How to find better contractors

I've met 11 contractors in the last nine days.  It's hard to comment on each of them.  And my comments will be hugely bias anyway.  However, it is worth talking about the best way to find contractors - in my opinion anyway.

So far, contractors came to me three different ways. I found one of them at RatedPeople.  About half of them were found in FMB website, and another half by referral.

People I found from RatePeople gave me the worst impression.  Maybe I wasn't lucky enough.  The guy seems to be working alone.  To be fair, most of them work alone.  But usually the builder would have enough knowledge to make the quote on behalf of electrician and plumber.  But this person has to get the electrician and plumber in for a separate visit to provide a quote.  This is a a problem itself.  The problem is that he exaggerates the complicity of the work too much for me to believe.  Do you need to dig a over one-meter foundation to SEAL a door?  Come on.

FMB registered people are ok.  I consider them as normal builders.  By saying "normal" I mean they are by and large honest.  Of cause they also say some silly things trying to maximise their profit - like any businessmen.  But so far, none of them have gone far off the tracks.

Who gave me the best impression are the contractors recommended by my solicitor.  My solicitor belongs to a business network.  People in his network seem to be decent people.  I especially like Tony from Daton Electrical.  He listens to what I say and gives me practical suggestions.  He also knows his stuff (although he humbly said he's been sitting in office for a few years and needs to be updated).  As long as his quote is in the ball park, I think I will go with him.

However, recommended people are not always good.  The person recommended by my surveyor told me I need to spend 10% to 20% of the house price to bring the house to date.  That is ridiculous.

Overall, I found talking to these people helps a lot.  They often give me some ideas that I didn't think about.  And indeed, many of them are very helpful.  Mark Walden who is recommended by a building regulation officer even told me how to do things to same my cost.  After talking to him, we bought a steamer for £28 which in about three days will save us £1,000 wall-paper stripping job by doing it ourselves.