Are plumbers usually so... flakey?

nLdn

Hi,

I've had 3 plumbers over to my flat over the last few weeks to take a look at some work I'm looking to get done. Basically replacing 2 radiators with contemporary ones and chasing the exposed heating pipework into the walls.

All three have visited, seemed very professional and polite, asked questions and been generally positive. I've then heard nothing. The most recent was in just over a week ago, the first plumber was here a fortnight ago and I've already chased him for his quote, which will be with me "tomorrow" (said last week).

All three were trusted traders listed on the Which website.

Am I doing something wrong? Trademan comes round, I show him the room and existing pipework, boiler etc, gave an idea of when I'm hoping to get things done by, but I'd like their quote to give me an idea of availability also.

I'm looking in North London (islington to be precise).
Are they in heavy demand atm?! Are they usually this flakey, and rude?

Ta

B

Grenage

It's pot luck with anyone, regardless of occupation.

Your best bet is to get recommendations - the trusted trader/checkatrade/etc sites are a bunch of nonsense.

fezster

nLdn wrote: »

Hi,

I've had 3 plumbers over to my flat over the last few weeks to take a look at some work I'm looking to get done. Basically replacing 2 radiators with contemporary ones and chasing the exposed heating pipework into the walls.

All three have visited, seemed very professional and polite, asked questions and been generally positive. I've then heard nothing. The most recent was in just over a week ago, the first plumber was here a fortnight ago and I've already chased him for his quote, which will be with me "tomorrow" (said last week).

All three were trusted traders listed on the Which website.

Am I doing something wrong? Trademan comes round, I show him the room and existing pipework, boiler etc, gave an idea of when I'm hoping to get things done by, but I'd like their quote to give me an idea of availability also.

I'm looking in North London (islington to be precise).
Are they in heavy demand atm?! Are they usually this flakey, and rude?

Ta

B

For relatively small jobs like this, I prefer to get a quote from the plumber there and then. This allows you to compare easily and also saves the plumber time preparing a written quote unless he knows it will be proceeding.

Annie1960

In my experience, plumbers snd construction workers generally don't like putting things in writing. Construction workers of all sorts seem heavily in demand at the moment.

nLdn

Grenage wrote: »

It's pot luck with anyone, regardless of occupation.

Your best bet is to get recommendations - the trusted trader/checkatrade/etc sites are a bunch of nonsense.

Thanks. It's an odd one re recommendations. I'm a 32 yo recent first time buyer almost no-one in my friendship group in the south east owns their own place so recommendations are hard to come by.

When I was looking for an electrician I got a quote from one used by a friends builder regularly but his quote was sooooo low (think I raised it here) compared with other two it didnt seem realistic and raised concerns when I spoke to other people (from out of town).

Weird.

Doozergirl

It's a tedious job for not much gain.

Chasing out isn't the ideal route for pipes which expand and contract. Lots of labour, who is going to plaster?

Then there's plenty of potential come backs and not a lot in the way of product to be sold/profit to be made.

Everyone is busy. Chunky jobs will always be more attractive.

MonsieurFrugal

This is very simple.
They're not interested in your job, hence you don't get any quotes back.

Chasing pipes in is very labour intensive for little monetary return.

For example a plumber could do around 4 service calls in a day easily earning £400.00

or doing easier installs on new builds etc

If you do get a quote back, I expect it will be very high. (another way of saying they don't want the job)

Good luck finding someone :money:

Sicard

You're lucky to get anyone to turn up to quote. I tried a while back and all I got on the phone was a stock answer from their wife (I assume) to tell me their hourly rate.

Be_Happy

Have you tried posting the job on MyBuilder.

I had a similar problem with replacing one broken roof tile (I had a spare available). Phoned around and no one interested, or would fit it in 'sometime'. Posted on MyBuilder and got 5 willing to quote. Chose nearest one, who quoted me 'time only - £50', and came round next morning to do the work on his way to another larger job.

nLdn

Miraculously I've just had 2 quotes back from them (maybe they read this forum?!) of £590 and £650 for the work.