Crafty Plasterer

Revenge of the builder

Builders have a reputation of not starting a job when they should, making a mess and charging over the odds. But is this fair? According to an article in the Sunday Times Homes supplement Builders Bite Back, builders tell a different story. Is it actually clients and homeowners who are not keeping their end of the bargain? Many job delays are actually beyond builders' control, such as bad weather, clients ordering custom made materials or being slow with decisions. Often builders are not good at communicating the way they work and this leads to misconceptions. It could well be the client who is the cause.

The ten simple rules to help you get your job done on time and stay on good terms with your builders are:

1. Give them space (clear up before they arrive)
2. Don't use their tools (especially filling the skip up) as this will cause delays
3. Make decisions quickly
4. Don't put them in the middle of differences of opinion of husband and wife
5. Don't change your mind
6. Don't ask for little extras
7. Don't hold back full payment at the end of the job only unfinished work
8. Don't be greedy and try to get 'summat for nowt'
9. Show some respect (shouldn't this be number one?)
10. Communicate what you want and show appreciation when the jobs right

It all boils down to common sense and courtesy at the end of the day!

New blog

Hi, my name's Karen Marshall from Bruce Marshall Associates public relations consultancy. We're helping Aagaard Hanley to set up its new blog Crafty Plasterer. The blog will be about all aspects of interior design, lighting, plastering, building and restoration. In fact anything that's remotely connected with what Aagaard Hanley does, which is create beautiful and functional objects out of plaster. This covers a broad range of activity from manufacturing a wide range of plaster lighting to helping to restore the plaster work in historic buildings and creating new plasterwork interiors in modern buildings.

Starter packs compulsory for home sellers

A date has now been confirmed by the government for the launch of home starter packs. The packs will include a survey, land registry details and answers from both the sellers and local authority to standard questions. From 1 June 2007 the packs will be compulsory for anyone selling their home. The government says the packs will cost about £600 plus VAT and will make home buying quicker and cheaper. The idea of introducing such packs has been discussed in the industry since the early 1990s. The conveyancing system in England and Wales is widely regarded as unnecessarily slow and expensive. In particular, would-be buyers can spend hundreds of pounds on surveys and other enquiries only to find their money has been wasted because the proposed property sale has fallen through. The aim of the packs is to eradicate this problem.