What would you have done please?

[Hicky]

The tradesmen I know do a mix of both large jobs and fill jobs for in between them.
I have sympathy for them on the whole as the general public are very wishy washy. A close friend can price up at his time and expense 10 jobs to get one. He rarely has to as word of mouth will do.
That said, the running of a number of books(one for the tax man and one for the real world) led me to have little sympathy when covid struck and the gov supported them according to their books !

 

[Gillstay]

Thie is true. My nephew owns his own landscaping/fencing firm. If you have 4 or 5 fence panels blown down he ain't interested. If you want to drop 40 grand on a full makeover then he's your man. He did my composite decking at cost, and that still bent me over for 7 grand which just shows why they aren't interested in the itty bitty stuff.

Too many people working in call centres or warehouses, less and less people wanting to do stuff or make things. It's just the way the world is turning I guess.

Nope its mainly that there is no collages teaching trades anymore or if they are its at a very low level. When Mr Blair started to take the money away from the training it very quickly dropped. Even painters and decorators courses for which training is cheap were dropped at Guildford. Yet there must have been loads of work around such a rich area.

 

[Drago]

I was deliberately avoiding the "why" to prevent any trespass into the forbidden realm of politickiness.

 

[Gillstay]

I was just trying to point how long the decay has been going on. Asked at a college recently if the money that was going to be put into them two years ago had turned up, but it seems not. So we shall not be getting a change anytime soon.
I feel very embarrassed at some of the work my fellow workers do, but cannot give them advice on where to go to get trained. Germany ?

 

[oldwheels]

My experience has not been too bad apart from an electrician who never turned up for a minor job in my house.
We inherited a flat in Aberdeen in a poor state of repair which included roof work which needed other owners to pay a share. This was a problem and they had to be badgered quite a bit to pay up.
A firm of architects was recommended to us and since we lived 200 miles away left him to get on with organising the work which I paid for. A lot of different trades were involved but we were kept up to date with ongoing work and photographs where appropriate.
My son went to check a few times and all was going as agreed. The end result came in on budget and on time.

 

[Slick]

Nope its mainly that there is no collages teaching trades anymore or if they are its at a very low level. When Mr Blair started to take the money away from the training it very quickly dropped. Even painters and decorators courses for which training is cheap were dropped at Guildford. Yet there must have been loads of work around such a rich area.

Yet apprenticeships are currently at an all time high.

There has been a number of funding issues, especially in England and Wales, but numbers remain very high.

 

[Drago]

My SiL has just taken on an apprentice.

 

[biggs682]

My SiL has just taken on an apprentice

Are you saying your sil has got a toy boy

 

[Drago]

SiL is a semi pro rugbyist (he was full time playing for Wasps until they went into administration.) I'm not sure if he took an apprentice out of a sense of civic duty, or else to do all the work on a Monday while he is stiff with injuries.

 

[richardfm]

SiL is a semi pro rugbyist (he was full time playing for Wasps until they went into administration.) I'm not sure if he took an apprentice out of a sense of civic duty, or else to do all the work on a Monday while he is stiff with injuries.

I thought SiL was sister-in-law when I read your first post, now I think you might mean son-in-law, unless Wasps had a full time women's team

 

[Drago]

Deffo a son in law.

 

[Slick]

My experience has not been too bad apart from an electrician who never turned up for a minor job in my house.
We inherited a flat in Aberdeen in a poor state of repair which included roof work which needed other owners to pay a share. This was a problem and they had to be badgered quite a bit to pay up.
A firm of architects was recommended to us and since we lived 200 miles away left him to get on with organising the work which I paid for. A lot of different trades were involved but we were kept up to date with ongoing work and photographs where appropriate.
My son went to check a few times and all was going as agreed. The end result came in on budget and on time.

Probably because an architect was involved, who would only go to previously used and trusted traders, which works perfectly for jobs that justify the use of an architect or other responsible overseer. Its when the inexperienced and unwary decide to project manage their own project, that problems can begin.

 

[biggs682]

I thought SiL was sister-in-law when I read your first post, now I think you might mean son-in-law, unless Wasps had a full time women's team

Same here

 

[icowden]

A close friend can price up at his time and expense 10 jobs to get one. He rarely has to as word of mouth will do.

That sort of illustrates the problem. Anyone getting building work done has to get multiple quotes and then decide which is the actual reasonable price, which is a firm trying to shaft the customer and which is a cowboy offering a cheap quote.

As an illustration, I had a cracked double glazing pane.
First company I contacted couldn't be bothered to call me back.
Second quoted £260
Third quoted £330.

£70 difference is quite large. I looked up the likely cost of the actual pane - £180ish. Thus £260 for it to be made and fitted didn't seem unreasonable. £150 for 20 minutes work on the other hand is staring to extract the urine.

Unfortunately because anyone can set themselves up as a builder / tradesman / decorator etc it makes it hard for the people who have built up a good business with skilled workers. Even sites like CheckATrade don't really check the trades that advertise with them. They just take the cash.

 

[CXRAndy]

Small jobs, if not an emergency I would say DIY. Trades are just so busy they generally quote high