I’m recently single and ex used to deal with tradesmen so this might be influencing my feelings but this encounter has made me a little unsettled.
I found the plumber through FB - he had offered his services on another post. I asked him if he could quote for some first fix plumbing in a bathroom and listed what I needed doing. We made an appointment and he came this evening.
Some of these might be nothing but all add up to a feeling of something not being quite right. He turned up in a nice car. When he came in, he started making his way to other doors and commenting on the layout of the house and asking if there were more rooms downstairs (house on hill, unusual layout). But the worst thing is that he really didn’t seem to know what he was doing. He immediately says he doesn’t do any of the ‘pretty’ stuff (second fix). I told him I already had the sand and cement for the shower tray and he said he normally just puts them in with silicone so I told him that’s what it says in the instructions (I think S&C is standard for low profile shower trays). The shower plumbing is already in so I was asking about how the shower tray would need to fit in the space so the waste wasn’t sat on a joist. My suggested solution was to create a tiled lip between the wall and the shower tray so that the waste was sitting over a void rather than a joist. He then looked at the tray with the waste at one end and said he could flip it so that the drain was on the opposite wall to the shower head meaning you’d be showering in the drying area (the bit with the grooves) and continued to explain how he’d configure the pipes to accommodate that.
He finished up with ‘I can start Monday’. Obviously I won’t be using him but I can’t shake this feeling that it was off, like there must be a scam involved or something. He explained he was cheap at £300 a 6 hr day. I feel like you do after a terrible date where they assume there’s going to be a second and you have to let them down gently so they don’t murder you. I’m such a people pleaser, please help me with a message to let him down gently?