Where have all the workmen gone?

I had a radiator moved a couple of feet to the left and needed someone to paint the 'bald' patch plus the rest of the wall to match.

Stuck the photo and request on a couple of websites that claim to put you in touch with local tradespersons. Only one reply and that was from a guy declaring it wasn't worth his while.

Fast forward 48 hours, and the very same guy turned up on the doorstep to "'ave a bit of a look at the job."

Very grand of him!

He said he could only take the job on if he could decorate the entire room, "when I can fit it in", quoted an eye-watering sum and wanted cash-in-hand, up front.

Bye, Bye. I sincerely hope the VAT inspector catches up with that arrogant sod.

petra

Peaseblossom

You need someone that's recommended, because there are so many stories where people have taken the money and made a mess of it with no remedy, because they disappeared. I see it frequently on Nextdoor.

The 8 I saw all came with recommendations.

Faked references and recommendations are a very common problem these days.

Yes, of course!

Age Concern is now called Age UK, and has been for some years.

sue421

Have you contacted Age Concern? I think they keep information of this sort to help us.

On of the ladies groups here keep a list of workmen that are recommended by other ladies.

sue421 Did you read my post directly above yours?

Possibly not 😁

Brexit and this country allowing so much nationalist rhetoric.
The huge reduction in immigration recently means this country is without essential workers in trades, and insufficient investment in training young people.

Workmen ???

Surely we should be discussing workpersons we are not talking about heavywork, changing light bulbs, leaking taps, decorating, they can be done by any gender, so come on all you non males step up to the plate and help out.

Have you contacted Age Concern? I think they keep information of this sort to help us.

On of the ladies groups here keep a list of workmen that are recommended by other ladies.

For older people, Age Concern offers a handy person service in some areas.
www.ageuk.org.uk/services/in-your-area/handyperson-services/

Your local Council may have a list of trusted Traders.

Beware of such sites as Checkatrade; our neighbours had a very bad experience with traders which were recommended by them.

There is a gap in the market for a company that vets and approves odd job people and small jobbing builders, and pairs them with customers. I’ve often thought a subscription model might work for very small jobs such as hanging mirrors and changing lightbulbs in very high ceilings.

No they didn't.
Many did go back but a far greater number stayed here.

Some are returning now because the Polish economy is getting stronger.

All those workmen you are so desperately looking for went back to Poland. A far better place to live. A Brexit dividend. Aaah the gift that keeps on giving.

We need to have a new shower room fitted out. We approached a high end firm where we live and you would have thought we were the dregs the way the designer spoke of our small shower room. He has lost the business of having a new kitchen and bathroom fitted. The snobbery was unbelievable. I put a post on the local FB page and have a list of 34 firm recommendations. Now to sift my way through those and see who the serious contenders are if any. B & Q here I come.

Our village FB group is the place to advertise for someone to undertake a repair. Always plenty of recommendations and responses.

Since Brexit, thousands of plumbers, electricians and odd-job men have gone back home to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia etc.

We’ve just had a firm to do some work on our guttering. No problem, till they sent us a bill 25% higher than they quoted.
To be fair, when I rang up I got an apology and a corrected bill, but all the same . . .

Lala65
You will appreciate what my our friend did to a customer who knocked him down after the the job was done and fitted.
He had made a large set of railings and fitted them.
The cheeky 🤬 then told our friend that he was only going to pay half the price agreed.
Our friend got his angle grinder and cut them down by half.
He lost money but had a lot of satisfaction.
Plus he put the customers name all around the trade.

We’ve got a long run problem because there are not clear roots for young people to enter construction trades, and it’s very difficult to find apprenticeships. UK apprenticeship system has been a mess for ages, as is vocational training in general. The emphasis is all on higher education and universities and vocational education has been neglected for decades. Demand exceeds the supply of tradespeople and the UK has imported skilled labour to make up the shortfall.

I see lots of people advertising on next door for trades people who don’t ’charge the earth’. I don’t think lots of people understand exactly how much it costs to keep a small business going and what a reasonable day rate is for someone who is self-employed. £250 is really not much for someone who has to pay for their tools, run a vehicle, pay for liability insurance etc, and cover the costs of any time they takeoff for holidays, sickness etc. Then they have to pay tax and national insurance and try to put money away for a pension.
Price for a small job includes having to often do a visit, estimate the cost etc. And then there is the time wasted on estimating work that doesn’t go ahead because people change their minds or they can’t afford it.

And for every poor tradesman, there’s an equally bad customer. One told us horror stories about customers who wait until you finished the job and then try to knock down the price. Another lost a huge amount of money when customers just would not pay for the very expensive windows and doors he had ordered on their behalf.

We have a local facebook page, and people ask for help on that. This is not an "expert" job.

The local authority also have a list of vetted folks who do these things. My brother lives in Wolverhampton and they provide this through social services, plus there is a "helping" group that he can contact.

I belong to a street whatsapp,there is a spreadsheet of reccomended tradesmen. There is a handyman on there who is brilliant for small jobs, he's a graduate with a wife who works in the City, when their children were small he looked after them and worked at weekends. Our decorater is booked a year ahead!

Nice try

cc

Astitchintime

We had a serious problem some months ago…..had to claim on the insurance and loss adjuster was involved. They told us to source the tradesmen………NO ONE wanted the job because it was an insurance job………”Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole Mrs” was one comment!

This is interesting because tradesmen used to like insurance jobs because they could charge over the odds. We've actually had a roofer ask us how much extra we'd like him to add to the quote so that we could make some money out of it.
In our area it's reliable plumbers who are hard to find, they're willing to do the work but unless it's a real emergency you have to go on the bottom of their waiting list.
I can understand tradesmen not wanting to do small jobs, there is so much work around that they can pick and choose.

Not so with our insurers. They handled everything, we never saw an invoice or handled any payments. They probably do that now to stop people defrauding n insurance claims.

Gran22boys

They are all so busy. Young people are not training for trades. Probably too much like hard work for some of today’s youngsters. A builder recently said to us look at the workers on building sites. It’s mainly older men.

Yes that’s true - it started when Blair wanted people to go to university I think. Everyone wants to be a get rich quick grifter - oops sorry influencer these days and preferably from the comfort of their sofa.

Check out Help the Aged or some such place , they may have a list of recommendations for local handymen .

Peaseblossom

You need someone that's recommended, because there are so many stories where people have taken the money and made a mess of it with no remedy, because they disappeared. I see it frequently on Nextdoor.

The 8 I saw all came with recommendations.