Municipality of De Ronde Venen
Builders in Mijdrecht
Building work and maintenance in Mijdrecht, at a fixed price for the work as described and paid in four instalments.
Mijdrecht is the largest place in the municipality of De Ronde Venen and lies in a drained lake bed: the Groot Mijdrechtse polder, which after the peat was dug out and the water pumped away ended up well below sea level. The subsoil consists of soft peat and clay layers, and for building work that is the decisive fact. Anything that adds weight has to be founded on the firm sand layer beneath.
In the residential neighbourhoods Hofland, Wickelhof and Twistvlied and along the Bozenhoven and the Dorpsstraat stand houses from a wide range of periods, and the way they are founded varies with them: older houses on strip footings or on timber piles, post-war houses on concrete piles. With an extension the first question is therefore not how big it will be but how it will stand. An extension on strip footings against a house on piles sinks away and pulls the joint open; so here we nearly always put extensions on screwed or drilled piles, with a structurally separate connection to the existing wall.
The second theme is the crawl space (kruipruimte). Through ground subsidence it regularly stands higher in the water here than was intended when the house was built, with damp in the floor and decay in timber joists as a result. So at every survey we look under the floor, even when the question is about a kitchen or a bathroom.
What decides things here
- Drained polder with soft peat and clay layers: extensions need a pile foundation
- Neighbourhoods Hofland, Wickelhof and Twistvlied, and the ribbon along the Bozenhoven
- Different foundation types side by side, from strip footings to timber and concrete piles
- Crawl spaces often stand wetter than was intended when the houses were built
Work we do in Mijdrecht
Extensions
Extra room at the back or the side of the house, at a fixed price before the first brick is laid.
Loft conversions and dormers
A storey added or a dormer let in, without the structure below becoming a problem.
Openings in load-bearing walls
A wall out, a steel beam in, and a calculation that stands behind it.
Bathrooms and kitchens
A complete wet room, with one party responsible for the pipework and the floor as well.
Maintenance of the house
Pointing, window frames, rot, gutters and painting, surveyed and planned instead of postponed.
How building work in Mijdrecht runs
Nine steps. Each one states who is there, how long it takes and what you pay at that moment. On the steps where money actually changes hands, the amount is set in the heading face under "What you pay" and the step number is filled in. Handover is called oplevering in Dutch, and it is the step your contract will refer to.
Step 1: Phone call
You call, or leave a callback request. We ask about the type of work, the year the house was built, the place and roughly what you have in mind. By the end of that call you know whether this is work we take on and whether your budget and your plan meet. If they do not, we say so there and then.
- Who is there
- You and the work planner
- How long
- 15 minutes, within one working day
- What you pay
- Nothing
Step 2: Survey at your house
We come round, measure up, look in the crawl space (kruipruimte) and the loft, and assess the foundation, the structure and the connections to the existing house. For a loft conversion or a structural opening we establish whether a structural engineer (constructeur) is needed. You hear on the spot which price range is realistic.
- Who is there
- You and the site manager
- How long
- 45 to 90 minutes, within two weeks
- What you pay
- Nothing
Step 3: Quotation with a fixed price
You receive a quotation (offerte) with a fixed price for the work as described, a list of what is explicitly not included, and provisional sums (stelposten) for items you choose yourself. No figure in it is an estimate: what the quotation says stands, as long as the work does not change.
- Who is there
- We supply it, you read it
- How long
- Within five working days of the survey
- What you pay
- Nothing
Step 4: Design, calculation and permit
Only where the work requires it. Drawings, a structural calculation, and the permit application (omgevingsvergunning, the Dutch building permit) with the municipality of Stichtse Vecht or De Ronde Venen. If the permit is refused, the project stops and you pay for this phase only, at an amount stated on the quotation in advance.
- Who is there
- Draughtsman, structural engineer and the municipality
- How long
- 4 to 12 weeks, depending on the procedure
- What you pay
- The cost of this phase, named separately on the quotation
Step 5: Planning and start date
The start date is fixed in writing, with a week by week plan and the days on which it will be loud or dusty. Materials with long lead times are ordered in this phase, so the job does not come to a halt halfway through waiting for a window frame.
- Who is there
- You and the work planner
- How long
- 1 to 2 weeks
- What you pay
- Nothing
Step 6: Work starts on site
Day one: fencing, floor protection, a place to unload, and demolition. From this day there is one site manager who is your point of contact and whom you can call directly on working days.
- Who is there
- The site manager and the crew
- How long
- Day 1
- What you pay
- First instalment: 30 per cent
Step 7: Shell complete
Foundation, structure, brickwork, roof and window frames are in place and the work is wind and watertight. This is the moment you can stand in the new space for the first time, and the last moment changes are possible without demolition.
- Who is there
- The site manager walks it through with you
- How long
- Depends on the job, usually after 3 to 6 weeks
- What you pay
- Second instalment: 30 per cent
Step 8: Services and fit-out
Electrics, water, heating and ventilation are installed and tested. Then plastering, floors, tiling and painting. This phase is quiet but long; it is the phase in which people get impatient and in which the weekly plan matters most.
- Who is there
- Installer, plasterer and fit-out crew
- How long
- 2 to 5 weeks
- What you pay
- Third instalment: 30 per cent
Step 9: Handover and snagging list
We walk the work through together and write down everything you see, however small. In Dutch this step is the oplevering and the list is the opleverlijst. That list is cleared within fifteen working days. Only once every point on it is signed off does the last instalment fall due.
- Who is there
- You and the site manager
- How long
- 1 to 2 hours, points cleared within 15 working days
- What you pay
- Final instalment: 10 per cent, after the snagging list is cleared
The payment schedule
Nothing is paid in advance before work starts.
Each block in the bar is as wide as its share of the contract sum (aanneemsom). The pale block on the right is the final 10 per cent: it only falls due after handover (oplevering), once every point on the snagging list has been dealt with.
| Instalment | Share | When |
|---|---|---|
| First instalment | 30% | The day work starts on site |
| Second instalment | 30% | Shell complete, the work is wind and watertight |
| Third instalment | 30% | Services tested and fit-out complete |
| Final instalment | 10% | After handover, once every snagging point is cleared |
| Together | 100% |
The cost of drawings, the structural calculation and the permit sits outside these four instalments and is named separately on the quotation, so you can see what you would be out of pocket if a permit is unexpectedly refused. The total being paid in instalments is the contract sum, called the aanneemsom in your contract.
Questions about building work in Mijdrecht
Does an extension in Mijdrecht always need piles?
In nearly every case, yes. The load-bearing sand layer lies too deep here to put an extension on strip footings without it settling noticeably within a few years. What that costs depends on the pile length and the access, and it appears as a separate item in the quotation.
Can piles be driven in a residential street?
Often not. Driving piles causes vibration and that is a risk next to existing buildings on soft ground. So here we usually work with screwed steel tube piles or drilled piles, which are low vibration and can be placed with smaller plant.
My floor feels cold and damp. Does that belong in a building job?
If you are building anyway, that is the cheapest moment to deal with it. At the survey we look in the crawl space at the water level, the ventilation and the condition of the joists, and we put a ground seal and floor insulation in the quotation as a separate line so you can choose.
Talk through your plan in Mijdrecht
Calling is quickest. In fifteen minutes you know whether this is work we take on and whether your plan and your budget meet.