Minor building work - how to not get ripped off on extras?

Bricks

Just wondering if anyone can give advice on protecting against being overcharged for extras when employing tradespersons on smaller jobs.

For example, I'm about to have a new boiler installed. One of the plumbers who is giving me a quote mentioned that if any leaks were found in the existing system they would have to be repaired and that would be an extra.

Which is fair enough - I fully realise that there is often extra unexpected work when doing building work and I wouldn't expect it to be done for free.

But if something does come up halfway through the job, I'd be in a weak position to negotiate on the price for obvious reasons.

Should I ask for details of how extras will be dealt with when I get the initial quote? For example would it be unusual to ask at that stage for an hourly rate that would apply to any extras that might come up?

I know there are ways of dealing with this on larger contracts where you might have a QS/contract administrator etc but not so sure what the norm is on small jobs.

Any comments appreciated.

Kiran

My personal opinion is that it depends on the value of the contract and what the forceable expenses could be. In your example, if the heating system is not already leaking then in the process of changing the boiler I would say that all connections would fall within the plumbers remit. It is possible that there could be a leak but its unlikely that it would be more than an hours day work to fix it therefore I wouldn't worry about contract terms for additional works. Labour costs per hour plus materials if required. As you quite rightly say, its a different ball came with a larger contract value

reggie_lampert

Before we asked for quotes for our ground floor works we wrote a 'schedule of works' which listed everything we wanted, to what specs, and where relevant what materials* to be used. I had also got guide prices for the materials so builderboy agreed to either better or match the prices.

We also asked for a rundown of everything that wasn't included in the price but we still got stung!

We updated this schedule several times with the builder over the course of the works. We would go over each point with the him and agree if it was completed or not.

*This came in useful when they built the roof to the wrong pitch as well as tiling it incorrectly. The builder tried to blame me but I had not only given him a hard copy of the tile spec but had emailed it to him along with BC's requirements, to which he had confirmed receipt.

The builder assured us that once the main works had been agreed, any extra work would be at cost. But when issues arose, or things that we thought were included suddenly weren't they were then priced too high. We referred back to the schedule and compared costs to other similar jobs. We'd ask for a breakdown and he would normally capitulate and reduce it to a fair cost.

It was hard work. Really hard work. Our builder turned out to be a nutcase. Seriously, he was bizarre. But the schedule made it alot easier to negotiate.

southcoastrgi

the only probs you might get with a boiler change is if you are changing from an open vented system ie small roof tank to a sealed system or a combi, both of these will now put your heating system under pressure, plus the system will need flushing prior to the new boiler being fitted & this can find leaks as you get rid of the gunk in the heating system, the amount of work if this happens is anyones guess as you won't know until it happens if it does.