Guide
Working with a contractor
How to brief, document, and follow a building project with Micheletti Construction in Lagos, Abuja, or Ibadan.
A building goes well when the owner and the contractor are describing the same house. It goes badly when one of them is describing a hope. This guide is about that working relationship in Lagos, Abuja, and Ibadan. The contractor on these pages is not a stranger drawn from a list. Quote requests are fulfilled by Micheletti Construction Limited. Alberto Micheletti is the company’s managing director. He was a project manager in Lagos, then a manager in Ibadan, and has led Micheletti Construction in Abuja since May 2012. This site does not publish a gallery of projects.
What you are starting when you send the form
The seven steps ask for the work, the property, the place, the timing, optional photos, your details, and the way you want to be reached. That package is the brief. Landing page and campaign tags travel with it so the inbox can see that nigeriabuilding.com produced the request. The privacy note says the details are for a quote and a follow-up, and that they are not sold. If a preview of the site has no mail key configured, the form will say the message was not sent. Believe it. Do not assume a silent success.
If you want a call or a WhatsApp message, you choose that method and you provide your number. Micheletti Construction can also be reached on WhatsApp at +234 803 667 9688. Email is the third option. Nobody will invent a callback in “fifteen minutes”.
Documents that keep both sides honest
Agree the scope in writing once the conversation is real. A one-page description beats a long chat: address or neighbourhood, new build or alteration, number of floors, what is included, what is excluded, and whether the household will be in residence. Attach the drawings if they exist, or state that they do not. If a soil report or a permit already exists, say so. If a Lagos, Abuja, or Oyo notice has already been served, say so on day one.
Ask who supervises, and which registered professionals will sign what the local authority expects. Lagos wants professional supervision and, for taller buildings, insurance and soil documents as the 2019 regulations set out. Abuja wants endorsed drawings. Oyo State’s portal asks for a COREN engineer’s undertaking. Those names should not appear for the first time on a site board the week of a visit by an inspector.
Variations need a sentence before the work, not a surprise in the final account. “While you were travelling we opened the parlour” is how a beam gets omitted. You can change your mind. The change should be visible.
Stage inspections are not an insult. They are how Lagos building control, FCT development control, and a serious contractor all prefer to see a foundation before it is buried. Be available, or appoint someone who can stand on the site and say yes or no. An owner who only appears for the painting will meet a house that was decided by whoever was holding the trowel.
Money and trust, without theatre
Pay against described stages, not against mood. A mobilisation that buys materials for the foundation is ordinary. A mobilisation that equals most of the contract before a peg is in the ground is a risk. This guide will not prescribe a percentage, because the right split depends on whether cement is being bought into a rising market and whether the site can store it safely. It will say that each payment should match something you can see: a trench, a frame, a roof, a dry room.
Do not fund a second storey that was never drawn because a crew on site says it will be fine. The cost guide explains why height and foundations dominate the price. The structural page explains why guessing is dangerous. A contractor who welcomes an engineer’s visit is safer than one who calls the visit an insult.
Keep photos of your own, dated, at each stage. They help if a crack appears later, and they help if a permit officer asks what was there at setting out. You do not need a drone. You need the same three corners photographed every Friday.
How to behave on a Nigerian site without folklore
Cement does not survive a Lagos downpour in an open sack, and it does not enjoy harmattan dust in an open Abuja mixer. Blocks that were cast yesterday should not be in a load-bearing wall, whatever the hurry before a ceremony. Lagoon sand, if it is proposed in Lagos, needs washing; that is a code sentence, not a proverb. Drains are part of the building. A finished facade above a flooded ground floor in Ikorodu or along an Ibadan stream is not a success.
Speak up early if the drawing and the site disagree. The middle of a pour is a bad meeting. If you are unsure whether a crack is old plaster or a new failure, stop the finish and ask. Micheletti Construction would rather pause than clad a problem.
What this relationship is not
It is not a lead sold to whoever answers a phone. Lagos, Abuja, and Ibadan are the cities written up here, and other towns can be discussed on the form. Requests stay with Micheletti Construction Limited.
If you want to start, use the quote form. If you want the company’s own site, it is micheletti-construction.com. Bring the neighbourhood, the truth about the structure, and the patience to let the season and the permit office be part of the plan.