Decorating

Our tradesmen either come from contacts in our pub or friends, our plumber from Facebook recommendation and boiler man from the plumber.
All very reliable and reasonable.

We've always done our own decorating in the past; too old now. When we moved here the decor was wall to wall 1980's , spotless and immaculate just awful and dated. Wallpaper with floral swags etc. We stripped the lot. With all the walls perfectly prepared I paid a decorator to come in and paint everything white. He did an immaculate job in two days flat.

I got the decorator's name from my plasterer. My decorator recommended my lovely joiner and any plumbing we need is done by the joiners son in law. All my trades men are one-man businesses who work alone and do such a good job they never need to advertise. They were all recommended to me by each other and that works both ways. They share good clients among each other too. If I ask Bob the gutter cleaner to recommend an electrician he'll give me a number scrawled on a bit of paper and say " Jim's good. Be sure to tell Jim you got his number from me.". No websites, no FB, just word of mouth between trusted people.

No, it’s more useful for sussing out the reliable tradesmen, I’ve never seen quotes on there, or tradesmen competing with each other for the work. It’s probably different elsewhere, but round me there aren’t huge numbers of tradesmen, and if they are good they are busy, so you have to approach them if you want something done. Once you have found a good one, they are gems though, I’ve never had one not turn up to do a quote or do work when they said they would.

Yes, I've been told that one person will give a price, then others pop up with better deals.
Whenever i ask someone if they know of anyone who could... whatever... they never say "I'll put it on Facebook and wait for the offers to come flooding in" though.

MissAdventure

I don't use facebook.
In fact, it riles me to be directed to look at tradespeople's Facebook page.

I was thinking of the comments, people who want work done in my area often post on Facebook asking for recommendations, and they get lots of replies from people who have used local tradesmen. You get the good, the bad and the ugly in the responses - I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole, very expensive, left work unfinished etc. are some of the responses I’ve seen. It keeps the tradesmen competitive because they want good reviews.

I often think my jobs are too small for people to take on.
Coupled with ancient plumbing and pipework - but still, I'd rather be told that than someone disappear into the ether.

A friend was having her shower re sealed and her trusted friend/plumber was doing it so I asked if he could do mine. He came, he looked and then disappeared. Hers was done while she was away and I waited for three weeks as he was going to do mine at the same time. Apparently he went skiing during the three weeks and mine has never been done.

Nor has my friend mentioned it since! I am not amused.

I don't use facebook.
In fact, it riles me to be directed to look at tradespeople's Facebook page.

Do you have a community Facebook page for your local area, that’s another good source of the truth about the satisfaction of people who have used local tradesmen?

I use the Nextdoor app, but it seems to be full of tradespeople, and people complaining about tradespeople (mostly that they never turn up!)

Sadly our neighbours all have the same problem

One of the advantages of living in a rural area with only one town is that all the tradesmen are local, and their reputation goes before them, so I ask friends and neighbours for recommendations before I get in touch with anybody. I still hate the process of organising work, but I’ve never had any issues. Ask your neighbours though, wherever you live, I bet somebody knows somebody good, they generally do?

MissAdventure

Yes, all the time!
I'd rather a tradesperson said "sorry, I don't want to do it" than make empty promises.

Yes, why don’t they just say this?

Yes! I’ve finally got a good and reliable plumber. Used to have good decorators but they’ve gone onto better jobs, took my mum forever and many goes to get a good reliable gardener and when our boiler “died” a few years ago it was a nightmare getting in boiler installers even for quotes!

@dollydaydream68

Check A Trade are nothing to do with council-run registers, it's a private enterprise. Council registers have nothing to do with them.

It may be worth asking your own council if they can help with recommendations.

I've tried check a trade, they're just as bad. I'm giving up, DH bless him, promises to do jobs eg power wash patio. Waiting since last summer. I've done some with cleaner ,he's adamant the rest needs doing properly!!
I'm now going in the garden to read a book.
I quit

We're lucky in that those we have asked to do some work have been pretty reliable. We usually go off recommendations of neighbours who have had work done by those tradespeople.

Our council has a trader register run by Trading Standards. There are no guarantees but those listed are expected to give good customer service, which one would assume includes honouring agreements wherever possible.

Maybe your council has something similar.

I have had similar experiences to you. Good tradespeople are usually busy so waiting is often an issue but the ones who get my goat are those who come to look at the work, give you a price and a date to start, then are never seen again. Why bother in the first place? I used to look on line for reviews but they are not always honest. When I needed a decorator I asked around from neighbours and members at the groups I go to for personal references and ended up with a wonderful lady who did a great job on the day she said she would. She has since been back to do more.

Yes, all the time!
I'd rather a tradesperson said "sorry, I don't want to do it" than make empty promises.

Me too, I gave up getting 3 quotes for work we needed because the first 4 we contacted turned up & nosed around but the quotes never arrived even after prompting. The 5th quoted, it wasn't exorbitant (well it was but not for the amount of work) & to be fair came when promised, finished when expected & didn't meet any "hidden" snags which put the price up.

persevere. If they're not really interested in doing it, best they don't start, but you'll find someone who is interested eventually.

I'm sure your living room looks fine really & will be OK until your hamstring's mended.Decorating is hard work on the joints so it'll keep.