AIBU to expect trades people (usually) men to...

There is actually a shortage of wood, plasterboard etc whether due to Brexit delays or the pandemic or another factor. My neighbour works for the council (gardening/outdoor - he is the "gaffer") and has recently moved in with plans for fences, decking and all that goes with it. He and the council are finding difficulty with supplies as many go to new builds or are delayed in coming. However I share everyone's exasperation as nothing ever goes to plan and you are left in limbo - do you pay?, do you cancel?, do you get someone else? DD2 has had 2 minor problems via FB. One to get broken TV uplifted for disposal - TV carried outside by me and her - 2 different people failed to take it - DS and I eventually took it to council recycling. 2 different people failed to turn up to fit outside tap. Their loss! But why? These are minor things but frustrating nevertheless.

My daughter is having the house she bought completely refurbished. Family and friends did the preparation work, taking the walls back to bare brick, ripping out the kitchen and doors, removing old carpets, curtains and blinds etc.
The builders then moved in. In spite of juggling around a dozen jobs they have been wonderful. The boss moves his teams of tradesmen from job to job, as required, and the work is coming along very well. He has even managed to get hold of the two sets of French doors in half the time he warned us that it would take. I am amazed at his efficiency. He is in constant contact with my daughter, checking that she is happy, or updating her on progress. Sadly, he has also had major problems with prices of materials going up. Once he has committed to a price, he said, he won’t increase it. He has to take the loss himself.
I have had my share of unreliable tradesmen, but Ray is a paragon among builders! My sympathies to those of you who haven’t been so lucky.

Two recent examples of tradesmen:-

Firstly, one chap we found on a trusted builder website, conned us out of £250 ‘for materials for the job’. Too late the website found he had done this to the tune of thousands of pounds, to others and belatedly delisted him.

The second one where we phoned an older chap who has done our plumbing for years to ask if he could look at a dodgy tap. He came the next morning, took the tap apart (when others would have just fitted a new set), found the problem and fixed it. We saved the price of a new set of taps and his labour charges were very reasonable.

A good tradesman is worth his weight in gold.

MoorlandMooner

We have recently had quite a bit of electrical and plumbing work done.

The tradesmen were reliable, did a fantastic job, tidied up after themselves and were great to have around. Whilst they were here I cooked them breakfast and lunch and we all sat around eating together. I loved every minute.

Interestingly they were all retired gents (one well into his 70s) who were working for 'a bit of pocket money'. They were worth their weight in gold.

Oldies are goldies!!

You fed them three meals a day?!

I must admit my partner is quite handy in the DIY department but we have been thwarted often during covid as materials are just not available at all or have doubled in price because of shortages. The most recent one is wood which is in short supply everywhere. We priced our new decking left it a couple of weeks until bathroom work was finished. It is now twice the price!

Don’t tar them all with the same brush

We're not.
But I think we all know that many tradespeople juggle their jobs.

minxie - where does your son work and what does he do? I think he could have a queue of interested Gransnetters ?

minxie

My partner is a trades person. He turns up when he said he would. He’s professional he cleans up after himself. He also does a very good job. He also goes out of his way to do what the customer wants with the remit of the quote. Customers on the other hand, try to beat him down in price after the job is done. They even write cheques out for less expecting him to accept it. How many people go to work each day and negotiate their wages. Change their minds more than they change their pants and wonder why the price goes up. Asks him to change his working hours to a shorter day because the baby needs to sleep. Make sure you finish the job on time or earlier though. Some Customers are just as I bad as some work men. Don’t tar them all with the same brush

I don't suppose you're in Bedfordshire, are you? minxie

Don’t tar them all with the same brush

I'm not tarring them all with the same brush minxie; just the ones that don't turn up at all/late/sporadically. Or the ones who take careful note of what you want/need doing and then start to do something completely random that has never been discussed. Or the ones that promise to get back to you but never do. Or the ones that do actually turn up, dump the materials and then go off to pick up their partner/more materials but don't come back for 3 weeks.

There are too many incidents, on this thread alone, all saying the same thing, for it to always be awkward customers being to blame.

My partner is a trades person. He turns up when he said he would. He’s professional he cleans up after himself. He also does a very good job. He also goes out of his way to do what the customer wants with the remit of the quote. Customers on the other hand, try to beat him down in price after the job is done. They even write cheques out for less expecting him to accept it. How many people go to work each day and negotiate their wages. Change their minds more than they change their pants and wonder why the price goes up. Asks him to change his working hours to a shorter day because the baby needs to sleep. Make sure you finish the job on time or earlier though. Some Customers are just as I bad as some work men. Don’t tar them all with the same brush

Had excellent painters and decorators who cleaned and tidied every day, washed tiled floors and even emptied ashtrays used outside.
Had outside tiler who left all rubbish including his broken tools, empty bags of grouting piled high ...I thought he was going to clear it all away, but no, did it myself .....but the tiling was excellent and worth waiting for.
I think we also have to be prepared for them and set the rules. I should have prepared a big bin/ box for tiler and asked him to pop it sll in at the end of the day ...you live and learn.

The conclusion I've come to is that we need more plumbers, electricians, plasterers, patio layers, general gardeners, decorators, window cleaners, general handy people etc.

As well as nurses, policemen and women, truck drivers etc.

They need qualifications but not necessarily a degree.

I had my share of workmen in past who couldn't care less. So I looked up Checkatrade, and all are genuine people. I have a good man who arrived this morning, took all my rubbish and green stuff. There is no backchat, insults or telling me what I should be doing with my garden. And I no longer take a taxi, last bloke came on to me. I laughed it off. But I was unnerved.

Chewbacca
Thanks for that. Glad its not just me
Never turn up at all or get a call 'Can't make it today' when you have cancelled a long awaited appointment at the hairdresser to fit in with the plumber who is sooooo busy and he could originally have only fitted your long awaited new sink on that specific day.?

We ordered a greenhouse last December and arranged with a man that he would make a level base for it and erect it. It arrived at the end of last month (6 months ? due to shortage of materials and manpower apparently) but the man who promised to do the work didn't return phone calls or emails. Now have a lovely man who is definitely retirement age but has begun the work on the base and will finish the job in a couple of weeks.

Yet another ditto. Contacted my favourite plumber 3 months ago. Asked him if he could fit a new bath. Yes, no problem. But it was, because he was very busy. Contacted ANOTHER plumber I've used to book a date because she wasn't overbooked, but she couldn't fix a date at that point and just wanted to drop in, on the off chance I was in to quote me.

I originally wanted it done within a month. Other than that, I was fairly laid back about it.

Anyway, it was done yesterday. He did a great job. Worked from 10-9.30pm. Not QUITE finished but just about. He is worth waiting for, because he does such good work.

Downside is that the leak from the old bath had caused so much damage, part of the ceiling below now needs replastering. God alone knows how long it'll take for me to get a plasterer!

Jules1960

There is a national shortage of materials, as a company we place our order nobody seems to let you know if the manufacturer is out of stock we have some unhappy customers, but it's not always our fault

You're right Jules1960 that it's not always the fault of the company - but there is absolutely no reason why they can't keep in touch with the customer and keep them up to date with what is happening. I don't have a problem with things going wrong but I like to know exactly what is appening and what to expect, and bad customer service is something that can be easily rectified with a little thought and effort.

"Actually do the job that you've asked for and been quoted for and that they don't suddenly change the spec without discussing it with you"

We had that in the past. We didn't like what he was doing so he was told to do what we had originally discussed! Of course it meant him going and getting the supplies he had quoted us for rather than bodging the job with odds and ends.

Fennel

On an American family magazine that I buy there's been a discussion about this.
The main points were that, similar to here, due to to Covid many workers have become comfortable about not working, managing on govt. support etc. So don't want to make the effort.
Also there's a genuine problem of difficulty in obtaining parts/equipment as the companies that produce them have also been affected by Covid.
And the blockage of the Suez Canal by a container vessel, only recently cleared which were brings supplies from SE Asia.

I do NOT believe that tradespeople have been lazing about on government handouts!

I've had a new radiator fitted, a shed re-roofed and my daughter has had her house re-wired - all during lockdown. All the people working have been busy throughout.

One tradesperson I spoke to during the second lockdown (a decorator) was fully booked for 4 months. He said that getting paint had been a nightmare as only certain sizes of base paint were available and he had sometimes had to buy either several small pots and "block" them or buy way more of a colour than he needed for the job.
He said different manufacturers had similar but not identical problems. One had only 2.5l paint base (don't remember which "type of paint") for over a week. He said he had never been busier.
Needless to say, I decorated with my husband and yes, we had lots of problems getting the right paint in the right size. Not major delays, but regularly a 24-48 hrs wait.

We are now aware there's a shortage of bricks. Our builder won't want to come till he's certain we have them. We will keep the "builders yard" look in our back garden quite happily until we do and he will come then. He only promises for 3 weeks at a time and we have found him to be reliable.

Chewbacca, sorry to hear you're having such a frustrating time with your builders, it sounds like a nightmare.
We must have been lucky, we had many jobs carried out on our house since moving here three years ago, all the builders, without exception, were professional, reliable and did the job required, they also tidied up after themselves. This was mostly pre Covid so maybe not so much work pressure.
However, our last job, a driveway to the front of our property, was carried out after the easing following the first lockdown. When the builder came to assess the work, I did stress to him that we'd like the job done in one go, he did assure us he starts and finishes a job before starting another. True to his word, this is exactly what happened. It did take some time as he worked by himself but the final result was very good. We've had many neighbours admire his work.
We're not planning any more work at the moment, the garden could do with a makeover but I don't think that's happening.
I hope your builder returns soon and does the work satisfactorily.

I had horrendous experience few years ago having upstairs bathroom refurbished. Went with what seemed to be a reputable local company. Only small bathroom. Quoted a week for the work. Four weeks ,after and after one problem after another they finally finished. But had left us with no bath or shower for the 4 weeks. Luckily we had a downstairs loo. Barely here, shoddy workmanship, things left undone. And I discovered couple of years ago when I had flooring replaced that they hadn't installed the underfloor waterproofing, which they charged me for. Needless to day, they are no longer in business. Just about to have it all redone as I've hated it since it was done and standard of work very poor. We've had some fabulous trades people. But its often such a leap of faith when we book someone.

I can't even get a quote to get some alterations made to my kitchen. I asked a tradesman who was working next door if he could give me a quote. It wasn't worth his while unless I wanted a complete new kitchen

It makes me laugh sometimes that they advertise "no job too small" yet when you ask them to do the job they "fit it in" as they are busy. I just wish they would be honest and say the job is not work the money. Also the quote of £x if you pay cash but at least an extra £100 if you want to pay into a bank account which I dont mind even though its illegal really but you then have no come back if something isn't right or goes wrong shortly after.

grannyactivist

My (new) next door neighbour is having some work done on his house and is paying to have a workman come from elsewhere in the country, that he’s used before and trusts! The builder will be staying in a local hotel and it will still be cheaper for my neighbour than employing an unknown local person.

Yes, we do this with our builder who had done work on several places for us. It's more difficult with plumbers because you need to know exactly what you want and bathroom equipment usually needs to be ordered. With electricians you need to have plans of all the work you need done so that they can do it all in one go. But it's certainly a lot cheaper to bring in a reliable tradesman from elsewhere, even if you have to provide accommodation.

Timely post from the OP. For 15 years we've lived in one house and had really reliable, friendly tradespeople. Now we're back in London and having trouble finding people. There is one plumber who everyone says is great, but he's really busy and when he says "next month" he might just as well have said in six months time.
But today I've had a gas engineer who had turned up at a time to suit me, and coming back at 7am tomorrow to fit the part so that we can go out as planned.

There is a national shortage of materials, as a company we place our order nobody seems to let you know if the manufacturer is out of stock we have some unhappy customers, but it's not always our fault