Builder payment schedule - is this fair?

Doozergirl

GoingOn30 said:

Thanks @Doozergirl

The job is removal of an internal wall and putting in a beam. Putting in a bifold patio door (so perhaps this is made to order?), putting in a downstairs loo, refelting and tiling of a single storey roof, and putting in 3 velux windows into said roof. 

Am very happy to pay for the work as the project progresses but I feel I have been asked to pay too much up front here.

Definitely too much upfront.  It's a traditional job.  The biggest chunks will be the labour, followed by the doors.    Obviously the labour won't have happened.  

Ballymoney

For our ongoing kitchen renovation I paid 25% upfront on day 1 and the rest is in staged payments to mark certain elements of the job being completed.

I wouldn’t feel comfortable paying £4000 2 weeks in advance. And paying £1000 to confirm the booking? No chance. A contract should be sufficient to confirm the booking.

ChasingtheWelshdream

We are having a wall removed and rsj fitted and have not been asked for any upfront payment.

Our roof was replaced and again, no upfront payments. Agreed stage payments and the final bill once building regs had signed off.

A replacement window required a deposit, as will some replacement windows when we have the funds as they were/are bespoke.

An extension in a previous life was stage payments throughout but nothing up front.

casper_gutman

For our kitchen extension, now nearly complete (just worktops, splashbacks and connecting up sink and hob to go) we paid nothing up front. We did pay weekly installments calculated based on the value of work done though, so the contractor was only ever a week out of pocket.

RaiderHammer

We agreed set points to pay I think was in quarters.  Something like a quarter when concrete base of extension was down, quarter when bricks got to roof height, quarter when roof was complete, quarter after finishing.