Choosing a builder

Quality building work at a fair price

There are two main ways of choosing a builder:  simply asking your preferred builder to price a job and satisfy yourself that the price is fair and reasonable; or to ask several builders to price a job (go to tender).

Negotiating with a preferred builder may be suitable where they have carried out work for you before, you are confident that they are competitive, and perhaps if quality, rather than price, is your main consideration.  It can be very helpful to have your chosen builder ‘on board’ before the design is complete so that they can provide input to the design and advise on ‘buildability’ and on how things might be done to achieve better results or better value.  In theory, the builder will also not have to ‘price into’ the job the costs associated with preparing a tender (if a builder has to price three jobs in order to ‘win’ one, then his tendering costs are three times higher for a competitively tendered job than they are for a negotiated job).

Going to tender is still the most common way of choosing a builder.

We can help you through the process of choosing a builder.

For more information and free advice contact us on 01202 237377 or email info@sutherlandsurveyors.co.uk.