Cowboy builders

Your local council should have a trader approval sheme. The tradespeople are checked. I have used them in my local area and found good workmanship .

We have never had a problem finding tradesman, whether general builders, or one man bands. I know of 3 one man bands in the village. One of them does most of our small jobs. We may wait a few months before he can do any job, but that seems reasonable.

There are two privately owned builders based in the village as well. One has worked for us for years, we have never used the other, but will probably ask him to give an estimate for our extension.

I live in southern Oxfordshire, where we have one of the highest building targets in the country and also a lot of well paid jobs in the electronics and high tech areas. So plenty of alternative jobs,

We have several times found tradesman by speaking to them when they were working on other houses in the village.

There is now an on going problem concerning work needed to be carried out on private properties.This due to many that are involved in the building trade who are taking on contracts involving new builds which will go on for years if what we are to believe this country needs to house the ever increasing population.My own experience was luck in finding a builder who would work weekends, carrying out maintenance He needed , he said, the extra money how many don't. It was short lived however when 'wifey' had other plans for him.

Maceym00 Citizens Advice are not allowed to recommend business

Auntie flo If they bother to respond.!
I cannot believe anyone in the building trade and that must involve plumbers /electricians /carpenters etc who say their is no work around. I do not approve of saying what you as a customer think what you want carrying out is worth in terms of money or what you can afford to pay
Let them tell the customer, what they as the ones' to carry out your request,can or will do and let them give the customer either a guaranteed or an estimated price.

We used a gardener who was useless, really bad work. I then noticed some time later he was on Checkatrade. Looking at the reviews and then his Facebook page, I saw all those "Ooh, he was wonderful" reviews were written by his family and friends! I know that others were very unhappy with the work he did and it took us 3 months to find his real name and his address. Vile man!

For many years, when seeking to find a "service" of any kind, we've asked around friends and acquaintances and have never been disappointed. Are you in any local groups like WI, where you can ask about this? In my experience, people are only too happy to recommend good tradesmen or services of any kind, if you just ask.

Checkatrade.com. Anyone reliable should,be listed under that.

Go to local council or citizens advice bureau for Impartial recommendations

I'm married to a builder and most of his work is word of mouth so it's always good to get recommendations from others.
A builder who can start immediately is often a worry, if he's not got any other work on then why not?
Cheapest isn't always the best, it's wise to get 3 quotes if you can.
Mike often gets offered the work before he's even quoted just by turning up when he says he will and being polite and friendly.
He does a lot of work for people who have been messed about by cowboys, friends of ours used someone else because of a cheaper quote, and now Mike is helping them put things right because the builders couldn't finish what they started due to under quoting, he's not smug in anyway but did try to warn them it wasn't possible to do XY&Z for that money ??‍♂️

I'm so glad I don't have this problem! Good luck

I may be wrong, but I've heard that Age Concern has a list of reliable tradesmen. Try asking?

watermeadow you say you live in a rural area. Do you have a parish magazine? We do, and most of the tradesmen we use come from that. They have all lived in our village or the next one so cannot afford to get a bad name.

We have also been approached (by letter) by builders who have seen our successful planning application and wanted to advertise their company.

Although we have a 'usual builder', the company has grown a lot since we first used him 20 years ago and he is now getting quite expensive and as parts of the job break down to being very specific, we may subcontract some of the work to specialist tradesmen and employ them direct or possibly not use him at all.

I’ve had a year to prepare, getting planning permission, selling my garden to finance work on my house. I’m now eager to start but have found only one builder.
It’s the Find a Trade websites which I have been warned off, they are just an advertising tool, open to all.
I don’t know anyone local who’s had work done lately.
I think this (like most things) is much harder away from a city.

My apologies Monica you are lucky you have as you say a "usual" builder, that is an enormous advantage, you have confidence in each other.
Watermeadow is in a different position and didn't sound very confident, my comments still stand, get proper plans get them approved, get the finances arranged BEFORE approaching a builder, he will the be pleasantly surprised that you are a well prepared customer - so many aren't.

David I do not understand your comments. I am not the OP and my only previous post on this thread was to recommend to the OP an article in the Guardian that assessed the main online builder portals.

As for changing my mind, our usual builder always teases me because I so rarely change my mind. I know every change costs money so I do my best to keep them to a minimum.

You sound much more organized than in your first post, assuming you have a full set of plans and permissions go to a well established builder, there will be several in your local town or large village. Remember at present builders can pick and choose the jobs they do, so you do need to be sure you can meet the stage payments as they arise and be prepared for at least 20% over estimate.

Lastly don't change your mind about anything half way through.

Good luck

Different country (Australia) but the very same issues - builders are very busy, don't return phone calls, don't reply to emails, texts etc, concern about shonky builders etc. Any trades person (a tradie in Oz lingo) who returns calls already has a big tick in my estimation. Everyone I talk to here says the same, so have gone with personal recommendations, good feelings when meeting potential builders and a lot of optimism! Here's hoping it'll all work out. ?

David, I think you are being unnecessarily pessimistic. We have got planning permission and in the process of sorting building regulations for our extension - and we had the additional problem of having to get Listed Building Consent as well. It has been slow, but we have got there

Of course builders do not like to give sure quotes for a building project, all kinds of problems can arise that cannot be foreseen. Builders found a completely redundant and unused drainage system under the ground DD's extension was built on. This had to be investigated, removed and filled in, which inevitably meant extra cost - and then there will be all the changes that may be made during the project, usually because the house owner keeps changing their mind - have you ever watched Grand Designs?

We have contacted several builders for estimates, and two are coming round next week to discuss the project. We may have to wait six months or a year for the work to be done, but I have more confidence in a company with a long order book,which suggests that they are sought after rather than one that can start tomorrow.

Do you really need to do building work, it is very hard indeed to find decent builders at present, they are all very busy.
You will be very lucky to get a fixed quotation, most will give you an "estimate" which can be very flexible. If it's a "biggish" job an architect, planning permission and building regulations may be needed. If you are using an architect he is a good person to ask about builders

I managed to get the decorator from hell after posting a job request on one of these sites!

I did however post a very honest review of his work so that others don't bother with him. (My review didn't mention his terrible B.O., I managed to keep it professional!)

Good point Jenpax. I'm always wary if someone can start immediately.

Checkatrade or trusted trader are both sites to check for reviews of trades people you should bear in mind that most good builders ARE booked months in advance, if someone is too readily available it’s often a bad sign!!

There's checkatrade who do need to be qualified and have references etc. Unlike the one Phil Spencer advertises who are a bit random, some no doubt qualified but a lot are not. I can't think of the name of it which isn't much help. There's also Mybuilder.com but I've not personally used them.

I think the site is My Builder .com

and, as DS says, 'always get three quotes'