# how to find construction company?



## ermaolu (Jul 21, 2015)

Hello everyone, I was looking for a company for refurbishment of a property in Lisbon.
I googled 3 companies and invited them to visit the property and give me a quote.Unfortunately the quote they give me differ so much. one give me a budget of more than 200 thousands Euros.another give me 90-100 thousands and the third one hadn't make out the budget after 2 months! 
Meantime, my agent (from Remax) recommend a company which cooperate with Remax for many years and promise they will give best quality-cost ratio. What confused me is that after the engineer visited the property he immediately gave the quote(about 100 thousands) in 2 minutes without need to calculate anything.
I wonder if any company would be all the same_make a quote without calculation?

Meanwhile ,I try to contact with more companies but some sounds reasonable but hard to communicate cause I am not fluent in Portuguese.

Anyone know how to search a reputable construction company in Lisboa? or any direct recommendations?
thanks very much!


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## MrBife (Jul 26, 2009)

Do you have your own specification of work? A list of exactly what you want to get done ? It sounds as if you don't as the builders are coming back with wildly varying figures. It is also important to get them to quote time on site and to split labour and materials. That way you can work back how they calculated their quote.

If you are not used to doing this then you should consider hiring a bi lingual project manager. It will cost you a small agreed % of the overall cost but will prove to be worth every penny.

You should also agree stage payments to give you protection

Contractor must also be licenced if you are doing work that requires planning permission. You may also need an engineer to sign off on elements of the project as work proceeds.

Remax is a franchise operation that makes its money from selling more franchises. As always be wary of taking advice from anyone with a vested interest in providing it !


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## robc (Jul 17, 2008)

Agree with Mr Bife and all of his comments.
Having gone through the build of a new house and then an extension of this house, needing to change builders mid way through I can probably offer you one or two do's and don'ts if you would like me to.

As always I think PM would be easier.

HTH

Rob


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## ermaolu (Jul 21, 2015)

Thanks very much for your advice. Actually I do specialize all things need to be done in the project that's how i feel weird that the quotes I received include almost nothing except a rough number.They only give you a number of how much you should pay without breaking it down in any details.Oh, one does give a detail list but I mentioned the solar system is missing from the quote they replied that they will add it in the quote but total price number won't change. So I guess they do not take the broken-down cost list seriously.

I agree that a project manager will be a good idea if only I could find one with reputation.

Yes my agent persuade me that the quote from the firm they recommended was "fantastic".As a expat you do need recommendation in many aspects ,it 's very hard to choose which to believe in. That 's why I find this forum very warm for providing impartial advice as well as experiences from counterparts.thanks！


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## robc (Jul 17, 2008)

ermaolu said:


> I agree that a project manager will be a good idea if only I could find one with reputation.
> ！



I could recommend you our Project Manager, she is Portuguese, Honours Degree in Civil and Structural Engineering, fluent English speaker and saved us a whole heap of cost and trouble.

PM me if interested although I see you will need five posts first.

HTH

Rob


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## ermaolu (Jul 21, 2015)

Hi Rob, Thanks so much for you help and willingness to share. I appreciate it very much.

I have sent you a PM ,hope you could receive it.


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