Why don’t builders start and finish a job?

[Malteser71]

Genuine question. Is there a perfectly good explanation?

We had a patio laid last spring. They said it would take about seven days, it took them five weeks, they started well but seemed to start other jobs, then didn’t come here some days.

It was particularly annoying because this was during the good weather of the first lockdown, so the garden was basically out of use for five weeks to my ‘locked up’ children. They also presented us with a bill based on a daily rate (including days they hadn’t turned up), which of course we disputed and didn’t pay in full. They agreed it was their mistake snd all ended amicably.

I’m having another patio laid at the moment, I’ve chosen a different builder who has done work for us before and who is charging a rate for the job, not per day.

He said it would take two days (it’s not very big) and asked (last Thursday) if he could come last weekend to do it, much earlier than we expected, he had a cancellation. We hadn’t bought the flags at that point, and we were clear that the job would have to be finished over the weekend (for various reasons) and that we would go out and get everything required.

Having worked really hard all day on Saturday, he didn’t turn up on Sunday. On Monday he arrived and moved his cement mixer and cutting machine without telling us he was here. The new patio is half finished.

I know he’s going to finish it, but it’s due to rain after today. Why don’t they just finish a job? Has any else had this experience?

LittlestBoho In my experience Eastern European tradesmen are much more professional and hard working. They come when they say they will, do the job to a high standard and there's no messing about. There's probably a cultural thing in the UK where apprentices learn all these bad behaviours while serving their time so it continues to the next generations of tradesmen.

I'm Scandi, we have the exact same here, both regarding tradesmen not coming and how much better and more reliable eastern European tradesmen are.

@MyOctopusFeature

Greed

Projects rarely go to plan but in order to secure business they will quote too favourably on both time and price. It is generally difficult to get customers to pay more, so when the overrun becomes apparent they will take shortcuts to get out at the scheduled time, moving on to the next job.

Let's say there are five theoretical projects and each is quoted for five days at £100. The tail end of each project generally spins the project out so they are in danger of not starting the next one and that has a knock on effect.

So the answer is to get to 90% completion and take £90 and get out every Friday. At the end of five weeks that's £450. The alternative of taking that extra time means that only four jobs would have been started and completed by the end of the fifth week. That's only £400.

It may be a bit simplistic, but with the smaller jobbing builders there is nobody to hold them to account. Of course, if they stuck their mobile phones away so they were not looking at Betfair 365 or Adultsex.com with coffee break every 60 minutes while on customer time they may achieve so much more.

But that only works if you pay them the 90%. I don't pay until the 100% is complete.

Do t get me wrong, I've done this in the past and been burnt by it. Notably for painting the exterior of our house. I paid for the 90% and they never can back to complete the most difficult to reach 10% near the roof gable end. Lesson learned, I only pay of full completion of the job.

My Dad is a builder, he started working with my grandad at 13, he's 60 next year. So 47 years experience give or take. He is very old school and gets lots of repeat business.

He said since the easing of the first lockdown he is out priced by newer building companies, they always come in cheaper, quicker etc. But similar to a poster above, he said that other companies will quote a bit lower then add on things that were 'unexpected' or start a job off and take ages to finish it because they are juggling too many jobs at once. But they are banking on the client just sticking it out because to get someone else in part way through would be too much hassle.

My dad is in a good position I suppose that he doesn't mind if he has a day or two between jobs, he doesn't need to cram them in back to back anymore (and his knees probably couldn't take it anyway 😂). It's just him and his friend now so he's not worrying about keeping a whole gang of guys working and paid.

I do think they are getting worse though, probably because they are so busy at the moment. I'd used a great electrician for about 5 years, he'd always been reliable, honest and the quality of his work was excellent. The last couple of jobs he's done for me however, have been a nightmare. One over the summer, when he was putting some new cabling in for a home office and a few other bits whilst he was here. He did most of the work over 2 days, promised to come back on the Saturday to finish off some bathroom lights. He texted me on the day to say he was playing golf "ill" and couldn't come. Didn't hear from him then for 10 days.

I rather stupidly, gave him another job last autumn, as he'd been so good previously I chalked the summer issue up as a one off. He arranged to come and quote, didn't show up, no message or anything to apologise or reschedule. When I questioned it, he told me his "van had been hit" . He finally came round and said I'd have the quote in 3 days, I had scaffolding up that he needed to do the work and had been completely up front about the time scales, which he said he was fine with. Quote didn't arrive on time, I chased it up and got some BS story about a "drama with a boiler and his daughter being rushed to hospital" . I accepted his quote, asked for a start date and he just kept ignoring me. It was bizarre, I was one of his very first customers, recommended him to lots of people, never obtained any other quotes and always paid as soon as he invoiced me. He finally got in touch a few weeks later asking if I still wanted the work doing, which I did so we finally agreed a date. He did a full days work and said there was still another day to do, but as it was just before Christmas would it be OK if he invoiced me before he did the second day. I've never had any reason to question his honesty so agreed. Invoice was paid, obviously then getting him back to finish off was impossible. When he did finally come round, he was here for 2hrs max, having invoiced me a full second day's labour, which of course he knew it wouldn't be when he invoiced. I honestly felt so let down by this guy and completely stressed about finding a new electrician next time I need one!