How to Choose a Builder in Luton

Seven checks that take under an hour and filter out almost every builder you would later regret hiring. None of them require you to know anything about building.

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You cannot judge building work. You can judge the checks.

Homeowners are told to get three quotes and go with their gut. That advice is close to useless, because the thing that separates a good builder from a bad one is invisible at quote stage. You will not spot an undersized steel, a shallow foundation or a missing cavity tray, and neither will your neighbour.

What you can do is check the things that are checkable, and there are more of them than most people realise. Companies House is free and public. The CIOB register, the RICS register and the Building Safety Regulator's register of building inspectors are all free and public. An insurance certificate takes one email. A written itemised quote costs a builder nothing to produce and tells you a great deal about how they work.

We are a Luton builder, so treat this page with the scepticism it deserves. It is also true that every check below is one you can run against us in the next ten minutes, which is rather the point of publishing it.

The seven checks, in the order worth doing them

1. Look the company up on Companies House

Free, public, thirty seconds. You get the incorporation date, the registered office, the directors and whether accounts are filed on time. A company that was incorporated last month, or that has a string of dissolved predecessors behind the same director, is telling you something. BXC Developments Ltd is company 12091124, incorporated 8 July 2019.

2. Check any accreditation on the issuing body's own register

Not on the builder's website, on the body's register. The CIOB and RICS both publish searchable ones, and since 6 April 2024 the Building Safety Regulator publishes a public register of building inspectors too. A logo on a website is a picture. A name on a register is a fact. Bes Cuni is a Registered Building Inspector at Class 2, a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Building and an Associate of RICS, and all three are checkable that way.

3. Ask who on the job actually knows the Building Regulations

Most building disputes are not about taste, they are about a detail that failed at inspection: a missing cavity tray, insulation that does not meet the target, a fire door that is not a fire door, a beam bearing with no padstone under it. Ask your builder who on the job reads the Building Regulations, and what happens when building control queries something. Bes is a Registered Building Inspector at Class 2, registered with the Building Safety Regulator. That is not us doing your building control, and it is not us signing off our own work, because an inspector is not permitted to do building control on work his own company built. It is the reason the queries tend not to come up in the first place.

4. Ask for the insurance certificate, and read the dates

Ask for the current certificate rather than an assurance. Check that it is in date and that the cover is appropriate to the value of your job. Any builder who is difficult about this has told you what you needed to know.

5. Insist on a written, itemised quote

Not a total on a compliments slip. An itemised quote lets you compare three builders on the same scope instead of comparing three numbers that cover different work, which is how most people end up choosing badly and how most extras get argued about later.

6. Ask who is actually going to be on site

On a lot of jobs the person who quotes is never seen again after the deposit clears. Ask directly: will you be here, who runs the site day to day, and who do I ring when something goes wrong. Write the answer down.

7. Ask what happens when something is found

Every older house hides something. What matters is the process. A good builder will tell you they will stop, show you, price the change in writing and let you decide. A bad one will tell you it never happens.

Questions about choosing a builder

What is a Registered Building Inspector, and should I look for one?

Since 6 April 2024 anyone carrying out building control work in England must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator, and the register is public. Very few builders are on it, because it is a building control qualification rather than a building one. It is worth asking about for one reason only: a builder who has been assessed on the Building Regulations is less likely to build something that fails at inspection. It does not mean he can do your building control. He cannot, on his own work, and any builder who tells you otherwise is telling you something that is not true.

How to check if a builder is good?

Run the checkable things first: Companies House for the company, the issuing body's own register for any accreditation claimed, and the current insurance certificate. Then ask for a written itemised quote and ask who will actually be on site. Reviews are useful but they are the weakest of these, because they are the easiest to influence and because a happy customer cannot see a shallow foundation any better than you can.

How do I choose a builder?

Shortlist on the checks rather than on the price, then compare like for like on an itemised written quote. If one quote is dramatically cheaper, find out what is missing from it before assuming you have found a bargain, because the usual answer is the structural design, the building control fees, the waste, or the reinstatement of something the others have allowed for.

What is the difference between a builder and a building contractor?

In everyday use they are the same word. The useful distinction is between a single trade, such as a bricklayer or a roofer, and a contractor who takes responsibility for the whole job including the other trades, the programme, the structural design and building control sign-off. Work out which one your job needs before you start ringing round, because the two are not interchangeable.

What is the average hourly rate for builders in the UK?

Published averages exist but they are close to meaningless for a specific job, because they mix regions, trades and job types together. More importantly, most defined building work should not be bought by the hour at all. A fixed written price for a defined scope puts the risk of a slow week on the builder rather than on you, which is the arrangement you want.

Should I pay a builder a deposit?

A reasonable up-front payment for materials on a large job is normal. A large deposit before anything has been ordered, and particularly a cash one, is not. Stage payments tied to visible progress, set out in writing before work starts, protect both sides and are what a professional builder will suggest without being asked.

Do I need a written contract with a builder?

For anything beyond a small job, yes. At minimum you want the scope, the price, the payment stages, the programme and the process for variations in writing. It is not about distrust, it is that almost every serious dispute between a homeowner and a builder turns out to be two people who genuinely remembered a conversation differently.