Top Builder Near Me: Find Trusted Local Experts

Typing “builders near me” into Google gives you a map full of names and a lot of five-star reviews. That’s a starting point, not a check. Most of the problems people have with builders in London could have been spotted before anyone signed anything.

This is what’s worth checking, and what the law already says about it.

What local builders actually do

Most small and medium London builders do the same mix of work: house refurbishments, rear and side extensions, lofts, kitchens and bathrooms. Some also take on new builds on small plots, or commercial work like shop and office fit-outs.

Very few do every trade themselves. A typical firm has its own carpenters, bricklayers and general labourers, and brings in electricians, plumbers, plasterers and roofers as subcontractors. That’s normal. What matters is that the main contractor is responsible for all of them, and that the electrician and the gas engineer are properly registered.

Why local matters in London

London isn’t one market. Each borough has its own building control team, its own parking rules and its own way of handling skip and scaffold licences.

A builder who works in your area already knows how long the council takes to suspend a parking bay, which streets have controlled parking zones that start at 8am, and where the nearest builders’ merchant is that delivers the same day. On a ten-week job, that saves days.

They’ll also have seen houses like yours. Victorian terraces in one street tend to have the same problems: the same rotten bay window, the same shallow foundations, the same rear addition with no damp course. Knowing that before the job starts makes the quote more accurate.

Check the company, not the website

Before inviting anyone round, spend ten minutes on a few public registers.

• Companies House. It’s free. Look at how long the company has existed, who the directors are and whether the accounts are filed on time. A company that’s been dissolved and restarted under a new name several times is a warning sign.
• Gas Safe Register. Anyone working on a gas boiler, hob or pipework must be on it. You can check the engineer’s number online. Gas work by someone who isn’t registered is illegal.
• Electrical competent person schemes such as NICEIC or NAPIT. A registered electrician can sign off their own work with building control. If they aren’t registered, someone has to pay for an inspection.
• Insurance. Ask for the public liability certificate and check the dates. For extensions and basements, ask about contract works insurance too.

Trade association membership, such as the Federation of Master Builders, and platforms like Checkatrade, TrustATrader or Rated People can help narrow the list down. Treat the reviews as one input. Asking neighbours who had similar work done on the same street is often more useful.

Building control is your problem, not just the builder’s

Most building work needs building regulations approval, either from the council or a private approved inspector. A lot of homeowners assume that’s the builder’s job. In practice the builder usually arranges it, but the law points at the owner.

Section 36 of the Building Act 1984 lets the council act if the work doesn’t comply:

“the building control authority … may by notice require the owner— (a) to pull down or remove the work, or (b) if he so elects, to effect such alterations in it as may be necessary to make it comply with the regulations.”

Building Act 1984, section 36(1)

Note the word “owner”. Councils used to have 12 months from completion to serve that notice. The Building Safety Act 2022 changed that, and section 36(4) now says the notice can’t be given “after the expiration of 10 years from the date of the completion of the work”. So unapproved work can come back to you for ten years.

The other reason it matters is selling. A buyer’s solicitor will ask for the completion certificate for any extension, loft or structural alteration. No certificate usually means indemnity insurance, a price reduction or a retrospective application.

What the law says about the work itself

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies to any builder working for a homeowner. The key line is short:

“Every contract to supply a service is to be treated as including a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill.”

Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 49(1)

Section 50 of the same Act is less well known and very useful. Anything the builder says or writes about the work becomes part of the contract if you relied on it when deciding to hire them. “We’ll be finished before Christmas” in an email counts. So does “that price includes the skip”. Keep the emails and messages.

If the contract doesn’t fix a finish date, section 52 says the work has to be done “within a reasonable time”, and adds that “what is a reasonable time is a question of fact”. That’s why a written programme is worth having. It turns a question of fact into a date.

Cancelling: the 14 days

If you sign a contract at home, after the builder has visited, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 usually give you 14 days to cancel. For a service contract the period “ends at the end of 14 days after the day on which the contract is entered into”.

The builder has to tell you about that right in writing. If they don’t, regulation 31 extends it: the cancellation period then runs to 12 months after the normal 14 days would have ended. If you want work to start inside the 14 days, you’ll be asked to request that in writing, and you’ll pay for whatever’s been done if you then cancel.

Comparing quotes

Get at least three quotes for anything bigger than a small repair, and make sure they’re pricing the same thing. A proper quote for a refurbishment or extension lists:

• what’s included, room by room or stage by stage;
• provisional sums for things not chosen yet, like the kitchen, tiles or sanitaryware;
• what’s excluded, such as decorating, building control fees or the party wall surveyor;
• the payment stages and the programme.

A low provisional sum makes a quote look cheaper than it is. If one builder allows £300 for a bathroom suite and another allows £1,500, the second quote isn’t necessarily more expensive.

Payments should follow work that’s done. A deposit is reasonable for things ordered specially, like bespoke windows or a kitchen, but paying half the job upfront to a builder you don’t know is how people lose money. On bigger jobs a small retention, often 2.5% to 5%, is held back until snagging is finished.

Before work starts

Go through the quote line by line with the builder. Ask who will be on site every day, who you call when something goes wrong and how changes are priced. Agree in writing that any extra work is priced before it’s done.

Ask to see one or two finished jobs, ideally similar to yours. Look at the details: how the skirting meets the floor, whether the tile joints line up, whether the paint lines are straight. Ask the owner how the job went, not just whether they like the result.

A few things worth knowing

• Party wall notices are the homeowner’s responsibility, not the builder’s. Work on a shared wall needs two months’ notice to the neighbours.
• Skips on the road need a licence from the council. A skip on your own drive doesn’t.
• Most London boroughs allow noisy work from 8am to 6pm on weekdays and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays.
• If the builder offers a lower price for cash with no invoice, there’s no paper trail if something goes wrong, and usually no guarantee either.

Force Builders Ltd is a London building company (Companies House 07049787) delivering house extensions, loft conversions and full refurbishments across Greater London. See our projects or get in touch.