The ethical stance of our business is very important to us. You hear a lot of horror stories about builders. The truth is the breakdown of communities and families means we often have to turn to people we don’t know and trust them with work on our homes. Wouldn’t it be great if you had friends and neighbours who knew how to help you build a house? (We’d love to see a time when that’s a more likely scenario, but that’s a subject for another post I think.) Websites that offer references have a part to play, but there’s more to it than that. Most people I know – including me – would still rate a recommendation from friends or family above anything else when engaging tradespeople.
Our homes are a massively important part of our lives and we invest a lot of thought, time and money into them. Huff and Puff Construction’s approach is to try to make any building project as pleasurable as possible. Building a new home, or adding to your existing home, should be a happy and positive time, even though there are various stresses involved. So why should you trust us with work? Especially as we are a new company and you can’t (yet!) look at lots of completed projects? Well, please run through the following points about doing business the Huff and Puff way, and see if you like them.
Why and what? The most important thing in any building project is to decide to build the right thing.
Building generally addresses a need and the most important questions are: why do you want to build something – and what do you want to build to address that. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But often it isn’t. Especially when you may need to get advice from all sorts of people to see if what you want is feasible and affordable etc. So where do you start? Well, we pride ourselves on taking the time to discuss with you what you’d like, and help define your requirements. We can give you pointers on how to manage your project, or you may want us to manage your whole build, or for us to help you manage it yourself.
As long as you are considering us for work, we don’t normally charge for an initial basic design and estimate – however for house-sized jobs there may need to be some negotiation on that. We promise to be totally honest with you when we discuss your project with you. I would rather see my business fail than give you bad advice, just to get business. I promise that if you need something we can’t offer – or even if we can and you’d very sensibly like other quotes or advice – I will not hesitate to suggest other companies that may be able to help you.
Whatever advice you seek from us, the response will be based on getting the best result for your particular circumstances. Whether you’d like to self-build, save every penny possible, or want to spend a lot, we can help with both your design and build. We like creative ways of achieving a lot for a little – and straw bale gives excellent opportunities for this – meaning you can get something that looks fab for less outlay – and what’s not to like about that?! We want your project to be successful because it matters to you. And also because we passionately believe in this style of building for all sorts of good reasons.
Finally – and very importantly – we promise you good communication. Once paid work is decided upon we will agree a contract so we both know what to expect and where we stand. Whatever you engage us to do, we promise to meet regularly (on site I’d strongly suggest a quick chat every day) to inspect and discuss progress. In this way any issues are identified promptly and can be resolved with the minimum of fuss.
If the above is all in place then all those other important things that will help make your build a positive and enjoyable experience, will be covered. For example, you’ll know when your builder/trades will be on site, what work is being done, when it will be completed, if there are any problems etc. and if so, what is being done.
Does this sound good to you? What do you like or dislike about getting trades in to do work? Let us know in the comments below.