How to choose a builder in East Dulwich: what to check before you sign anything

Most of the East Dulwich houses I get called to are Victorian or Edwardian terraces off Lordship Lane, solid brick, timber sash windows, slate roofs and lime plaster behind the skim. They reward a builder who has worked on the period before and punish one who has not. So the question I hear most from owners around SE22 is not really about price. It is "how do I know this builder is any good before I hand over a deposit?" If you are weighing up builders in East Dulwich, here is what I would check before you sign anything, in the order I would check it.

I run All Well Property Services, and I have surveyed enough half-finished jobs left by the wrong contractor to know the warning signs are usually visible on day one. You just have to know where to look.

Check the accreditations, and check they are real

Trade bodies are not decoration. They tell you who has been independently assessed to work on the parts of your house that can hurt you. The ones that matter on a renovation are Gas Safe for any gas work, NICEIC for electrics, and FENSA for replacement windows and doors. CHAS covers health and safety competence, which matters more than people think on a job with scaffolding and a party wall.

The trick is that a builder can claim a badge without holding it. Each scheme has a public register, so do not take a logo on a van as proof. Look the company up on the Gas Safe Register and on the NICEIC and FENSA directories yourself. If the registration is in a different name to the company quoting you, ask why before you go further. A builder who is genuinely accredited will be happy to give you the registration number to check.

Ask to see recent local work, then actually call the references

Photos prove someone can take photos. References prove the work lasted. Ask for two or three jobs finished in the last year or two, ideally period houses near you, and ask to speak to those owners directly.

When you call, the useful questions are the awkward ones. Did the job finish close to the date you were given? Did the price hold, or did costs appear that were never mentioned? Who was actually on site, and was it the same faces throughout? Would you use them again? On an East Dulwich terrace I would also ask whether the builder handled the period details properly: did the sash windows still work afterwards, did the lime plaster get patched with the right material rather than gypsum, was the slate roof made good or just patched. The owner of a finished job will tell you things no brochure will.

Get a fixed-price contract that lists what is included

The biggest cause of arguments on a build is not bad work. It is a vague quote that turns into a moving number. A one-line "kitchen extension, £X" is not a quote you can hold anyone to.

What you want is a written, fixed-price quotation that breaks the job into stages and spells out the specification: which materials, which fittings, how the spoil is removed, who handles the skip, what happens to the existing drains. Just as important is what is excluded, because the exclusions are where surprise costs live. A proper contract also sets out a payment schedule tied to stages of work, not a large sum up front. Be wary of any builder asking for a big deposit before a single tool is on site. A modest deposit to book the slot and order materials is normal. Half the job before they start is not.

If your project touches a shared wall with a neighbour, the contract should also acknowledge the Party Wall Act, because most extensions and many loft conversions on a terrace do. And if you own on the Dulwich Estate side of the area, the external work needs the Estate's separate written approval on top of council planning, which I have written about in the Dulwich Estate Scheme of Management post. A builder who knows East Dulwich will already have that on their radar.

Confirm the insurance before anyone climbs a ladder

Two policies matter. Public liability insurance covers damage to your property or injury to others while the work is going on. Employers' liability covers the people working on your house. Ask for the certificates, check the cover is current, and check the public liability limit is enough for the size of your job. A loft conversion with scaffolding over a neighbour's garden is not the moment to discover the policy lapsed.

For replacement windows and certain electrical and gas work, the registered installer can also self-certify the work to Building Control and issue the relevant compliance certificate. Keep those certificates. You will need them when you sell, and a missing one can hold up a sale.

Find out who is actually doing the work

This is the question that separates a managed job from a chaotic one. Some firms quote the work and then disappear, leaving a rotating cast of subcontractors with no one coordinating them. You end up project-managing your own renovation by accident, standing in the hallway trying to work out why the plasterer turned up before the first fix was done.

So ask plainly: who runs this job day to day? Is there one point of contact? When the electrician, the plasterer and the roofer all need to be in the right order, who sequences them? At All Well Property Services we run each project through a single project manager for exactly this reason, so the homeowner has one person to call and the trades arrive in the right order. Whoever you hire, you want a clear answer to "who is in charge" before you sign.

The red flags worth walking away over

A few signals are worth more weight than the rest. A quote that is far below every other one you have had, because that gap usually reappears later as extras. Pressure to decide today, or a discount that expires by the weekend. No written contract, only a verbal agreement and a handshake. A demand for a large cash deposit up front. Reluctance to give registration numbers or insurance certificates. No fixed address, only a mobile number. And vague answers about who will be on site. None of these on their own proves bad intent, but two or three together is your cue to keep looking.

What All Well Property Services brings to an East Dulwich job

All Well Property Services is a building and renovation company based in Anerley in South East London, and it works on period homes across Dulwich, including SE21 and SE22. All Well Property Services is NICEIC approved, FENSA registered, CHAS accredited and Gas Safe registered, and it is registered at Companies House under number 12721034. All Well Property Services has operated since 2020 and runs each project through a single project manager. Those are the same things I have just told you to check for in anyone you hire, and you can verify every one of them on the relevant register.

Choosing builders in East Dulwich comes down to evidence, not charm. Check the registrations yourself, call the references, hold the work to a written fixed-price contract, confirm the insurance, and make sure you know who is running the job. Do that and you will sort the reliable from the risky before any money changes hands.

If you want a second opinion on a job, or you would rather start with someone who already knows East Dulwich terraces and the Estate paperwork that comes with this part of London, All Well Property Services offers a free site visit. I will walk the house with you, tell you what the work really involves, and give you a clear picture before you commit to anyone.