What we learnt about employing a builder...
Check that your builder belongs to a recognised trade body. You can contact a local builders' association for a list of registered members.
Put your project requirements into the Your Project section of the Federation of Master Builders website Local builders will contact you.
Check that your builder has public liability insurance.
Get several quotes. We got five. Each one spotted things the others missed, so we got a good overview of the extent of the work.
Ask your builder for references. It was reassuring to hear from satisfied customers.
Get each element of the work itemised and priced.
Make a written agreement - outline the work to be done, the date of completion, arrangements for waste and rubble disposal, hours of working.
Agree a payment schedule in advance. Don't pay a deposit up front before the builder starts work.
Agree that the builder won't do anything or specify anything without checking with you first.
Check that the work won't affect your home or contents insurance.
Get in plenty of tea, coffee, sugar and biscuits.
Live with an architect, primarily so you have someone to blame if things go wrong.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
Moved in and dusty
Move day was Saturday 26 February. Team Thompson were on hand to ferry three van loads of stuff from Clifton to Bishopston, and all the way up to the attic, well out of the way of the impending devastation. All approached the mission as if it were some kind of time trial and our work, plus several Maria-made-cake breaks, was done by 5pm.
Fit to flop, we set off on our first foray into the local hostelries and got as far as the Flyer on Gloucester Road for an easy pint / glass of wine and some decent pub grub.
Team Thompo were on form again the following morning, helping to organise us into some kind of domestic shape.
Keen to get cracking on the building work, we already had a few builders' quotes by this point. After a couple more the choice in the end was Wayne and his Inspired Builds. See my other post about choosing a builder.
I'm writing this in a dusty corner of the living room, just two weeks after we moved in, and one week after the boys started on site. We already have an entirely new roof on the extension section of the house, including all new insulation, timbers, tiles and fascias. We have electrics and plumbing for a kitchen in the current dining room, and plumbing for a new downstairs loo and washing machine under the stairs. We also have a hole and lintel in the chimney breast ready for a range cooker in our new kitchen. Pretty impressive rate of work.
Though we're discovering new issues as fast as we're meeting the neighbours. It's a friendly street. They've been knocking at the door and introducing themselves in the street. There are lots of parties apparently. And no one ever leaves. "Once you've moved in, you leave in a box."
We're learning about our seller: a bit of a recluse with lots of cats. That would explain a few aromas. The neighbours tell us the house has not been touched for many years. Um, yep.
Under a thick layer of dust now, but grinning and bearing it and thinking about how it will all be worth it in the end.
But it feels like a happy home already. A dusty, cosy, happy home.
Fit to flop, we set off on our first foray into the local hostelries and got as far as the Flyer on Gloucester Road for an easy pint / glass of wine and some decent pub grub.
Team Thompo were on form again the following morning, helping to organise us into some kind of domestic shape.
Keen to get cracking on the building work, we already had a few builders' quotes by this point. After a couple more the choice in the end was Wayne and his Inspired Builds. See my other post about choosing a builder.
I'm writing this in a dusty corner of the living room, just two weeks after we moved in, and one week after the boys started on site. We already have an entirely new roof on the extension section of the house, including all new insulation, timbers, tiles and fascias. We have electrics and plumbing for a kitchen in the current dining room, and plumbing for a new downstairs loo and washing machine under the stairs. We also have a hole and lintel in the chimney breast ready for a range cooker in our new kitchen. Pretty impressive rate of work.
Though we're discovering new issues as fast as we're meeting the neighbours. It's a friendly street. They've been knocking at the door and introducing themselves in the street. There are lots of parties apparently. And no one ever leaves. "Once you've moved in, you leave in a box."
We're learning about our seller: a bit of a recluse with lots of cats. That would explain a few aromas. The neighbours tell us the house has not been touched for many years. Um, yep.
Under a thick layer of dust now, but grinning and bearing it and thinking about how it will all be worth it in the end.
But it feels like a happy home already. A dusty, cosy, happy home.
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| Blocked up in June 1952 - when the Bristol Evening World was advertising new season nylons for just 9/4 |
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| The new kitchen, if you use a little imagination |
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| Picture stylish range cooker here |
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