Finding a Builder

Builders

oo er. What a palaver. I think we spoke to 12-15 builders in the end. Some didn't return calls, some took plans and never returned - note here - get plenty of copies!!!!

We got a range of quotes from mid forties to one hundred and twenty thousand. The standard figure you see quoted is about £1000/m2 which means £2000/m2 (ground floor area) if you go for a 2 storey extension. This is a good budgeting figure, but you should be able to beat it with a small family builder.

We thought we had a builder, who changed his mind, then changed it again, then finally just didn't turn up for a meeting.... The moral here is definitely to keep in touch with your builder regularly even before you have contracted.

After that let down we got a load more quotes and finally settled on a local builder - Geoff Brookfield (http://www.brookfieldbuilders.co.uk/general.htm). So far Geoff has been on time, answered the phone and also been very accommodating with my bank's messing about and delays. Fingers crossed these bode well for his performance on the job!

To be honest, choosing the builder has been the most frightening aspect of the job so far. Entrusting the safety of our house (and next door) to a stranger based on a few chats with them and their references is pretty daunting. Needless to say we will be checking Geoff's insurance very carefully. (See the page on the detailed plans when I've done it for why this is especially important for us).

As for finding a builder, we asked for personal recommendations from friends and colleagues, used the federation of master builders website (generally the more expensive quotes came from here), and the yellow pages. We also used material suppliers as a source, including when we were considering thin-joint blockwork (Thanks to Chris Hirst at Clan).

I would suggest getting more than the recommended 3 quotes. If you are like me, you'll 'settle' on someone when you meet them, but it's important to balance their quote with a range. The cheapest is not necessarily 'dodgy' but a general rule of thumb is that material costs will not change, so the only real variables between quotes are labour and profit. Larger companies have more overheads so will usually be more expensive - but you have the 'comfort' factor, plus they should do the job faster (more labour available) and they should not have the biggest problem....

Plumbers and Sparkies!!!! Every small builder struggles to rally plumbers and sparkies reliably. Check your builder either employees his own (or does that work himself) - this is unlikely with 3-man-band builders as they don't have enough work to keep trades fully employed. If they do it themselves - make sure they are qualified and certified properly. If they have a regular team they bring together on jobs, that's probably less of a risk.

So... my advice would be to make sure the builder has the responsibility - ensure you contract the builder to manage the trades and that he is financially responsible for any delays they introduce. He may be OK with using your recommended tradesmen (if you have them) but you may have to accept his tradesmen. I would say this is worth it to avoid the hassle with organising things. We have taken this as a general principle - the builder has the whole job. We'll tell him if we want to use particular suppliers (eg. Kitchen) and we'll pay them, but it's up to Geoff to be ready for them and organise them all. If your builder won't do that, you'll end up project managing things - get a drop in the price, and be prepared to take a lot of time off work or at least be prepared for a huge phone bill and a lot of extra stress.....

I'll document how it goes with Geoff. Hopefully it will be basically positive (we're bound to fall out somewhere!) but if not, at least you'll know why and how - so you can avoid any mistakes we might make....