FAQs for During the Build for Self Builders

Question 1

Should I pay my builder a deposit or money up front?

Accepted Answer

As little as possible, and never bare: money paid ahead of work is protection given away, so any advance needs a written reason and something standing behind it. The discipline is money follows work. Some requests for early money have honest roots - long-lead materials, a joinery deposit, a small mobilisation sum - but every pound paid ahead of the work is a pound of your protection handed across on trust, and it should never travel bare. If an advance is genuinely needed: get what it buys named in writing, tie it to the contract rather than a conversation, make sure anything it purchases is identified as yours and covered while it sits off site, and keep the amount small against the whole. A builder who needs your money to start your job is telling you something about their position; a decent one will understand the caution, because they have seen where the alternative ends. When in doubt, the request goes in writing and the answer comes back the same way.

Question 2

What is a valuation on a self build?

Accepted Answer

A count of what the work done so far is actually worth, made before you pay, so each payment matches the build rather than the request. A valuation is the discipline behind every safe payment: before money moves, someone puts a value on the work actually done - walked, seen and measured against the contract's prices, not taken from the payment request's own arithmetic. Builders' requests are not usually dishonest, but they are always the builder's version, and they tend optimistic: the plastering that is nearly done counted as done, materials on order counted as on site. A valuation replaces that version with what is standing. Done monthly, it keeps your money permanently level with the build, which is the position you never want to lose: a builder slightly behind your money has every reason to keep building. On a self build it is the single discipline that pays for itself most directly.

Question 3

The builder says it is an extra. Do I have to pay for it?

Accepted Answer

Only if it genuinely sits outside what was priced - and that is a question the paperwork answers, not the person asking for the money. Some extras are real: you changed your mind, the drawings moved, the ground surprised everyone. But whether something is an extra is decided by the contract and the priced quote, not by the sentence 'that will be extra' - if the work was already included in what was priced, it is not extra at all, and a generous allowance elsewhere is not a licence to re-price included work. So the response is always the same, delivered politely: show me. Which drawing changed, which item was excluded, where the quote says this was never allowed for. If it is genuinely extra, the second rule lands: the price in writing before the work is built, because an extra priced first is a decision and an extra priced afterwards is a bill. The free Is It A Variation? decision tree walks the question step by step.

Question 4

How do I keep changes from wrecking the budget?

Accepted Answer

Three habits: no change built before it is priced in writing, every change on one running register, and the new total in front of you before each yes. Builds are rarely wrecked by one big change; they are wrecked by thirty small ones, each waved through in a doorway, none priced at the time, all arriving together in the final account. The defence is process rather than willpower. First, the rule with no exceptions: every change - a variation, in contract language - gets its price in writing before the work happens. Second, a register: one sheet where every change lands with its date, description, price and status, so the story is never scattered across text messages. Third, the running total: before saying yes to anything new, look at what all the yeses so far add up to, because each change is only ever judged affordable against the original budget, never against the budget as it now actually stands. That habit alone saves more money than any negotiation at the end.

FAQs for During the Build, Self Builders

Frequently asked questions

While the build runs

Should I pay my builder a deposit or money up front?

What is a valuation on a self build?

The builder says it is an extra. Do I have to pay for it?

How do I keep changes from wrecking the budget?