5 Reasons You Should Never Finish Your New Home Yourself
Are you considering asking a builder to construct the “shell” of your new house only, with a view to you being responsible for taking the project through its finishing stages to completion? Whilst there aren’t many builders out there that WOULD prefer to finish your home for you, here are our top five reasons why you shouldn’t go down this road:
- The “shell” is the easy part
The majority of building contractors today will admit that the construction of the “shell” is the easy part of the process and that the finishing is where the challenges are most often encountered. Do you have the knowledge and expertise to deal with these challenges?
- The finishes reveal mistakes made in the structure
Mistakes made during the construction of the “shell” often only come to light during the finishing stages of the build. By this time, the building contractor you engaged with would have moved off site and may not be willing or able to assist with their rectification
- The execution of the finishes requires constant supervision and attention to detail
Even the best finishing sub-contractors require constant guidance and supervision and it’s often a collaboration between building contractor and finishing specialist that produces the best results. Do you have the time and are you in a position to play the builder’s role?
- Who do you point the finger at when mistakes are made?
When mistakes are made on a building site, one always looks for somebody to blame and when you have relieved your building contractor of his obligation to execute the finishes you lose all sense of accountability on the project. There will be good arguments for both sides as to how the mistake came about and what could have, or should have, been done to avoid it with neither side taking responsibility leaving you the client somewhere in the middle with little or no form of recourse
- Mistakes will cost you big time
The amount of money you stand to lose if you make a mistake far outweighs the profit and attendance your building contractor makes using tried and tested sub-contractors to execute the finishes. Not only would you have to re-do the work with a suitable finishing sub-contractor but you would have to replace the materials used doing it incorrectly the first time round
