Sourcing a builder for a house refurb?

[Mark300zx]

Doing a house refurb with a strict budget and looking to source a builder, I would do it myself but too busy with work, looking for tips on how to source them and ensure their reliabilty?

[037]

Get as much detail as possible within a scope of works by yourself. Getting someone round and just pointing at things saying this and that needs doing will not get you anywhere. Is the builder going to be able to use his own sub contractors or do you have your preferred tradesmen?

[Mark300zx]

037 said:

Get as much detail as possible within a scope of works by yourself. Getting someone round and just pointing at things saying this and that needs doing will not get you anywhere. Is the builder going to be able to use his own sub contractors or do you have your preferred tradesmen?

It is all cosmetic, new kitchen, bathroom, paint, rads, driveway, he can use his own contractors/trades, pretty much know what I want and suppliers.

[Rough101]

Need to get a recommendation from a local with a recent completed job.

Round here, anyone trustworthy is on a 9 month lead in for an all in job, individual trades are easier, but not the full package, so you’d need to manage yourself, which as you know is a nightmare, joiner can’t close up to let the plasterer start as the spark or plumber are stuck on a job, then the plasterer has moved on to another job and you’ve missed the slot for the tiler, so the spark is in Tenerife when you want the plates fitted and the plumber is in Dubai when the taps need connected.

[037]

Mark300zx said:

037 said:

Get as much detail as possible within a scope of works by yourself. Getting someone round and just pointing at things saying this and that needs doing will not get you anywhere. Is the builder going to be able to use his own sub contractors or do you have your preferred tradesmen?

It is all cosmetic, new kitchen, bathroom, paint, rads, driveway, he can use his own contractors/trades, pretty much know what I want and suppliers.

So many questions to ask just in that one sentence,
Kitchen: Budget, design, spec, floor finishes, electrical, gas, water, waste, extraction, tiling, ect ect..
Get as much detail down in a nice easy to read list

[princeperch]

A lot of the building and roofing fb groups I am on the trades seem to think they should be on a minimum of 800 quid a day plus whatever they can skim off the materials on the job

[bennno]

Mark300zx said:

037 said:

Get as much detail as possible within a scope of works by yourself. Getting someone round and just pointing at things saying this and that needs doing will not get you anywhere. Is the builder going to be able to use his own sub contractors or do you have your preferred tradesmen?

It is all cosmetic, new kitchen, bathroom, paint, rads, driveway, he can use his own contractors/trades, pretty much know what I want and suppliers.

Break it up and get relevant trades in. Will save £££££ and be a better job.

[Cheib]

In the middle of a refurb now

You want/need an experienced builder who has got very good relationships with the individual trades…because they need to lean on those relationships to get them on site when needed.

The builder we have who came highly recommended but initially was too busy/wouldn’t quote initially as was busy with new build projects. Couple of jobs got paused so we got lucky I think as he hasn’t done a refurb for five years…because they are so much more hassle.

We’re moving back in upstairs in ten days…this week we’ve had builders/joiners/plumbers/decorators and electricians all doing their bits upstairs. It is a lot of work co ordinating that lot !


Got to keep the troops happy….

[Little Lofty]

Cheib said:

In the middle of a refurb now

You want/need an experienced builder who has got very good relationships with the individual trades…because they need to lean on those relationships to get them on site when needed.

The builder we have who came highly recommended but initially was too busy/wouldn’t quote initially as was busy with new build projects. Couple of jobs got paused so we got lucky I think as he hasn’t done a refurb for five years…because they are so much more hassle.

We’re moving back in upstairs in ten days…this week we’ve had builders/joiners/plumbers/decorators and electricians all doing their bits upstairs. It is a lot of work co ordinating that lot !


Got to keep the troops happy….

You could have bought them a kettle and a months worth of tea, coffee and biscuits for what that cost

[119]

Mate of mine used a highly recommended and trusted builder for his project.

Went and looked at some of his previous work and spoke with the owners and they were singing and dancing about how fantastic he was.

So, they decided to get him to quote alongside a couple of others and instructed him to do the project.

Turns out he was an absolute and rinsed our mate for every penny and it took over six months on top of what they agreed for the works to complete it. And then trying to get him back to sort out a couple of small issues was impossible.

Its a lottery out there for sure!

[Ryyy]

bennno said:

Break it up and get relevant trades in. Will save £££££ and be a better job.

This. Not necessarily a better job as there might be an absolute Superstar all rounder out there but I wouldn't recommend a builder builder fitting a kitchen and so on. And if he uses his own guys you don't know how good they actually where as an individual will have his own reviews.

And as for a comment above about £800 a day we absolutely should be on that

[Cheib]

Little Lofty said:

You could have bought them a kettle and a months worth of tea, coffee and biscuits for what that cost

I absolutely could. But that’s not the point !

[bennno]

Little Lofty said:

Cheib said:

In the middle of a refurb now

You want/need an experienced builder who has got very good relationships with the individual trades…because they need to lean on those relationships to get them on site when needed.

The builder we have who came highly recommended but initially was too busy/wouldn’t quote initially as was busy with new build projects. Couple of jobs got paused so we got lucky I think as he hasn’t done a refurb for five years…because they are so much more hassle.

We’re moving back in upstairs in ten days…this week we’ve had builders/joiners/plumbers/decorators and electricians all doing their bits upstairs. It is a lot of work co ordinating that lot !


Got to keep the troops happy….

You could have bought them a kettle and a months worth of tea, coffee and biscuits for what that cost

100%. Somebody’s going to get spanked for extras at the end of this job.

[Sheepshanks]

bennno said:

Break it up and get relevant trades in. Will save £££££ and be a better job.

Unless you know people I can't imagine how horrendous that would be getting people to turn up, never mind in the right order. And OP says he's busy.

We had a builder do our extension / refurb and he organised everything. He had a core team but they basically managed subbies. With just a couple of days exception, they had people on site every day for 5mths. Even he seemed the struggle with the electrician, and that was a firm with a few of them but they'd turn up at the wrong time, then drop in for an hour when they were needed all day.

With full drawings, there were still loads of on-the-fly decisions to make, although we probably weren't as organised at looking ahead as we could have been, but even when we were, it'd turn out things weren't available so we'd have to choose something else. The builder had a bloke who would do all this but everything he suggested was 2x the price I could find something similar for.

[bennno]

Sheepshanks said:

bennno said:

Break it up and get relevant trades in. Will save £££££ and be a better job.

Unless you know people I can't imagine how horrendous that would be getting people to turn up, never mind in the right order. And OP says he's busy.

We had a builder do our extension / refurb and he organised everything. He had a core team but they basically managed subbies. With just a couple of days exception, they had people on site every day for 5mths. Even he seemed the struggle with the electrician, and that was a firm with a few of them but they'd turn up at the wrong time, then drop in for an hour when they were needed all day.

With full drawings, there were still loads of on-the-fly decisions to make, although we probably weren't as organised at looking ahead as we could have been, but even when we were, it'd turn out things weren't available so we'd have to choose something else. The builder had a bloke who would do all this but everything he suggested was 2x the price I could find something similar for.

Not really, look at the list of jobs

new kitchen - get a kitchen company to quote as a project
bathroom - get a bathroom company to quote as a project
paint - get a painter to quote
rads - get a plumber to quote to swap rads
driveway -get a driveway contractor

No general builder will do all of that to a high standard without subbing large parts of it out, which means contingencies on top of contingencies.