top of page
Search
karlnicholsonkdb

Mates Rates in the Building Industry –


This blog kind of follows on from some recent blogs we’ve done about pricing of construction work in 2022.


Recently we have been approached by another potential client that thought it was a good idea to get a ‘family friend’ in the industry to build their home! They are not the first and will by no means be the last to find out the hard way that ‘Mates Rates’ don’t exist in this game. It’s not just a 5-minute job like putting up a shelf for your mates brother, there are so many different tradesman and materials to think about and with the prices the way they are, discounts just simply don’t exist anymore.

To give you an idea on this one, this was a complete demolition of a 3 bed semi detached bungalow and rebuild of a brand new 4 bed home. The work was started by the former family friend who quote had been agreed, a garden building was constructed at the rear for temporary accommodation while the works goes ahead and the site prepped ready for the demo work to begin. So far so good….. but after the 8 weeks it took to get this far, conversations were starting to be had about the cost of the build! First it went up about £20,000……. Then £50,000 and after a few weeks of discussions the total project cost went up by a staggering £100,000 from the original quote.


This just emphasizes the importance of finding a trustworthy builder that will quote and communicate with complete transparency and give you the true cost of your project from the day one. This wasn’t a case of a cowboy builder trying to take them for a ride, this was a friend who was trying to do them a favour and do the work and supply the materials ‘on the cheap’! He had bitten off more than he could chew and had quoted using out of date labour and material costs and it just spiralled from there. In 2022 the costs of construction are at an all time high so please bare this in mind when choosing your builder……. You may lose that ‘family friend’ like these guys did!

25 views0 comments

Comments


bottom of page