is nobody bothered anymore? (trades people / companies)

My guess would be that due to the nature of "trades" it's far better for them to be employed as contractors for big house builders.
dLockers said:
Even 6 figures isn't enough unless you're mortgage free! All of the mega builds around here are houses that were bought in 2007 era which is interesting. Kind of like as the world burns they are now living the dream having been the most burnt previously :cry:
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At that time interestingly house starts were at an all time low so those big house builder contracts didn't exist, plus nobody wanted to move which might explain the timing.

I know nothing about builders btw :D
 
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A friend of the family just does garden fences and he's booked out for 6 months. He's working 6 days a week and is in his 50's now and it's taking a toll on his health.
 
Trying to get someone to fix/redo the rendering oln the house we are in over the last 2 years. Had 4 no shows for quotes, 6 quoted but never got back. Still falling off. Quite tempted to take it all off myself and leave it bare brick. In this day and age, its probably cheaper and quicker to en-roll onto a course for plastering, plumbing, electrician etc and do renovations yourself.
 
I'm in my early 40s, and at the time, the message in school was pretty much that trades were for people who couldn't understand the sign up form for the Army.

I think the education system really got things wrong with its messaging in the 90s. I went to school with a large number of academically competent people who were basically sold the line that you need a degree or you're going to live a life on the dole.
 
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Lopéz said:
I'm on my early 40s, and at the time, the message in school was pretty much that trades were for people who couldn't understand the sign up form for the Army.

I think the education system really got things wrong with its messaging in the 90s. I went to school with a large number of academically competent people who were basically sold the line that you need a degree or you're going to live a life on the dole.
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Yep, I was a child of the 90s and sold the same misinformation / lies that appears to have been an attempt to improve the UKs ratings in education / unemployment figures.

My peers who were more "academically challenged" are no more or less successful than my peers who went to University.
 
ci_newman said:
Yep, I was a child of the 90s and sold the same misinformation / lies that appears to have been an attempt to improve the UKs ratings in education / unemployment figures.

My peers who were more "academically challenged" are no more or less successful than my peers who went to University.
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Same. I had a mate at school who went on to become a professor. Hes earning around 60k, nice big house, married with a couple of kids. At one point I was a little jealous of him, then I realised, I was happy earning 25-30k doing bugger all on the fish and meat counter at Morrisons for 45-50 hours a week. In our class at school there were a few who were, as you say, Academically challenged, one is a 'refuse collector' who is on good money, another has his own building company, another is a musical composer/sound engineer for major movies and one more is a wedding videographer for the mega rich/very well off, earning major money.
 
Lopéz said:
I'm in my early 40s, and at the time, the message in school was pretty much that trades were for people who couldn't understand the sign up form for the Army.

I think the education system really got things wrong with its messaging in the 90s. I went to school with a large number of academically competent people who were basically sold the line that you need a degree or you're going to live a life on the dole.
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I went through secondary school (the old local Grammar School) in the late 1970s-early 1980s and the message I got was rather different.

Top 10% will go to Uni - future doctors, scientists, engineers etc.

Rest of upper band - engineering / technical apprenticeships : build and maintain what the Top 10% think up.

Lower band - trade apprenticeships : construct and maintain the buildings needed for all the above plus housing and commercial premises.

No-one was thought as cannon fodder or that people would chose to be state clients.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
I went through secondary school (the old local Grammar School) in the late 1970s-early 1980s and the message I got was rather different.

Top 10% will go to Uni - future doctors, scientists, engineers etc.

Rest of upper band - engineering / technical apprenticeships : build and maintain what the Top 10% think up.

Lower band - trade apprenticeships : construct and maintain the buildings needed for all the above plus housing and commercial premises.

No-one was thought as cannon fodder or that people would chose to be state clients.
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That definitely changed in the 90s. My entire cohort in secondary school were told "which degree will you be studying". No other options were presented
 
It took four months to get our fence replaced

Had six companies around for a quote

Three declined on the spot

One quoted within the week

One quoted after three months

One never quoted

It was close to £9k worth of business ...
 
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A plumber in his 30s who is a friend of a friend has 3 x £50,000 cars and a massive house all bought from his income.
 
mrgubby said:
It took four months to get our fence replaced

Had six companies around for a quote

Three declined on the spot

One quoted within the week

One quoted after three months

One never quoted

It was close to £9k worth of business ...
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It took us exactly 12 months to get a new fence. £8k Not many people took the job on. It was literally a square garden, old fence out, new one in.
 
Droolinggimp said:
Trying to get someone to fix/redo the rendering oln the house we are in over the last 2 years. Had 4 no shows for quotes, 6 quoted but never got back. Still falling off. Quite tempted to take it all off myself and leave it bare brick. In this day and age, its probably cheaper and quicker to en-roll onto a course for plastering, plumbing, electrician etc and do renovations yourself.
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The front of our house is rendered, and after 15yrs is starting to look a bit worse for wear. Can't get anybody to freshen it up. Literally nobody, I've even thrown money at them but nope. If I knew it was brick underneath I'd take it off, but I think it's breeze block.
 
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Pretty normal, trades people are usually really busy. I find if i use the contacts i have from work do my personal stuff as well is a huge bonus, having them do work related contracts then go by my property to do other things makes life so much easier rather than having to chase my own tail.
 
My experience is if they respond quickly they probably suck. Had a plumber (friend of the family) fix a dead water pump but since his repair our hot water water pressure constantly dropped every few days. We repeatedly tried to get him to call back but always got excuses. So I rang a few plumbers and one finally agreed to call and check it out. He charged £310 for parts and labour to fix our problem but his fix didn’t actually have any effect. Needless to say he failed to respond to phone calls.

After almost a year later we were getting a new kitchen from a fairly exclusive Kitchen fitter who to be fair was excellent. The very experienced and old plumber who was part of the team said to us that the water pump on our boiler was fitted upside down. He turned it round the right way and water pressures dropping every 3 days was gone.

I got that plumbers number as he was training his son in the business.
 
TheOracle said:
It took us exactly 12 months to get a new fence. £8k Not many people took the job on. It was literally a square garden, old fence out, new one in.
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Did the posts have to be replaced? I'm guessing so at the cost. Dropping in new panels counts as a job worth doing 'cos it's quick, so that gets done. But new posts becomes a two or more day job, so no-one wants it. I got panels replaced last year and it took two weeks from posting on Check a Trade.
 
Meridian said:
Did the posts have to be replaced? I'm guessing so at the cost. Dropping in new panels counts as a job worth doing 'cos it's quick, so that gets done. But new posts becomes a two or more day job, so no-one wants it. I got panels replaced last year and it took two weeks from posting on Check a Trade.
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Yeah, the old fence had wooden posts which were rotten.
 
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