TOP TIPS on choosing a builder
To me, it’s always good if you phone a builder and they tell you that their lead time is quite a few weeks ahead, so you will have to wait if you want them to do the job. This shows that plenty of people are using them.
If you phone a builder, and they can start the following day, this raises questions for me straight away. Obviously, sometimes they have works cancelled at the last minute so might be able to do the odd little job, but usually good builders have quite a few different jobs booked for, say, that month, so if one cancels, then there will be the next on the list to do.
This process is different for different trades. An electrician or plumber may only do what I call ‘jobbing’ jobs so they may do a few jobs in a day; if you need another socket added, which is only going to take a couple of hours, this could maybe be squeezed in the following day. This is the same for builders as well – when I started out, I would do the smaller ‘jobbing’ jobs, which meant I might have four or five jobs that week, so obviously if one cancels, there could well be some time free to get a little job in for you.
Explicitly, if you wanted quite a large renovation or an extension and the builder could start the next day, this would lead me to question them further before giving the go ahead. I know that you have just bought a new house and are eager to get the work done, but believe me, this could cost you a lot more time and money in the long run if you choose poorly.
I would always suggest a minimum of three quotes, as this will give you a good range.
I would strongly advise against going for the cheapest quote because usually, it’s too good to be true unless you have really looked into that particular builder. I have had to rectify so many jobs over the years because the customer got the cheapest guy who made a right mess, but not only that – when unforeseen works arise, which usually happens on most works, they will use this to make up the difference in price.
I have quoted for thousands of jobs in my time and always go above and beyond to give the customer the most accurate price. The perfect example is when I priced a repoint job. It was through a friend of mine, and I priced it up based on certain problems that I could see occurring. I put the price in but didn’t hear back. Somewhere down the line, my friend who first put me onto the job gave me some feedback, saying that initially, the customer thought it was expensive, so he went with someone who offered to do the job on a day rate. But the chap used was not particularly competent at the task, and by the time the job had finished, it ended up costing the customer far more than what I had offered.
Always be very wary of paying for work on a day rate. As the name suggests, this is when a tradesman will want a certain amount a day for a set number of hours, much like an hourly rate. This to me is only a good idea if you know the guys doing the work. My observation is that when trades are on a day rate, they drag the job out, as there is no incentive for them to finish more quickly. It seems to be the cheaper option to start with when you think the work should only take a couple of days, but when this ends up going on for a couple of weeks, the price totals up significantly. I very rarely do day rates on my works; all of mine are quoted. I prefer this because the customer and I are clear on what the end product will cost.
When picking a tradesman or builder, ask friends and family for recommendations – chances are they have used or know someone that they would be happy to recommend.
If you get a cheap quote in, ask the builder to break the quote down to make sure everything has been added, then make an educated decision on whether you think this particular builder can deliver at that price. I have seen so many customers suckered in to accepting the cheapest quote even though they have had two other quotes that are similar to each other, and yet they go for the one that is far below the other two. It always ends in the same poor workmanship or the builder stringing the customer on to additional works.
As the old saying goes, ‘Pay peanuts, and you get monkeys.’