How to check out builder?

usignuolo

Just had a local East European builder round to quote for decorating our bedroom including new plaster on ceiling. Seems competent and web site shows lots of before and after photos, but there are no actual quotes from clients.

I said if went ahead would need references, and he said we could visit one of their current jobs just being finished, to talk to the owners ourselves and inspect the work. HOWEVER they are not on my local Checkatrade website and I found them on my MyBuilder where it said they had been permanently barred from the site. This could of course have been because they were not passing on the commission from work found that way but still ....

They seem competent in the way they proposed to do the work and said they have plenty of repeat business they could refer us to. Any suggestions on how to check them?

southcoastrgi

I'm sorry but I really dont see what your problem is, they are not on checkatrade so what neither am I, they may have had a falling out with mybuilder (very easy), if they were dodgy would they really be offering to give you their customers details so you could speak to them & find out if they were any good, speak to their customers, go & see their work & forget about trade web sites that really mean nothing.

Leif

usignuolo wrote: »

HOWEVER they are not on my local Checkatrade website and I found them on my MyBuilder where it said they had been permanently barred from the site. This could of course have been because they were not passing on the commission from work found that way but still ....

Being on CheckATrade is NOT a measure of being good quality. It is no more than a list of trades who pay to be on the site, as per MyBuilder and other trade sites.

Finding a good trade is hard, recommendation from friends and family is best, but not foolproof.

ListysDad

Ask for a list of all the work they have done in the last two years complete with contact numbers then chose at random. If they wont supply walk away.

You want to ask if there were any problems and how they dealt with them. It's when something goes hits up that the real character comes to the fore.

robatwork

ListysDad wrote: »

Ask for a list of all the work they have done in the last two years complete with contact numbers then chose at random. If they wont supply walk away.

You want to ask if there were any problems and how they dealt with them. It's when something goes hits up that the real character comes to the fore.

While I agree with your principle, I bet not many builders/tradesmen would do what you propose. For starters many people who have work done wouldn't want to be contacted by prospective clients even if they were delighted with the work done.

More realistically get 2 and follow them up..

usignuolo

I had someone working on my roof who asked if he could use me as a reference and I was happy to say yes. Two different sets of people came round to have a look at the workmanship. Apart from questions of privacy, why should I mind?

Leif

Tippytoes wrote: »

Use an eastern european builder and you are aiding and abetting the demise of the English tradesman. Shame on you for even thinking about it.

By all accounts East Europeans are good workers. The damage was done when a previous government decided to allow unrestricted access to the UK for East Europeans. Can you blame the public for employing them?

DUTR

Tippytoes wrote: »

Use an eastern european builder and you are aiding and abetting the demise of the English tradesman. Shame on you for even thinking about it.

heh heh , I bet the PC you are using is not British as is the TV you watch or the many prosducts you use around the home. I have asked 3 or 4 builders to quoute me on a garage base build, you know NONE have come back, one of my neighbours had their bathroom refurbished by someone off the continent and the price they paid made it daft to DIY, you have reminded me to give them a whirl as I do want the job done at a fair price, the'Englishman' cannot even be bothered to come back with a price (even if it was ridiculously high to make me go elsewhere) .

dacouch

Tippytoes wrote: »

Use an eastern european builder and you are aiding and abetting the demise of the English tradesman. Shame on you for even thinking about it.

The British have been travelling abroad for a better life style and pay for decades probably even centuries. Auf wiedersehen pet anyone?

We're still exporting people to countries such as Dubai and Spain etc where we often insist on imposing our culture on the locals eg drinking and English Breakfasts etc etc which we complain about when immigrants do the same in the UK.

These Brits travel abroad for a better standard or living, it's no different than the Polish, Lithuaniums etc etc do when they come to the UK.

I know plenty of Eastern Europeans, all the ones I know are nice people and love Britain. No doubt like the British there will be the odd wrong 'un. The cost of living in their home countries is the same as the UK but the pay is between 50% and 70% less so it's a no brainer for them to come here. The ones that get off their a$$ to come here tend to be the hard workers who come to work and earn a living not sponge off the state.

A friend of mine has a similar view on Eastern Europeans as you and wants them all to go home. In the next breath he tells you how he wants to emigrate to Australia for a better standard of living. He can't see the irony in his views

dacouch

DUTR wrote: »

heh heh , I bet the PC you are using is not British as is the TV you watch or the many prosducts you use around the home. I have asked 3 or 4 builders to quoute me on a garage base build, you know NONE have come back, one of my neighbours had their bathroom refurbished by someone off the continent and the price they paid made it daft to DIY, you have reminded me to give them a whirl as I do want the job done at a fair price, the'Englishman' cannot even be bothered to come back with a price (even if it was ridiculously high to make me go elsewhere) .

My Polish friend who is a builder takes a pride in doing the job correctly, he works an 8 hour day plus his lunch break, works a full day on a Friday and Saturday (Polish don't like working Sundays) for less than a British tradesman and he is as good or better. He founds it amusing how poor the construction of modern British houses is compared to back home.

Leif

Tippytoes wrote: »

The public invariably go for price over quality. Your average Joe (myself included) would not know whether a job had been done well. As long as it looks OK.

I do know a decent tradesman who says that most of his work comes from rectifying what your cheap and cheerful immigrant worker ucks up. Maybe that's why the home-grown tradesman is not interested in pricing up initial quotes? Far more lucrative to remedy work already done wrong.

I do agree with that first paragraph. But price does not go hand in hand with quality.

As for your second paragraph, I suspect you are being unfair on East Europeans (largely Poles I assume). But I understand how your trade probably feels. I was not happy when companies started outsourcing software to India, and then imported Indian workers. The Indians would tell me they were better than UK staff. They aren't but they are cheaper.