Find a Builder/Contractor

kration

I'm looking to get a lot of work done on my flat in the NE of England before I put it on the market (or stay in it if it doesn't sell).

New kitchen (including stripping back to brickwork), plastering over the artex in hallway and another room, and minor plumbing stuff in bathroom.

Also, pointing brickwork externally, and sorting out the ridge of the roof - hopefully minor stuff, but probably a separate contract.

I don't know people who have had work done recently, so word of mouth recommendations aren't available to me.

Are the 'find a builder' websites or similar that useful? Any other suggestions?

FreeBear

Flat - Leasehold ?

Exterior brickwork & roof is usually down to the freeholder to maintain. So check your lease, and then make contact with the freeholder.

If you are stripping plaster back to bare brick on an external wall, Building Regulations may well require you to add insulation to the wall - The rule is more than 25% of an external wall per room, then BR kicks in. You may also need consent from the freeholder for the work.

Personally, I would avoid the checkatrade type web sites. You may be lucky and find a good'un (I didn't when I went that route). If you do use one of those sites, be very, very wary of anyone that says they can start withing a few weeks. Decent tradesmen are booked up for three months or more. Also avoid the ones that want a sizeable deposit up front. Often, the reason given is that they need tp purchase materials... If they haven't got an account with suppliers, either they have a poor credit history, or they'll run off with your money - I'm in the middle of £10K+ of work, and no one has asked for a deposit, even although I offered one.

twopenny

When I see builders vans working somewhere I make a point of passing by.
If they are outside on their phones or ambling, chatting I make a note to avoid them.
If they are working and its a tidy looking house I photograph the van with the details, ask for a card.
I've found some good trades like this.

Doozergirl

The Federation of Master Builders operate their Find a Builder service on their website. 

https://www.fmb.org.uk/find-a-builder.html

Unlike similar sites, the FMB doesn't earn money from finding customers for their builders.  It acts more as a directory of members.  

They are the only organisation that can claim to have independently inspected every member's work.  They check trading history before allowing firms to join and check insurances every year.  

It's fairly easy for those that profit from the act of joining trades to consumers to heavily influence the number of positive reviews they receive versus bad, by requesting a score out of five through an email, but only going on to ask the happiest recipients for reviews.   

benson1980

When needed, I’ve always used checkatrade and obtained 3 quotes. I normally filter by distance and then find those nearest (theory being more likely to quote). I’ll filter the negative reviews if they have any and see how they’ve responded.

I then cross reference any google reviews as well.

More recently it’s taken more than three enquiries to end up with 3 quotes but I’ve never had an issue. In fact I’ve found a lot of really good tradespeople this way. The plumber we’ve got at the moment fitting a new cylinder has been excellent thus far, and started quickly. I’d estimate we’ve taken on around 15 trades from checkatrade. I’ve only had a problem once, and that was pretty minor. We’ve also found a brilliant plasterer that we have now used several times.

I appreciate other people have had problems (including people I know) but it is really important to actually read the content of the reviews. One plumber my parents recently found on there, and had a lot of problems with, had a high rating on the face of it but when you dug into the several negative reviews he’d just responded with the same line denying all knowledge of the customer, yet they were quite detailed explanations of what work he had (or hadn’t) done.

What has proved problematic for me at least is word of mouth recommendations from neighbours or friends, where the trader has no online presence or facility to leave reviews for them. The most unreliable by far compared to the approach above. They may have done a good job for them but this has certainly not panned out when I’ve taken them on.

Section62

benson1980 said:

I appreciate other people have had problems (including people I know) but it is really important to actually read the content of the reviews. One plumber my parents recently found on there, and had a lot of problems with, had a high rating on the face of it but when you dug into the several negative reviews he’d just responded with the same line denying all knowledge of the customer, yet they were quite detailed explanations of what work he had (or hadn’t) done.

How would you (anyone) interpret that in terms of whether the trader was any good? (without your parent's prior experience)

benson1980

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

I appreciate other people have had problems (including people I know) but it is really important to actually read the content of the reviews. One plumber my parents recently found on there, and had a lot of problems with, had a high rating on the face of it but when you dug into the several negative reviews he’d just responded with the same line denying all knowledge of the customer, yet they were quite detailed explanations of what work he had (or hadn’t) done.

How would you (anyone) interpret that in terms of whether the trader was any good? (without your parent's prior experience)

I might be missing your point, but when several people say they employed this guy and provide detail around what he did and the issues- and he just responds to say it’s a false and malicious review each time, there’s no way I’d be calling him up for a quote. 

As an aside I think the advice of getting three quotes regardless of how many enquiries you need to make is something that we have always stuck to- and we have gone with the person who seems the best. So…a combination of using review sites but also persevering with getting several people round.

Section62

benson1980 said:

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

I appreciate other people have had problems (including people I know) but it is really important to actually read the content of the reviews. One plumber my parents recently found on there, and had a lot of problems with, had a high rating on the face of it but when you dug into the several negative reviews he’d just responded with the same line denying all knowledge of the customer, yet they were quite detailed explanations of what work he had (or hadn’t) done.

How would you (anyone) interpret that in terms of whether the trader was any good? (without your parent's prior experience)

I might be missing your point, but when several people say they employed this guy and provide detail around what he did and the issues- and he just responds to say it’s a false and malicious review each time, there’s no way I’d be calling him up for a quote. 

The point was how do you know that the bad reviews aren't malicious?

Your starting point was your parent's bad experience, which predisposes you to thinking the bad reviews are true and genuine.

Without that prior experience, do you believe the trader, or believe the reviewer?

It isn't difficult to write a false but credible review - especially if you are in the trade yourself.  You made the point about how the reviews were detailed about the work done, but that doesn't mean anything.

benson1980

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

I appreciate other people have had problems (including people I know) but it is really important to actually read the content of the reviews. One plumber my parents recently found on there, and had a lot of problems with, had a high rating on the face of it but when you dug into the several negative reviews he’d just responded with the same line denying all knowledge of the customer, yet they were quite detailed explanations of what work he had (or hadn’t) done.

How would you (anyone) interpret that in terms of whether the trader was any good? (without your parent's prior experience)

I might be missing your point, but when several people say they employed this guy and provide detail around what he did and the issues- and he just responds to say it’s a false and malicious review each time, there’s no way I’d be calling him up for a quote. 

The point was how do you know that the bad reviews aren't malicious?

Your starting point was your parent's bad experience, which predisposes you to thinking the bad reviews are true and genuine.

Without that prior experience, do you believe the trader, or believe the reviewer?

It isn't difficult to write a false but credible review - especially if you are in the trade yourself.  You made the point about how the reviews were detailed about the work done, but that doesn't mean anything.

On the balance of probabilities I’d wonder why more than a handful of people, who have other linked reviews on google that appear plausible and post positive reviews for other businesses, have issues with him and therefore I’d be inclined to think that they are genuine.

I know review sites are a bit contentious, but just posting my experience of them.

Risteard

twopenny said:

When I see builders vans working somewhere I make a point of passing by.
If they are outside on their phones or ambling, chatting I make a note to avoid them.
If they are working and its a tidy looking house I photograph the van with the details, ask for a card.
I've found some good trades like this.

Perhaps it's a work-related phone call?

Risteard

benson1980 said:

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

Section62 said:

benson1980 said:

I appreciate other people have had problems (including people I know) but it is really important to actually read the content of the reviews. One plumber my parents recently found on there, and had a lot of problems with, had a high rating on the face of it but when you dug into the several negative reviews he’d just responded with the same line denying all knowledge of the customer, yet they were quite detailed explanations of what work he had (or hadn’t) done.

How would you (anyone) interpret that in terms of whether the trader was any good? (without your parent's prior experience)

I might be missing your point, but when several people say they employed this guy and provide detail around what he did and the issues- and he just responds to say it’s a false and malicious review each time, there’s no way I’d be calling him up for a quote. 

The point was how do you know that the bad reviews aren't malicious?

Your starting point was your parent's bad experience, which predisposes you to thinking the bad reviews are true and genuine.

Without that prior experience, do you believe the trader, or believe the reviewer?

It isn't difficult to write a false but credible review - especially if you are in the trade yourself.  You made the point about how the reviews were detailed about the work done, but that doesn't mean anything.

On the balance of probabilities I’d wonder why more than a handful of people, who have other linked reviews on google that appear plausible and post positive reviews for other businesses, have issues with him and therefore I’d be inclined to think that they are genuine.

I know review sites are a bit contentious, but just posting my experience of them.

You don't know that these are a multitude of people - it could be one or two posting multiple false reviews.

I had someone post a false 1-star Google review once, with no text but just ticked the box "Quality" as the reason for the review. However I had never done any work for anyone by this name. Unfortunately Google had no interest in removing it, saying it didn't breach their conditions. I would presume that reviewing work which wasn't ever done would be contrary to their conditions, but there you go - they simply don't care. Don't place too much trust in reviews.