Too good to be true!
Wonder why some builders prices look too good to be true? They so often are! This is where many construction problems start. Please don’t get caught out by miss priced projects and hope that somehow a construction company will be able to wear the loss. In most cases cash flow will run out, relationships will break down and you will end up picking up the price difference anyway through painful administration events, new more expensive appointments or lengthy time chasing through the courts. A contract is only worth its value if you are willing to go the long lengths to ensure they are held up or the company providing the contract is suitably solvent. There is no free lunch in construction.
Pricing errors and project issues occur for small to some of the largest construction projects. Just look at how many HS2 contractors have gone into administration and the bill to the government just keeps going up with each and every new administration event. Picking the cheapest tender does not guarantee you a cheaper project, but may well guarantee you a more stressful one.
Carma UK pays for a team of experienced, caring and professional project managers, estimators, infrastructure, vehicles, plant, machines, site supervisors, significant insurance and we have designed our business to make a modest profit with each project picking up a fair share of the business overheads. We are not ashamed of making a profit and we work incredibly hard to ensure we do. This means we can continue to serve others and also are still here to serve any guarantees or warranties we offer.
We believe this offers a good quality of service aligned with what is likely to be a significant investment for our clients.
Where financial risk is present, we are open and honest about our strategies to mitigate them or ensure this risk is shared and known. Taking on fixed price contracts with significant material purchases requires a share of risk or will require early material purchase and associated safe storage costs to ensure supply chain issues don’t bring a bitter end to your project. Administration event due to industry price increases and inflexible unfair fixed priced contracts has been a very recent and painful experience for many construction companies post COVID with incredibly high levels of inflation. No construction company should take on uncapped fixed material price risk without a strategy to minimise what could be a huge cost change to deliver your project.
The way we price our projects means we can afford to support early design stages and budgeting, provide you with a refined initial cost plan minimising as many hidden surprises as we can, clear communication, a carefully managed efficient project, tight variation control, robust payment system controls and importantly an excellent build that meets the agreed contractual specification. All of this we believe is what all clients hope for, but so often don’t receive due to human innate hope that a surprisingly low price will also provide the holy grail. In construction you typically pay for what you receive. It is a high value, low margin industry where significantly cheaper prices should set off alarm bells.
Of course there are many construction companies who will chance the trusting client with an incredibly unfair high price often bundled into large lump sum tender returns. Equally these need to be cautioned against and we would always suggest clients seek at least 3 tender returns from good quality, robust construction companies to minimise the outliers. Carma UK provides a robust bill of quantities with every projects. We lay out our profit margin so there is no hidden costs and we minimise the chance of surprises.
I can guarantee Carma UK will rarely be the cheapest solution for you. If you want a cheap solution, there are many solutions available, all with their downsides and risks where indeed the solution was likely only cheap on a poorly outlined estimate at outset or on a formal quote from a company without the cash flow or credit worthiness to back their mistakes up. I can however assure those who chose Carma UK that they will receive a courteous, caring, professional team who work tirelessly between site and desk to provide you with an excellent service with our goal to provide a stress free construction project.
Please don’t fall for the industry con of a price that is too good to be true! It’ll likely be a painful mistake that has been repeated time and time again.