Global House Plans

Choosing a builder to work on your home is a very important decision. If your building project is not carried out to a sufficient standard, you could be left with escalating costs and a great deal of stress. This article overviews 7 great tips to help you choose the right builder. Follow this guide and you will be more likely to make a good decision:

1) Find out how long the builder has been in business.

Ask the builder how long they have been in business, and try to verify their answer. If the builder is a Limited company, you can check the date of incorporation on Companies House. If they are a sole trader, you could call HMRC or Customs and Excise (if they are VAT Registered) and try and verify when the sole trader business was formally registered. Just making these enquiries may uncover things that shed a bad light on the builder. For instance, if they have never formally registered their business and are not declaring income for tax purposes – is this the kind of person you want to deal with? All being well, you will find that exactly what they have told you is readily verifiable, with little effort.

2) Does the builder have a permanent business address.

Ask the builder for their business address, and verify it. Again, if the builder is a limited company, you should be able to find out the trading address and registered office address from companies house. If they are a sole trader, you could verify their address through HMRC or Customs and Excise. If it is less than straight forward to find out and / or verify the address of a builder, then this should raise some alarm bells. Any business who does not have an easily identifiable address is likely to be one that does not want to be found. Reputable business want to be found.

3) Request and validate ‘recent’ client testimonials.

Always ask for the contact details of at least 3 past clients of the builder – and make sure you speak to each of the 3. Ask for some detail about the work carried out, when it was carried out, what was the cost etc… The more detail you can get the better. Try to establish whether they have any personal connection with the builder. If possible, ask if you can visit to take a look at the work that was carried out. A real client will usually be more than happy to show off their new extension if they have been genuinely happy with the workmanship of the builder.

4. A thorough quotation = a thorough builder.

Less reputable builders are likely to provide quotations quickly and with only very basic effort. It will not represent any detailed thought process, and will often just be a ballpark estimate. You should beware, as this lack of attention for detail could end up being the attention to detail that the builder puts into your building project. A detailed quotation, where the builder has broken down the project and costed each individual element should fill you with more confidence that you will get what you are being offered.

5. Education, education, education.

Educate yourself about the type of project you want carried out, and make sure you are clear about average / expected costs, likely duration and general materials used. There is a wealth of information on the internet, so it is quite straightforward to spend some time educating yourself. Make your knowledge clear to the builder. If it is clear they know what you are talking about, they are less likely to try and take advantage.

6. Is the builder adequately insured, and what cover do you get on completion.

Ask the builder about insurances and warranties to cover their work. Ideally, you should be covered both during the work is being carried out for any collateral damage caused to your property, and after the work is finished. Make it clear that you will require written confirmation of the insurances / warranties covering their work before you proceed.

7. ONLY EVER proceed on a FIXED cost basis with a WRITTEN contract.

Never, ever go ahead unless you have received a clearly detailed FIXED cost for the project – and you have a WRITTEN contract.

Hopefully these 7 useful tips will help you make a wise decision when choosing a builder. Don’t cut corners – and don’t get carried away by slick salesmanship or a cheap quote. In fact, you should never choose a builder just on price – as the cheapest quote often ends up being the one that will cost you the most.

As the saying goes, “you get what you pay for” – and never has this been truer than with the building trade.

Residential construction consists of sky rocketing costs. Once you decide on having your residential house built or a part of it constructed, you should also be decided to shell out a good amount of money. Although monetary aspect is an important factor in building a good house, you must be wise enough to choose contractors and builders that will not set high mark-ups for materials and labor costs.

Knowledge is power. It does not necessarily mean that you know all the sides of construction but you must at least have an approximation of the costs. There are available online residential construction costs calculators which let you generate detailed material and direct costs estimates in consideration of your house designs.

Generally, residential construction costs are categorized into soft and hard. The soft costs include labor and materials while soft costs include title insurance, appraisals, architect’s fees, etc. There are important variables accompanying the basic residential construction costs. These are the quality, cooling, heating, material used, shape, geographic area and design features.

All the variables enumerated above are essential in estimating your costs. It will be best to decide first on the design of your house before entering into any construction agreements. Listed below are some questions to start with your design and cost estimation:

1. How many corners will your house have? Outside perimeter’s shape is necessary to estimate the total cost of construction. Take note that more complex shapes correspond to added expenses due to complicated structure of floor area. Most residents have four, six, eight and ten corners; other outline includes the garage area.

2. How large will be your living area? Of course, smaller houses with small living areas entail lower construction costs rather than large buildings. Measure the living area and estimate the construction cost of the area including annexes, lean-tos and other addition but exclude the basement, attic, and porch.

3. What is the quality of your house? Residential houses depend generally on quality and one important cost variable to achieve this is the quality of construction. You can either choose to have the best at high price or low quality at low cost. The quality of foundation, exterior walls (i.e., wood, brick, metal), exterior finish, windows and doors, roofing, bathrooms, kitchen, flooring and plumbing are the dimensions wherein high quality construction must be applied.

4. Will there be a balcony, exterior porch, attic, basement or garage? How many? Additional room and structure entails additional costs; aside from the materials to be used in building them. Decide on the number of attics or porches necessary for your house.

5. Where is the location of your house? Those houses built by merchant builders in suburban areas and housing tracts carry less residential construction costs than those built in metropolitan areas. For example, New York new house construction is 34% more expensive than the 19 next largest cities of Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, etc.

6. What cooling and heating system will your house have and how many? Most houses have central cooling and heating systems, while other houses have cooling or heating unit designed to cool and heat only one portion of the house. Included in the heating and cooling system are wall and floor furnaces, through-the-wall coolers or window, and baseboard electric heating; all adding to your construction costs.

After conceptualizing your house and designing it, it will then be the start of your estimation. The estimate might only be for simple house and exceptionally decorative houses will really cost more. You can seek the help of a reliable house builder in the cost estimation. Residential construction costs will still vary on the owner and online cost estimator can aid you in planning to construct your dream home.

As far as interior is concerned, air conditions have become a common sight in commercial spaces and also at residential places. Due to changing climate in our city, air-conditions can bring comfort in the spell of really hot weather.

The principle of air conditioning is exactly the same that makes refrigerator work. The refrigerant liquid is pumped around a continuous closed circuits loop through two sets of coils. First it enters the evaporator coil where the liquid absorbs heat from surrounding air and becomes gas. Then it passes through a compressor which compresses the gas and turns it into a liquid, this liquid passes through the condensing coil thus cooling the inside of the unit. Then with the help of fan the air is blown over this coil in the room. This air blown over the coil cools the room making the indoor temperature of the room cooler.

In the field of interior, there are two main types of air-conditions used in Indian homes. The first is window type unit. This unit has all the required coils fitted into a single casing and can be installed into a window opening or opening made in an external wall. These units are comparatively noisier than the second type as motor, fan, compressor and coils are fitted in one unit, but installing this is comparatively simple and the maintenance of this unit is also easy. These window units are comparatively cheaper than the other variety.

Window units are very efficient to cool small rooms, which are less deep as the throw from this unit is not that deep. Typical size of the cut out required for this unit in the wall or window is around 17″ x 26″ and the weight would be about 50 to 60 kg per unit. Power supply required for this unit would be for 15 Amp plug. It is advisable to fix M.C.B. of the required load at this junction.

Window units are very easy to control and simple to maintain. A regular cleaning of the filter can save the service contracts.

The second type of AC units available are split type which consist of two units joint together with copper tube. The indoor unit consists of cooling coil and fan and the outdoor unit the noisy one consists of compressor and the condenser coil. This unit is to be placed outside within 30′ distance.

There are different types of Indoor units available. They could be wall mounted, ceiling mounted or floor mounted. This makes things simple for the user as it can be fixed any where but within a distance of 30′ from the outdoor unit. And the only physical link between the indoor and outdoor unit is slim refrigerator tube and thin electric cable. Split units are normally operated with either cordless remote or remote with cord hanging below the indoor unit. As this unit is slightly complicating, it is advisable to hire the services of professional establishment for servicing and maintaining it.

Normally split units are 50% costlier than the window type but they are very silent.

Third type of unit is package unit, which is normally used to cool huge interior areas, and they require ducting to be done above the ceiling or on the walls.

As these units are huge in size valuable floor space gets wasted plus if it fails the total area stays without air-condition.