Question to the tradesmen here, what puts you off doing a job?

Brie

Maybe you need to start looking for tradeswomen?

sevenhills

silvercar said:

plumb1_2 said:

Just like customers vett builders, it also works the other way round.

So how do we show we are good customers?

Maybe ask for a quote and just accept their price. I would guess they don't like giving quotes, then the job goes to someone else 

sevenhills

travis-powers said:

plumb1_2 said:

Simonon77 said:

The problem at the moment is most tradesmen are so busy they can pick and choose ( and charge what they want! ), and just choose the jobs that make them the most money. We have Brexit to thank for this a lot as so many of the European tradesmen went back home. 5 or 10 years ago you could get Eastern European builders in who would start within a few days, and do a better and cheaper job than most of the British ones   

So in your opinion European builders are better and cheaper than our native builders.
with that type of attitude it’s no wonder people find it hard to get trades.
99.9% of them went back home with £50k bounce back loans in their pockets, if not more if they suddenly had multiple new companies. And will never be seen again.

Just taken over a job started by a Polish builder and the work was shocking!
We had to call in a structural engineer and spend £1000s just to make the house safe!
On the other had I have worked with some outstanding Eastern European carpenters but they was on the same money as me.
Sometimes tradesmen get a gut feeling about a protential client and will act on it, there are as many rouge clients as there is rouge builders, not saying that you are but I’m on a lot of trade sites where clients will post work which is fine trying to find fault so they can knock the tradesmen.

I got a friend to quote for my ex-wife, he visited to see what the work was, but didn't want the job.
It was just a whole house decoration. My ex has mental health issues.

travis-powers

Simonon77 said:

travis-powers said:

plumb1_2 said:

Simonon77 said:

The problem at the moment is most tradesmen are so busy they can pick and choose ( and charge what they want! ), and just choose the jobs that make them the most money. We have Brexit to thank for this a lot as so many of the European tradesmen went back home. 5 or 10 years ago you could get Eastern European builders in who would start within a few days, and do a better and cheaper job than most of the British ones   

So in your opinion European builders are better and cheaper than our native builders.
with that type of attitude it’s no wonder people find it hard to get trades.
99.9% of them went back home with £50k bounce back loans in their pockets, if not more if they suddenly had multiple new companies. And will never be seen again.

Just taken over a job started by a Polish builder and the work was shocking!
We had to call in a structural engineer and spend £1000s just to make the house safe!
On the other had I have worked with some outstanding Eastern European carpenters but they was on the same money as me.
Sometimes tradesmen get a gut feeling about a protential client and will act on it, there are as many rouge clients as there is rouge builders, not saying that you are but I’m on a lot of trade sites where clients will post work which is fine trying to find fault so they can knock the tradesmen.

Well there are always some bad builders out there wherever they come from. I found it was more to do with the attitude. The Polish builders who used to work for us would turn up at 8 and expect to work a full day and work hard. Not turn up at 10, faff around for 10 minutes, go out for an hour randomly, wander off to other jobs, couple of hours for lunch then maybe do an hours work in the afternoon before knocking off early.

It’s finding the right tradesmen, I’m only small time but if I had a sub contractor do any of that they wouldn’t last the day, if I’m on dayrate I do an 8 hour day, I’m doing a kitchen or bathroom as it’s a major disruption I’ll work the weekend to get the job done.

travis-powers

sevenhills said:

travis-powers said:

plumb1_2 said:

Simonon77 said:

The problem at the moment is most tradesmen are so busy they can pick and choose ( and charge what they want! ), and just choose the jobs that make them the most money. We have Brexit to thank for this a lot as so many of the European tradesmen went back home. 5 or 10 years ago you could get Eastern European builders in who would start within a few days, and do a better and cheaper job than most of the British ones   

So in your opinion European builders are better and cheaper than our native builders.
with that type of attitude it’s no wonder people find it hard to get trades.
99.9% of them went back home with £50k bounce back loans in their pockets, if not more if they suddenly had multiple new companies. And will never be seen again.

Just taken over a job started by a Polish builder and the work was shocking!
We had to call in a structural engineer and spend £1000s just to make the house safe!
On the other had I have worked with some outstanding Eastern European carpenters but they was on the same money as me.
Sometimes tradesmen get a gut feeling about a protential client and will act on it, there are as many rouge clients as there is rouge builders, not saying that you are but I’m on a lot of trade sites where clients will post work which is fine trying to find fault so they can knock the tradesmen.

I got a friend to quote for my ex-wife, he visited to see what the work was, but didn't want the job.
It was just a whole house decoration. My ex has mental health issues.

Again it’s finding the right tradesmen, I spent a good few years working on social housing, I had it all but it’s all about communication I’ve had clients with serious mental health issues and it just a question of asking why they are upset and taking measures to mitigate it!

531063

plumb1_2 said:

Just like customers vett builders, it also works the other way round.

Typical builder provides a quote and then never comes back.