How a Teesside building project should actually be run

Last updated: August 2026.

Specification is the whole game

Every serious problem on a domestic building project can be traced back to ambiguity about what was being bought. A written schedule of works, set out room by room or element by element, is the document that prevents it. It should state what is included, what is excluded, what standard applies, and where a provisional sum has been used because something genuinely cannot be known yet.

The exclusions matter as much as the inclusions. Kitchen units and appliances, sanitaryware, floor coverings, decoration, landscaping and making good the existing rooms are the usual grey areas, and a quote that is silent on them will be interpreted in the way that suits whoever wrote it. Ask for them to be listed explicitly, either in or out.

Fixed price, day rates and provisional sums

A fixed price against a full specification is the right structure for anything over roughly two weeks of work. Day rates suit repairs and genuinely open-ended investigation, and they suit the contractor rather than the client on a large job because every risk sits on the householder.

Provisional sums are the honest middle ground. Foundation depth on unproven ground, the extent of rot behind an old wall, and the condition of drainage under a yard cannot be priced from a drawing. Naming them as provisional sums with a stated rate, say a price per cubic metre of extra excavation, means the number moves in a way you can check. What should never happen is a "fixed price" that quietly assumes the best case and produces a variation invoice the moment the digger stops.

Contracts for domestic work

Anything above about £15,000 deserves a written contract rather than an accepted quote. The JCT Home Owner Contract and the FMB minor works contract are both readable and designed for this scale. What matters is that the contract references the drawings and the schedule of works, states the price and the payment stages, sets a start and completion date, and describes what happens on delay, on variations and on defects.

Consumer law adds protections: work contracted away from the trader's premises carries a 14-day cancellation right, services must be performed with reasonable care and skill, and paying any part of a large deposit by credit card gives section 75 protection on the whole contract value.

Programme and how to read one

A programme is not a promise of perfection, it is a shared expectation. It should show the sequence, the approximate week each stage begins, and the points where a decision is needed from you. Decisions are the most common cause of self-inflicted delay: choosing tiles the week they are needed rather than the month before pushes a job out by days each time.

Weather matters more here than the national average would suggest. Groundwork on clay in a wet January is slow and messy, and roof work in a north-east wind stops. A programme starting in autumn should carry more float than one starting in April.

Variations, the polite word for changes

Changes happen on almost every project, and they are fine when they are priced before they are built. The rule to insist on is simple: no variation gets carried out until it has been described and priced in writing, even if that writing is an email. Verbal instructions on site are how a £50,000 job becomes a £61,000 job that nobody can reconstruct afterwards.

Snagging and handover

Walk the job with a torch, in daylight, before releasing the final payment. Look at door and window operation, sealant lines, tile alignment, socket levels, radiator brackets, paint coverage over filler, and the junctions where new work meets old, which is where poor workmanship shows first. Write the list, agree it, then allow reasonable time for it to be worked through. Holding a retention of 2.5 to 5 per cent for four to eight weeks after handover gives the list genuine weight, and it also catches the shrinkage cracks and drying-out issues that only appear once the heating comes on.

Paperwork to collect at the end

• Building regulations completion certificate.
• Electrical installation certificate and Part P notification.
• Gas Safe certificate for any boiler or gas appliance work.
• Structural engineer's calculations and any building control approved drawings.
• Product warranties for windows, roof coverings, boiler and any flat roof system.
• Party wall award, where one was made.
• Lawful development certificate or planning decision notice.

That bundle is what protects the value of the work when the house is eventually sold. Costs are covered in the Teesside extension cost guide and approvals in the planning and building regulations guide.