The importance of finding a low-cost builder you can trust
Building work in a home can be very daunting and overwhelming especially when taking on an extensive project like a home extension in the form of a conservatory or loft conversion. Home improvement work is best left to the professionals when it comes to damp proofing your property, replacing eroded rotting windowsills or adding French doors to an external wall leading into the garden. Building work in a home has the ability to transform your space making it more suitable for a growing family and thus increasing your property value as well as keep your home in tip top condition without crumbling walls, roof, windows and doors.
Tips on how to save on your building job
HaMuch has put together a few noteworthy tips on how to save money to ensure you find a cheap builder that meets your budget for tidy and safe building work in your home.
Before building work even commences, you can save money by doing the preparation work yourself. If your building work requires the removal of rubble, the builder will need to hire a skip. Save money by searching online for the best skip hire and organise the skip yourself, remembering that often a skip left on the road often requires a permit (depending on your boroughs parking regulations). If the builder needs scaffolding also try and source this yourself to avoid paying middleman inflated prices (you may have to chat with your neighbour to get their permission to erect scaffolding in a part of their garden). For bigger building works, research in your borough on how to go about completing planning permission to avoid paying your builder their time to do this for you.
If you are looking for a builder to replace a wall (e.g. a falling down boundary wall), consider removing the wall yourself, clearing away the rubble so that when the builder arrives all you need to do is pay for his time to erect a new wall in place of where the decrepit wall once stood. This would be cheaper as you have removed two thirds of the builders costing. If you are in need of a builder to do a house extension, a cheaper way would be for you to first lay the foundation of the extension with the builder completing the work. For building repair work (e.g. replacing a section of roof tiles), make sure that the builder will have adequate access to the area to avoid the work running over into another day’s charge because half their day is spent clearing a pathway to the work. Also, where possible source the products yourself to avoid an additional costs on the builders time of collecting items. Bigger products, (e.g. sheets of MDF wood) can always be delivered to the site the day before the builder is due so that way the materials are waiting on the builder without causing any delay.
If the builder is doing some damp-proof work, you can keep costs down by prepping the area in anticipation of their arrival. This might require you to clean out the section removing any old traces of silicone or dirt created from the damp so that when the builder arrives to your home, they can just get on with the task at hand. If the building work requires redesigning a room and moving a toilet to a new location, be sure to check beforehand if there is access to a sewerage pipe or if your budget would have to expand to include a macerator pump. By keeping conversion projects as small as possible this will obviously save more money as fewer square meters to work means less labour time needed overall. When buying builders materials stick to your budget by purchasing low-priced items rather than higher end brand names (e.g. cheaper to buy plaster that needs water to mix as opposed to ready mix plaster, you can save money on the cheaper plaster and it doesn’t require much labour time to mix the plaster before use).
Get builder comparison quotes
Before choosing your builder make sure that you have received at least three different quotes from local builders in your area to save money by choosing the cheapest builder offering the best service with the most experience in the trade.HaMuch.com helps you find affordable builders quickly and easily, saving you time and money.