Saturday, August 05, 2006

Buildings and Builders

Its been a while since my last rant, I've been having a loft conversion and all those hours of watching TV programmes like Property Ladder are coming back. Usually story, over time and over budget, but even I was surprised to hear, within 15 minutes of starting, that the new stairs won't fit !!!. Instead of boring you will all the horror stories, I thought I would change tact, instead of ranting, I will give some advice... lets call it things I have learnt about buildings and builders (1 week into the loft conversation).
  • Never make decisions about things when you are offsite, wait until you are there before giving the go ahead
  • When the build says everything will conform to building regulations, don't believe him and get building regulations in and ask them
  • Don't believe word the builder says, use the internet to research what he is saying, they will says what is easiest for them
  • Write down every decision made
  • Builders are not your friends, even though they try to make out they are
  • The work will be over budget and over time
  • Expect every phase of the build work to have problems
  • Never agree extra work or changes without agreeing the extra cost first
  • Ring around yourself for extra materials, don't assume the builder will get them cheaper (they normally add on a handling charge !)
  • When the roofer starts, expect him to condemn the roof and try to sell you a complete rebuild
  • Apologise to your neighbours before the work starts

Hopefully my 1 meter by 1 meter loft space will be complete close to the original date and won't cost more than the house was to build.

1 Comments:

At 4:01 pm, Blogger Phil said...

it's in the spirit of ranting and it has definite ranting undertones

 

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