Struggling to find a builder

[MrManual]

As the title suggests I need a builder but so far the few that I've tried through friends and work are all ridiculously busy.

Anyone know where to look for decent builders?

[037]

local Structural Engineer or Architect, Builders yard, neighbours, etc

[Spare tyre]

When we get our extension done I’m going to door knock people who’ve had local work done and ask.

You could view local permission granted to find recent work

I have had good results asking my spark or plumber

[bennno]

MrManual said:

As the title suggests I need a builder but so far the few that I've tried through friends and work are all ridiculously busy.

Anyone know where to look for decent builders?

Where in the UK are you?

I had similar but once id got the architect to complete the drawings and id got planning he introduced one set of builders who were within budget and did a first class job.

You wont get much interest if its a pie-in-the-sky job without drawings / spec / planning etc

[Monkeylegend]

I would be wary of the builder that can fit you in next week guv.

Good ones are worth waiting for.

[Terminator X]

MrManual said:

As the title suggests I need a builder but so far the few that I've tried through friends and work are all ridiculously busy.

Anyone know where to look for decent builders?

A mate of mine is a builder and has 18 months of orders ahead of him. Their in lies your problem.

TX.

[Quattromaster]

My brother owns a small ish building company.

25-30 guys covering all trades, I call him a posh builder as he does 3-500k extensions.

Booked up until late 2024.

And they say there’s no money about.

[ninepoint2]

Monkeylegend said:

I would be wary of the builder that can fit you in next week guv.

Good ones are worth waiting for.

Very much this, our builder who we have used for years can't fit us in for fairly routine chimney pointing etc till Aug, he is very good though

[Sheepshanks]

Quattromaster said:

My brother owns a small ish building company.

25-30 guys covering all trades, I call him a posh builder as he does 3-500k extensions.

Booked up until late 2024.

And they say there’s no money about.

Maybe things have settled down now but we had a biggish extension built first half of last year using a firm with 15 staff and only waited 3 mths - booked Nov 21 and started end Jan 22. We were hearing then that a lot of people weren't going ahead with work as the costs had just become too much.

The way our builder worked was basically their own guys operated more as working supervisors working alongside subbies who seemed to pretty well work for them full time. I suppose the trick in running such a business is to be able to keep multiple plates spinning, once you employ a bunch of staff you can't just do one job at a time.

One thing that suprised me, bearing in mind we live in a fairly rural area and think we know who's who, is that when we applied for planning permission loads of builders we'd never heard of sent letters to us - the point being there's far more builders around than I'd realised.

[okgo]

Most of the well renowned ones around me in SW London won’t even humour you. “We aren’t taking anymore work”

I rely on a semi retired bloke for my minor needs. Wanted an extension and it would have been easier to plan a bank heist and get away with it.

[Jasandjules]

Yup my chap has, each week when I chase for about the last four weeks, told me it will be three weeks until he can do the work.................

The good ones are not touting for business but turning it down.

[tescorank]

I can’t believe nobodies mentioned the B word yet :-)

[tescorank]

I can’t believe nobodies mentioned the B word yet :-)

[Dylano]

Terminator X said:

mate of mine is a builder and has 18 months of orders ahead of him. Their in lies your problem.

TX.

And thats the dilemma... I'm looking at getting the front of the house re-rendered, I resorted to seeing who got recommendations for rendering jobs locally on Facebook.

Of the five that I emailed only one bothered getting back to me, so I automatically assumed he was a cowboy!

It's a no win situation!

[cossy400]

Step sons a builder, planning on pulling the ceiling down in our bedroom as its the last one to be done.

I'll pull it down and be on hand to reboard it etc.

When can he plaster it.. ...


6 to 8 months and that's me paying him notva freebie.

[bennno]

cossy400 said:

Step sons a builder, planning on pulling the ceiling down in our bedroom as its the last one to be done.

I'll pull it down and be on hand to reboard it etc.

When can he plaster it.. ...

6 to 8 months and that's me paying him notva freebie.

Find a plasterer and it’ll be done more quickly.