How to start with construction of my dream house?

gardge

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good resource to find contractors? I have been looking online and all I have seen are sites where you have to describe the job then wait to get called from a contractor or if I find a directory type of site there is a limited number of contractors in my area, but I know there are many more. I am trying to build my first house and I was planning on hiring all the contractors so I need a good resource to find them. Something with reviews and article would also be very beneficial, please let me know if anyone knows of a good place to look.

lostinrates

Have you got a plot? Have you got planning and architects drawings? My guess is the archetect you use might be able to recommend contracters.

Doozergirl

Word of mouth!

It's how we've found almost all of our guys - they often end up on the same jobs together because they refer each other. I'm not sure that many of them advertise themselves - good people really can keep themselves busy. We found our plumber when we were at the same wedding and his wife took my jacket home. I found our tiler when I was witness to a car accident he was involved in! It's nice when you get on with each other. There's always a tradesperson at a party if you get talking to people.

Apart from getting a quality of work than can be shown by someone you know, the quotes we've had when we've been benchmarking our guys with those from adverts etc have been really high.

If I see something I like, I'll knock on doors to find out where something came from and who did it! People are really happy to talk about it because they are flattered! Start with your architect - contacts they have or jobs that they know have gone well for their clients. There's loads of people around if you look - my neighbours had people in, there's been a lot of work done on DD's nursery, there's a private house being built next to school etc - the quality of workmanship is there to be seen!

Even when we started out and used a main contractor it was through word of mouth that we found him.