is nobody bothered anymore? (trades people / companies)

glenimp617

glenimp617

glenimp617

Soldato
Joined
30 Sep 2005
Posts
16,720
I've been saving up for ages to renovate our house and finding it so difficult to find trades people, and even the bigger companies don't seem bothered.

These last few weeks I've....

Contacted four painters and decorators, they reply saying they will come to quote then go silent
Had two companies out to quote for bathroom and ensuite replacements, not heard anything in over a month
Local window company came to quote for new patio doors, not heard anything back
Contacted two local companies who install aircon, nothing

I'm starting to think it's me :cry:
 
Last edited:
I've found roofers the hardest to sort out. They're bad enough at scheduling their time to quote / turn up to do the job, but then there's also a scaffold to arrange.
 
My dads in the trade, it took him 3 years to finish my kitchen, can I get him to hang me some new doors? Can I balls, He's working 7 days a week, working away and edging on 60yrs old.

Its busy for tradesmen out there at the minute.
 
When I renovated the other year trades people were hard to source, especially roofers. Finding decent ones was even harder, because they're normally booked up. The 'carpenter' to fit the interior doors caused me weeks of work to fix, I had to take all the doors off, trim, drill/refill hinge screws in door linings, and re hang them. The plumber was awful and a bad choice in hindsight, but it was midst of covid and we had no heating and he was the only one who replied at the time.
 
Which is an indicator that seems contrary to the claims in the CoL threads where everyone can only afford to pay their bills! :p

It seems there is still a lot of money out there that people are willing to spend on inflated prices of renovation work and materials.
 
Freakbro said:
Which is an indicator that seems contrary to the claims in the CoL threads where everyone can only afford to pay their bills! :p

It seems there is still a lot of money out there that people are willing to spend on inflated prices of renovation work and materials.
Click to expand...

There's plenty of money around. The one company who did reply, and were great were the local fitted wardrobes company. They have bookings for the next six months. The owner said they've never been so busy.
Fitted wardrobes are very expensive!
 
Last edited:
My in-laws have had a right faff trying to get work done too. Just lots of people (various trades) flaking in one way or another.

Certainly puts me off a doer-upper if we were to move in the next year or so.
 
Chrisc said:
My dads in the trade, it took him 3 years to finish my kitchen, can I get him to hang me some new doors? Can I balls, He's working 7 days a week, working away and edging on 60yrs old.

Its busy for tradesmen out there at the minute.
Click to expand...
I think spending days, if not weeks and months at home, noticing all the things that mildly annoyed becoming 'I ******* hate that kitchen!' and all the work that wasn't done during lock down has created a massive spike in demand that they don't need to chase work, they're pretty much always busy and work is coming to them. Many are booked up for weeks if not a couple of months with rich pickings so they can pick and choose the easier or more lucrative jobs.
 
Last edited:
MissChief said:
I think spending days, if not weeks and months at home, noticing all the things that mildly annoyed becoming 'I ******* hate that kitchen!' and all the work that wasn't done during lock down has created a massive spike in demand that they don't need to chase work, they're pretty much always busy and work is coming to them. Many are booked up for weeks if not a couple of months with rich pickings so they can pick and choose the easier or more lucrative jobs.
Click to expand...

I suspect that plus after COVID it seems that most around the 55-60 age bracket have decided there's more important things to life and retired early. If most of these were sole traders / self-employed then it's not like a replacement is lined up to take over.
 
BowdonUK said:
Sadly this is a result of our lobsided education system that doesn't value manual labour, or considers it second rate.

When in the EU the gaps were filled. But now we're seeing our full broken system in all its glory.

Too few tradies.
Click to expand...

Nail, meet head. About time tradies start getting some respect and recognition.
 
Diddums said:
Nail, meet head. About time tradies start getting some respect and recognition.
Click to expand...
The good ones are like gold dust, trouble is there's a load of crap out there too.

Edit: We've got a cracking plumber. Had an atrocious builder, an awful painter. The last painter did a great job though at a reasonable rate.
 
Last edited:
An even bigger concern is the percentage of them who can do a proper job.

A lot of charlatans in the trades who just throw numbers around and hope they aren't challenged on their standard of work or the price.

Had some idiot try and charge an elderly neighbour £500 to replace a couple of roof tiles, he was up there for a grand total of 15 minutes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom