Current lead times for building work?

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newtoallthis

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Even I know that there have been endless obstacles for builders in the past few years - labour shortages, materials delays, fuel costs and now interest rates sky high, I don't know how they affect the trade and I just want a very rough idea of how long it might be between accepting a quote and the work starting.

Daughter/family and I are considering buying a house with a very nice small two-storey barn which I could have converted into a self-contained two bedroom home for myself. I do know quite a bit about planning and I'm confident there would be no problem. But aside from the time it takes to get planning consent and agree designs with the architect, once I accept a builder's quote am I likely to be waiting a year, two years, three years for the start date? I'd have to find somewhere to live in the meantime and the expected time frame would affect this quite a lot.
 
best to talk to builder you are choosing , really that you want - the better the quality builder the more chance they are booked up for some time

i know our kitchen fitter , who we had hoped to also do the bathroom, had an order book over 9mths for any longish jobs 3-4weeks

we have had a couple of plasterers in over the years, one who was available in a few days - made a real mess , and now the one we use have used and just recently quoted has about a months wait to book in for a 2-3day job

other builders for a small wall , waiting 6 weeks for them to do that again only 5 days work ........
 
Thank you ETAF but I think the story will probably be different for the sort of building firm that's able to do a complete barn conversion working with an architect. I haven't spoken to an architect yet, this is all very early days and I just want a feeling for timescale at this stage.
 
ETAF said:
know our kitchen fitter , who we had hoped to also do the bathroom,
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Theres so much wrong with that statement! A kitchen fitter is a kitchen fitter. You see some of the worst examples of rough plumbing in Kitchens.
Your kitchen fitter is probably a chippy what skillset makes him competant or qualified to fit your bathroom?
Chippy rates are probably a third less than plumber rates so they like to have a go.
 
newtoallthis said:
Thank you ETAF but I think the story will probably be different for the sort of building firm that's able to do a complete barn conversion working with an architect. I haven't spoken to an architect yet, this is all very early days and I just want a feeling for timescale at this stage.
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Still difficult to get firm dates with any build, material shortages and aligning all the trades successfully is often difficult .
 
OvertonPlumber said:
Theres so much wrong with that statement! A kitchen fitter is a kitchen fitter. You see some of the worst examples of rough plumbing in Kitchens.
Your kitchen fitter is probably a chippy what skillset makes him competant or qualified to fit your bathroom?
Chippy rates are probably a third less than plumber rates so they like to have a go.
Click to expand...
with an IQ above room temperature and the gift of opposable thumbs, it makes you whatever you want to be. Plumbing must be the easiest thing to master. Stop water coming out of a pipe or make it come out of a pipe....have I missed anything that makes it more complex?
98% of all plumbing apprentice entrants did so because they had failed to achieve the basic educational standard of 5 GCSE's (at pass grade).
 
old duffer said:
with an IQ above room temperature and the gift of opposable thumbs, it makes you whatever you want to be. Plumbing must be the easiest thing to master. Stop water coming out of a pipe or make it come out of a pipe....have I missed anything that makes it more complex?
98% of all plumbing apprentice entrants did so because they had failed to achieve the basic educational standard of 5 GCSE's (at pass grade).
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Smells like the bitterness of not getting onto a plumbing course to me, old duffer.
 
old duffer said:
with an IQ above room temperature and the gift of opposable thumbs, it makes you whatever you want to be. Plumbing must be the easiest thing to master. Stop water coming out of a pipe or make it come out of a pipe....have I missed anything that makes it more complex?
98% of all plumbing apprentice entrants did so because they had failed to achieve the basic educational standard of 5 GCSE's (at pass grade).
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Anyone can do plumbing. Hence why there are so many crap plumbers out there.
 
cwhaley said:
Smells like the bitterness of not getting onto a plumbing course to me, old duffer.
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I took the university route from school. Loved it so much I went back for more. I did the plumbing course...all I needed to know was on youtube LOL
stop water coming out of a pipe or make water come out of a pipe. Not exactly difficult is it!....
 
old duffer said:
seriously, what an earth can you do wrong joining bits of pipe together?
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Not much wrong if your just pushing pipes together.

if you want value for money from your plumber he could if bovered protect you against:
Scalding.
Long legs.
Dead legs
E coli
Legionella
Other bacteria's
Stagnation
Back syphonage
Sewage
Food poisoning
Flooding.
Low pressure
High pressure
Un- even pressures.
Protection against appliance failure/ breakdown
Protection against scale/calcium
Electric shock
£££££££ notes
And generally advise you on The good the bad and the Ugley
 
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OvertonPlumber said:
You see some of the worst examples of rough plumbing in Kitchens.
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Just as you see lots of gawdawful botched floors because the vast majority of plumbers are clueless about how to lift a floor, and even more gormless when it comes to reinstatement. They are also prone to weakening floor joists, sometimes dangerously so. The thing is, umbers are taught safe practice for joist drilling, so why do so many ignore the training? So speaking purely as a joiner, pot, kettle?

By all means be critical of people who can't do the job, but yours isn't the only trade where this sort of thing happens
 
old duffer said:
I took the university route from school. Loved it so much I went back for more. I did the plumbing course...all I needed to know was on youtube LOL
stop water coming out of a pipe or make water come out of a pipe. Not exactly difficult is it!....
Click to expand...

I'm a BA and Masters graduate, but wish I'd gone back and learnt a trade with my hands!

My Dad trained as a plumber in the 1960s and some of the joins he can do with lead (can't remember the name, and of course totally irrelevant today) are really quite skilled. Although he became French Polisher in the early 1980s, he still exercises great talent on all the work he does even today. What he learnt to do was mastered over years of physically doing the work, not watching YouTube.
 
cwhaley said:
I'm a BA and Masters graduate, but wish I'd gone back and learnt a trade with my hands!

My Dad trained as a plumber in the 1960s and some of the joins he can do with lead (can't remember the name, and of course totally irrelevant today) are really quite skilled. Although he became French Polisher in the early 1980s, he still exercises great talent on all the work he does even today. What he learnt to do was mastered over years of physically doing the work, not watching YouTube.
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silly billy...you watch youtube then you copy what the man on youtube shows you. Not hard, follow the instructions...sorted
 
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