Day 1 in my quest to find a builder, and it's not going well...

[emkana]

Ring up company who actually sent us a letter when we were waiting for planning permission for our extension.

Guy says, I'll be there at 3.

Phone up at 3.30, guy doesn't seem to have any idea who I am. Says, I'll be there in 10 mins.

I phone again at 5.30 to see what's going on - he says, I'll be there in an hour. I say no, not a good time. He moans a bit. Then says he'll be here in the morning - I shouldn't bother really should I?

What area are you Emkana? I would recommend this man again & again? He teaches bricklaying for a start and his work is fab!

get recommendations and even then expect the worst. having said that i picked a company at random from the phone book (having exhausted the above method) and they were fantastic. good luck - concentrate on the end result.

I'm in Gloucestershire. [hopeful emoticon]

Sorry here. He built my beautiful walls and my block paving as Dh didn't have time and he really is very very good. Dh is more stonework.

He does travel. Not sure how far.

Good Luck,we had a similar problem,only we couldn't get anyone to even ring us back.We did get a chap out eventually though & he did a good job.I can't believe that I started ringing around for quotes in March & couldn't get the work done til mid August.

Now I am trying to find a plumber to fit a new bathroom-3 weeks ago I left messages or had conversations with 3 plumbers,none of who have actually rung me back to arrange to do a quote.A friend reccomended a 4th plumber,who was meant to call in tonight,but didn't.

Where are all the Polish tradesmen that are supposedly flooding into the country?I wish they'd come around here,I could keep them busy.

emkana -I read something recently about the after effects of the recent floods meaning that builders and other tradesmen in Gloucs were inundated with work at the moment. It also warned people to be aware of cowboy builders coming into the county to rip people off.

Which bit of Gloucs are you in?

I chose about 20 companies from the phone book and recommendations, and most were not taking work (too busy), some said that they would turn up and didn't, some turned up and never sent quotes, some turned up and said they weren't interested.

Took about a year to get 2 quotes that were double our budget.

Gave up

Try Chris Cobb, 01453 833328 he did fab work for us.

Interesting what you say about the effects of the floods Betty. I am always reluctant to say exactly where I am, silly probably, but I feel I am so instantly recognizable anyway - I mean how many Germans in the UK with a son called Sebastian who has dwarfism can there be?

Thanks for that number matnanplus, will call!

I just can't get over that bloke today - I mean he actually asked for our business when he sent that letter, now I'm willing to give it to him and hey ho...

Thats OK and understandable emkana -its just that we're in Worcs and DP is a builder. However he has a lot of work on and rarely travels futher than 10 miles for jobs so probably of no use.

We're not planning to start work until the new year! We're 29.5 miles away according to the RAC route planner, so get back to me if your dh would be interested in giving a quote, or knows anybody who'd be interested!

The very best way to find someone is by recommendation and I hate to say it but this time of year anyone who is any good is going to be booked for at least 2 months.

Obviously his approach of contacting people who want to build is very successful, may be he had a bad day on site, perhaps the person dealing with his admin was off, but if he is that offhand before he has the job I dont think I would employ him.

Obviously you cant generalise, they wont all be the same, but I have heard some real horror stories about polish workers...I really wouldnt go there

Tbh, I would avoid anyone who needs to approach people for work - around here at least any builder/tradesman worth his salt doesn't need to advertise because they are always busy.

We had a an extension done earlier this year and I agree just getting builders to quote was a battle - they would come around, take away the plans and I'd never hear from then again. It took several months to get three quotes/estimates. I think we instructed our builder at the end of August last year and he couldn't start until February this year.....

we are employing builders recommended by our architect, and he is now having second thoughts about using them again! The completion date for our extension was supposed to be last Friday. They are at least 3 weeks behind schedule, and there has been no builder at all at our house for the last two days.

Architect and I reckon that they have agreed to start another job this week (given that they were supposed to be finished with us), and are trying to do two jobs at once. Nothing we can do about it- we can hardly tell them to stuff it, and get another lot in...the builder we wanted to use wouldn't have been able to start our extension till November .