To be at the end of my tether with tradies

@askmenow

Perhaps we could incentivised the large building companies to set up on site training schemes for the 16+ school leavers.

We do in the form of the modern apprenticeship schemes and the apprentice levy. If big firms don't train up their own, then they pay the apprentice levy which is supposed to pay towards other ways of learning. If they train up their own, they either don't pay the levy or claim back from it. Trouble is, like everything these days, it's mired in bureaucracy and red tape so firms wanting to use the scheme to train up apprentices need their own small army of administrators to tick the government's boxes as it's heavily controlled/monitored.

Personally, I think we should go back to the 80s and bring back the YTS, JTS and ETS training schemes - yes, people complained about them some of them being cheap labour for just making the coffee, but an awful lot of people on those scheme did get proper jobs, training, qualifications, experience, etc.

I wonder is it perhaps that we now don’t have the trainers to teach people the trades because said trainers can earn much more £££’s actually doing the jobs rather than teaching?
I recall one non academic sibling going to Brums Matthew Boulton college to learn a trade, but does that even exist now? He’s done well in life.

Perhaps we could incentivised the large
building companies to set up on site training schemes for the 16+ school leavers. We simply don’t invest enough in our youngsters.

You know I was just thinking that…. Training our youth for the trades was denigrated by that twat Blair and over 50% of school leavers channelled towards a Uni education.

So now, predictably, we have a dearth of good tradespeople and have poor quality, ill informed, people running the Government, some of whom really should never have gone on to further education.
Just look at David Lammy! And Rachel from bank Customer Complaints and the chap Reynolds who lied about being a solicitor … oh wait …isn’t he the Business secretary 😂😂

That’s what Blair’s social engineering has done to our country.

The only way is to build up a relationship over time. We’ve lived in the same house for a long time and have a reliable builder/decorator, plumber/heating engineer, roofer, tree surgeon and electrician. We don’t bother getting quotes from anyone else because if they were more expensive we wouldn’t use them, much cheaper we wouldn’t trust them and a bit cheaper not worth taking a chance. Last week we had an electrical problem, called at 1.00 p.m. he arrived at 5.00p.m. and charged £50 to fix it.

I think this sums it up. We need them more than they need us.

Yes - the guy who installed and services my boiler is retiring. Someone who's done a lot of building and decorating work for my friend has a son who's a plumber and heating engineer. She's booked him in to service both our boilers on the same day next month.

I am convinced I am on a local trades blacklist 😂

I will ask for recommendations on the local Facebook page, and contact a few. They either don't respond, or if they do, might give a quote, but then don't show up.

I think I'm a good customer. Pay on the day, loads of teas, coffees, biscuits, home made cakes etc. Don't hover over them. I work from home so always around if they need to ask something.

I just don't know what I'm doing wrong 😅

Yes, not rocket science is it? I always worry about the tradies who are constantly advertising - why would you need to advertise when there's such a shortage? I worry it's because they don't get repeat business because they're crap! The long standing trusted tradies we've used haven't even had sign written vans - they're entirely incognito, no websites, no directory listings, etc., but they're always busy enough. That's because they get word of mouth referrals - all were recommended to us by other respected tradies - find a good one and ask them for recommendations - the good ones recommend other good ones! It's a kind of secret society between them! Even better, because it's a kind of informal network, they help each other out, so virtually "project manager" themselves, i.e. the plumber will just make a phone call to a sparky friend when he needs someone to wire in, say, a bathroom heater, all without our involvement - they just do it between themselves. In the past, when we've randomly picked an unknown, say, plumber, they've just done the plumbing and left us to find our own electrician to wire in the electric shower - making it a longer and more complicated job to get two different trades synchronised.

My dh is a tradesman and now doesn’t have to advertise because he gets so much repeat business and referrals. His USP is that he turns up when he says he will. 😁

You sound like me. I wanted an old extension knocked down last year and a new double sized one with cloakroom built.

I started the initial stuff with architect and builders quotes but after two nights of not sleeping at the thought, I cancelled the whole thing before it got too far to stop. I couldn't face having builders etc. around for what I was roughly told was about six weeks but you know that nothing ever runs to an exact time so I pulled the plug on that and had the garden renovated instead. It felt wonderful!

I now only have very small jobs done in the house, I can cope with those. I do need a completely new bathroom renovation but I will put that off until I really do have to get the work done. 🙁

This is what I hear almost daily from my "tradie" clients. 40 years ago when I started, virtually every tradesman had an apprentice, and those apprentices would either go off and start on their own or would stay and ultimate "inherit" the business and clients when the owner retired.

Not seen it at all for the past 20 years since the big changes to the colleges, polytechnics, universities, etc.

I've got electricians, motor mechanics, plumbers, joiners, etc - all sole traders, none with an apprentice. Most are getting towards retirement and their customers/tools, etc won't be getting passed on to anyone. It's bordering on criminal insanity as these are good small businesses that would be worth a lot to the next generation to basically just take over, as it always used to be where the younger guy would slowly, over time, take over as the owner would go part time and ultimately just retire completely,

I've only one client where it's working as it always used to. He's an home alarm installer who also did domestic electrical work. He's in his 70s now! He used to have apprentices 20-30 years ago, but not had one for a long time because he says the paperwork was too onerous and the standard of the apprentices he took on was poor, i.e. not turning up, inability to follow instructions, etc., so they never lasted more than a few weeks. He was talking to a neighbour who had a young lad struggling to get a job/trade, and as he knew the lad, and knew he was "OK" in terms of behaviour etc., he took a punt and took him on. 5 years later, the lad is still with him and about to inherit the business - just by actually turning up, working at college, and doing what he was told. Over the 5 years, he's learned the trade and qualified as an electrician, so will be taking over shortly when all the paperwork/insurance etc is sorted. The older guy couldn't be happier as he knows all his customers will be looked after and the young lad can't believe his luck that he's basically got a good business handed to him. What's even better is that the older guy is still able to help out on bigger jobs so can keep in contact with some of his long standing clients.

It's how it always used to be and how it should be.

Blair has really screwed things up by his obsession with university education which worsened the already bad situation of the adult education sector being decimated by the conversion of Polys into Unis and conversion of Colleges of FE into 16-18 year olds rather than all adults as they used to be. Add in bureaucracy of the apprentice schemes and you've a perfect storm as to why kids are almost forced into degrees and why the "trades" are being abandoned to incompetents and unskilled/unqualified workers who are often way out of their depth but get away with it because there's barely any tradies available.

We needed one side of our roof replacing. So, so many roofers quoting, agreeing a time to start and then not turning up! One even knocked on our door and quoted a price as he'd noticed our roof needed doing......he didn't turn up 😂. We ended up getting the scaffolding done ourselves and DH, DS and a friend did the job. Turned out really good in the end and saved us a fortune. You Tube is amazing 😁

Professionally offended 🙄🤣

I have the same experience. I actually use which? Trusted traders now mostly. You have to pay to join which? But I have found the tradespeople on there a higher quality. They’re not all perfect but they’re responsive at least! (Not an advert by the way, just what I’ve resorted to after decades of terrible trades people).

We’ve been trying to get our kitchen and dining room knocked through for almost a year now.

They come, they quote, they fuck off into the sunset…

I have two friends that are builders but DH can do many things to a high standard but it takes three times as long. I can decorate and do a minor bit of plumbing.

We have a road whats app and people always asks and receives recommendations for trades.

Our letting agent informed us that our gas safety certificate expired this week so we needed to contact the gas company they use asap and arrange it. We donit directly because otherwise there's 78290 emails back and forth trying to find a time suitable around school runs and work.

I don't phone them and contact the gas bloke by email and text message because he's previously turned up at totally different days and times to what was arranged verbally, and then we gor changed because we weren't there (his word against mine!) So I always go for something in writing.

I've sent multiple text messages and emails to his business number and email. Nothing. Bodes well...

A friend and I was talking about this recently . She’s on her third plumber trying to get a new bathroom fitted and I have been let down by a gardener for the 3rd time . They either don’t want to work or overestimate their availability . It’s not good either way .

Same. I've worked in and around the construction industry for over 30 years, can't say I've ever heard the term. Brickies, chippies, sparks, yes, tradesmen, yes, never tradies. 🤷‍♀️

It's a shame because it hurts school leavers, employers and potential customers...
And the taxpayer who has to support all the unemployed kids who could otherwise be learning useful and lucrative skills.

Repeat sorry

It’s not you. It’s ridiculous

I feel lucky. All the work I've ever had done in my present house has been by people who've done work for years for friends and neighbours. I've always been satisfied with the reliability and the work. When I had my kitchen replaced I went on holiday and they just got on with it. My friend who'd recommended them was on hand if there had been a problem.

Agree with this. It’s simply not feasible for us to have apprentices. My husband is a carpenter by trade, we run a building firm but never have them. It’s just not worth it financially and the paperwork involved is ridiculous.

Are you in the uk? My husband is a carpenter, my dad and nephew electricians. We run a building firm and I’ve never once heard the term tradie except on Australian reality tv.