M Collins Builders Ltd

Very professional and considerate - very happy with the quality of work and those employed to carry it out. Highly recommendable

Michael and his team were asked to correct poor drainage on our patio and re-lay the patio, patio walls, reinforce garden fencing etc. We live in a ground floor flat so there is nowhere for excess water to go. The work was completed on budget (quote was reasonable). Michael was the only trader who turned up to quote for the whole job, was willing to give us a start date and turned up to complete the job! During that time, his experienced foreman was unable to work due to unforeseen circumstances but this did not unduly affect the completion of the work. While work was under way, Michael called in person to check on progress and was always polite and returned our phone calls. The work done by his team has stood the test of time.

We had an extension done on the back of our house. This was a large job done in winter. Despite the weather we found the whole project far less stressful than I anticipated. The workforce were always cheery to have around. They were prompt, hard working and competent. The work has been done to high standard and there have only been minor tweaks that were always promptly attended to. The after service was so good we used them to refurbish our bathroom last year. We are also very pleased with that too. We were slightly over time and budget, but nothing that I didnt expect.

We found water on our kitchen worktop and realised that water was coming through the wall as the downpipe from the guttering had become disconnected. Luckily for us Michael was working nearby and responded to our call for help with amazing speed and reconnected the pipe. He was so helpful and I have never had such wonderful service.

Where to start? I hired Michael Collins Builders to install a kitchen and my entire interaction has been stressful, slow, expensive and aggressive. They will promise things verbally and go back on their word, provide budgets and timelines to win business that they have no intent on keeping. My job took more than twice as long, cost 50% more than quoted and was left unfinished and in a dangerous state (which I was only informed of many months after it was supposedly finished). Michael presents himself as a reliable, genial local builder, but after he is engaged quickly deteriorated into being stubborn, unhelpful, defensive and at times outright threatening. He presented invoices for thousands of pounds without informing us of the cost of extra work beforehand and then demanded to be paid within 2 days, leaving aggressive messages on phone, text and email. It is a shame because he has some nice, capable people working for him, but his leadership and approach to customer interactions is abysmal. Do not be fooled into hiring this outfit. It will cost way more than you will expect in time, money and hassle. Avoid. p.s. I write this in the full knowledge that I will receive more hostile messages from Michael over the coming days. However, on reflection this site was how I discovered and hired this outfit and only works if people leave honest reviews of their experiences.

Having completed shared freehold between the 4 flats we employed Michael Collins for our first major work. Complete overall of all exterior front and back. Brick, render and woodwork. The work was carried out with complete professionalism even to the point of discovering and repairing a pillar the damage to which had not been apparent at time of tender. All work completed to top standard and on time So impressed were we with them, we in the ground floor flat engaged them to remove our bath, install new walk in shower and decorate. They designed the best option and carried out the work with friendly and impeccable service They will be our go-to company for any further work, either privately or through the shared freehold company.

Mike’s team refurbished our bathroom and they did a fantastic job. They were very clean, tidy and considerate and we enjoyed having them around. The bathroom looks fantastic and it’s exactly what we wanted! Would highly recommend.

We hired M Collins builders for what was meant to be a 4-5 month extension and interior refurb on our 2 bedroom Victorian flat. Now 12 months down the line it is still not finished. Their work has turned our lives upside down and caused inordinate and unnecessary stress. In summary, they took on more than they were capable of. Despite having a minor works JCT contract and clear lines of communication open at all times during the project, M Collins surprised us twice at critical stages of the build by abandoning the site in order to get more money out of us. After this happened for the second time (despite us paying 95% of amount due upon completion with approx 20% to be completed), we discovered that he had not built our retaining garden wall according to the engineering specification (with no foundations) and that the steel beams had not been signed off by the council's building control. With the flat in a precarious situation we decided enough was enough in Dec last year and are still going through a process of formal complaint and resolution using the Ombudsman service because M Collins was not prepared to fix what he had done wrong without us paying more. He appears to be a nice local builder but we experienced no professionalism, no respect for our project management and bullying tactics to extort more money. The project fell behind his schedule of projects so he outsourced work to incompetent traders and moved his foreman to other projects. Please do not use.