Ask for the builder's three most recent completed jobs, and speak to all three by phone. The list matters more than the questions — any builder with a decade behind them can produce three delighted clients. Recent and consecutive is what removes the selection. Then ask how the relationship ended, not how it began.
Reference checking is the step most people do badly, because it feels like a formality. You ring someone, they say the builder was great, you tick the box. That conversation is worth almost nothing, and it is a preventable mistake most home owners make due to lack of experience, not lack of understanding.
Most builders get a lot of work from word of mouth recommendations between family, friends, work colleagues etc. The best builders can afford to be transparent about their past projects, bad builders cannot.
Getting the right list
Ask specifically for the three most recent completed projects, in order, with contact details. Not "a few references." The wording matters, because the two requests produce completely different lists.
Consecutive and recent removes the choosing. It also tells you about the builder now rather than the builder five years and two site supervisors ago.
Call rather than email. Written answers get drafted; spoken answers get thought aloud. The hesitations, the sentence that starts and restarts, the thing they add after a pause — that is the most valuable information, and none of it survives email.
If the request is resisted, ask why before drawing conclusions. There are legitimate answers. A recent client may have asked for privacy, or a job may have ended in a dispute the builder cannot discuss. A builder who says so directly is telling you something useful and telling you honestly. What is less informative is a list of older jobs offered in place of recent ones without explanation.
Ask whether you can visit one. Work seen at two or three years is a different document from work seen at handover. Finishes have moved, junctions have opened or held, and the owner has lived with the decisions long enough to have opinions about them.
First, establish whether the job was anything like yours
A glowing reference for a job unlike yours tells you less than it appears to. Before the relationship questions, get the shape of the project.
- What type of work was it — new build, renovation, extension? These are genuinely different disciplines, and being excellent at one does not translate perfectly to another.
- What level of finish? A builder who runs or basic fixtures may not be set up for stone, bespoke joinery or imported tapware, where lead times, tolerances and quality trade selection changes everything.
- What were the site conditions? Sloping, heritage-listed, reactive soil, tight access, occupied during works.
- Roughly what scale, and what contract type?
- Who else was involved? Architect-led and builder-led jobs run differently, and a builder strong in one arrangement is not automatically strong in the other.
Then ask yourself the honest question: is this job like mine? If it is not, keep the reference — but weight it accordingly, and ask the builder for one that is.
Ask how the relationship developed — and how it ended
This is the most useful line of questioning available to you, and the ending is the part that carries the most information.
Treat it as three separate questions rather than one.
At the start: how did the pre-construction period go? Were they responsive before they had a signature? Was the contract explained, or handed over? Did the price hold from quote to contract?
Through the build: how did the working relationship feel by the middle of the job — easier than at the start, or harder? Did trust build or erode? Was there a point where the tone changed, and what caused it?
At the end: how did handover go? Was practical completion straightforward or contested? Was the final payment released without friction? Did they come back during the defects period, and how long did it take? And would you be comfortable ringing them today?
That last one is the whole exercise compressed into a sentence. A client who would happily ring their builder two years later is telling you something no adjective conveys. For what handover should involve, see what practical completion means.
Ask how they communicated, week to week
Communication is the thing clients rate most and contracts specify least. It is also the most reliable early indicator of how a job will feel to live through, because a builder's communication habits are visible long before their workmanship is.
Who was the point of contact, and did it stay the same? Whether the person who won the job also ran it is one of the most common sources of quiet dissatisfaction. Ask whether the handover between the person who quoted, the contract administrator and the site supervisor was managed — or simply happened.
Was there a rhythm, or was it ad hoc? A weekly site meeting, a Friday update, a standing call — any regular cadence beats an excellent response rate with no pattern, because it means the client never has to decide whether it is reasonable to ask.
How long did answers take, and did you have to chase? The chasing is the part to probe. Ask how it felt to follow something up, because the answer tells you whether questions were treated as reasonable or as an imposition.
Was anything confirmed in writing? Decisions made on site and never recorded are the source of most later disagreement about what was agreed. Ask whether site conversations turned into emails, and who wrote them.
How much notice did you get on decisions? A builder who says the tile selection is needed by the end of the month is running a program. One who asks on the morning it is needed has run out of one. See long lead time items in a renovation for why that notice matters.
How was bad news delivered? This is the question that separates. Did the client hear about a delay, a supply problem or a discovered condition from the builder — or did they arrive on site and find out? A builder who volunteers a problem early trades short-term comfort for long-term trust, and it is the single most useful communication behaviour there is. See why renovations run late.
Did communication change after the contract was signed? Ask this one directly. Responsiveness before signature is a sales function; responsiveness after it is an operational one. They are not always the same team, and not always the same standard.
And after the final payment? The defects period is where communication most often thins out, and it is the stage a reference is best placed to describe honestly because they have already been through it.
Ask how problems were handled
Every job has problems. A reference who reports none either had an unusually contained project or is not telling you much.
So do not ask whether anything went wrong. Ask what went wrong, and what happened next.
- Who raised it — you or them? A builder who flags their own issues before you notice is a different proposition from one who waits.
- How quickly was it acknowledged?
- Was the resolution put in writing?
- Who absorbed the cost, and was that explained before the work or after?
- Did the same thing happen twice? A problem handled well is normal. A pattern is the thing you are actually listening for.
- After handover, did they return for defects — and how long did it take?
The money and program questions
- Did the final figure differ from the contract sum, and what drove the difference? You are listening for the reason, not the number. Variations you requested, site conditions nobody could have known, and allowances that were always going to be adjusted are three very different answers.
- How were variations priced and communicated — before the work or after?
- Were provisional sums and prime cost items explained up front? See what is a provisional sum.
- Did progress claims match the stage actually reached on site? See progress payments explained.
- Did the job finish close to program? Slipping is common; not being told is the part that damages a relationship.
The questions that produce the most honest answers
Some questions get better material than others, mostly because they give the person permission to be candid.
- "Would you use them again for the same job?" Note the gap between they were good and yes.
- "What would you do differently?" Invites reflection rather than criticism, and people answer it freely.
- "Who was actually on site day to day?"
- "What surprised you?"
- "Is there anything you wish you'd known before you started?"
Then stop talking. The pause after a question is where the useful material arrives, and most people fill their own silence.
What a reference call cannot tell you
It is a sample the builder selected, and it tells you nothing about licensing, insurance or financial position. Check those independently.
It also cannot tell you how they will handle a job unlike the ones they showed you. That is the gap to close by asking for a comparable project specifically.
Common questions
How many should I call?
Three, all recent, all of them. One call is an anecdote.
What if the builder won't give me recent references?
Ask why. There are reasonable answers, and a direct explanation is itself informative. An unexplained substitution of older work is worth noting.
Should I call or email?
Call. Email answers are composed; spoken ones are not.
Can I ask about cost?
Ask about the relationship between the contract sum and the final figure and what drove it, rather than the dollar amount. You will get a fuller answer, and it is the more useful information anyway.
What if the reference turns out to know the builder personally?
Ask how they know each other, early and directly. It is not disqualifying — plenty of good builders work for people they know — but it changes how much weight the conversation carries.
Where to go next
A few 15 minute reference calls done well can save you months of pure heart break and headache. Avoid the wrong builders and build with the best!
Read next: what is a provisional sum, or Getting Quotes & Hiring Trades for the wider picture.
August 15, 2026