Am I expecting too much from the carpenter I hired?
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Soldato
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Is that because of the lack of practical lessons (eg woodwork) in schools, the lack of general DIY amongst parents (my dad and uncle taught me stuff as a kid), and the lack of trade apprenticeships?
Or maybe it was just always bad.
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In the States etc it's seen as a proper career and people take pride in what they do.
Here you can do some basic quals (if that) and suddenly you're up and running doing the bare minimum, charging crazy rates because people don't have the skills or time to do it.
I think apprenticeships are easier to get these days but they certainly weren't easy to get 20 years ago.
Yup, what can be hidden can be bodged to save time. Chances are most people won't complain or if they do you just ignore them. It will be hard to win a claims case etc.
It really is the wild west and a license to print money. I'm considering going into it myself although I don't want to deal with the general public...
Higher barriers to entry and more inspections post work would help but would also add costs to already expensive rates. "Inflation innit"
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Theres just no real qualifications required to do so many of the trades and sorry to generalise but because of the lack of any pathways into the trades its has a tendency to attract the people who never bothered at school and take that same attitude into the work place. There are plenty of excellent ones but they are massively outweighed by the **** ones.
My partners brother is a prime example.
He has been a roofer (the scummiest of the trades), a builder, a tree surgeon (at least they train you to do this it seems) and now he is just a generalist and does a bit of everything. He replaced the bathroom in my partners rental house and we had to rip it out and pay someone else to do it properly. It was genuinely appalling and he is supposed to be a professional. Its the wild west out there and all the "check a trade" websites are part of the problem, giving credibility to the absolute worst tradesman.
My partners brother is a prime example.
He has been a roofer (the scummiest of the trades), a builder, a tree surgeon (at least they train you to do this it seems) and now he is just a generalist and does a bit of everything. He replaced the bathroom in my partners rental house and we had to rip it out and pay someone else to do it properly. It was genuinely appalling and he is supposed to be a professional. Its the wild west out there and all the "check a trade" websites are part of the problem, giving credibility to the absolute worst tradesman.
Yep London prices and London standards unfortunately. The materials are good. I got them from a company in Sheffield. I applied some treatex ultra oil. Great product, really easy to apply and has a great finish.London prices?
what was the handrail and spindles like?
Just to finish off. Our tradesmen kept on asking for a review. I didn’t want to leave a negative one for a few reasons but I did tell him this:
“I just sent the payment.
I'm disappointed with the whole experience. The first tradesmen quoted £600 for 2 days work. You quoted £800 +60 for 3 days. My wife and I arrange our schedule for Thursday,Friday and Saturday for you to work.
One the first day just before I leave for work at 2pm you tell me you want cash and you want to stay until 5:30-6pm so you can finish the job. Then you leave at around 4:30pm
I paid £800 for just over 6 and a half hours work and I believe the job I got was rushed and you did the minimum required. We rushed around getting £400 cash as you asked later that day.
I expected the hand rail and base rail to be flush at the joints and walls to be scribed for the boxing in. It looks to me that you did scribe the boxing in for the ceiling but not the wall. I believe we paid a premium price. “
If you are wondering why I didn’t go for the £600 tradesmen, he was unreliable.
“I just sent the payment.
I'm disappointed with the whole experience. The first tradesmen quoted £600 for 2 days work. You quoted £800 +60 for 3 days. My wife and I arrange our schedule for Thursday,Friday and Saturday for you to work.
One the first day just before I leave for work at 2pm you tell me you want cash and you want to stay until 5:30-6pm so you can finish the job. Then you leave at around 4:30pm
I paid £800 for just over 6 and a half hours work and I believe the job I got was rushed and you did the minimum required. We rushed around getting £400 cash as you asked later that day.
I expected the hand rail and base rail to be flush at the joints and walls to be scribed for the boxing in. It looks to me that you did scribe the boxing in for the ceiling but not the wall. I believe we paid a premium price. “
If you are wondering why I didn’t go for the £600 tradesmen, he was unreliable.
Yep, he told me the walls were all over place so to speak. He also said again about applying caulk. Lol.
Personally I would very much be giving him the review he so desperately wanted. No doubt on a crappy review site that allows them to pay to get negative ones taken down.
Seems straight out of the dodgy trademans handbook. "Quote for 3 days work, do it in 3/4 of a day and do a **** job then you get paid 3x as much".
This is exactly what the roofers did who came over to fix a leak in our roof. "£1000, will take 3 of my guys about half a day to replace those tiles, mortar and flashing". One guy turns up who looks about 65 and like hes had a hard life. Hes there for about 3 hours, half of which he spends on my doorstep because its raining and then buggers off. When I inspected it (which I assume they didn't think I could/would do) I found that they had literally just stuck a bunch of black mastic like stuff in the cracked tile. Thats it.
After enough back and forth I eventually threatened to report them to trading standards and got my money back. I assume because they didn't want anyone looking into all their work and the sheer number of people they were ripping off. Theres always the slight fear if you fight back that they will come and damage your property in retaliation so I do understand the reticence to call them out publicly.
Seems straight out of the dodgy trademans handbook. "Quote for 3 days work, do it in 3/4 of a day and do a **** job then you get paid 3x as much".
This is exactly what the roofers did who came over to fix a leak in our roof. "£1000, will take 3 of my guys about half a day to replace those tiles, mortar and flashing". One guy turns up who looks about 65 and like hes had a hard life. Hes there for about 3 hours, half of which he spends on my doorstep because its raining and then buggers off. When I inspected it (which I assume they didn't think I could/would do) I found that they had literally just stuck a bunch of black mastic like stuff in the cracked tile. Thats it.
After enough back and forth I eventually threatened to report them to trading standards and got my money back. I assume because they didn't want anyone looking into all their work and the sheer number of people they were ripping off. Theres always the slight fear if you fight back that they will come and damage your property in retaliation so I do understand the reticence to call them out publicly.
Imagine if you paid an accountant and he said "well, there were lots of numbers and some of them were very big so thats why your accounts are completely ****".
We're looking to buy a house at the moment and the quality of trades in the UK makes me very unlikely to take on any sort of project house because I know the chance of hiring awful trades is so high. Unless you already know good ones its a complete crapshoot.
Soldato
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yeah friend is doing some kind of extension builder ran off with £10,000, did a couple of days work then left it in a complete mess.
That’s even worse. When I read this I first thought I would’ve used my credit card for a bit of this but then it occurred to me they wouldn’t accept a cc and I would still be screwed.
Soldato
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Thanks for the input. I’m trying to add pics from google photos
That's a fitter making a mess. I mean, I wouldn't call that a carpenter.
Having said that, it's perfectly salvageable. If you get some polyfilla powder, mix it up with a squirt of woodglue, you can go around filling. The more woodglue you add the stickier it is and the faster and harder it sets, so don't overdo it. Have a damp dish sponge ready to wipe of the excess and don't expect to get it done in one. You can use your fingers to fill. Get a sanding pad to finish off and ready for paint.
Erm, yeah, that is way too expensive. I could custom make a solid hardwood one for less than that.
As others have said, this is shocking to hear/see OP.
It is such a shame that 90% of people are like this these days.
We all have a hobby that we love to take pride in, and as aforementioned, tradies used to share the same passion, hence taking it up as a profession! It is sad to know this passion no longer exists these days, and it's just about either ripping someone off and or doing a terrible job!
There is a local firm around here, that is renown for taking advantage of people, for many, many years - none of them are qualified, all are signing on the dole and still working cash in hand (people have seen them in the job centre signing on to claim JSA/UC); all they do is change the logo and phone number on the van!
The worst part is, they use an old man as to represent the business and answer the calls, who sounds really genuine with years of experience and legitmate, but it's his business and he knows exactly what is going on!
It is such a shame that 90% of people are like this these days.
We all have a hobby that we love to take pride in, and as aforementioned, tradies used to share the same passion, hence taking it up as a profession! It is sad to know this passion no longer exists these days, and it's just about either ripping someone off and or doing a terrible job!
There is a local firm around here, that is renown for taking advantage of people, for many, many years - none of them are qualified, all are signing on the dole and still working cash in hand (people have seen them in the job centre signing on to claim JSA/UC); all they do is change the logo and phone number on the van!
The worst part is, they use an old man as to represent the business and answer the calls, who sounds really genuine with years of experience and legitmate, but it's his business and he knows exactly what is going on!
It was half cash and half bank transfer. He asked for all cash in the day. No invoice.