Choosing a good one is absoloutely vital! (Builders)

Member Name: CokaCola

Product:	Builders
Date:	01/07/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They increase the value of your home, and make your living more comfortable.

Disadvantages: Often things don't go how you want them to, and you have to be assertive for corrections

Chosing a good builder for your extension or project is frankly absoloutely essential, because it becomes very difficult if you get in a bad contractor, who is pretty much a "Rogue Builder" and builds scruffy looking structures. We are just coming to the end of our extension, and although our buiders are certainly not bad, we have definately observed how certain elements of laziness and cost cutting have lead to complications and unsightly features. Fortunately for us, our builders were happy to correct them, but I can't imagine the stress one would have to endure if your builder basically said tough whenever you mentioned something you weren't really happy with.

We went with a building "Consortium" approved by the federation of master builders. I think some builders do most of the construction work themselves, but with these builders, the brick laying, plubing, carpentry, tiling, electronics, roofing, painting etc etc are all done by independant tradesman that the building consortium employ to come and work on a job. I did enjoy the fact that there were so many specialists working on our job, and I feel that one person cannot really be as good at plastering, roofing, painting, carpentry etc.

If our builders are anything to go by, you should not expect an early finish. It will take them up until the deadline on the contract, and perhaps longer if you want them to do extra bits and pieces a long the way. We frankly cannot wait for them to get out of the house now, having been subjected to barriers, drilling and a lack of privacy for months and months now, but thankfully the project is nearly finished.

I would warn you to that cliche that a building project is always a very stressful venture, and you always find yourself longing for it to be over. That is definately the truth in my experience, and it has got to the stage now where we really want them finished.

A couple of problems we have had with our builders:

1. Because they are working on a couple of different jobs at a time, and they want to save money by not having skips at every property, we found they were brining old toilets, basins, doors, walls etc to our property and piling them up, ready to go into the empty skip when the next empty skip was delivered. we decided that this was slightly taking advantage, and in all fairness, the builders did take heed of our wishes and stopped using as a dumping ground, prompty cleaning up all of the rubbish.

2. Our beautiful drive way has been ruined, it is now covered with cracks and craters. We specified before the works started that we did not want heavy vehicles such as concrete mixers coming onto the premesis and that concrete and such like would have to be barrowed in, and skips passed over the small wall at the front, or placed on the edge of the drive. The builders forgot all about this, and whilst they do need to have access for their machinery, I am sure they could have managed without the massive concrete mixing lorry reversing right down the side of the house, taking the drive way with it. So set out rules for this from the onset, to stop your drive way being stripped!

3. We unfortunately have often felt that the builders were not making use of their time wisely, stopping for coffee breaks every 40 minutes, and spending long periods of time chatting amongst themselves. Fair enough they have their own responsibility to work within the contract period, but I know for a fact that our normal life could have resumed earlier than the absoloute deadline if the builders had exployed a more "hard working" attitude.

Overall though, builders do do an important job. I would always ask friends who have been happy with works they have had done who they used, because you have decent testimonials then and know what to expect to a greater degree. Remember that the cheapest is not always the best, and also that if something seems too good to be true, then it probably is.

Summary: Do your research and ask around, I would be wary of signing a contract to a totally random firm