Finding Contractors

A huge part of the success or failure of a project will depend on the quality of the contractors you find.  Good contractors are often booked ahead for some time and should always be able to give you good references for jobs they have recently done.  Even if they are not booked up solidly, you need to feel that they are reliable, competent people who you can trust and work with, and a personal recommendation from someone is one of the best ways of finding someone.  In London, with hundreds to choose from, I found a great plumber by asking a friendly letting agent who they used for emergencies, but even this approach may not work when you want a contractor to do a major job for you - he can fix a leak but can he install a complete system?.

Having just moved from London, I had a problem: I knew no-one at all.  What I did find was that people in the country are far more approachable than people in the big city and, possibly because of the small size of the town, they are more concerned about their reputation.  Contractors in London know that there are always new customers who will not have heard of their past misdemeanours, but here word would get around very easily.

So I resorted to the internet and found some local roofers and builders. Then I assessed them on a number of criteria, such as whether they had their own website, how helpful they were on the phone and how responsive to what I wanted to do.  At this stage some people eliminated themselves by not being sufficiently understanding about slate, lime and other traditional materials, or by just not returning calls.  I also wanted them to understand where I was coming from, and to accept that I had some knowledge and experience which I wanted to use and enhance.  There is no point in using a contractor who will battle against your intentions the whole way.  In both cases a face-to-face on-site chat settled my mind and somehow within a few days I had both the major contractors I needed.

I had thought that I would do the applications for consents myself as it hadn't been too difficult with an extension in 1993 but, when I checked the Planning Portal, it was clear that the requirements had changed.  There is now a lot more of them, and they all seem a lot more detailed, so I thought that doing it myself might just introduce errors and delays (and hence more cost) so I also decided to engage an architect for the extension.  Then I realised that if he was going to do the extension, he might as well look after the earlier applications for listed building consent for the roof and conservation consent for the access as well, since the extra work would be small but the benefit could be large, bearing in mind the tight timescales to get the roof done.

I found him in the same way as the contractors; a young chap with a family who lives about 500 yards away, who after visiting the site gave me a quote which was about the sort of sum I expected assuming that the work required is not excessive.

All that I need now is just to actually buy the place.  My sale in London is about to exchange contracts, and I think we can exchange on "The House" in a couple of weeks.  Right now I just feel frustrated when I see the rain outside as I just want to get the roof fixed NOW but I can't!