Construction costs - Crane

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
Hi All

I am turning to the EF community "wisdom" maybe someone has some experience.

We are building a pre-fabricated one family home. Now the company says they need a larger than standard mobile crane since the plot can't be access from all sides.

What I was shocked with is that I am quoted 18'000CHF in additional costs for a 90T crane as compared to the 45Tonne crane included in the price.

Is this reasonable? Somehow I find it hard to belive that the only difference from a 45Tonne crane to a 90Tonne crane costs 18K for about 3 days?

Unfortunately I could not find any prices online to compare to.

2
You pay by the hour. And yes, the prices go up .... up .... up.

Example

3
Buy your own. They are sold for around € 550'000 used.

https://autoline24.ch/-/Mobilkrane/G...20tm2591m32974

4
Is a static crane an option? Do you need the bigger crane for its lifting capacity or for the longer range of its arm?

Admittedly, we were on the other side of the border in France, but i just looked at the crane rental cost (static crane, operated by remote control) when we constructed our house and it was €1371 for three weeks rental.

5
Thanks for the link.

considering this price list as a guidance, the difference between their largest and smallest cranes is 185CHF/ hour. Which means, that the 18K that I am charged would cover 100 hours. Even considering 10 hour working days, that is 10 days and I was told the building requires 3, maximum 4 working days.

I will definitely challenge them on these costs.

6
4 days is 96 hours. They don't care what you do with the thing, they charge the time it's not available to them.

When you rent a car, you also have to pay for the time you park it outside the hotel.

7
Stuff the crane. Just get your neighbours to help:

8
well, JEIN. These cranes come with operator and they can drive them back in the evening, no? I will ask for a quite and confirm how they calculate the hourly rate.

9
Could you hire it from across the border?

And if so, could you deduct German VAT and pay only the Swiss one?

https://www.klarx.de/

10
That would be the first time I see them drive these things to a building site every morning.

You'll make it into 20Minutes with that!

However, yes, I do think a quote is the best and most reliable thing to base your decision on.

11
These are mobile cranes. Actually it would be a first time see them overnight at a construction site

12
A 90 tonne crane is something very special, no matter what you're building or what the access is.

It'd really help to know why such a giant machine is needed. Do you have pre-fabricated concrete walls that are being raised into position on site?

13
Yes, some as far as 30m from the base of the crane

14
Our neighbours had a prefab house built recently and the crane definitely stayed in position overnight for the whole duration of the build.

15
I added a 5th floor to an existing building & needed to hire a crane on 6 occasions for about 1 hour at a time & paid roughly 10% of that, OK it was in Malta & not CH. I am sure you are being ripped off

16
Read your contract. Look for a clause that allows them to increase your prices, and under what circumstances.

I would also tell them that I can’t afford to pay the extra and I thought I was paying for an all inclusive price.

I’m certain they wouldn’t reduce their price if they discovered that it only took them half as long as they had predicted.

17
Build small house in the UK - 6 weeks, no crane.

Build small house in Switzerland - 2 years, crane.

And the UK house will be there in 100 years. The Swiss house won't last beyond twenty years. Mind you, the Swiss house could last 1000 years, but everyone wants to knock it down after 20 years and build an apartment block.

18
Yes, there is a clause that they can charge me if a larger crane is needed. However, my fear is that they use this clause as a free pass to rip me off .

Anyhow, I am now getting comparative offers from regional crane renting companies and that I will set as upper limit of what they can charge me.

19
Just a short update on my part, maybe the info will be useful for someone.

I just had a quote from one of the largest construction eq. rental companies and while prices of cranes do go up, the price difference (Mehrpreis) I was quoted is about six times 6x the actual price difference. Actually what I was quoted as a difference (over the included crane) is even more than the total costs

Namely, a 90T crane costs about 2'500CHF/day plus 1K for installation and a 45T crane costs 1'250 per day, install included.

Now I am curious what they will say when presented with this offer.

20
Now you know why the Swiss hate foreigners, awkward questions & getting quotes behind their back. This is not 'fitting in' & doing it the Swiss way. I do hope you are not applying for a red passport.