General Contractor Guide for Builder Selection

Insurance, Time Keeping & Extras Do it Yourself Tips for Builder Selection

Ask if your builder has Public Liability insurance, check that it is valid (in date and not expired). This is essential because if, for instance, your tradesperson damages your home in any way, he/she could spill a tin of paint over your carpet, spill a tin of paint over your car, and so on, his Public Liability insurance will pay out for cleaning or replacement. The average cover on this type of policy is anything between five hundred thousand pounds and five million pounds. The policy should be in the name he/she is trading under.

When you have arranged an appointment for him/her to come round and look at the work, do they turn up on time? Chances are - if he lets you down, without good reason, at your very first meeting he will continue to do so if you take him on.

Is he/she listening to what you want, is he asking you to clarify certain things to show that he is considering what you want?

It must be said that it is not always necessary for a tradesman to run around your home with a tape measure to allow him/her to give you an accurate price for the works. An experienced tradesman will be able to assess sizes etc. by maybe pacing a room, counting tiles across, existing drops of wallpaper and so forth. This does not make him careless, indeed in many cases it shows you he has been doing this for quite some time!

If a job involves many items such as stripping paper, plastering, re-papering, painting etc. the tradesman should be taking notes to, at the very least, remind him when he gets back to his desk exactly what he has to price for. So if he is wandering around chatting about what a nice area you live in or what a nice car you have, chances are he is not going to estimate accurately.

If the works involved are quite complex i.e. a fitted kitchen, fitted wardrobes, extension etc. He may, on the acceptance of his initial quote, wish to come back to the site and spend some time taking further more detailed measurements, this would allow him to both ensure he was accurate in his first estimate and order exact amounts from any supplier he may be using.

You can help matters by having a clear idea of what you want the finished product to look like, however, having said that it is acceptable to ask the tradesman what is actually possible of being achieved and then moving on from there. A genuine tradesman will be able to tell you what could and could not be done in your particular case.

You need to have confidence in your tradesperson, you need to be able to discuss your requirements and receive feedback without feeling that you are a nuisance. You are, after all, the person paying the bill!

But also, please do remember, he does possibly have other commitments that he may have to give some time to, you will not be in his thoughts every waking hour. This extension, loft conversion etc. may be the most important thing in your life at the moment but it may not be the same for him.

If he is a small business working from home, telephoning him at 10pm is not always met with a friendly "Hello Mrs Customer" - he is entitled to leave work behind at some point, try to contact him at reasonable times.

Finally, once your tradesperson is on site working for you, he is in your home, and he should respect it ( which most do) equally he cannot make himself a cuppa when he wants one - Harry says "help him out -we are only human after all."

To provide you with further help and advice please see our selection of books below. We have also provided a search box so as you can choose your own books.