Services
Building a new house in Abruzzo
We build new detached and semi-detached houses across Abruzzo, building to the design your own technician has produced and under the permit they have already obtained. This page sets out the real build sequence, what must exist before a site can open, and what to establish about a plot of land before you buy it.
What we build
EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. is a building contractor based in Torrevecchia Teatina (CH) and builds new detached and semi-detached houses in Abruzzo, working to a design and a permesso di costruire — the building permit — obtained by the client's own technician. We do not sell houses drawn to a house type of ours: we build the building your drawings prescribe.
Construction is our side of the job. Site set-up, excavation and foundations, the structure the design calls for — reinforced concrete, load-bearing masonry or a mixed solution — roof, external walls and partitions, screeds, plaster, finishes and external works. Mechanical and electrical installations are carried out by licensed installers who issue their own certificate of conformity; on site we coordinate their timing, their chases and their penetrations, together with the specialist firms handling trades we do not carry out ourselves.
Design, direzione dei lavori — site supervision on the client's behalf — and the permit filings are not part of our appointment. They are a separate professional appointment, held by the client with a qualified technician of the client's choosing. Ing. Ivan Nozzi practises independently from the same address and we cooperate often, but engaging us for the works places no obligation to engage him for the technical role, and none the other way round.
On site
The sequence of a new build
EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. runs a new build in the sequence below, and each stage opens only once the previous one is closed and the document that authorises it exists. Here is what happens at each stage and what it depends on.
Site set-up and setting out
Hoarding, vehicle access, site huts, a materials laydown area and temporary water and power. This depends on a permit that is in force, on the preliminary notification to the authorities and on the safety plan. Setting out — pegging the footprint of the building on the ground — is done with the site supervisor from the levels on the drawings, and it is the first thing worth checking twice.
Excavation and foundations
Bulk dig, foundation trenches, blinding, formwork, reinforcement and pour. This depends on the geological and geotechnical report and on the foundation design: the type of foundation, the founding levels and how groundwater is handled are decided there, not on site. Excavated soil and rock are handled according to their classification, and haulage goes to carriers on the environmental operators register.
Structure
Columns, beams, floor slabs and stairs, or load-bearing walls and ring beams, exactly as the structural design specifies. This depends on the seismic filing or authorisation and on the appointment of the structural supervisor and the testing engineer. In a seismic area the check comes before the work, not after, so no structure starts until that filing is formalised. Every pour is preceded by a reinforcement inspection and by the required concrete samples.
Roof
Roof structure, insulation, waterproofing, covering, gutters and downpipes, plus the fall-arrest anchor line where the design requires one. This depends on a completed structure that has cured. It is the stage that closes the building to water: until it is finished, every internal trade waits, which is why it governs all the months that follow.
External walls and partitions
Perimeter walls, insulation, internal partitions and service risers. This depends on decisions already taken about services and windows, because chases, openings and window sub-frames are formed now. Moving a socket or widening an opening in finished masonry costs more than the decision taken in time, and in some cases it can no longer be done at all.
Building services
Water and waste, drainage, electrical, heating and cooling, ventilation, plus provision for photovoltaics and car charging where planned. Installation is carried out by installers licensed under D.M. 37/2008, who issue the dichiarazione di conformità — the certificate of conformity — in the owner's name. This depends on a services design: without one, pipes and cables are placed on instinct and paid for twice.
Windows and external doors
Windows, external doors and shutters fitted into the sub-frames already built in, with the perimeter joints sealed on both the inside and the outside face. This depends on a survey taken once the masonry is finished, because the dimensions come off the building and not off the drawing. Lead times on joinery are often the longest constraint in the programme and the order has to be placed well before the fitting date.
Screeds and finishes
Screeds, plaster, floor and wall tiling, decoration, internal doors and sanitaryware. This depends on drying times, which cannot be compressed: a screed has to reach the residual moisture content the floor layer requires before it can receive the floor. That wait shapes a large part of the closing programme and is not a delay on site.
External works
Regrading, retaining walls, paths, paving, fencing, inspection chambers and drainage runs to the public sewer or to the treatment system the design specifies. This depends on the site clearing: external works happen once the crane, the scaffold and the material stores are no longer needed, which is why they sit at the end of the sequence even though they are the first thing a visitor sees.
Handover
Cleaning, final inspections with the site supervisor, handover of the keys and of the building file: certificates of conformity for the installations, technical data sheets and material certificates, manuals and warranties from manufacturers. The completion notice, the structural testing certificate and the agibilità are filed by the technician and the testing engineer appointed by the client, not by us.
Prerequisites
What must exist before we open the site
A new build site opens only when the permit, the design and the technical appointments are in place. These are the client's responsibility and the technician's, not ours: without them we do not sign a contract and do not commit to a start date.
- Permesso di costruire — the building permit
- The consent issued by the comune, in force and not lapsed, or the alternative title that applies to the specific case. We need the decision with its protocol number, the approved drawings and the deadlines for starting and completing the works, because those deadlines define the window in which building may take place.
- Progetto esecutivo — the construction-stage design
- Plans, elevations, sections, construction details, build-ups and a window schedule, drawn at a scale you can build from. A design that stops at the level needed for the permit leaves dozens of decisions open, and every decision deferred to the site becomes a variation, which means time and cost nobody budgeted for.
- Structural design and seismic filing
- Calculations, general arrangement drawings, reinforcement details and the geological report, with the file deposited or authorised at the competent office. In a seismic area the check on structures is a prior control rather than a later one: until that file is formalised, structural work cannot begin.
- Site supervision and safety appointments
- The appointment of the direzione dei lavori, of the structural supervisor and of the testing engineer, and — where more than one company works on site — of the safety coordinator for the execution phase, with the safety and coordination plan. The client appoints these professionals directly; they are not our appointments to make.
- Site access
- A route a concrete truck and a lorry can use, space to store materials and, where needed, an area for the crane together with any municipal permission to occupy public ground. On narrow, sloping or town-centre plots, access determines the construction method and therefore the quotation.
- Utilities and connections
- Temporary water and power before the start, and applications for the final connections to the water, electricity and sewer operators, or the authorised treatment system where no mains drainage exists. Those applications and their charges stay in the owner's name: the operators' timescales are outside our control and the applications should go in early.
Land
Buying land in Abruzzo: what decides whether you can build
Land in Abruzzo is not building land because it is empty; it is building land because the comune's planning instrument says so. The planning designation, the development indices and the constraints on the plot decide whether you can build, how much you can build and what shape the building may take, and every one of them can be established before you buy.
The determining items are almost always the same. The planning designation and the technical implementation rules of the local plan. The indices: buildable volume or floor area per square metre of plot, footprint, maximum height, number of storeys, site coverage ratio and, in some zones, the requirement for a detailed plan before any permit can be issued. The minimum distances from boundaries, roads and other buildings. Then the overriding constraints: landscape protection, hydrogeological constraint, the hazard classes of the river basin plan, archaeological restrictions, road and cemetery buffer zones, and usi civici — ancient common rights — which can restrict building even on plots that look entirely ordinary.
Then there is the ground itself. The seismic classification of the comune and the subsoil category feed into the design seismic action and therefore into the size of the structure. The geological report and the geotechnical investigation say what foundation is needed: a high water table, uncontrolled made ground, a slope or weak bearing strata can change the foundation type and with it a significant share of the cost. Access, the regrading a sloping plot needs and the distance to the mains matter just as much, because a distant connection is a cost the asking price of a plot never contains.
All of this is established before purchase, with a qualified technician and with the notary, not afterwards. The instruments are ordinary and open to anyone: the certificato di destinazione urbanistica — the planning certificate issued by the comune — the implementation rules read line by line, the land registry extract and site plan, a point-by-point check of the constraints and, where the picture is unclear, a preliminary contract made conditional on the permit being granted. We do not carry out these searches and we do not sign them. Once the land is checked and the design exists, we can talk about how the house gets built and in what time.
Frequently asked
New build homes: common questions
The answers below concern new residential construction in Abruzzo and the part EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. plays in it.
Do you design the house and handle the permits?
No. EDIL NOZZI S.R.L. carries out the works. The architectural and structural design, the building permit, the seismic filing, the direzione dei lavori, the structural testing and the agibilità are a separate professional appointment, held by you with a qualified technician of your choosing. Ing. Ivan Nozzi practises from the same address and is an independent professional: engaging us does not oblige you to appoint him, and appointing him does not oblige you to choose us.
What determines the cost of a new build?
Cost is driven by the structure the design requires, by the foundations the ground imposes, by the floor area and the shape of the building, by the level of finishes and services, by how accessible the plot is and by the extent of the external works. We publish no rates and no figure per square metre: without a site visit, a design and a computo metrico — the itemised bill of quantities — any number would be guesswork. Our quotation is itemised, with quantities and unit rates, so that every line can be compared against another firm's.
How long does it take to build a house?
Duration depends on the design, the ground, the season the concrete is poured in and supplier lead times, and quoting it before reading the drawings would be worth nothing. What we can state is how it gets fixed: the contract records the start date, a duration in working days and the causes that legitimately suspend the clock, such as variations requested by the client, suspensions ordered by the site supervisor and documented weather events. Every extension is put in writing.
Can I build on agricultural land?
That depends on the comune's planning instrument, not on how the land looks. In agricultural zones building is normally restricted, often reserved to those who qualify as registered farmers, with low indices and constraints on how the building may be used. The answer sits in the planning certificate and the implementation rules, read by a technician before you buy. Buying first and checking afterwards is the wrong order, and it is rarely recoverable.
What guarantees apply to a newly built house?
Guarantees on new work come from the law and apply to any contractor in Italy. Article 1667 of the civil code governs liability for defects and non-conformity in the works, with the notice and limitation periods the article sets. Article 1669 provides for ten-year liability for serious defects affecting the structure or making the building unfit for its purpose. We do not present these protections as an offer of ours, because they are consequences of law; the insurance cover applying to the site is set out at contract stage.
Contact
Tell us about the project
If you have a plot and a design, or are still weighing up a piece of land, write to us through the contact form: give the comune, the floor area you have in mind and how far the permit has progressed. We normally reply within two working days to arrange a site visit.