When it comes to commercial construction, there is a significant difference compared to residential construction. Residential construction is all about building housing like a house, flats, and apartments. While commercial involves building shopping complexes, hospitals, office buildings, and more. Yet, there are other differences, as you will see here.
Codes and Permits
Any construction needs to follow codes, and contractors need permits from the state. The reason is to ensure that the building projects proceed safely without endangering others during and after the construction. Hence, the codes for these construction types differ regarding safety in industrial buildings. Furthermore, commercial building is more extensive, making it dangerous as heavy machinery is used.
Building Materials Used
Even the building material differs in commercial to residential construction. The reason is that your residential properties are smaller and uses different material. For building houses, builders can use mostly wood as it is more affordable than working with cement and steel found in commercial businesses. While some contractors use bricks or concrete as well.
Different Types of Equipment Used
As with building material, the equipment used is also different. For example, you need cranes and extensive equipment for your large-scale building like office buildings or shops. However, building a huge home seldom requires a crane used in the construction.
Therefore, there is a difference in the equipment. You need to hire a different contractor unless the construction company offers commercial and residential construction. For the equipment used, you need experienced contractors to work the machinery.
Project Completion Time
When looking at the time frame for residential and commercial construction, you find it completed faster. The reason is that the buildings need to sell quickly with commercial property development. Furthermore, commercial projects use more workers to finish jobs fast. For example, building a warehouse can take 80 days, while a home takes up to seven months.
Building Costs
This is a huge difference when looking at your residential and commercial construction. Retail construction can cost millions compared to building a home. The reason is the points above from the building material, labor, equipment, and more.
Different Licensing
While most commercial building renovation contractors have a general license to build both structures, some may only have a building contractor license. Hence, the contractor cannot perform renovations on buildings and only build up to three floors in residential construction.
The Design
When you look at commercial buildings, many are not customized, but all built the same. While for homes, it is not the same case. As a homeowner, you have control over the design of your house. So, the architect can be creative to customize your living space according to your needs compared to a commercial building.
As you can see, there are significant differences between the two and knowing these differences helps before you embark on any construction project.
