"I really do extremely recommend our builder"

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kishi
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"I really do extremely recommend our builder"

Postby kishi » Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:32 pm

Just in case anyone is thinking of making a new year's resolution to redo their house...we have just finished a pretty major house renovation using a local company, Dermarta, that I originally found on this website, so I thought I would write a quick post to recommend them! (http://www.dermarta.co.uk/)

My husband and I are totally not natural renovators, and we would never have expected to kickstart a big building project, but after deciding to move from Lavender Hill to Streatham Hill this time last year, we eventually found a house that was a do-er up-per and so started to look for a builder once we got it under offer. The work itself began on August 2nd and finished last weekend! Dermot (head honcho) and his team have done a loft extension, knocked through and replaced the kitchen, new bathroom, landscaped the whole garden and pretty much complete internal redecoration. It now looks absolutely fabulous (if we do so say ourselves), brilliant family space with an immaculate finish, and we couldn't be more delighted.

However as well as a great result, the process itself has been far, far less stressful and dare I say it, enjoyable, than I would ever have thought. From the get go, Dermot was prompt with giving us a very thorough quote (we're talking multi paged spreadsheets, and then a project plan showing a week by week schedule of what would happen when - maybe I just had unduly low expectations but I had no idea such things existed when dealing with building firms!). He then came round as many times as it took with a revised budget until we got it down to an affordable price for us, and throughout came up with ideas for how to do things more economically. He introduced us to a lovely architect who really listened to our ideas, came up with something fab and handled everything with the council. He has a whole team of great workers who were really good with our small children (including a wonderful foreman, Les, who is one of the nicest people I've ever met - our one year old is bereft now they have finished and crawls round looking for him. Sniff).

The team worked very hard to get everything done on schedule (it overran by about 1-2 weeks on top of the original estimate, but that was because we asked for some extra things to be done eg. external decoration). They were very respectful of our space and did everything they could to minimise the chaos. We moved in after about 8 weeks of a 14 week project and within a few days several sets of neighbours had come round and mentioned how impressive our builders were - hard at it by 8am and working flat out innto the evening even without us there to keep an eye on them - again, maybe I had just watched too much property-disaster TV but it was totally contrary to what I expected!

Obviously, it being a major project, a few issues did crop up here and there (but thankfully rarely, and all small) but we were always able to sit down with Dermot or Les and work them out with everyone in a good humour! In the event that we ever decide to do more building work (hopefully not for a good few years I have to admit!), we will definitely go straight back to Dermarta. We count ourselves very lucky!

Anyway, that's a long winded way of saying if you are looking for a local company to undertake a project for you I'd definitely recommend you give them a call. And no, I had no personal connection with this business whatsoever, other than finding them on this website back in about May!
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Motherslittlehelper
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Re: "I really do extremely recommend our builder"

Postby Motherslittlehelper » Mon Jun 18, 2018 3:45 pm

It’s great to have a recommendation like this.

I couldn’t recommend the builder we had for our big renovation, he was recommended by a local company called ‘Good London Builder’. Things were missed off the plans, a flat started to leak within a year (needed replacing completely) and tiles in 2 bathrooms and outside started to move/ grout cracked within 18 months. Once builders have been paid, it’s very difficult to get big things put right - even though the law states “latent defects” are the builders responsibility for upto 7 years.
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mrsmrc
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Re: "I really do extremely recommend our builder"

Postby mrsmrc » Wed Jun 20, 2018 11:23 pm

We had a nightmare with Dermata! They messed up a simple 4 week job and it took us almost 2 years to get it sorted.

My advice before using any builder is to look at their accounts on the companies house website, check the bankruptcy register and also googl e their name and the words "bankrupt" or "insolvent" and see what comes up. I certainly wish I'd known to do this before employing Dermot Steedman and Dermata.
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