Owning your own home

Or do nothing of course

Hopefully soon to move forward with buying my first place ! Does anyone know of a London based company that specialise in surveys for flats in concrete high rise?

It might be overkill, but thought I'd check if anyone knew anyone! I'm thinking level 3 for peace of mind/just to check for any impending future major works.

How deep were the new foundations and did building control look at them? The foundations for my single story extension were ridiculously over engineered, they were 1.2m deep and 60cm wide.

Did the concrete they used come pumped or did they mix it on site? Presumably it was pumped it so do you know what type they used? It was probably c25 but can you check that if you ordered it?

I know an inordinate amount about concrete as I had to recently sue a concrete company

we had Zaid at ZFN chartered surveyors do a survey for us after a recommendation on here, he was very thorough and it was done by photo/video and whatsapp audio recordings, sounds odd but it works.

this was for a flat in an 8 storey concrete/steel brick faced early 60’s block.
that said he didn’t go into detail about the fabric/construction of the building and i learned more about that from books and the internet as the buildings were well documented. that and previous detailed service charge documents.

we didn’t buy it in the end and went for another in a neighbouring block and feel we know enough about the blocks now to make a survey for that flat not of much value.

Hard to guess depends on the job, is it copper tails dropping under the floor? How many rads.

Fittings and pipe aren't cheap anymore needs more info. Although you could have asked me to give you a price ;)

Another thing a lot of folk forget is they think they should be getting material at cost price, gotta gave mark up on everything even if its a little. Dont go down morrisons and get annoyed as they are making money on the stuff on the shelfs as someone said in here a while ago im not paying them extra for just going to get it. I had someone 18 months ago that thought the price I was quoting for material was too much so supplied everything but in the end he ended up paying more in labour as he fucked up with the material and I was sitting about with my finger up my arse because of his penny pinching.

Usually a bottle does 10 rads but isn't cheap either.

Sorry but I don't agree. If you are charging good money for your time (and I assume you are probably a £250 to £300 a day man rather than a £125 handyman) I expect you to dedicate a proportion of the time I am being charged for to ordering whatever materials are needed for the job and then not to overcharge me for them.

I have had a significant amount of work done to my house in the last few months (a 6 figure sum) and all the trades I have used have charged me cost price for the materials. And I know that because I called up the builders merchants and paid for them on my credit card.

Bit random but someone with new home or refurbishing home might find this uselful.

Selling on behalf of my landlord.

Brand new, never used/fitted barhroom fan.

Retails for £180.

£140 or sensible offer.

Thank you

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That sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me, did they invoice the contractors and take payment from you?

To me it’s like getting your bike serviced and expecting to get the parts at cost coz you’re paying for labour time

I operate that way but it's really just what works for clients and trades on a case by case basis. I think it's fine to look for someone who works the way you like but you can't decide that for everyone.

There are plenty of clients I avoid because they want things done in a way or timeframe that I can't or won't work with. Just personal preference though.

That's not quite the same is it.

If I get my bike serviced at the bike shop, and the bloke says you need a new Chain and rear cog, he will presumably go over to the shop shelf and pick up the chain and the rear cog and I get charged the sticker price.

What he doesn't do is pick it up off the shelf, add 20pc for doing so, and then pass on the extra to me.

The builder called up nilco, said we have a job for this bloke and we need xyz, make the order and he's going to call you later and pay for it.

I know the raw materials for a loft conversion cost approx £7500 plus 3.5k for the steel.

Would the builder not get a trade rate if they hadn’t said “and the customer will be paying”? Maybe I’m just super naive but I’ve always figured a builder going to buy materials would get a lower price than I would trying to DIY something

The builder gives them so much business I doubt the merchant is bothered about trying to nickel and dime whoever is ultimately paying (which In this case was me the customer)

Another thing a lot of folk forget is they think they should be getting material at cost price, gotta gave mark up on everything even if its a little.

Adding my voice to the chorus disagreeing with this. Whenever I've worked with tradespeople they've given me receipts for materials. Clearly that could be manipulated in a manner I'd be hard pressed to detect, but then again if I didn't trust them at all I wouldn't let them dismantle my house.

That's fine if they charge labour for the sourcing time. Otherwise just add 5% to the cost and absorb the labour in that. Which is common when ordering across multiple jobs/clients

Whenever I've worked with tradespeople they've given me receipts for materials.

I'm kinda surprised by this. But it's something I'd look in to next time I get someone in to fuck up I mean improve or fix my home.

In my experience having worked in customer service at a trades job site some will charge a fee for the labour and materials are charged at cost but some will try and give a low labour cost for the job because they're going to add some to materials. Obviously the former is more desirable but if someone has given you a quote noticeably lower than the others and is being opaque about material costs, that's why

Well done you but you are delusional. As the analogy I used you dont go to Tesco and get cost price food because you need it why should you as a house owner deserve cost price goods for something. You shouldn't. The day rate your paying for isn't including sitting down for half a shift working out materials its for you to do the job which if they were im sure you'd be complaining.

Sincee your working on that method is the trade person due X of what the value the extension or loft conversion has added to the house. The answer is no.

Tradesmen are a business and not a charity at the end of the day.

Na fuck off mate. If I'm paying you £350 to 400 quid a day you can organise the materials and I'll pay for them. I'm not paying you extra for making a fucking phone call which is part and parcel of your job.

And I'm not delusional as I'm sitting in my kitchen diner extension which cost me, including the kitchen, about 50k. and I'm really happy with it. And the builder is happy too. Everyone is happy because we've all been reasonable and fair with each other and not tried to tuck each other up. He's charged me what he considers is fair for his expertise and I have gladly paid for it.

MAKE A FUCKIN PHONE CALL. You are the type of self entitled client people dont want.

You want the best of the best but want to pay bottom dollar. Also you've went from 250 to 300 a day to 350 to 400, get the story straight.

You are the type of self entitled client people dont want.

To be honest, you are coming across as the sort of dishonest tradesperson people don’t want.

How is being a business dishonest, genuine question.

We aren't going to asda, the bike shop anywhere and get trade price material. There's nothing dishonest about trying to make a living, as I said earlier its a business and not a charity.

Are you going down the bakers or the butchers and going this is a dishonest operation as this loaf only costs 25p to make and you are charging me £5 for this. After all its flour, water and some salt.

Trades ey? Can't really trust any of 'em...

Grabs popcorn.

What is your day rate then?