Home Conversions - How to choose a good builder. - By: carolyn

Many people choose to work from home these days. The benefits are obvious; you can work the hours you want, great for those juggling parenthood, you can work in your comfy clothes, you don't have the boss looking over your shoulder and you save money by not paying the huge prices for fuel.

The trouble some of us have is that space is needed. A few years ago we would have just moved house without much trouble. But with all the mess the banks got us into recently it's not so easy these days. Many people are choosing to convert their house by adding extensions or doing garage conversions. This makes perfect sense.

When it comes to finding the right builder to do some work on your home, it can be a worry as to who to choose and where to look first. There is the simple option of going through the yellow pages and ringing a few local builders, you could also go online and use a search engine online, but how do you find out if they are charlatans'?

We are all aware of dodgy builders as there are many reality shows of TV which catch them at it. A lot of people say they hate reality shows and this big brother camera watching us society but it has plenty of positives. I think its good we know what's going on in the world be it dodgy companies or pathetic greedy footballers, too many people go undetected and ruin people's lives.

There are easy ways to tell if they are the real deal or not. Most businesses will have a website these days and looking at someone's website is a great insight. If a business is legitimate and has nothing to hide it will show their postal address. There will be a landline number. Look for a testimonials page as it should show some of their work. A decent company won't be afraid to show its work and give plenty of options to constant them.

If you have used local numbers from the newspaper and they don't have a website, this doesn't mean they are inadequate. They could be a small business just starting out. You could then ask for previous clients numbers. Also I think if a company is proud in what they do and are serous at doing a good job they will care about customer service which means when you get a written quote. There is nothing worse than a builder just phoning you with a price and a load of waffle. You want it written down clear, costs for material, labour etc. A scrappy bit of page with a few prices on is not a good sign. If they aren't keeping a check of their materials it means they are avoiding paying tax which means they are just after your money and couldn't care less about you.

Also why not educate yourself a little in the job you want doing. Then when a builder comes round you can have a couple of killer questions to ask him. A confident nothing to hide type of builder will answer quickly without getting shifty or start waffling to get out of answering. If you have gone to town and asked a specialist architectural question then if a builder with nothing to hide won't have any problem admitting they don't know. Note what they all say and with all of the above you should get an instinctive feeling who is legitimate.

This worked for me; I recently started working from home and needed a proper place to work. I used my dining room for some time but I had an area in my home which was not used. A conservatory at the side of the house which was a kind of utility room. I wanted this converting into an office. I used a combination of internet, local papers and recommendations. Generally recommendations are the best way to get a decent builder but I thought I would give them all a chance.

What I found is that the two builders were very nosey about me and what work I did. Now this could of been just friendly but when I told them my job title I am sure I could see their brain ticking away thinking I had lots of money and how he could over charge me. This turned out to be the case because his quote was far higher than the other companies. I chose a small company, that wasn't the cheapest quote but I had a good feeling about them. They had a nice website, address and many numbers, they didn't ask about what I did, the guy was very knowledgeable, and the quote was clear and professional. Also he gave me lots of references which I followed up with. All in all it was great. My office is great. I am not a builder expert but you can tell a neat job from a shabby one.

About the Author

For Building Conversions Midlands including Garage Conversions Midlands, Building Solutions Midlands are a great building company based in Derbshire.

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