is nobody bothered anymore? (trades people / companies)

Jono8 said:
It is because trades people did used to get paid poorly.

My mum's dad was an accomplished welder but they still lived on a council estate and were fairly poor as he didn't earn much.

Nowadays he'd probably be very wealthy.
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Years and years ago, in your grandads case, 40-60 years ago probably, welders were ten a penny due to all the manufacturing still being done in the UK and lack of automation and robotic welders. Not so much now but yes, good welders can earn a lot these days.
 
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Jono8 said:
It is because trades people did used to get paid poorly.

My mum's dad was an accomplished welder but they still lived on a council estate and were fairly poor as he didn't earn much.

Nowadays he'd probably be very wealthy.
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I think comparing circumstances over time is really difficult. Home ownership (and council housing) was very different in the old days.

As someone else has pointed out, skills availability distribution has also changed greatly over time. If I can be bothered I will look that up later- I vaguely remember ONS publush something on this*.


*as a few years ago, I looked at the death of smithing and other "old" trades, for fun.
 
Jono8 said:
I am very much not bothered any more.

As mentioned before by others, i do basically everything myself within reason. None of it is that difficult if you are able bodied, and the prices some tradesmen want for simple/basic things are genuinely hilarious.
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i hear you but sometimes getting a tradesman who knows what they are doing can do the job 4x faster than you most likely.
 
jonneymendoza said:
i hear you but sometimes getting a tradesman who knows what they are doing can do the job 4x faster than you most likely.
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You're right, if you can find someone to actually do the work :) I've been trying to get some electrical work done in my home for two years now (and not just 30minutes works either), and invariably they just don't turn up to quote or just ghost. Since it's electrical work too, I can't actually DIY it myself either.
 
ci_newman said:
You're right, if you can find someone to actually do the work :) I've been trying to get some electrical work done in my home for two years now (and not just 30minutes works either), and invariably they just don't turn up to quote or just ghost. Since it's electrical work too, I can't actually DIY it myself either.
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Yea you cant DIY electrical stuff.

Duno why they ghost you.

Im lucky that i have a family friend thats a electrician and he said he only ever does one big job on the go and then do little jobs/call outs inbetween.

He basically would do 3/4 days a week of the big job and the rest on call etc
 
jonneymendoza said:
i hear you but sometimes getting a tradesman who knows what they are doing can do the job 4x faster than you most likely.
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I am not saying there are not very good skilled tradesman out there.

I just don't think there are many at all, and most are rubbish/don't give a **** , but still expect big bucks.
 
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Jono8 said:
I am not saying there are not very good skilled tradesman out there.

I just don't think there are many at all, and most are rubbish/don't give a **** , but still expect big bucks.
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Also, a lot of traders do 80% of the work in quick succession and take ages to finish off the job
 
Hi there

It is not easy at all, when I renovated our new house couple of years ago it was difficult.
In short make sure you get at least 2-3 quotes for every job, they can vary wildly, also check for real reviews from other customers or try to find someone recommended locally by say a local social media group.

I got lucky and unlucky, our painters and decorators were amazing, expensive but worth every penny, pay for what you get etc.
Our bathroom guy was a scammer and the fitter a cowboy, luckily I made sure we got everything out of the scammer as knew where he lived and made it clear I did, the fitter I fired and got someone else.

The electrician was also a cowboy, so he got fired too.

Our neighbour retired builder took pity on us and did all the jobs he could do, again really high level at very competitive price. He is a millionaire and he deserves every penny as he worked his ass off and now at 70+ and retired he is still working hard, even though he does not need too.

The cowboys/scammers were also loaded, clearly scammed lots of people, the good guys I found were well off but good on them, they deserve every penny.

It is as skilled job, so the decent ones deserve to be driving whatever they want and have nice properties, it is the scammers and cowboys you need to look out for, like I say try to find local recommendations via social media or word of mouth. All the ones we found via this way did great jobs, some were expensive and some fairly priced. :)
 
Gibbo said:
find local recommendations via social media or word of mouth.
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Just a word of caution on this - I used FB to find a roofer and he had loads of local commendations. Turns out it was all family members and he was just a joker LARP'ing as a roofer with a team of labourers donning tool belts. He also had an award for roofer of the year; awarded by a Birmingham based firm who "give awards out". I kid you not... their business is to provide awards for anything and everything... you self nominate and then if no one else nominates you automatically win! You then pay them for a marketing package to use their promo logos etc... joke.
 
TheOracle said:
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:
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It's probable that they think the job is too small.
 
dLockers said:
Just a word of caution on this - I used FB to find a roofer and he had loads of local commendations. Turns out it was all family members and he was just a joker LARP'ing as a roofer with a team of labourers donning tool belts. He also had an award for roofer of the year; awarded by a Birmingham based firm who "give awards out". I kid you not... their business is to provide awards for anything and everything... you self nominate and then if no one else nominates you automatically win! You then pay them for a marketing package to use their promo logos etc... joke.
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This.

We’ve had more success since we started using checkatrade but it certainly isn’t perfect either.
 
Gibbo said:
also check for real reviews from other customers
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and I'd also add to avoid google reviews. We researched for weeks, and had a local landscaping company to quote for a garden makeover. They had lots of fantastic feedback, but I got lucky and noticed one 5 star review was from a friend of a friend on facebook. I reached out to get his opinion and he said "don't use him, he's utterly crap". When I questioned why he'd left a 5 star review, he said that was for an old job but he's gone really downhill since then. TAKE YOUR BLOODY REVIEW OFF THEN!

Then there's an even worse story, but can't comment yet as it's still going through the courts. Solicitors think it will take at least 2 years to sort, and then I might never get any money back. We're talking thousands!
 
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My uncle was a plumber who trained his 2 sons up to be plumber's. All never completed school. But because they took plumbing seriously, especially reputation-wise they always had a loyal customer base.

They even moved to the south coast and did very well.

They earn a lot of money. If you're not academicly inclined then get a trade. Plumbing, builder, carpenter etc.

My old technical college used to run courses on that kind of stuff.

If you're about to leave high school don't be pushed into business studies if you're not in to desk work. Colleges have visitors days.
 
SpellowHouse said:
It's probable that they think the job is too small.
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Damn, how big a job do they want?

bathroom and 2 x en-suites £24,000
four bedrooms painting £2,000
aircon in 5 rooms £6,000-£7,000?

unless the meant the new patio doors :cry:

Thing is, you are probably right. The last bloke we had out to look at the bathroom said he was on a job installing a new kitchen and the counter top on it's own was worth £50,000. He showed me a picture, and it was the biggest kitchen island I've ever seen. In fact, I think the island was bigger than my entire kitchen :eek:
 
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TheOracle said:
Damn, how big a job do they want?

bathroom and 2 x en-suites £24,000
four bedrooms painting £2,000
aircon in 5 rooms £6,000-£7,000?

unless the meant the new patio doors :cry:

Thing is, you are probably right. The last bloke we had out to look at the bathroom said he was on a job installing a new kitchen and the counter top on it's own was worth £50,000. He showed me a picture, and it was the biggest kitchen island I've ever seen. In fact, I think the island was bigger than my entire kitchen :eek:
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I took a lift from big boss man the other week and he had been talking about his new kitchen. I spotted a sketch in his custom Defender that was the size of my entire downstairs so I can't imagine the budget they have put aside lol.

Edit: the scale of the room was bigger than my entire downstairs; not the piece of paper itself.
 
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dLockers said:
I took a lift from big boss man the other week and he had been talking about his new kitchen. I spotted a sketch in his custom Defender that was the size of my entire downstairs so I can't imagine the budget they have put aside lol.

Edit: the scale of the room was bigger than my entire downstairs; not the piece of paper itself.
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You know that photo of Putin sat at one end of the table, it was like that :cry:
 
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