find a trusty tradesman

System

Hi Alison,

I know of a very good fully qualified plumber, gas fitter and electrician all rolled into one. He comes from Portchester. drop me an email if you're interested and I'll let you have his contact phone number. Not only is he qulaified .... he tidies up after himself as well!!!!. I have recommended him to lots of people and everyone has bee extremely satisfied with his standard of work.

alison6692

That would be great. Thanks
Alison

debeast

Theres been a lot of good advice offered on this topic. There must be a lot of lurkers on this forum as most of it has come from guests!

I'm definatly going to check out the websites for recommendations in my area. I need to get my boiler serviced and i know nothing about boilers other than you need a corgi (or some type of dog) engineer

Well done everyone for contributing

System

I live in a village outside Edinburgh and am married to a plumber who is a sole trader, he has never had to advertise and his work comes mainly word of mouth and through recommendations from local builders, he is always happy to help his customers and recommends other tradesmen he has worked with and who he would be happy to do jobs in our own house, he always gives at least 2 recommendations and leaves it up to the customer to decide which one ( gut feeling comes into this decision)

Go ahead and check out MFI their stuff is ok its the tradesmen used to install it who make the difference

alison6692

Hi debeast

I would really reccomend Britsh Gas for your boiler. They have been really helpful for us, basically they come round once you have started their boiler care insurance thingy and tell you if your boiler is going to snuff it (technical term!!!) which probably means they won't insure it or if its all fine and dandy which means they will, and free yearly services.
And I have found askyourneighbour.com invaluable. Its my second fave site, second to this one of course ;D.

I know the feedback has been great. What a response. A big Thanks to all of you.


Bye

debeast

Thanks for the tip but i moved away from BG as there prices were quite high compared to other utility companies about. Can you stil get your boiler seen by them even if your not with them ?

System

I couldn't trust anyone to work on my property .After watching various programmes about rogue traders etc I decided that as I had always worked with wood as a hobby that I would do something about it and offer a quality service at a reasonable price.
I enrolled at college on NVQ Carpentry and now halfway through a 2 year part time course I am in a position to work for others on a part time basis(eves and weekends) until I have enough of a customer base to go full time. I've been "on the tools" now for a month or two and it looks as though things are about to go crazy...all by word of mouth.
From assembling flat pack to high end kitchens!!!!

Go for personal recommendations

Regards,
Dave.

alison6692

Hi!
I am not sure about the british gas insurance being available to non-british gas customers. Sorry thats not very helpful.

I think that is really good advice about getting taught in areas of DIY and having a go yourself. (I did hear that bank holiday weekend it infamous for huge DIY accidents taking trips to their local A+E. :-/ )

Its so hard because your house is the most exspensive thing you own, you spend so much time and money on it and let someone you don't know free with a hammer and saw. Its so scary.

Happy Easter

Alison

john.graves

try going to the federation of master builders website im a member and they do check up on you before you join and you do have comeback via them. personally throgh most of my jobs do come through reccomendation ::) :-[

Amardeep_2

Try the following website:
https://www.upmystreet.co.uk
You enter your postcode and then inpute the type of tradesman or service you require. The site will the list all the people available, by distance to your street.

It cannot guarantee they are good, reputable, trusty but they will be local and you need to do some legwork by asking people if they are any good. All the posts for this topic are excellent, but the best way to find out about local businesses is to read the local papers and their letter sections. People are all too quick to complain if something goes wrong and local papers are all too happy to print such stuff since it sells their product.

I have used this sit several times and found an excellent plumber and gardener from it, both of whom do NOT advertise since they are too busy. Their details appeared because they had been found by Yellow pages, asked if they wanted to advertise. Even though they refused, their details were passed (probably sold) on.

Even if you are paranoid, you can always get them to come round to give you a quote and you can see what they are like. And you can go see examples of their work; after all you and they should not have far to go if they are truly local.