How we work
From site visit to handover
EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. runs every job through six stages, and each one produces a document the client keeps: site visit, bill of quantities, itemised quote, contract, staged assessments, documented handover. It is all set out here, including the parts most contractors leave unwritten.
In short
What happens, in order
EDIL NOZZI S.R.L., a building contractor based in Torrevecchia Teatina in the province of Chieti, runs every job through six stages: sopralluogo (the site visit), measured survey and computo metrico (the itemised bill of quantities), itemised quote, contract, site work assessed in stages, and handover with documentation. Each stage produces a document, and the document is yours to keep.
We write the method down because it is the one thing a contractor can demonstrate before any work has started. Disputes on a building site almost never begin with bad workmanship. They begin with something nobody wrote down: who pays to cart the rubble away, whether the scaffolding is in the price, what happens when a wall is opened up and what sits behind it is not what anyone expected.
We carry out the works, and only the works. The design, the direzione dei lavori (site supervision on the client's behalf) and the permit filings are a separate professional appointment that you place with a technician of your own choosing. That technician checks our work for you, and the separation exists to protect you, not us.
None of this depends on your being in Italy. If you are looking after the property from another country the stages are identical, and only the reporting rhythm changes.
The stages
The six stages of a job
Every job EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. takes on passes through these six stages in the same order, whether it is a single bathroom or an entire farmhouse. The duration changes; the sequence does not.
Sopralluogo, the site visit
The site visit costs nothing and commits you to nothing. At the property we look at the load-bearing structure, the roof, signs of damp, the existing services, vehicle access and the room for scaffolding, and we listen to what you want the building to become. It produces a written survey note: what we saw, what still has to be checked, which investigations and permits will be needed. We sign it and leave it with you; you sign nothing. The one decision we ask for is whether to go on to the measured survey.
Measured survey and computo metrico
The measured survey turns the job into quantities. We measure on site, check levels and thicknesses, and write the computo metrico, the itemised bill of quantities, listing every operation separately with its unit and its quantity: square metres of render, cubic metres of excavation, linear metres of guttering. The document is the computo metrico non prezzato, the bill without prices, drawn up and signed by us. If your own designer prepares it, it stays their document and we simply price it. You decide the specification the quantities are calculated against.
Preventivo per voci, the itemised quote
The quote puts a price on those quantities, item by item. Every operation in the bill gets a unit rate and a line total. At the end come the exclusions, written out in full, meaning everything not covered, from utility connections and municipal charges to anything that cannot be seen while the building is still closed up, together with a validity date after which the prices have to be redone. We sign it. You decide whether to accept it, have it compared, or ask for individual items to be reworked.
Contratto, the building contract
The contract writes down what has actually been agreed: the scope with the itemised quote attached, the price, the start date and the duration, the payment stages tied to progress, the procedure for variations, any liquidated damages and the conditions for termination. You and we both sign it, before any operation begins. The decision that is yours at this point is who acts as your direttore dei lavori, the supervisor who represents you: that appointment is yours to make and never runs through us.
Cantiere, the site
On site you have one named contact, a person with a name and a face, and anything you need goes to them. The work runs on stati di avanzamento (SAL), the stage assessments of work completed. When a stage is reached, what has been built is measured against the contract items, your direttore dei lavori checks and signs the assessment, and only then is that portion invoiced. We send a photographic report at the agreed interval. No extra operation starts without a written, priced variation order that you have approved.
Consegna, handover and documentation
At handover you receive the finished building and the paperwork that belongs to it. We sign the completion certificate together and, after the inspection, the handover record. You get the declarations of conformity issued by the registered installers, technical data sheets and certificates for the materials used, the final account with every approved variation, and photographs of everything now buried behind plaster or under screed. The end-of-works filings and the agibilità, the fitness-for-use certificate, are signed by your technician, not by us.
Responsibility
Who is responsible for what
An Italian building site has four roles, and the law keeps them apart. EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. holds exactly one of them: the contractor carrying out the works.
| Role | Who appoints them | What they answer for |
|---|---|---|
| Committente, the client | Nobody: it is the owner, or whoever commissions the work | The design decisions, the payments set out in the contract, and the duties the law places on a person having building work done, including, where the case arises, appointing the safety coordinators. |
| Progettista, the designer | The client | The architectural and structural design, the permit filings, and whether what has been drawn complies with the rules in force. |
| Direttore dei lavori, the site supervisor | The client | Checking, on the client's behalf, that the work is executed to the design, the capitolato (the written specification) and the regulations. Measures the work and signs the stage assessments. Represents the client, not the contractor. |
| Impresa, the contractor (EDIL NOZZI S.R.L.) | The client, through the contratto d'appalto | Carrying out what the contract covers to proper standards, running the site, the safety of its own workers, and the liability set by arts. 1667 and 1669 of the Italian civil code. |
The direzione dei lavori exists to protect the client and to check our work, which is why the appointment is the client's and never ours. EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. carries out the works. The design, the direzione dei lavori and the permit filings are a separate professional appointment, held by the client with a technician of the client's choosing; engaging one places no obligation whatsoever to engage the other, in either direction.
Variations
What can legitimately change a price, and what cannot
A renovation price can legitimately change for three reasons, and EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. handles all three the same way: in writing, before the work is done.
The first is what opening up reveals. While a building is still closed, nobody sees the decayed joist under the screed, the beam eaten through inside the wall, the foundation sitting lower than assumed, or the missing ventilated void beneath a ground floor. These are hidden conditions, and no bill of quantities can price them with certainty.
The second is you. You change a material, move a partition, add a bathroom. That is legitimate and it happens on most jobs. The third is authority: the Soprintendenza (the heritage authority), the comune or your own direttore dei lavori requires a detail different from the one drawn, and the required one is what gets built.
The handling is identical in all three cases. We stop the operation concerned, describe in writing what was found or required, price the variation using the same items and the same rates as the original quote, state the effect on the programme, and ask you to approve it. Work resumes when the approval comes back signed.
What we do not do: we do not carry out extra work and invoice it at the end of the job; we do not use a variation to recover an item we priced badly at the start; we do not act on a verbal nod given on site and then bill against it. And if what emerges makes the project no longer worth doing, we say so, including when the right answer is to stop.
The guarantees are law, not an offer of ours
Anyone carrying out building work in Italy answers by law for what they have built. Article 1667 of the civil code governs the contractor's liability for difformità e vizi, meaning departures from what was agreed and defects in the work, subject to the notice and limitation periods the article itself sets. Article 1669 governs liability for gravi difetti, serious defects affecting the structure or the building's fitness for its purpose, and runs for ten years from completion of the works. These apply to EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. exactly as they apply to any other contractor. They are the frame the work sits inside, not a benefit we are offering you. Any insurance cover is set out and evidenced in the contract, not advertised on a web page.
More frequent questionsQuestions
Questions about the method
Does the site visit cost anything?
The site visit from EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. is free of charge and carries no obligation. We come to the property, look at how it is built and what the work you have in mind actually involves, and leave you a written note covering what we saw and what still needs checking. From there you decide whether to go on to the measured survey and the computo metrico. We ask for no signature and leave no form to be signed on the day.
What is the difference between a computo metrico and a quote?
A computo metrico lists the operations and their quantities without prices: square metres, cubic metres, linear metres, item by item. A preventivo per voci, the itemised quote, takes those same quantities and prices them, with a unit rate and a line total for each item, plus the exclusions and a validity date. They answer different questions. The bill defines what will be done; the quote what it costs to do. A single lump sum with no bill behind it cannot be compared with anything.
What is a SAL?
A SAL, short for stato di avanzamento lavori, is a measurement of what has actually been built by a given date. The completed operations are measured against the contract items, your direttore dei lavori checks and signs the assessment, and only that portion is invoiced. The purpose is to tie payments to real work rather than to the calendar: if the site slows down, the client's financial exposure slows down with it.
Do I have to appoint the site supervisor myself?
The direttore dei lavori is appointed by the client, never by the contractor. That supervisor represents you and checks our work on your behalf, so the choice has to stay yours and stay free. The same applies to the designer and to the permit filings. EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. carries out the works and holds none of those roles. If you have not yet appointed a technician, you are free to approach whoever you prefer.
What happens if something unexpected turns up mid-job?
When a condition appears that the bill of quantities could not have foreseen, such as a decayed floor structure, a foundation different from the one assumed or services that no longer meet current rules, we stop the operation concerned and put it in writing. We describe what was found, price the variation using the same items and the same basis as the original quote, state the effect on the programme, and ask you to approve it. Work resumes after approval, never before.
Can I follow the site if I do not live in Abruzzo?
The method does not change when the client lives abroad or in another region; only the reporting rhythm does. The site contact is the same person for the whole job, photographic updates arrive at the interval fixed in the contract, the SAL are written documents your own technician can read and check, and variations are approved in writing. The few stages that genuinely need you physically present are flagged in advance so the trip can be planned.
First step
Start with the site visit
The contact form is how EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. receives enquiries. Tell us what the building is, which comune it stands in and what you want to do with it, and we will arrange the site visit. From there the sequence is the one set out on this page.