At this year’s booth of the Federation of Master Builders at the Grand Design Live that was held between the 28th of April and the 7th of May at Excel London.
Our Director Jay Gentle had been sharing advice and his knowledge with visitors planning their own building projects.
“I’m honored to be back by invitation of Federation of Master Builders, especially since this came from a great response from the Homebuilding & Renovating Show we did last year.” he said.
Mr Jay Gentle had seen a number of visitors that expressed an intention to do their own Grand Designs builds. We saw small renovations to big scale projects and interesting one off new builds.
The advice was gratefully appreciated by the visitors, potentially saving them thousands of pounds offering them guildance advice to avoid with cowboy builder.
Jay answered questions around planning, building regs issues, costing enquires and creative building solution, design, loayout and problem solving. Vistiors needed to arrange and book the one hour appointments beforehand, as demand was very high.
“Caution is advised at all times, regardless of the size of the project, because when it goes wrong, it can get really messy, really fast,” said Jay. “ I’ve heard so many horror stories at these events. It never ceases to amaze me how intelligent people are so easily willing to hand over thousdands of pounds to builders they hardly know and have’nt fact checked.” he explained.
“People do this without doing their due diligence, handing over thier hard earn’t savings to a builder that didn’t provide the necessary references, proof of work, professional practice or correct paperwork before the project started. This is always a very risky way to go.” he tells us.
We advise all clients to make sure the builder has good commuications skills, acts professionally, carries their own insurance and provides you with a signed contract, payment and work schedule, and a detailed quote before the work starts.
If the company is a member of the Federation of Master Builders, you will have a better chance of safety, as there are strict rules about best practice and conditions that require accountablity for the company actions when they are a member of this professional organisation.”
