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Which home improvements add the most value to your property

best home improvements

A conservatory is best home improvement to add value to your home

Adding a conservatory is the most cost-effective way of adding value to your property, research from tradespeople comparison site HaMuch.com has revealed.

Christmas can be a tough time to sell in a quieter market and ensuring your property stands out from the crowd can cost money.

HaMuch.com looked at the percentage value added by a number of home improvements on the average house once you’ve accounted for the cost of the work and found that installing a conservatory costs £6,675 but increases the price by £14,062, or 6.0%. read more

Let’s ditch reviews for builders

positive feedback
  • Reviews and stars tell customers little about actual quality or reliability
  • HaMuch.com to start deleting stars and reviews for tradesmen
  • Tradesmen game reviews by offering cash discount for positive feedback
  • HaMuch.com boss says review sites may suffer same fake reviews as TripAdvisor

We have all become used to reading online reviews of tradesmen and tradeswomen before hiring them. But these reviews have now become worthless and should be done away with, says controversial builder-pricing website owner Tarquin Purdie.

Purdie’s HaMuch.com site shows details of how much tradesmen charge in your local area and had previously accepted reviews and stars out of five. These will now be deleted from the website.

Many popular websites who charge builders for job leads offer feedback and a marks system. But Purdie believes that customers can end up being fobbed off with poor tradesmen who game the system. He also believes that good builders who stick to the rules can be punished by unscrupulous homeowners. read more

HaMuch.com launches Brexit-busting apprenticeships for building trade

apprenticeships
  • Free apprenticeship matchmaking scheme for building trades across UK
  • Apprenticeships only way to plug UK skills gap says HaMuch.com founder
  • Thousands of EU builders, plumbers and electricians still quitting UK

Building work-pricing website HaMuch has taken on the mantle of solving the UK tradesman crisis by offering a free apprenticeship matchmaking service to plumbers, electricians, carpenters and bricklayers with those who would like to work in the trades.

The construction industry and related trades are in crisis as thousands of Polish workers have already returned home, leaving building sites and homes short on skilled labour. Up to 20% of European building trade workers are considering leaving our shores once the UK leaves the EU. read more

Hiring heating engineers to fit, service and repair your boiler…what’s the best option?

heating engineer

Like many purchases, when it’s time to get a new boiler or maintain your existing heating system, the different service provider choices and how much they all charge can be baffling.

So, whether you’re installing a new Valliant combi boiler, servicing an old Worcester or your Baxi boiler has stopped working and needs urgent repair the following are your three options;

  1. Hire an independent local heating engineer
  2. Hire a medium sized regional or national company which has a team of heating engineers
  3. Take out a home insurance plan from one of the large national providers

The pros and cons of each option;

Independent Heating Engineers

Cost

Independent heating engineers will charge you what they pay for boilers plus a bit more (e.g. 10%) for organising collection and to earn a bit of profit which is perfectly normal for any business. They then charge you an hourly rate or a fixed price based on their estimate of how many hours/days are required for the job. read more

Never mind the rogue builders: Pricing website starts rogue customer list

builders tools
  • HaMuch.com to compile list of debtor customers, complainers and con-men
  • Builders report increase in non-paying customers, rogue complainers & cancellations
  • Some customers hire tradesmen with no intention of paying quoted price

We are all used to seeing rogue tradesmen on early morning television shows, BBC’s Watchdog and regional news shows, but what these programmes never portray is the number of rogue customers that builders and other trades have to deal with.

Are customer who fail to pay up rogues too?

Building work-pricing website HaMuch.com is now attempting to redress the balance by compiling a list of customers who have failed to pay up, cancelled major jobs at short notice or consistently made unjustified complaints to get significant discounts. This list of nightmare customers will be compiled via feedback from plumbers, electricians, roofers, bricklayers and other tradesmen and tradeswomen who use the unique pricing website, before being made available to trades who sign up for the service. read more

Upgrade Your House | Twyford Bathroom Solutions

e100 bathroom suite

When it comes to renovating your bathroom, there are several important elements to consider at every stage of the process, from designing, buying and installing a new bathroom suite.  

Perhaps the most daunting decision for a homeowner is settling on a bathroom suite that both looks beautiful and performs flawlessly, while keeping in budget. Twyford bathroom ranges feature a host of ceramics and furniture solutions ideal for any space or style. From mirror cabinets, and other storage solutions to toilets, basins, and showers, form and function combine to create the perfect modern bathroom. read more

Builders and Plumbers in the southeast 25 times more expensive

Regional / local: The UK’s cheapest tradesmen are in Birmingham / Nottingham / Nuneaton / Blackwood / Doncaster

  • North-south divide in builder costs as much as £240-per-hour
  • Surrey and London most expensive for tradesmen/women
  • Midlands offers best value to homeowners, according to HaMuch.com

A new data survey by building work pricing site HaMuch.com has revealed the stark differences between the southeast and the rest of the UK when it comes to the cost of building work. The divide appears to be drawn at Watford Gap, with the Midlands offering best value, whilst Surrey and London have the most expensive tradesmen.

The spread of prices for common household jobs across the recently-launched website’s 12,000 tradesmen ranged from £10-per-hour to an incredible £250-per-hour, with builders in Surrey charging as much as 25-times more than their counterparts in Nottingham. Plumbers in Surrey also charged an eye-watering 20-times more than those in Caerphilly. Meanwhile, hiring an electrician in London could cost you £250-per-hour, compared with a bargain basement £10-per-hour in Birmingham.  read more

Builder pricing site launches ‘How to Speak Builder’ guide for its customers

Trades language
  • New 10-point guide aims to make customers and builders more comfortable
  • Includes advice such as ‘you don’t have to drop your aitches’ and ‘not all of us take three sugars’
  • HaMuch.com guide details everything from breakfast times to the meaning of quotes

A new guide to speaking to builders from tradesman pricing website HaMuch.com is seeking to bridge the divide between home-owners and builders, starting with the common language that divides them. 

One common problem highlighted is the tendency of men to try to imitate a working-class accent, say ‘mate’ a lot and drop the names of random tools into conversation, in an attempt to appear knowledgeable. 

The Chameleon Effect

We are all guilty of what psychologists refer to as the ‘Chameleon Effect’, where we mimic the speech patterns of those we are speaking to, but this is most noticeable amongst middle class homeowners dealing with tradesmen. But builders are, it seems, just as fed up of having to engage in a chat that starts ‘what about the City game last night, eh?’ as the homeowners who feel obliged to engage in it. read more

Banish Builder cash-in-hand payments for trades

money
  •  HaMuch.com announce New Year’s resolution is no more cash-in-hand for builders
  • Portable card machines have revolutionised payment for tradespeople
  • Does away with the industry’s reputation for tax-dodging

Building work pricing website HaMuch.com is set to put a cat among the building site pigeons by calling time on cash-in-hand payments for plumbers, electricians and bricklayers alike. 

The bundle of used notes was once standard payment for tradesmen, but the website’s founder Tarquin Purdie believes that abandoning cash payments for 2019 will allow builders to fully embrace the 21st century and rescue the industry’s reputation in one fell swoop. He is now calling for home-owners to reject calls for cash payment, even if that comes with a discount. read more

12 Brilliant Festive House Cleaning Hacks

Christmas can be a wonderful time of the year, but it can also present a minefield of festive household dilemmas. Here are the top 12 solutions from our traders at www.hamuch.com to the most common problems faced by householders over the festive period.

1. Fridge Overload

In the run-up to Christmas, start clearing out the fridge and freezer so that there’s plenty of room for all the festive goodies – especially if, like many people, you’re planning to have house guests.

2. Messy Wrapping Paper

After opening your presents, for a quick-fix solution to clearing up, use a bundle of sticky tape to dab around and pick up bits of polystyrene and other small bits of stray packaging. read more