will review and coordinate work done by all allied professionals. These professionals include;
Land surveyor:
Surveys site boundaries, features, buildings and other site conditions.
Quantity surveyor:
Manages all costs relating to the building from initial calculations to final figures.
Structural engineer:
Analyzes designs and plans structural components and structural systems in buildings to achieve design goals, ensuring the safety and comfort of users.
Mechanical engineer:
Designs and provides efficient solutions to all mechanical installations to be deployed in the building and tests them e.g. heating and cooling systems in buildings.
Electrical engineer:
Designs and provides efficient solutions to all electrical installations to be deployed in the building and tests them.
STAGE 4
On the successful completion of the design stage, the professionals under the leadership of the architect recommend a contractor after tendering.
The contractors’ qualifications, track records and portfolio of similar works are analyzed and this analysis is communicated to the prospective building owner.
STAGE 5:
The nominated contractor is mobilized to the site where he works under the routine supervision of the professionals. In some cases, contract types such as design-build may be used. This is where the building is designed and built by the same person or organization. Due diligence still has to be done to ensure that whoever designs and constructs is qualified.
Also, project managers can be employed by the building owner to manage the construction process.
