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Alphabet Soup: builders and their initials

(3 Posts)
M0nica Sun 01-Mar-26 14:35:32

As many people know we are currently house improving, which reuires aa lot of different tradesmen, all self-employed. Unfortunately nearly all of them seem to trade under their initials and I am beginning to gibber.

Is MJF the plumber or the plasterer, is he related to NYF the plasterer or PLF the carpenter, or is the carpenter NGP, oh no, he is the landscape contractor.

I do understand that for self employed tradesmen who move between working on big sites and doing domestic work. it is the easiest way to work, but for the poor householder trying to keep tracks on their tradesmen and their craft it is really really confusing.

In fact one of our tradesmen uses his full name as his trading name: John Smith, and he has got a couple of extra jobs he said he could do, but slightly out from his main day job and that is because I know his name and always know who he is.

Graphite Sun 01-Mar-26 15:01:44

I have a theory it’s because they like to have a vanity plate on their van. So many do.

In olden times, when people used the Yellow Pages to find tradespeople, there was a proliferation of AA Carpenters and AAA Plumbers etc all vying to get their business name at the top of the listings.

teabagwoman Sun 01-Mar-26 15:05:54

You have my sympathy M0nica. For various reasons I have quite a bit of contact with the NHS and they do live an acronym. I can never remember which one is which.