Finding a builder

randomi15

Hi all,

How do you set out to find a good builder for reapirs and extension work?

I see some people say look for someone local and whom has a good feedback.

I don't have any families around me in London to give reference re anyone

I have seen so much of the cow boy builders on tv shows and scared to trust anyone.

Some of the guys filled the wall with toilet paper rather than insulating material or some other left the building half way

So as i am new to this i am asking for opinions

Another question is re costs, how much would you expect to pay to create an extension over garage for a 3x3 meter room?

Or how much to pay to turn what i call a garage but has normal communal door to a garage. This involves removing surrounding bricks and turning it to a garage by installing a door

Rain_Shadow

I am currently having an extension built.

My architect recommended a number of local builders to approach who he had worked with successfully in the past, some of them over many years.

We put a specification out to tender and a number of builders came to site to view the requirements.

I based my choice on the builder who I thought I could work with best and who gave competent answers to my questions and who seemed to ask questions that reflected problems he could envisage.

The work is now nearly complete and I have been very pleased with results.

if you are in the West Hampshire/East Dorset/South Wiltshire area I would be happy to recommend him.

ThePants999

mybuilder.com has worked well for me.

G_M

It can be hard.

Ideally a recommendation eg from architect, family etc

I've also used both Which?Trusted Traders and Trading Standards Trusted Traders.

Another source is a professional body, like the FMB.

I'd avoid the other various online lists where you have no idea if the 'reviews' are written by customers or the contractors themselves, and where contractors often have to pay to be included (so the website has no incentive to publish negative reviews and risk losing the contractor as a paying customer).

cattie

If there really is nobody who you can ask to recommend a tradesman you can consider looking around your local area at properties that are having work done or appear to have had recent work done & then approach the home owner to see who they used & if they would recommend them.

Or sometimes local councils maintain lists of registered qualified tradesmen to recommend, so perhaps inquire if your council operate such a service.

cloo

http://www.checkatrade.com/ is good, as you can see a lot of detailed feedback (for the best ones anyway), including whether they charged what they said they would charge. Obviously sometimes these may not be genuine, but some guys have a large number of detailed reviews, which makes them more likely to be the real deal.

If you are on Facebook and there is any kind of local community group you can join (like a Buying and selling group, or for families), you can ask for recommendations.

Then you can ask to see work done by them and to speak to previous clients for further assurance.

Hoploz

I second what cattle has said. Look at who else is having work done, or has had it done recently. I knocked on doors of houses which had been extended recently when I was looking for companies, and asked them how their builders worked out and whether they'd recommend them.