Builders and their opinions of women

[Gettingbysomehow]

My builders think I am fucking stupid because I am a woman over 60.
They did a half job because they ran out of materials and expected me to be ok with it. They said it was meant to look like that.
I got home from work, took one look and called then both back to my house, it was 10pm.
I gave them both a huge dressing down and told them they were not going to be paid unless the job was done again and it was perfect while they both stood there shuffling about like stupid school boys.
Got home two days later and they had completed a perfect job.
How many people have to put up with this shit from builders? I used to be a prison officer in a mens prison so I know how to intimidate men, but when I think most of my neighbours in the 80's just wouldn't be able to do that and they would be just ripped off it makes me furious.
There just doesn't seem to be any accountability at all.

This year I hired no less than 6 gardners to do a job in my garden and had to sack them all because they were no good. I ended up doing it myself.
A plasterer sacked and not paid - did the job so badly the plaster fell off.
They were all from places like checkatrade and the only action they took was to take them off the site. Hopeless.

I gurathere will be posters who will go along with being a women cliche

But how can you guarantee they wouldn't have been the same for anyone, sure annoying things happen but this 'oh well no way this would happen to a man' sounds like a broken record

Men have issues with builders too

Sounds like you better off doing it yourself.

It is the fly tipping of their residue from jobs which makes my blood boil.

How unfortunate.
Maybe you're employing the wrong people.

It's nigh on impossible to get good people these days, it wasn't always like this.

I had a tradesman complaining I 'wasn't being very nice to him' when I insisted he come back to finish the half-arsed and very expensive job he'd done earlier this year. And I chose him because he came with loads of recommendations.

I think the shortage of labour has made existing workmen greedy and they're taking on more jobs than time allows to finish things to a decent standard.

Never, ever pay them the full amount until you're 100 per cent happy with the work.

Getting tradespeople to anything let alone something good is a fucking joke at the minute. We had a slipped roof tile. Roofer said he would sort it and would be back the next day. He didn’t show up despite rearranging three times.

My partner left a review on Google saying as much and the bloke went mental. He threatened to brick our front windows. Absolute joke.

OP how are you finding these tradespeople?

We only hire local people who are recommended to us by friends and neighbours we trust and whose previous work we can inspect, if we wish to. Generally people who have a reputation to maintain locally. That doesn't eliminate the risk entirely of something going wrong but it mitigates it, and also means that addressing & resolving issues tends to be easier. Village mentality!

Buy-to-Lets is what's dun it

Any tradeperson with half a brain will have bought a flat or house or two cheaply and done them up, 'cos they're in the trade.

If they did it a while ago, the BTLs will be bringing in most of the income they need to live off. Anything they get for working is just extra. It means if they're hungover, or want to go to the pub, or just don't feel like it, they don't have to go out to work.

Hence half finished jobs, unreturned calls etc. aplenty.

We do. Some are great, some are rubbish. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better experience just because I’m also a bloke.

I wouldn't rely on checketrader for builders. Get personal recommendations if you can or approach builders on site who you can see working
I find it odd that you've had problems with builders, plasterers and 6 gardeners tbh

”I know how to intimidate men” ??

What an odd thing to state. But I suppose you must be very intimidating if you managed to get two builders to come back to your house at 10pm.

Most builders are self-employed/small businesses and pay out of pocket for materials prior to completing jobs.

My dad used to run his own building business and was always having to chase customers for payments for materials he had spent his own money on and/or having to deal with customers who were convinced they had paid for things they had not.

If someone called him threatening not to pay, even if it was 3 a.m., he would be there in seconds to try and rectify it.

I used to be a prison officer in a mens prison so I know how to intimidate men

Do you do Zoom lessons? I'm hoping to get some building work done soon.

Checkatrade isn't much use - I've had a plasterer and a joiner with great reviews but their work wasn't very good.