12 ways to get the best from trades

If you want to keep your build on track and to budget, you’ll need to know how to best engage with different trades to create a harmonious site and a successful project. Michelle Guy offers some words of advice…

- Michelle Guy

Any build project – a self-build, extension or renovation – will need trades on site at some stage. Most builds need them from the very beginning. So how can you make it a successful project, where you and the trades you employ work in harmony together?

As a homeowner taking on a build project, you will undoubtedly want the best people for the job, for the best price, all completed to a timely schedule. It’s a lot to ask trades — especially reputable, busy ones. Engaging with trades from the off is therefore essential in forming a great working relationship that will last throughout the project. And how do you do that? “The overriding thing to keep in mind when getting your builder (and trades) on board is clarity — clarity of vision, of design, of information, of working conditions, of costs and of the terms and conditions of engagement,” says project manager Bob Branscombe. “Achieving this is challenging, and takes time and effort.” So being organised from the very beginning will put you in good stead to be able to deal with a build project, and with the trades who will be working on delivering it for you. Here are 12 ways to do it.

1 Figure out what you want first