Did you know there is a way to get the best price from a builder if you are doing work to a home in the UK. You could save thousands of pounds on the cost of renovating your home, or building a house extension, and it has nothing to do with the design, construction method or materials being used. It all depends on timing, and it works differently if you are renovating inside your home or building an extension.
My name is Níall and I’ve run my own architecture practice in the Edinburgh since 2009. I specialise in altering and extending private homes. I also offer online consultations to homeowners across the UK. I often work for people who have never hired an architect or set foot on a building site. So I spend a lot of time explaining the process to my clients, and one thing I’ve noticed is that homeowners don't think of construction as seasonal work. But it is, especially for smaller building companies. And its something you can take advantage of, depending on the type of work you are doing.
In the same way that strawberries cost less in summer and more in winter. Building work often gets more expensive when the weather is bad, but not for every type of project. And I will show you how to make this work for you.
WHY BUILDING IN WINTER COSTS MORE
Let's say you are planning a house extension. It's going to need a foundation and almost certainly new drains. Both of those things involve digging outdoors and who wants to do that over the winter months.
Equally, if you are planning to build a dormer on the roof of your house, it's far harder to do this work in the cold, wet and windy month of the year.
Keep in mind that in the UK we use a lot of bricks and blocks in housebuilding and even if the weather is dry, it’s not possible to use mortar if the temperature gets too cold.
The NHBC say it shouldn’t be less than 3 degrees when laying bricks because the mortar wont set properly. The same is true for concrete. So working on foundations and walls over winter is almost guaranteed to be hit with delays.
Some of this could be described as common sense, even for someone with no construction experience. While other aspects of it require technical knowledge. But, the thing is, building work does happen over the winter months. People build house extensions, foundations, roofs and dormers in December. Ive done it for my clients.
WHY HOMEOWNERS BUILD OVER WINTER
There are three reasons why projects like this go ahead, despite the weather.
First, the clients were willing to accept it will take longer and cost more.
Second, they have some pressing reason to start the work at the wrong time of year, and pay a premium, because they felt under pressure. Every year I have at least one client who tells me they are expecting a child, or their family are planning a visit from overseas, or they are starting a new job or the kids are starting school, so the building has to be finished at certain time.
I will come back to why this is the wrong way to think about construction, but the third reason why jobs like this are built over winter, is that mid sized construction firms are willing to do the work. In fact they need to do the work to survive financially. Building firms that have offices, project mangers, workshops and are capable of running several jobs at the same time, need to keep their staff working in order to cover their overheads. They often build larger projects that take more than 12 months to complete. All of this means they can not avoid working outdoors over winter. For homeowners who want a job finished on a tight deadline, regardless of the season, these mid sized building contractors will do the work,
but only for a premium.
HOW TO SAVE MONEY ON A RENOVATION PROJECT
If you don't want to pay that premium how do you get the best price. Well, you need to understand two things;
First off, the events in your life have no bearing on the reality of construction. If you can accept that your house extension wont be finished until after your child is born, you could save thousands of pounds. The same goes for family visiting from overseas, starting new jobs or the first day at school. These are all important events but please don't turn them into a deadline for your building project unless you are prepared to pay 20 or 30% above the going rate.
Second, you need to see the world from the perspective of a small building company. The stereotypical man in a van. These builders just want an easy life, and I don’t blame them. They take on one project at a time and usually build house extensions and internal alterations.
They typically expect any job to last between 3 to 6 months and, this is the important bit, in the ideal world they want to build a house extension over the summer and then move indoors to build a renovation project over the winter. If you are planning to alter the layout of a home in the UK. Maybe renovate an older property. Knock some load bearing walls, rewiring, fit a new kitchen or bathroom. That type of project is a dream come true for smaller building firms, but only if you are willing to carry out the work over the winter months.
Ive worked with many small builders over the years and I know they will go out of their way to win work like that. Who wants to be digging foundations in November or February when they could be indoors fitting a kitchen or plastering a ceiling instead. Turn the radio on and the heating up, ideal.
The people who run small building firms are usually on the tools. Meaning the boss is ofter working on the building site and has a personal interest in creating as comfortable a working environment as possible.
Mid sized building firms, on the other hand, are often run by people who work in an office. They just factor in that work over winter takes longer, will be delayed by bad weather and staff illness, but it wont affect them personally. They aren’t uncaring, it's just the nature of the job for the owner of a mid size building firm. It’s their responsibility to run the firm, manage the jobs and bring in new work, not to actually do that work themselves. But you can see where the motivation lies. If you want the best possible price for a renovation project in the UK, get a builder who is hands on. Then tell them you want to carry out the work over winter. If you are building a house extension, the same hold true, only plan to start the work in the late spring, to run over the summer months. And in both cases please resist the temptation to connect the deadline for your project to events in your personal life.
If you are prepared to be flexible, and follow my advice, it also increases the chance builders will agree to participates in a competitive tender for your project. You could have several smaller building firms lining up to bid for your project and that give you the edge when negotiating the price. The first thing builders ask me when I talk to them about bidding for a project is “when does they want to start”. They aren’t being overly keen, wanting to start work immediately. They are trying to work out if my client is prepared to be flexible. I’m not saying that builders will deliberately lose money to win your job. But if you are planning a renovation and your neighbour is planning a house extension, and you both want to do the work over winter. You will have a far easier time getting multiple building firms to compete for the work. That means the builders will price as competitively as possible to win the job, while still making a profit.
You also have the advantage that labour costs typically make up a larger proportion of a renovation project, than materials. The opposite is usually the case for a house extension. The builder cant do much about the cost of materials but they can usually be more flexible on labour costs. Of course not all projects are as simple as either a house extension or an internal alteration. Most of my projects involved both
like here where the interior of the house was renovated while an extension was under construction. If you are planning a job like this, you need to work out where the majority of time will be spent. Will the extension take just a few weeks, in which case the renovation side of the project is the main event and you can make this a winter job.
You should also talk to your architect about how the design will be built. Could the extension be built independently from the work inside your house. At what point will the “cut through” happen.
I am a big fan of integrating new extensions with the existing house, rather than just sticking a box on the building. But integration takes time and exposes the house to the elements, so it limits your options for phasing the work to avoid bad weather. You really want to build this type of design in fine weather.
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So if you are thinking about altering a home anywhere in the UK or buying a house that needs to me adapted to suit your needs, check out the RealLifeArchitecture.co.uk website. Its full of free guidance and blog posts packed with useful information for homeowners.
You can also book a consultation with me if you need specific advice about your property.