Just being a grouch because I have a workman in my house.

I need a new radiator fitted as one downstairs started leaking and the plumber said it had corroded badly inside. He is a good worker and never rips anyone off, so him being around doesn't bother me much.

Sympathies to you and your cat. I also hate having anyone working in my house. A necessary evil at times but I hate it nonetheless.

Since my DH’s hip operation, we have been having a steady stream of tradesmen to our house doing minor alterations.

The painter and decorator was so messy and talking so loud on the phone, but the rest were okay.

I usually made cups of coffee, spend 10-15 minutes chatting and then I left them to it. We have an outside toilet they can use. Getting up really early in the morning is my biggest problem.

The other day, I even approached the tradesman working on my new neighbour’s house asking for his help. My daughter and her partner were struggling trying to dismantle my DH’s adjustable electric bed in our dining room.

He said to me: ‘Give me 10 minutes and I will pop over to your house to have a look at it’. Ten minutes later, he came, had a look at the bed, went back to his van and came back with the right tool.

I thought that was really nice of him to help a complete stranger.

I just get on with whatever I have to do, mostly on the computer. Im sure he prefers it that way.

My gas engineer is an Asian guy who comes every year to service the bioler and does any little plumbing jobs I need at the same time. He works quickly, does not chat, and leaves as soon as the job is done. Never brought a radio. Ive offered him tea, coffee coke etc but he always says he is ok. Perhaps he does nto want to accept anything not halal so fair enough.

He sounds like a thoughtless young man Flipping, I certainly wouldn’t leave him alone.
And yes, I hate having workmen in, even if they’re much much better than Flipping’s boiler man. I never know what to do with myself and ‘save’ household jobs so as to not appear lazy or old & daft.

My decorator is a woman. She is easy to have around, and tidies up after herself. So have most of the male tradies I've used though. The only negative is that she quotes by the day, but fits her working hours around the school run, so arrives later and leaves earlier than usual. I'm used to that now, though, so I don't mind. I can't really say there is a sex-based difference that I can think of, other than we chat about different things at lunchtime. We often eat together if I am in the house when she's here.

I think the difference is that a decorator is doing one room at a time, so it's easy not to be in one another's way. They don't turn power on and off, or leave doors open. Heating, wiring, building, and some types of plumbing can involve access to the whole house, and that's when it gets stressful. All of that is the case regardless of the sex of the people concerned.

Grandmabatty

I sympathise with you. I live alone and enjoy my own company so I don't like workmen in the house. I particularly dislike them using my toilet! I know they can't help it and I grit my teeth but it annoys me. The one exception is the man who does all my painting and decorating. Hes a friend of the family and so I don't mind him. However I still go out when get working, if I can.

I find it very difficult to relax with workmen in the house, however nice they are and I am not keen on them using my toilet, even though it is totally unreasonable of me.

Flippinheck

win

Flippinheck

Well, Keepingquiet thanks for the telling off. FYI, British Gas insist on someone being present while the work is done so I can’t leave. Having a new boiler is not filling me with joy, nor is the extortionate bill. Anyway, have a good day.

You certainly are grouchy and a bit touchy too Flippingheck
!!!

Yep, I can only agree. But that was yesterday. Fitter is back today to finish the job and apart from being cold, I am not so strung out.

DoodleDog
You asked can someone point to where posters have been grouches
Unless my eyes are deceiving me Flippinheck has agreed with Win that she was grouchy and a bit touchy

I've had a female gardener for 5 or 6 years and she's been a vast improvement on the previous two male ones whose notion of "clipping" and "pruning" was to attack with a massive electric hedge trimmer and leave all my ornamental shrubs looking like they'd been scalped.. It's a small and quite low-maintenance garden and current gardener keeps it looking good.

One of my old school friends worked for around 50 years as a painter and decorator. She never worked for me because we lived too far apart but she always had more work than she could handle and people always asked her back for the next job. I've seen some of her work in public buildings in her town and I'd say it's done to a pretty high standard. She's mid seventies now and hung up her overalls a couple of years ago.

Thanks Jax - from the horses mouth...errm....well you know what I mean (insert nicer term....).

My husband is a tiler, he’d leave 100ml concrete floor a good 4 weeks/month to dry out before tiling.

Wondering what experience people have had with female tradies?

In all these years I've basically had only one that was - despite my last location being a modern city.

I shall be trying again though after my female plumber I had in the other day. Turned up when she said she would (in this unreliable area) and had given me as precise a time as she could both times (not a vague "afternoon" - cue for me thinking "That could be half a day vanished just waiting"). There was a mini problem with the job itself - but fully explained to me. She wasn't going to charge me for the second time she had to turn up because of this (I paid her something to cover her time though). Requested a cloth for mopping up partway through with the leak and, when she saw me coming with a clean teatowel - chose the identical one I was already using (ie to save me having to wash another cloth). I'm so used (upset) to workmen who think nothing of creating extra housework for me and have got the idea from somewhere there's a "1950s housewife" sharing my home with modern day "person" me and that housewife will be available whenever they choose and seem shocked there's only a "person - sex irrelevant - and other things to do with my time than deal with work" living here. Even cracked a genuine joke at me on her way back out finished and told me to call her back anytime I needed.

That's one I shall use again if I need to. Admitted my house is - pretty obviously - literally round the corner from THE best-off road in this town and so it makes utter sense to cultivate a customer that lives near people with that much money and many of whom are currently having "work" done on many of their houses. She was intelligent enough to realise I'm probably on friendly terms with a few of them (yep...).

Now that's what I call a sensible approach by a tradie.

I fully understand, I don't like workmen in the house especially ones that don't take their shoes off!
The exception is my painter and decorator - he is great. Makes no mess, just cracks on and gets the job done. If it's a longish job he will take a break and sit in his van with his flask and sandwich. I always offer him a hot drink or whatever but he says he always just brings his own.
He'll have a little chat to be sociable when he arrives but no complaints.
On top of that his charges are very reasonable.
Only snag is he is very busy so you have to keep on to him to fit you in.
About 11 years ago. in a different house, I had a nightmare worker in. He was recommended by a neighbour as an all round handyman/joiner/decorator and was dreadful. He moved a wooden coffee table in front of the gas fire and put his paint brushes to dry on it, which charred the table, he moved a hanging bulb and shade to paint a ceiling and the shade burnt on the bulb. He painted one wall and turned the radiator back on. The paint all blistered and he painted another coat on top.
I managed to get rid of him eventually but the final disaster was in the bathroom after I'd managed to curtail him and dispense with his services.
He'd taken the shower door off to do something in the bathroom and put it back on the wrong way. (I hadn't realised this) I got out of the shower and pushed the door and it shot out of the fixings and smashed the toilet seat. Fortunately I wasn't in front of it. I still have the mental scars!!

I try to be very polite and pleasant to workmen .
I offer tea and coffee with biscuits or cake .
As the local cafe was closed I've made sandwiches before-mainly because I want them to finish the work and not go home !

Their behaviour is really patchy .
First if all , after accepting the job they've not turned up .
I've had to tell them not to swear and turn the radio down before as my father used to get upset.My mother also used to get stressed if they were noisy .

The last guy that worked for me never stopped complaining about his childhood. It's all I heard .
It was hard to get away from him .
He wanted constant praise and encouragement.
Counselling was needed .

His work was okay at first and then ,became reluctant to come then, increasingly ill tempered .He swore a great deal .He was very slow and became slower and slower .

And finally , he walked out .

Since then,he'd like to come back and work for me ,but I'm not going through another period of his moods and tempers .

I certainly know how the OP felt .

"I should add that this is as a national company, not some local cowboys so we were very disappointed."

The trouble is Marriedalongtime 'national companies do frequently subcontract out to 'cowboys'. Can be the luck of the draw as to who will turn up. Fingers crossed for you, hope all goes well.

GrannyGravy13

We had builders and decorators here for five months last year (inside and out)

I had to mentally prepare beforehand and realise that my home would be a different place whilst they were here and look forward to the finished product.

They were all considerate (the main guys were Eastern European). We decided to go away for 12 days when the entire downstairs floor was taken up. Had no worries about leaving them with the key and alarm fob, they had our mobile numbers we had theirs.

Five months! We had it for a few weeks recently, and that was bad enough.

I was polite to them at all times, put out coffee and biscuits and told them to help themselves, didn't complain when my routine was disrupted and generally behaved like a civilised person. I saw them as human, didn't 'other' them, and fully understood that I had invited them in to do a job of work which would make me happy when it was done. I went away for a fortnight when the bathroom was being refitted, as it was summertime and it seemed like a good idea.

I still found it stressful though, and sympathise with the OP, which is the point of this thread.

We had a man in our house last week to do some renovations in our kitchen. The job was supposed to take under two days. We live in a bungalow so the room isn’t too large.

Within the first half an hour, he asked if he could use the toilet. We only have one and whilst I wasn’t too happy about this, I felt I couldn’t refuse. He was in there nearly 10 mins and when he came out, the stink he left behind him was awful. He also stank of cigarettes and at least once an hour, went to sit in his car for 5/10 mins having one.

We left him to it overnight as the kitchen was unusable and when we returned the next day, the job was less than half finished. He then had to rush to get it done in order to finish by 6:00pm, consequently the finish on some of the fillers is very poor. Unfortunately, there were a couple of doors that weren’t the right size so he couldn’t fit these and said he’d come back at a later date. Consequently, we decided to keep some money back from his ‘cash’ fitters fee. We then contacted the company the next day to say we didn’t want him back and they needed to send someone else to finish the job. If he had spent all the time he wasted outside smoking, the job would have been finished earlier and probably to a better standard. This was time we were paying for!

I should add that this is as a national company, not some local cowboys so we were very disappointed.

win

Flippinheck

Well, Keepingquiet thanks for the telling off. FYI, British Gas insist on someone being present while the work is done so I can’t leave. Having a new boiler is not filling me with joy, nor is the extortionate bill. Anyway, have a good day.

You certainly are grouchy and a bit touchy too Flippingheck
!!!

Yep, I can only agree. But that was yesterday. Fitter is back today to finish the job and apart from being cold, I am not so strung out.

We had builders and decorators here for five months last year (inside and out)

I had to mentally prepare beforehand and realise that my home would be a different place whilst they were here and look forward to the finished product.

They were all considerate (the main guys were Eastern European). We decided to go away for 12 days when the entire downstairs floor was taken up. Had no worries about leaving them with the key and alarm fob, they had our mobile numbers we had theirs.

Quite Doodledog - there are good and there are bad tradespeople out there. One wonders whether we are allowed to "set the rules" in our own homes or just accept unnecessarily open doors, loud radios, theft even, total unreliability.

We are doing our bit if we are keeping out of the way, making drinks at reasonable intervals, expecting that our possessions remain safe and the tradesperson turns up when they say they will. Our part of the bargain is being as clear as we have the knowledge to be specifying what we want, pay promptly (after inspecting the standard of the work to ensure it's been done properly), provide those reasonable number of drinks, be there when we say we will be, pay a bit extra if we want to change one of our specifications during the job.

Can someone point to where posters have been grouches please?

People have sympathised with the OP who finds having people in her house stressful. We have been accused of ‘othering’ trades, of not seeing them as human, of behaving in ways likely to get us boycotted, and more. It’s ridiculous . Does nobody read the actual posts any more?

petra

TheHappyGardener

Blimey!!! There’s an awful lot of grumpy gransnetters on here!!!! Not letting tradesmen listen to their radios??!! I can only imagine the conversations they have about you all when they go home to their families! 😂

It’s not the families the grouches need to worry about, it’s the chat between the workers ( different companies) have between each other.
This happened to a neighbour of mine. The word went round the plumbers in our area as to what a grouch she is.
She has a problem getting a plumber when she needs one.

Word gets 'round if the house is 'dry' too!

TheHappyGardener

Blimey!!! There’s an awful lot of grumpy gransnetters on here!!!! Not letting tradesmen listen to their radios??!! I can only imagine the conversations they have about you all when they go home to their families! 😂

It’s not the families the grouches need to worry about, it’s the chat between the workers ( different companies) have between each other.
This happened to a neighbour of mine. The word went round the plumbers in our area as to what a grouch she is.
She has a problem getting a plumber when she needs one.

Quite Doodledog - just liking privacy. Not forgetting security concerns. Just because anything that goes missing whilst they are there would obviously be their doing doesnt mean they'll have sense enough to realise that and not steal.

I've come home (back in bedsit days) to find a book missing - which could only have been done by either the landlords workman or the neighbour that got left on supervisor duties.

I've walked upstairs back in my last house in time to spot an electrician straightening up very fast - as he'd been bent over a locked chest I'd put my real jewellery etc in whilst he was working in the house and hastily telling me for some strange reason totally irrelevant to the job that he was a "Christian". I don't think so...he had sussed I'd got valuables in there and was after them. I didnt report him for that - but I found out not long after he'd been sacked (I don't know why) from that electrical firm - so can only assume I was right that he was what I call "a thief rather than a person".

I've paid a removal firm (booked small local one - but found THE nationally known one turning up instead for some reason) to help me move over here and paid them to do my packing for me. My property included 2 full bottles of vodka when they started packing - but those bottles didnt turn up at my end (I managed to get paid for them when I pointed out to head of the firm they'd stolen them off me).

So yep....and I won't be the only one with tales like that - and hence why some of us are wary and on edge when we've got workmen in - because stuff like that has happened to us.