Finding a reliable tradesman!!

brownbake

After having a lot of work recently and getting fed up with timewasters out of the paper and unreliable cowboys I thought I would let you know how I got some decent reliable tradseman locally.

Through Ebay!! I needed a door hung and was looking at door sellers on Ebay local to me with a good feedback reputation. Let them know if they could reccommend a local chippie and the seller couldn't have been more helpful and said a lot of their buyers asked for a recommended tradesman. The guy came round and was very helpful and well priced at £19 an hour.

I also needed a plumber and spotted a local plumbers merchant and he also gave me a couple of contacts who were really good.

BTW - not all tradesmen who advertise in the local rag are timewasters or cowboys and I have been lucky to get a decent plasterer and electrician.

When I am happy with their service and price I always give them a tip of say a tenner. Not moneysaving but IMO it is a good idea to hang on to good, reliable, honest tradespeople.

Hope this helps.

latecomer

Its definitely money saving if you dont have to get someone else in afterwards to fix it/do it again.

I'm about to phone round local roofers and plasterers as I dont have any recommendations so its going to be pot luck and I cant say I'm looking foward to it.

owls

A good place to get a reliable tradesman is to ask at the local builders merchants, also the Federation of Master builders as this is a vetted scheme and goverment indorsed.

To be fair its pot look getting someone out of the paper, and if you must, then get references of previous customers, any tradesman half decent should be more than happy to provide this, also before you let any tradesman in your house check that they have full liability insurance. Im a plasterer by trade and it suprises me how few people ever ask for references and liabilty insurance,etc. in effect your letting a stranger in your house so do your research throughly.

owls

The point of references was ment to go and look at there work and ring them up.

id agree at getting 3 quotes but dont always go with the cheapest go with your first impressions.

depends where you are but a plasterer will be earning around the 150 mark a day or it wont be worth him being in business.And yes like any other walk of life you will get some chancers.

brownbake

I would be interested to see who has taken up references and then gone at looked at the work inside someones house.

I can quite see someone phoning someone up but actually showing a stranger round your house just to help someone you aren't affiliated with in any way??

I'd be happy to answer a call and recommend people. I would be less happy letting people come inside my house just so they can see if the work was any good!!

The point of my post was an alternative way to get a tradesman from someone who has no ulterior motive and has a proven track record as a good Ebayer.