Where do you find your workmen?

Joanthebone

Checkatrade, Ratedpeople, word of mouth, recommendations from friends/neighbours.


I have had every trade in my place over the last 6 months and every single one has let me down in one way or another.


They all seem to think I am a bottomless pit of money.

Davesnave

AubreyMac wrote: »

Depending on what the work is I always get free consultations first and go by my guy feeling of them.

Though generally affable, feeling some of the trades guys in my village could be dangerous, if only because they have some buxom partners..... and news travels faster than the Internet does here!

moneyistooshorttomention

casper_g wrote: »

Personal recommendations from neighbours are all well and good, but your neighbour is probably no expert and even a mediocre tradesman may well give satisfaction. We found a pretty good builder who was recommended by a friend, but the best people we've found were recommended by other tradesmen.

I've had a workman via a neighbour before now and they turned out to be total rubbish and probably overpriced to boot. So - even if a neighbour "thinks" they have high standards and only employ good workmen, doesn't mean they actually do.

ceredigion

Joanthebone wrote: »

Checkatrade, Ratedpeople, word of mouth, recommendations from friends/neighbours.


I have had every trade in my place over the last 6 months and every single one has let me down in one way or another.


They all seem to think I am a bottomless pit of money.

The implication of that is your expectations are unreasonable .

pollypenny

Personal recommendation and, usually, the local rugby club.

We tend to know them, anyway, asbtheyveveither pkayed rugby with DS or I have taught them.

moneyistooshorttomention

ceredigion wrote: »

The implication of that is your expectations are unreasonable .

The other way of looking at it is there may not be a lot of tradesmen to choose from in some areas (or, at least, not ones that will be reliable at turning up when they say they will) and therefore the customer doesn't get enough available choice of who to pick. In areas where there are a lot of tradesmen vying for business and customers generally have got used to plenty of choice, then they have also got used to "voting with their feet" and a lot of the worst tradesmen have, accordingly, gone out of business.

I know I've come from an area where customers have VERY short "forgiveness spans" because of the large amount of choice available for pretty much everything and have been astonished at how much I'm being expected to "forgive" since moving.:mad::(. Businesses can (and often do) "go down" in a matter of months in a bigger area if they aren't up to much.

missprice

I found my wall builder by passing him building a wall around the corner from me. I asked him to come and quote for my job which he did, same day. Then we got to the when available question. Have seen him loads since as he is local. Nothing I have seen him build has ever fallen down, and its 7/8 years ago he did my wall. And according to him a whole load of stuff previously.

I think my main point is that he has been around an eon but I never saw him til I needed a wall building.

premkit

You have to plan months ahead if you want any substantial work done. All the best trades will be booked up mths in advance, and will have to wait for them. If a trade can do it next week think twice, you may get lucky and he/she will be good, But there is usually a good reason they are free, either they have a cancelled job or they are not good enough to generate a full diary.

Ectophile

My local council has a "Buy With Confidence" scheme, run by Trading Standards. If yours has one, it may be more reliable than the other sites who are really only interested in the membership fees they get from the tradesmen every year, and don't want to post bad reviews in case the tradesmen leave their scheme.

Davesnave

premkit wrote: »

You have to plan months ahead if you want any substantial work done. All the best trades will be booked up mths in advance.

Months in advance, can certainly apply to building firms and it can be weeks in advance for individual trades. The builder whom I originally wanted, landed a huge contract, so it was goodbye to him for a year.

Some guys I'm using at present have a project house they're building in their slack time, but now it's nearing completion, they're seeing ££ signs on the horizon and it's hard to prise them away.

Also, a couple of them do a bit of farming, so if they've been up half the night, lambing, I'm not sure I'd want them plastering next day anyway!

It's a complex business.

In the countryside, and possibly in smaller towns, the grapevine works in two directions, so if someone gets a reputation for being a pain in the rear, or paying late, tradesmen will be reluctant to take on work with them.

All of last week, the main chap who's working for me kept saying "I must go over to Mrs Bloggs soon and finish her job."
However, Friday came and he still hadn't done that. Mrs Bloggs is a difficult person who constantly changes her mind, nit picks, asks for stupid things, and worst of all, doesn't provide tea & biscuits!