Just a rant about tradesmen

As I've mentioned before my husband is a plumber and electrician and when he was self employed he always contacted customers if circumstances beyond his control meant he couldn't make an appointment

BUT a few weeks ago I contacted 5 painters about painting our garden fence. 1 was very condescending and talked to me like I was a complete fool, 3 arranged to visit but never did, thankfully 1 did arrive at the time arranged and although a bit pricey he's (hopefully) going to do the job at the end of June

Why do these people advertise if they don't want the work?

Similar experiences here, even with word of mouth recommendation. It is discouraging some much needed redecoration.

I’ve been in the same boat - but then, miraculously, it’s all come together! I’m actually amazed and now, I’ve a shortlist of tradespeople I use and would recommend. The painter is booked, as is the carpet cleaner and the burglar alarm service is due this month too.

I think finding someone to do small jobs is hardest - they don’t really want to do them and estimate huge costs. Someone wanted £500 to re-cover my shed roof - a two hour job. The builder who had done some work here did it one Sunday morning and charged £200.

As I’ve said many times on here, you can’t get a good, reliable builder, since Covid. I find most just talk BS, lie, full of excuses or just don’t bother to turn up.
Now they want London wages for doing a fraction of a days work.

My mum has asked two carpet companies to quote for Karndean flooring, none have bothered to get back to her- not cheap jobs!

My husband is a handyman and gets lots of repeat work and referrals he always turns up and even when he had kidney stones phoned a client from his hospital bed!

I need a cooker cleaner and an electrician to do work ahead of our house move. I have rung or emailed about 5 companies/franchises abotu the cooker - not one response.

I found an electrician, who gave me a price and said contact him when i wanted te work done. I haveemaailed him three times since we exchanged contracts - I am still waiting for a reply.

Out of interest - could people indicate:

a. Which part of the country they are in - as some areas are better or worse than others

b. Whether these experiences were pre or post-Lockdown (as in I suspect things are also being worse (at least in some areas) apres-Lockdown.

My husband was a self employed joiner and he got most of his work through word of mouth, only advertising in the Thomson Directory. Now I am on my own I try to use small local businesses. I got a plumber to service my boiler and fit two new radiators. He came and did it promptly and he was reasonable. A few days later I noticed a damp patch under one of the new radiators and found a leak in a pipe. I called him, no answer. I texted him,no response. I messaged him again and he said he was away and he would come when he got back. After a week I called another firm, also local, but larger. They came straight away and all it was they needed to tighten a joint. I still haven’t heard back from the first chap. That was in March.

I belong to a street WhatsApp group which has a spreadsheet of reccomended tradesmen, very handy!

I’m in the North East Cariad just outside Durham City.
All my ‘people’ are local, although my oven cleaner chap and chimney sweep are from over the river, in Newcastle.

I only use "old school" tradesmen. There are plenty left and are not hard to find; because they all know each other . They share good customers between them.

. If I need a plasterer, I ask my joiner or plumber to recommend one. Invariably, this will be a scrap of paper with a scribbled phone number, and " Tell Bob Tony gave you his number". This tells Bob that Tony rates me as a customer.. Nine times out of ten, Bob will say "Hello Jam, Tony mentioned your name, what can I do for you? " I know Bob will offer a fair price and his workmanship will be top notch.

We use a combination of Checkatrade, referrals from friends and the neighbourhood local app. Before we did this we had a few dodgy experiences but now everyone we use has been recommended so things work out well. We were new to this area so were not sure of who to use. Now, we are.

Thanks for replies, but they nearly all talk about the problems of finding tradesmen or getting them to actually quote. Do you have communication problems once you have actually agreed / contracted them to do the work, as in my OP?

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202506/medium-e6u40u-screenshot-20250609-175941-chrome.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202506/medium-a1k1ec-screenshot-20250609-175918-google.jpg

Does your local council run the Handyvan scheme, ours does . My mother in law has used it several times

I have only used Ovenu (oven cleaner) and Kitchen Magic recently. Both were good communicators, turned up when they said they would and did a good job.

We have found the local network works well when you are having work done that needs lots of trades over a relativley short time, but on day to day matters DH has always done everything. From rewiring houses to fitting kitchens, so we may have years go by when we simply do not need workmen.

This is the case at the moment. We had an extension built in 2021 and have not needed anyone to do any jobs since - and I have never paid for an oven clean before. Our usual port of call, the parish magazine has no electricians in it. The ones we used to use have all retired. Sowith no one to ask for recommendations and no adverts in the parish magazine, I am reduced to googling for tradesmen.

Harris27

My husband is a handyman and gets lots of repeat work and referrals he always turns up and even when he had kidney stones phoned a client from his hospital bed!

A rarity & angel

M0nica

I need a cooker cleaner and an electrician to do work ahead of our house move. I have rung or emailed about 5 companies/franchises abotu the cooker - not one response.

I found an electrician, who gave me a price and said contact him when i wanted te work done. I haveemaailed him three times since we exchanged contracts - I am still waiting for a reply.

My friend selling her house, paid £80 to have her oven steamed cleaned. Later down the line, she had to pick up some mail from her former home, her cooker was in the skip on the drive. Waste of £80 she said.

M0nica

We have found the local network works well when you are having work done that needs lots of trades over a relativley short time, but on day to day matters DH has always done everything. From rewiring houses to fitting kitchens, so we may have years go by when we simply do not need workmen.

This is the case at the moment. We had an extension built in 2021 and have not needed anyone to do any jobs since - and I have never paid for an oven clean before. Our usual port of call, the parish magazine has no electricians in it. The ones we used to use have all retired. Sowith no one to ask for recommendations and no adverts in the parish magazine, I am reduced to googling for tradesmen.

Know the feeling re the "googling for tradesmen".

Could be worse - ie the original next door neighbour I had (and her gang of buddies) did their darndest to put off any tradies I found myself by telling them "a load of old **" of some description against me. It was a part of her campaign to get me to sell the house and move - as she had mentally got it lined-up for one of her buddies and was NOT happy at an "outsider" buying it....

I've had to find the lot myself and, when I got one, make very sure I was clearly "doing my bit" (ie plenty of drinks, paying them very promptly - ie this is an area where people traditionally took their time about getting round to paying).

She'd still be out pronto if she could manage it when she saw I had a tradie in and finding an excuse to chat to them....ie put these strangers-to-her off in person if she could.

I had a very good builder workman who did a good job whenever needed . I recommended him to a friend for extensive garden work . The builder has not lived up to his recomedation and badly let her down , the work not completed for 3 months . She's distressed , I'm disappointed and embarrassed. We don't know what's happened to him to let her down but I will never recommended anyone again . People change , situations change and no one can rely on anyone really

What annoys me is the ‘call out fee’ where they charge you just for coming out whether or not they actually do any work. Often close to a hundred dollars before you start. Not all of them but many especially plumbers and electricians. No wonder they are the richest people with the biggest houses round here!

nanna8

What annoys me is the ‘call out fee’ where they charge you just for coming out whether or not they actually do any work. Often close to a hundred dollars before you start. Not all of them but many especially plumbers and electricians. No wonder they are the richest people with the biggest houses round here!

I've never paid (or been asked) for a call-out fee for a quotation (lots of them in this area don't even turn up as agreed - grr)....

....but yep....a call-out fee for "nowt much at all" is a PITA. The other day a Russell Hobbs toaster blew my electrics when it gave up just after the guarantee period of 2 years. Cue for an electrician did come out promptly - it took him about 5 minutes flat to ensure all switches were as should be and he said £50 call-out fee. All I could do was say "Whilst you're here - please change these lightbulbs too then that I've not got round to changing". So yep £50 - for 5 minutes - and then I bought a German toaster as a replacement. (Yep....puts hands up and admits that, when I checked re that toasters guarantee - I realised I'd only gone and bought an identical Russell Hobbs toaster to the previous one - which had also lasted JUST past the guarantee period. Hence a German one now....).

I seem to have got quite a good network going. I have found some tradesmen through recommendations and some through Nextdoor. I have a wonderful handyman for the small jobs I found on Nextdoor.