Does anyone else struggle to hire a tradesman?

[Deleted User]

It's been a constant thing for me ever since I got my own place. People will advertise no job is too big or small but then won't show up.

I have a couple fitted wardrobes that need refurbishing; drawers installed, new rails, doors, shelves etc. Tried to find someone a couple of months ago through Checkatrade and My Builder. No responses. I tried again and got two people message me. Both were not close so offered to send pictures. Both failed to get back to me after promising too.

I reckon it's about £800 - £1,000 worth of work. I'll also be looking to get the flooring throughout the upstairs of the house done as well sometime down the line so this could be thousands of pounds worth of work within the year.

But no response. Any tips or reasoning about this lack of response? Does sharing pictures and asking for a ball park figures scare people off for some stupid reason? 

Martin_the_Unjust

Sounds like you need a handy person.

Proper trades will be booked up now till we’ll into next year, although some ‘might’ be able to fit a small job in like yours but I suspect the profit wouldn’t be worth the additional hassle.

Remember Good, Quick and Cheap, you can have any two.

If it’s good and quick, it won’t be cheap.
If it’s good and cheap, it won’t be quick.
If it’s quick and cheap, it won’t be good.

Megaross

The good tradesmen have too much work on.

The bad ones are unprofessional and don't care. And still have too much work on.

Ask for recommendations from mates is my only advice, don't be tempted to use "Donnas husband" or whatever though - you never know what you're getting into and if he buggers it up you can lose friends over it.

The best tradesmen get all of their work by word of mouth. Recommendations are the way to go if you can

TELLIT01

Post covid, good trades are flooded with work.  My brother-in-law and his brothers are all in the buiding trade and are booked up for months in the future.  They will on occasion try to fit in a small job, but anything other than than probably won't even be looked at during 2022.