HOUSES AND GARDENS 



In the selection of a builder to carry out the work, the competitive system 

 of tendering is not always the most satisfactory. It is better to make local 

 inquiries and to try and find a man who has the reputation for being straight- 

 forward in his dealings, and give him the work on condition that his price 

 is considered reasonable by the architect. The architect is thus spared the 

 necessity of playing the distasteful part of the amateur detective, and the 

 work is carried out with the minimum amount of friction. It seems, indeed, 

 little short of disgraceful that in the ancient and honourable craft of building 

 there are so many men who demand the services of a constant spy in the form 

 of a clerk of the works to insure proper work being done. Apart from 

 ethical considerations, this degrading and vulpine attitude is the worst sort of 

 business policy, and the architect who has the misfortune to engage this type 

 of builder does not continue to employ or recommend him. But the competitive 

 system of tendering, assuming that all builders belong to the criminal class and 

 need constant police supervision, gives the work to the lowest bidder without 

 considering his reputation or inquiring as to his character. It is this competitive 

 system which is to a great extent the cause of the degradation of the modern 

 builder. Under the pressure of necessity he may be tempted to offer to do 

 the work for a price which compels him to attempt to scamp it, and his dis- 

 honesty in this respect is a retaliatory measure. I do not say that competition 

 between builders of reputation is necessarily bad, but in competitions between 

 builders whose characters are not inquired into it will generally be the most 

 unscrupulous the one who counts on making up deficiencies by undetected 

 scamping who offers the lowest bid, and the whole process thus often results in 

 the survival of the unfittest. To inquire into character after the competition 

 has taken place is useless. The rules of the game demand that the work should 

 be given to the lowest bidder, and the fact that a man has been invited to 

 compete implies that he has been considered eligible. 



Although an architect may be able to obtain from an unscrupulous builder 

 a minimum standard of excellence in the work, not only is this achieved with 

 much unnecessary friction, but in the absence of any pride in his work on the 

 builder's part, it is impossible to obtain a really satisfactory result, for the best 

 kind, of work cannot be obtained under compulsion, and so the final result is 

 never quite satisfactory. 



Having succeeded in obtaining a reasonable price for the work from a 

 reliable builder, it may next be considered how the man who has not a large 

 sum to invest may set about the important matter of paying for the house. 

 Assuming that the cost of the house is ,1000, it will not be a difficult matter 

 to obtain a mortgage on the building as it approaches completion for three- 

 quarters of its value, so that the actual sum of money required will be, say, 

 300. Assuming that the interest payable on such a mortgage is 4 per 

 cent., the house may thus be equivalent to one for which a rental of 40 a 

 year is paid. It might be considered necessary to allow a certain sum out of 

 this for repairs, but in a house simply and solidly built this will be a much 

 smaller sum than is usually allowed for old houses. The possibility of 

 either selling or letting such a house eventually, should occasion demand, 

 M 89 



