It’s not uncommon for on-site relationships to get fraught and all too often it’s the client, not the trades causing the problems. Andy Stevens offers a few tips on how to get the best out of your builder on site
Some trades can get a bad rap for being ‘cowboys’, but there are plenty of equivalent clients as well.
Like any industry, there will be some rogue trades, but I have to say it really is such a small percentage of us. The vast majority of trades I have known and worked with over the years are highly skilled and do an awful lot of work that goes unnoticed, such as charity builds and helping elderly clients for nothing. What homeowners don’t hear about though, are the rising numbers of cowboy clients. And believe me, I’ve had my fair share over the years! Let me explain what I mean by cowboy clients...
LATE PAYMENTS
One of the worst things a client can do is not pay us or pay us late.
With all the paperwork agreed before a job starts, we run things to a tight schedule. Every Friday without fail, I pay my team. Every month I have to pay all my trade accounts in full. There are also other costs that some clients aren’t aware of; architects and structural engineers, quantity surveyors, building inspectors, accountants, all the insurances (the van/public liability/employers/tools, and so on), van running costs and repairs, marketing, to name a few. Therefore, when we don’t get paid on time, or at all, it can cause us a huge amount of stress. This is one of the reasons that poor mental health can impact those in the construction industry, ‘getting knocked’ as we call it (in other words, not getting paid).
So, if you are reading this as a homeowner about to embark on employing a building contractor on any size job, please make sure you keep to the payment schedule. Ultimately, apart from not being able to pay other trades and bills, it means we can’t put food on the table for our families — this is our income.
FICKLE CLIENTS
Another thing that can aggravate us, is when everything is agreed and the homeowner keeps changing their mind. We fully appreciate things will change, especially as the structure goes up and the true layout can be seen, but please give us as much notice as possible. Once we have chased in all the backboxes for the electrical switches, sockets, spurs, and so on, and the plastering has been done, to change all these things involves a lot of work, undoing all of the work we’ve just done.
We will work as closely as possible with you as we want you to be over the moon with the build we are producing for you, but don’t keep changing your mind, because having to make constant unplanned alterations costs us time and money. Give us as much notice as possible to carry out changes but be aw
