Get the Best From Your Builder

Building your own home puts you in a position of complete responsibility and for many this first taste of real power can be a daunting task. Whilst knowledge of the technical aspects of building, or at the very least the sequences of events, is useful, what is undoubtedly of far greater significance to the successful self-builder is the ability to handle people and situations. Acres of print are devoted to choices of materials and the selection of suitable contractors, subcontractors and architects. But very little is devoted to the qualities that the self-builder should bring to these partnerships.

Many of the practices and attitudes of the factory floor or office do not easily translate to the building site. The engineer who boasts an ability to work in micrometers and looks forward with eager anticipation to teaching these guys how to do things properly will almost certainly come a cropper. The self-builder who stands like a factory inspector, clocking people in and out, will soon find themselves with an empty site.

There's no need to be a bad client, however, and if you follow a few simple rules and guidelines you can get the best out of your builder by getting the best out of yourself.

Decide who to deal with

Be pro-active in terms of your searches. Its no good taking someone on in the supposed belief that they are members of an august association, if their membership has lapsed and nobody has had the foresight to check its currency. Its no good taking someone on in the belief that they were responsible for certain other works unless youve checked that their involvement was crucial. Its no good taking on someone who, even though they might be the very best at what they do, is not going to be helpful.

Do you have the gumption to check things out? Do you have the nerve to walk up a pathway, knock on a door and ask a complete stranger for information on somebody that carried out work for them in the past? If not then maybe you need to examine your own abilities in this management project that you are about to embark upon, if youre not to rely on mere blind faith.

Remember, when a builder, architect or tradesman is keen to get the job they will be your best new chum. Youll be bought drinks in the pub, theyll give you all sorts of helpful advice and you might even be invited to their annual barbecue. But what are they going to be like at the fag end of the job or when things go wrong? You need to know that and the only people who really know the answers to these questions are the people that theyve worked for before. You need to have the ability and the boldness to search out those answers.

Understand your builder's problems

Why should you worry about the problems that those you employ experience? Because if their problems impact upon your site, you will suffer in the end. Whenever a builder quotes for a job, they do so on the basis of certain assumptions. Usually there is enough fat in the price to cover for unknown eventualities. Sometimes things will not be quite as presupposed and if the changes are minor then you would be right to think that a decent tradesman should shrug them off. But make a distinction between somebody swinging the lead for a bit more money and somebody who is faced with something major that they and you could never have envisaged.

In the end you want your project finished and you want it done properly. If the unforeseen problems mean that a respectable tradesman or contractor has no alternative but to walk away from the job, then thats not going to help. If they decide to stay but are forced to skimp on the work then thats no good either. A contract is a contract and you could insist upon its fulfilment and youd be perfectly within your rights. But you cant force people to work and any attempt to do so might be more expensive than renegotiating. If that all sounds like a recipe for financial anarchy, then you are right if, and only if, you fail to spot the difference between genuine hardship and somebody just trying it on.

Any builder is only as good as his last job. Thats why when youve made all the checks, you need to keep abreast of things. Look for warning signs. Look for lack of attendance, materials not arriving on time or subcontractors failing to turn up. They might be warnings of financial difficulties, or they may just be personal difficulties. Is it the self-builders job to worry about the marital problems of his builder? Of course it isnt in the sense of becoming a marriage guidance councillor. But if sympathy with their problems and a willingness to step into the breach and take over albeit on a temporary basis some of the site management, means that your site keeps going, then its well worthwhile.

Get your cash flow right

Many builders work with an overdraft that would eclipse most self-build mortgages. Builders regularly get into financial troubles, not because they are technically insolvent, but because their cash flow is so bad. In reality it is probably something to do with the job before yours or the job before that. But here again, if you made the in-depth enquiries at the beginning, this might be something that you know about.

Be that as it may, its important for you to get your cash flow right and its vital that you have the money available at the right time if youre going to keep continuity on site. Most subcontractors will want paying in cash at the end of the week. If you havent got it then theyll not be there on the Monday and will slip off to another job where they think or know theyll get paid on time.

A positive cash flow is the principal advantage of the new generation of advance mortgages available within the self-build lending market. But even with these mortgages it is important for the self-builder to exercise restraint and to watch out for overspending. Running a building site is like running a business and if you do nothing else, then careful management of the finances, by means of a running check on a daily basis allied to a meaningful cash projection and programme, are essential.

Get lower prices

If building to a tight budget is the overriding factor in the project, the likelihood of getting reasonable quotes from builders is increased if you adhere to the following principles:

• A small footprint
• A site with no obvious slopes or bad ground
• A simple layout and roof design
• A flexible approach to timescales

Be willing to listen and to learn

Most self-builders are entering a new field. Even experienced self-builders might have something to learn and, indeed, most builders and subcontractors are on a constant learning curve with new regulations and methods coming on stream.

As the self-builder you are the instigator and the final arbiter of everything that happens on site. You chose the site. You chose, with the help of the architect and the planners, the design. You chose the materials and the specification. So here you are on site with men who have done all this for years and who know far more than you do about how it all fits together, and theyre asking you what to do!

Don't be afraid to ask for advice. If a subcontractor asks you whether to do something one way or another, then they might just be testing you or they might just be aiming to show you how knowledgeable they are. If you dont know the answer, answer with a question, Im not sure. What would you normally do? Almost invariably they will have the solution on tap and the problem will be solved. If not then ask around. Maybe the warranty inspector will know. Almost certainly the building inspector will have a view, as will your architect or designer. Dont be afraid to stop and ask. Building a new home is just about the most regulated and overseen activity there is and it pays to make full use of all of the experience and knowledge of the professionals.

Don't dither - make up your mind

Nearly all jobs that run over time get blamed on the builders. Yet in many cases its the clients who are at fault. Simple changes of mind during the job can add days onto the schedule. Altering things once or twice might be accommodated but if you make a habit of it, the sequences and with it the relationship between the parties will pretty soon break down.

Knowing the sequence of events through a build is important. You need to know when things that you are choosing or are undecided upon are going to be needed and you need to equate that with the delivery times from order (see H&R Aug 05 for a full project planner). Its no good getting to the point where the kitchen units are needed only to have to tell the builders that theyll be several weeks more. The whole job will come to a grinding halt. Make your minds up in good time.

Keep a sense of proportion/humour

Most self-builders will find themselves spending money in amounts and at greater speed than they have ever envisaged. The project can take over lives. At times it might even seem that nothing is more important than this new home.

Keep a sense of proportion. It is important but is not more important than family life and it certainly shouldnt be more important than your business life. Don't make the mistake of believing that you and the tradesmen are an equal partnership. This is your project. Its not theirs. You'll enjoy the house afterwards. You'll reap the benefit of any increase in equity. For them its just another job. Talk of partnerships is nave and if you try to involve them in such talk, theyll pay lip service to the concept, laugh at you behind your back and take advantage of your obvious inexperience.

It's not always going to go right. Things will go badly at times. Be prepared for them and keep things in perspective. Very few things that go wrong on a building site spell absolute disaster and most can be remedied. The solution may soak up your contingency fund but thats what its there for. It may eat into your projected equity increase but its unlikely to swallow it up entirely.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Most people don't know one face of a brick from another. Then they come into self-building and theyre faced with a myriad of choices. They make those choices and then they defend them zealously against any attempt at change. But building houses isn't like that. Too many other interested parties are involved and if you insist on getting 100% of what you want, rather than the 80%, which you're likely to get, you'll be disappointed.

Be pragmatic. If the planners don't like your choice, then be prepared to compromise. If the bath taps that youve set your heart on fail to turn up on time or cease being manufactured then there are thousands of alternatives, most of which are probably just as good or even better.

Be aware that a failure to compromise can be very damaging to the entire concept. Always keep the bigger picture in mind, which is finishing the project as a whole and on budget. Details, which seem important at the time, will always pale into insignificance with the passage of time.

Insist on a basic agreement.

All of the advice that youll see in writing usually exhorts the self-builder to enter into a written contract with whosoever they chose to employ in any capacity. Architects and package deal companies will probably not be prepared to proceed other than on this basis. But there is no doubt that the vast majority of building contracts between self-builders and builders, and self-builders and subcontractors, proceed with no formal contract other than perhaps an exchange of letters.

For some this is an anathema. They cannot countenance the idea of not having a long and formal document detailing every part of the contract. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps if things go wrong they'll be covered and if it goes to court theyll win. But will it be a Pyrrhic victory? Perhaps the person who carefully manages things, who pays for nothing that is not done and approved of, has the edge?

Certainly the heads of agreement need to be set down somewhere and if no formal contract is employed then at the very least there should be offer and acceptance in writing. But the pragmatic self-builder will very quickly realise that there are many competent builders and subcontractors who would run a mile from sheaves of paper or formal-looking documentation.

Of course, if everything goes right on the site then any contract is just waste paper. Its only if things go wrong that its needed and the main point of need revolves around just what to do if things go wrong, how they'll be sorted and what arbitration process will be used. The self-builder needs to be able to negotiate and may need to be prepared to calm the irrational fears. Be aware that insistence on a contract might mean a builder either pulling away from the potential job or, perhaps worse still, inflating the price to cover for supposed problems caused by it. This is where the simple contracts, such as the JCT Building Contract for a Home Owner/Occupier come into their own (see jctltd.co.uk for more information). These are only a few pages long, written in plain English to cover all of the major details with most of the points dealt with by simple tick boxes. Another option is the free contract from the Federation of Master Builders, downloadable from their website at findabuilder.co.uk.

Analyse tender prices

One of the biggest problems can be deciding which contract to take. Many people who come into self-building for the first time are astonished at the differences that there can be between quotations for essentially the same job. Sometimes these differences are as great as 100%.

The self-builder needs to learn to look at these things analytically. Are the quotations given on the same assumptions? Were the same tender documents and plans sent out to each party? Were they clear in their requirements?

Quite often they were and the reasons for the differentials have more to do with whether they wanted the job or not. Here its important that the self-builder makes himself or herself aware of what the price should have been and there are plenty of references in this magazine and in self-build books that can help with the broad detail. Understand that the high prices either didnt want the job or if they did may be working to a different scale of costs. The big builders with offices and fleets of vans have huge overheads, which mean that they can never really be competitive against the smaller builder who uses the kitchen table as his office and works on site himself.

Beware the lower prices that you know are less than even youd been hoping for. Your greed may be your undoing. Maybe the builder or subcontractor was inexperienced? Maybe theyve made a mistake? Either way, if you take on a chap at an uneconomic price itll be you who loses out in the end when they fail to finish, go bust or simply skimp on the job.

Go for the middle ground and then, before you enter into a contract, do all of the checking that has been talked about above.

Know when to pay

A self-builder should make sure that they have the money available for the job and they should look to and manage their cash flow in order to keep things running smoothly.

But there is another side to this and that is that as well as paying on time, they should learn not to pay too much up front. Basically the rule should be never to pay for labour in advance. At times there may be circumstances where expensive materials need to be purchased by builders or subcontractors and they might admit that they haven't got the money. Don't make an advance payment. Purchase the materials yourself and that way the title in the goods will be yours.

Always try to be in hand. If you're using a builder then the payments will be made in arrears on the completion of set stages and as long as both parties keep to the agreement then there is very little to go wrong. If youre using subcontractors and the job is estimated to take 10 weeks then divide the quoted sum by 12, not 10, and make that the weekly draw, thus providing an incentive to finish and a reason to do things right.

Be aware of snagging.

Perhaps the biggest bone of contention for anybody moving into a new home, whether self-built or not, are those relating to snagging or the putting right of things that go wrong. The only difference is that with self-builders it is they who must put in place the correct mechanisms to put things right.

Many think in terms of retention clauses. They work well with the bigger and more reputable builders. They work very badly with smaller builders who will often agree to having them in the contract, add them to their original worked-out figures and then discount them, assuming that they are never going to get them.

Its all about relationships but more than that its about money. Snags that are obvious before completion can be put right before final payments are made. But snags that appear six months later, as they almost certainly will, are not that easy to accommodate without a formal retention or agreement for the builders to come back. Those building with subcontractors may choose to carry out later snagging themselves because, almost certainly, most subcontractors will not agree to a retention. On the other hand, most reputable plumbers and electricians will agree to come back for little or no charge if faults arise. In the end, for most self-builders, the most they can do is insist on things being done properly in the first place and accept that in six months time they will have to redecorate.

Know your place.

Building sites are not terribly formal places. Keeping the relationships on a strictly formal basis might work in some instances but it will engender hostility in others. On the other hand joining in with them as one of their mates can just as easily lead to advantage being taken. Be friendly but always keep that little bit of reserve. Youre not one of them. This is their job but its your project. You may need them again, presuming youre satisfied with their work and you might make good friends. But never lose sight of what it means to be a good client it will be the defining factor in getting the most out of your builder.

Swap stories and advice with other self-builders in the Homebuilding Discussion Forum...

Find contractors and tradespeople in the Homebuilding Directory...

Further Reading:

• Building Contracts: When Things Go Wrong
• The Trades Explained
• Builder's Quotes