Anyone Want to Know What Its Like Working on a Building Site Nowadays

System

Bit of a generalisation. I live in the south east and I know around 12 tradesmen (3 family) who haven't been impacted at all.

The banks are refusing to lend mortgages and it is the banks who put and who are keeping this country in recession

Erm, no.

Really2

I know by us building ground to a halt last year but it is manic at the moment.
One mothballed site is building at full capacity, a school is being built and our site which is nearly finished is building to order.
But building to order has seen about 20 houses be built this year.

So by me building looks a lot better than last year, but I did not live there pre bust so can't comment on what it was like before.

Most builders just don't build any stock houses at the moment, sensible given the conditions but perhaps difficult for those who rely on such contracts as their only revenue stream.

Jonbvn

I spoke to a friend of mine recently who is in the building game in South Wales. I was somewhat surprised when he told me that he has never been busier.

There seems to be work around, but flexibility and willingness to travel seem to be important?

kennyboy66_2

tesuhoha wrote: »

Well, I've posted before about the building industry in decline. My husband has always worked on sites as a plumber working for contractors. He's worked hard all his life for our family. We've had a good living out of it.

Well, this last year he has hung on going from contractor to contractor and back again to keep in work. His wages have more than halved, the prices have been cut and cut. Now he is working an 8 hour day for less than the minimum wage. With this he has to pay for all his tools, his van, upkeep of the van, Gas Safe Register, and courses to stay up to date (£1,000 a time), public liabililty insurance of 2 million etc, etc, that is before the mortgage and food. He goes to work when hes ill because he doesnt get sick pay or holiday pay etc.

.

My Dad's a retired electrician and it seems remarkably like the the early 1980's, so he has my sympathy.

Presumably the Gas Safe Register replaced Corgi. Can he not do some domestic central heating work?.
Annual central heating inspections / service at say £65 a go.
Gas safety certs / inspections for landlords.
Offer to do it in the evenings / weekends so people don't have to take time off work.
At least we are in the time of year when demand for heating repairs / installations of central heating is at it highest.
I'd get a couple of thousand business cards (as people will often pin these to a noticeboard at home) and get your kids (if you have any to deliver them).

Does he know any domestic electricians that need a plumber ? Often a job will need both, so its in both your interests.

Sorry if this is all no use, but its not a million miles off what my Dad had to do 27 years ago.

thriftybabe

The stats that come out about the building industry and housing market really startle me. Those of us that are working in the industry really see a lot of hardship for people. The guys that work for us have taken between 10 and 25% drops. We ourselves have dropped 80%. For this year most of us are delving into our savings and cutting back on non-essentials so this is not great for the economy. In addition we are paying 80% less tax when you think about that all over the country it really is worrying.

Again though lots of people are not affected and are carrying on as normal. At the end of the day we have to make the best of what we got. It can get a bit scary at times but the most important things are family, friends and happiness.

lostinrates

Jonbvn wrote: »

I spoke to a friend of mine recently who is in the building game in South Wales. I was somewhat surprised when he told me that he has never been busier.

There seems to be work around, but flexibility and willingness to travel seem to be important?

I said this on jenners thread too, but a friend of ours runs a small building/decorating firm. He was looking drawn and bleak early in the year. A couple of businesses he did work for went bust with big bills unpaid. Things picked up in the summer, when he got a school contract with a boarding school some distance a way, he took a small team to the place on monday mornings and they slept in a dorm of the school while working. Locally, its plumbers we suffer from a lack of!

bo_drinker

tesuhoha wrote: »

I don't really want to go on about foreign workers though as its been done to death and it just turns nasty.

The workers know their feelings re the subject and we could rant about it until the cows come home. It's a pity the politicians have woke up to it in a recession and not before. But tbh it doesn't matter what they think, they are just trying to say the right thing to get your vote next year they don't give a t0ss really... It's not their jobs that are disappearing............. yet

dopester

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Annual central heating inspections / service at say £65 a go.

27th November 2009 (in Utilities section)

dopester wrote: »

Increasing numbers of Gas Safe (ex-CORGI) engineers need to be educated by the market and kicked-off their ££ thrones.

The £15/£20 day may come sooner than you think, for many Gas Safe registered engineers, because many more people will go on to find money is tight, that other things come before servicing the boiler (like food) and people can't spend what they don't have.

Yes it's from Sept 2008... before the CORGI change to Gas Safe.
Gas Safe engineers can sit around taking calls and quoting £50-£70 but those telephone enquiries leading to far fewer bookings if they want.... or they can lower their prices to meet new market conditions kicking in, with tighter money in the marketplace.

You've had the credit-expansion, the party boom years, the house prices trebling in value over 10 years, the MEWing glory to spend in the economy... the credit-card wonder years.

Plumbers or any other trade who expects your average debt-adverse/saver people, who didn't live a credit-bubble life, to pay £65ph may be getting more of a wake-up to market conditions. Many find it very difficult to part with such sums of money as well as pay all their other bills and eat - even for something fairly essential (boiler service check).

And many a job, even so many ridiculous ones like personal shopping assistants to regular people... only came into being and were sustainable due to the credit bubble. Without it.. of course it all deleverages and those people out of work, giving a smaller pool for those charging crazier rates to get work from.

Bean_Counter

tesuhoha wrote: »

The banks are refusing to lend mortgages and it is the banks who put and who are keeping this country in recession. They went from one extreme to the other. If they started lending sensibly building would eventually start again and it would generate a lot of employment outwards. Its so simple.

I work in the construction industry. I asked this to our relationship manager at the Clydesdale Bank. He said that they were under pressure from the FSA to reduce their exposure to the housing market not increase it and that it despite the Clydesdale not being as adversely affected by the downturn as some of their competitors.

kennyboy66_2

dopester wrote: »

27th November 2009 (in Utilities section)



You've had the credit-expansion, the party boom years, the house prices trebling in value over 10 years, the MEWing glory to spend in the economy... the credit-card wonder years.

Plumbers or any other trade who expects your average debt-adverse/saver people, who didn't live a credit-bubble life, to pay £65ph may be getting more of a wake-up to market conditions. Many find it very difficult to part with such sums of money as well as pay all their other bills and eat - even for something fairly essential (boiler service check).

And many a job, even so many ridiculous ones like personal shopping assistants to regular people... only came into being and were sustainable due to the credit bubble. Without it.. of course it all deleverages and those people out of work, giving a smaller pool for those charging crazier rates to get work from.

Except its not £65 ph is it. It probably takes between 1 and 2 hours to test and service a boiler and any gas fires. Add travelling time and its a long way from £65 per hour.
Try this little test - ring up several plumbers and see how fast they can get out to fix your boiler or fit a new GCH system.

You are deluded if you think plumbers will be working for £15 per day.

Close to 10 million homes subscribe to SKY TV.

Thats roughly 10 million homes that can afford close to £550 a year for their TV (including TV licence), I'd imagine that affordability is not an issue for them for a annual service costing £65.

When that number drops to 5 million, then plumbers should be worried.

I'll take any money if people wish to bet that the total numbers subscribing to SKY or another sport subscription channel will drop below 8 million in the next 3 years.

Surely easy winnings for deflation fanatics out there ?