The project I had was a complicated two-story extension on the back of my house. I wanted a builder I could trust and so I got three builder referrals from friends.

Smith & Sons provided the lowest quote, but it was also the most detailed. This enabled me to understand the cost details of the all the building elements and to negotiate out some items where I decided to do the work myself or use other contractors who were doing work on other parts of my house.

Darryl was good to work with in the negotiation/ contract sign-up phase with quick responses to any requests for information or clarifications. He was very up front and open in his dealings.

Once the contract was signed Sam, the Project Manager took over and he was constantly in communication with me from Day 1. He works on the basis of “no surprises” so if he could see any potential issues arising, he raised them with me early so they could be sorted out between us and not hold up the works.

Being an extension project a few variations arose as would be expected. Sam was very transparent about the costing details and very fair in his approach.

Also as expected in this type of project we had a couple of disagreements about interpretation of the documents. Sam dealt with these professionally and fairly and we were able to sort them out amicably. We had a good working relationship on site.

During the project most of the Smith & Sons construction team worked on site at some stage. Their trade skills and work ethic were second to none but what impressed me most with every one of them was their attitude to me and my family as “live in clients”. They were all good people who were very respectful of our property, our neighbours, and our annoying dogs.

Knowing I had a keen interest in the job they would keep me posted on what was happening and where decisions were needed on details, they would find me, give me the options, and agree on the way forward.

Where I wasn’t quite happy with something, they would happily fix it the way I wanted.

They worked well with me from a programming point of view to streamline the interface between the other work I commissioned with other trades and their work.

Smith &Sons were great to work with across all levels of their organisation and I would highly recommend them to anyone particularly with a complicated extension project.