I’ve taken this blog post title from a newspaper article, entitled ‘Keep Calm and Carry On Panicking…’ There is a lot going on in the UK right now and the construction industry is no exception. The talk is of shortages, price increases for materials and labour, alongside uncertainty generally. But the upshot of the article was that there are issues but maybe not as big as is being made out.
We see this during conversations with clients and contractors. There is a perfect storm of pent up demand and reduced availability, leading to difficulties and higher prices. However, we also hear from inside the industry that shortages are expected to ease within the next 6 months as capacity is built back up, and we would expect that although prices would not completely return to 2020 levels they would certainly drop from their current high levels. By the middle of next year things should be getting back to normal.
Now is a good time to start planning a project if you think of extending or renovating your home. The best projects come from making sure that you have the time and space to consider all of the possibilities in drawn form before committing to a decision. This is the approach we have always taken, we fully explore with you at the design stage to ensure that you have really considered the options. With residential projects even the small decisions can have a big impact on the final project.
Beyond the design stage, having detailed, thorough, and dimensioned construction drawings that a builder can price and build from gives the confidence that you are getting accurate, comparable prices that minimise your risk when the project is being built. All in all, we find generally the full process takes between 4 and 6 months, plenty of lead in time for things to be settling in the wider economy.
When it comes to the point where you are talking to builders and getting prices it is worth understanding the implications for erratic prices of materials on your project cost. If your builder is booked up for 6 months they are having to make predictions on the cost of materials at that point in the future when they come to build your project. In reality this may mean having to include for the possibility of higher prices to ensure that they don’t spend many months completing your build only to find that their profit has been eaten away by increased material costs. It is certainly worth discussing how this could be dealt with in a fair way for both parties when prices are being put together. Good projects come from open and honest communication throughout the process.
We pride ourselves on the quality of our projects, and the support we offer to our clients throughout the process. The quality of our drawings is one way that you can reduce uncertainty throughout your project. We find that we get very few queries when our projects are on site, our clients know what they are getting and the builders know what they are building.
You can get a sense of our service from our reviews on both Google and Houzz.
If you want to discuss the opportunities for your project give Matt or kevin a call on 0121 270 7227 or visit our website for more information.
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