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Posts Tagged ‘tradesman quote<’
Posted in General Building on May 30
We choose our Builders on Mr-Skill with great care and are proud of the reputation they enjoy. It may however happen from time to time (but thankfully very seldom) that things  do not work out quite as well as everybody hoped. When this happens, we investigate circumstances very carefully to continually improve the quality of our service, and to make sure our customers Find a Builder who suits them.
Almost inevitably we find that the root cause of the problem is a natural misunderstanding that developed between a Builder and their Customer, often as a result of one of the following classic problems:
o The Customer did not explain requirements sufficiently or the Builder did not understand them. In our experience there is only one way to avoid this, and that is a written specification signed off by both parties.
o The job took longer than the Customer expected. There are usually two reasons for this, namely unexpected snags and inclement weather. Unfortunately these are both beyond the control of either party. The best way to avoid a problem escalating is to agree a strategy when negotiating Building Quotes.
o  There is disagreement about the final price charged after the work is completed. Again co-operation is the only way to really avoid conflicts, and that means agreeing all escalations before they apply.
o I may have mentioned the Builder in London I know before, but I must say that I always find his advice well-worthwhile repeating. He reckons that marriages and building contracts have at least one thing in common, and that it to beware of bad body chemistry (but not the way you could be thinking).
He believes that the secret to avoiding building disputes is to avoid doing business with anybody who does not feel quite right as he puts it. When he finds a client with whom he knows he really can work well, he approaches everything thereafter as if they were both business partners and friends.
This is why we always say team up with your builder too, for the simple reason that this really does make the difference.
Tags: agree, builder, builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, choose, customer, dispute, escalation, explain, feel right, find a builder, find a tradesman, friend, hope, misunderstanding, partner, price, problem, reputation, requirement, sign, snag, specification, team, tradesman london, tradesman quote, weather, work
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Posted in General Building on May 12
 Unfortunately cowboy builders keep on popping up under the guise of pretending to be handymen and women. The difficulty comes when they start fiddling with basics like roofs, windows, doors and even foundations. Newspaper reports across the UK every week attest to the foolishness of hiring the services of an unqualified, incompetent builder. Mr-Skill exists to help you Find a Builder you should be able to rely on.
My old friend Bill Sykes who is a venerable Builder in London with decades of experience just laughs when he reads these stories. “What fools they are”, he chortles. “Haven’t they heard about the NHBC?” In case you have not heard of it either,  The National House Building Council is the leading warranty, insurance and standard-setting provider in the UK building industry. They have been protecting the nation’s homeowners for over 75 years so something must be working well.
Their warranties (which naturally apply only to work done by builders in good standing with them) cover around 80% of new houses being built today, and all-in-all 1.7 million British homes are under current protection. This provides assurances against only major defects though, not cosmetic issues like plaster cracks.
After you receive your Building Quotes from Mr-Skill remember to ask “are you NHBC registered?” and to request to see a current paid-up certificate too. If you receive an excuse instead then we recommend you pass that builder over in favour of another. When the job is done, but before you pay them finally, please remember to insist that you receive your written NHBC Warranty.
Tags: assurance, builder, builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, certificate, cowboy, crack, defect, difficulty, door, find a builder, find a tradesman, foundation, guarantee, incompetent, national house building council, nhbc, plaster, problem, protect, register, rely, roof, tradesman london, tradesman quote, trouble, trust, unqualified, unregistered, warranty, window
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Posted in General Building on Apr 29
A good builder can be a blessing, a bad builder a curse not even in disguise. This is because despite all the laws passed in London, and the efforts of all the king’s horses and men  too, the UK sometimes still seems awash with cowboy builders. The safest bet is still to Find a Builder on Mr-Skill. If you choose to exercise your right to find one yourself though, then you could be well advised to consider the following first.
o Do you know enough about the job to supervise it? If you do not, then how will you know whether the right techniques and materials are being used? It is one thing to rely on a builder who comes with recommendations from our huge customer base, but another thing completely to trust a stranger off the street.
o Does the builder know what they are doing either? Have they done a similar job before? The last thing that you need is to have someone do their learner’s licence on your precious home. Insist on seeing similar work done for other local people, and pop by there without the builder present too.
o  Trying to decide whether a Building Quote is reasonable is difficult too. You have the benefit of a closed bidding system on Mr-Skill. Out there, builders often collude when quoting. Some even divide the turf so that there is no genuine competition at all. Can you afford to pay an excessive price for substandard work? Especially when we have so many competent tradespeople waiting to do Quality Building Jobs in London and across the breadth and length of the United Kingdom too?
Why don’t you come home to Mr-Skill, where you always get good service from friendly competent artisans, and often pay up to a third below regular prices as well? That way, you can get on with your life in peace, and with the knowledge that you chose your builder wisely.
Tags: artisan, bad, bid, builder, builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, choice, choose, competent, competition, cowboy, find a builder, find a tradesman, home, job, law, licence, material, price, recommend, stranger, supervise, technique, tradesman london, tradesman quote, tradesperson
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Posted in General Building on Apr 15
 We all get used to having boring smooth-plastered painted walls in every room, except that is in bathrooms where we often have equally monotonous tiles. Why not splash out and Find a Builder on Mr-Skill to add some texture to your house – you will have no idea how fun this is until you try.
Every second Building Job in London and other larger UK City these days seems to involve an element of special textures applied to inside walls. Unpolished ceramics imitating stone that may be more expensive are becoming increasingly popular. But there are other options too.
To my mind, the use of rough face brick still offers superb opportunities to make an evocative statement. We all have happy childhood memories of sleeping out in barns, and evenings spent in listed pubs when we grew older around genuine  fires.
You could achieve other stunning effects as well. How about a reveal around a picture window or exquisite detailing around a feature fireplace. When you review the Builder Quotes you get from Mr-Skill you will be truly astounded at what is possible, and at how relatively inexpensive this can be too.
So, pop down to your local library, surf the internet and buy designer magazines. Somewhere you will spot your dream – after that, it is just a matter of making things happen as you always do. Splash out on your imagination. Dream your interior decorators’ dream. We all have artists living inside of of us. Why not give your personal magician a whirl? You will never know what you could achieve until you let it happen. Happy decorating in 2011.
Tags: artist, barn, boring, brick, builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, ceramic, dream, face, face brick, feature, feature wall, find a builder, find a tradesman, fireplace, internet, library, listed, magazine, paint, plaster, pub, reveal, rough, stone, tile, tradesman london, tradesman quote, wall
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Posted in General Building on Apr 01
Asphalt driveways (some folk refer to tar) are popular with UK developers because they are quick and easy to lay down  and are relatively cheap. However if the asphalt surface becomes damaged (for example a weed pops up from underneath or a plumber digs a trench across) then you do need to Find a Builder quite urgently to repair the breach before the whole fabric begins to break up completely. This is because asphalt is not reinforced.
If you want to have a crack at the repair yourself, this is what you have to do.
o Remove any loose debris and plants. Tidy up the edges with an angle grinder to achieve a tidy patch.
o For a crack no more than half an inch in width, backfill it carefully so that it is only as deep as it is wide. Fill it with asphalt-emulsion crack filler from a caulking gun and smoothen off with a putty knife.
o  In the case of a larger repair, undercut the edges of the opening with a cold chisel and mason’s hammer so that the patch will flow underneath the existing surface. Using a spade, shovel in matching pre-mix coldpatch blacktopping slightly above the surface level, level with a metal rake and tamp it down. Finally cover the patch with a board that extends a foot beyond it on all four sides, and drive over it several times to compact it finally. The picture to the right illustrates two points – how not to choose the right pre-mix, and how to do a tidy job.
A large patch is seldom within the capabilities of the average DIY person, and we recommend that you Get Building Quotes from a reputable tradesman to do it for you instead. The motto of most Tradesmen in London is that the driveway must look right because that is what most people see first when they arrive.
Tags: angle grinder, asphalt, backfill, blacktop, blacktopping, builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, caulk, chisel, cold patch, compact, crack, cut, damage, debris, emulsion, find a builder, find a tradesman, hammer, macaddam, patch, plants, premix, puttyknife, rake, repair, tamp, tar, tradesman london, tradesman quote, trim, undercut
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 Among the most compelling features of the British countryside are the natural stone walls that surround many of the older, listed houses. These homes are often beyond the reach of most of as, and in any case we need to live closer to where we work so we do not spend hours traveling. Nonetheless there is often room in almost any garden for a bit of hand-packed stone wall, and you’ll be amazed at the classy look this adds.
There are also two uses to which you could put your wall. One is as a border against which your summer annuals could display. The second is as a retainer for adding fertile soil and a sense of depth behind. If the job is extensive you may be wise to Find a Builder to do the job for you as stones are heavy. If not, you may like to tackle it yourself.
o Decide where you want your wall to be. This sounds obvious; however in my career as a Builder  London homeowners have often asked me if I could move a badly positioned wall for them. Mark the wall out with stakes, and leave things alone for a few days while you finally make up your mind what you really want.
o Order in a load of suitable stones and have them packed for you in piles of small, medium and large at a convenient place near to where you will be working. Be prepared to pay extra for the sorting which will save you hours later.
o Clear the ground where the wall will go, and level it nicely with a few steps up or down if the ground slopes. Then compact the earth using a little water several times until it is really firm. This must be done properly, or else your wall could collapse after the first heavy rain.
o Set out the bottom layer of stones using the broadest flattest ones and fitting these together snugly (this may  require experimentation). Bed them nicely into the ground below and add a little earth beneath them, if this is necessary. If you want to cheat you could even bed the bottom stones into a little concrete provided this will not be visible when you are done, as you are aiming for a natural effect.
o Add successive layers of stones packed together as tightly as you can get, using smaller ones to set them firmly. Do not go higher than you think is safe, and do not hesitate to rebuild a section of wall if things go wrong.
Like I said earlier you should not really need Builder Quotes for a small piece of wall. Anything more than that you might like to take a look at what Mr-Skill has to offer in the way of Well-Priced Help.
Tags: builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, find a builder, find a tradesman, natural, pack, stone, tradesman london, tradesman quote, wall
Posted in Gardening & Landscaping | Comments Off
Posted in Bricklaying on Mar 04
A garage is a useful asset on any property and every UK house should have one. Few people ever seem to use them to store motor cars though, meaning that the design of any garage should be multi-purpose. A good garage design provides  for a home workshop, safe dry storage, a place to park the car and perhaps a combination of all three too.
o There are two ways to go about having a garage built. You could do it yourself – and hope not to make too many mistakes or fall foul of Council rules. Or you could Find a Builder on Mr Skill to do it for you, and keep the hassles out of your life.
o If you decide to do the job yourself then there are two ways to proceed. One is to go on a block-laying and roofing course, and perhaps lose money along the way. The other way is to order in a pre-fabricated garage – the truth is that these usually look core-blimey awful, and there are no options to tailor-make things the way you need. As my old mate who does Building Jobs in London likes to say, when you pays pennies, its pence value that you get.
 o It stands to reason then, that the smart way to build a garage is to get a Rated Builder Quote on Mr Skill. That way you can have your garage built the way you always wanted, and review Builder Ratings by past customers before you choose.
Garages cost thousands of pounds and that’s no secret. However accepting the cheapest building quote is seldom wise. The advantage of using Mr-Skill to Find a Builder is that when they quote they know you are comparing. They’ll also do a good job for you besides, because you are a member of a large customer base called Mr-Skill that they need to keep sweet.
Just imagine how it will feel to have everything so neat and tidy. You’ll almost think you were in Dreamland. Thanks very much for visiting Mr-Skill.
Tags: block, build, builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, bulder, car, cost, do it yourself, dry, find a builder, find a tradesman, garage, good job, prefabricated, rated bricklayer, rated builder, roof, storage, tradesman london, tradesman quote, workshop
Posted in Bricklaying | Comments Off
Posted in General Building on Jan 27
Loft Conversions are as popular all over the United Kingdom as they ever were. That’s because the current economic  recession has ended up with two or even three generations sharing a single home, and many of us no longer having the money to buy a larger house. While rated Building Quotes from Mr-Skill should be competitive, it’s always handy to know how to compare them.
The following are the factors driving loft prices for different designs in different towns.
o Everything is more expensive in the City, and that is why a Builder in London will charge more for the same job that one in a small town. There are many reasons for this which I shall not go into here.
o Another factor is design. Things to consider include roof styles and finishes, window types, staircase designs and whether central heating and a bathroom are required too.
o Size is a critical determinant of cost too. However cost per square foot seldom increases in a straight line, meaning  that you should make the rooms a decent size while you are at it.
Before you engage a builder and pay that hefty first deposit you must do a proper due diligence first. Is the builder registered? Have they done work like this before? And, most importantly do the neighbours agree and has the Council approved the plans?
The current state of the economy and the depressed construction market makes this an excellent time to get Builder Quotes for an affordable loft conversion. At Mr-Skill our advice remains the same – get 5 quotes and consider the 3 middle ones. That way you avoid a builder who cuts corners, and one who is not really interested in doing any more loft conversion work.
Tags: bathroom, builder london, builder quote, building job london, building quotes, city, conversion, council, deposit, design, find a builder, find a tradesman, finish, heating, home, house, loft, loo, neithbours, plan, register, roof, room, size, small town, stair, staircase, style, tradesman london, tradesman quote, window
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Posted in General Building on Jan 19
A Builder is a person in overall control of the construction or alteration of a home or other building. They are usually qualified trades persons too, although in their current occupation they are more likely to occupy themselves with  estimations, quotations and general supervision. You can find a Builder like that here.
Builders are generally speaking only interested in large-scale jobs that keep them occupied for several weeks (a London building job could go on for several years). Typical jobs Builders like to quote for include:
o New Conservatory
o Extension
o Garden Wall
They generally speaking prefer to do larger jobs and shun smaller ones for the following reasons:
 o Set up and clear out costs applied to greater profits
o Little money in small jobs
o The nuisance factor.
In terms of the above it could be better to get find a Handyman if your job is small. Otherwise we can assist you with pleasure with Builder Quotes.
Mr-Skill is a home repair and maintenance advice centre that connects providers who pay to register with it with potential customers who do not pay a penny for the service.
Tags: alteration, builder, builder london, builder quote, Building, building job london, building quotes, conservatory, Construction, estimation, extension, find a builder, find a tradesman, home, job, large-scale, quotation, supervision, trades person, tradesman london, tradesman quote, wall, weeks, years
Posted in General Building | Comments Off
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