Do you feed workmen in your house?

[Spedk]

Had a lovely man come in to fix the boiler. Made him a cup of coffee and offered him a slice of cake.

Just wondering what others tend to do.

Well, not feed them no.

I might offer them a biscuit with tea or similar.

Tea,coffee and biscuits.

I've made bacon sandwiches for the guy that does my jet washing. Very gratefully received.

No I don’t - gone are the days where a women has to feel any obligation to feed a workmen. I’m sure he’s paid well enough to buy his own lunch.

Sometimes. Depends how long they are here. My husband is always delighted when he gets fed at someone’s house! 😁

would offer tea and a biscuit or sandwich but they’ve always said no and sat out in their van

No. I'm upstairs in my study. If they're there for longer than an hour or two, I'll point them to the kettle and coffee/tea and tell them to help themselves, and to call up the stairs if they need to ask a question about the work.

They all get offered a cuppa/cold drink depending on the weather. If it's a longer-term set up, they have free use of the kettle etc.
Biscuits to those that are there for the day, or on an ongoing project.

I even let them use the loo!!

I always offer tea or coffee when I'm making one (approx one per hour) and biscuit or if I'm making something like a bacon sandwich or sausage sandwich I'd offer them one

Dépends what they are like! blokes who have a loud radio that they insist on playing or leave a load of mess or are just not very Naice(?) : no, they have stuff in the van anyway usually.

Pleasant men : coffee if we are having one.

I did feed the wonderful ‘odd job’ man who helped us move in, put up lights, curtain poles , shelves etc. He was clever and interesting ( I wish he hadn’t moved away, he would have had a permanent slot here) . We were having soup and cheese, and so I asked him to join us.

PS I always get DH to make the coffee, because I don’t want tradesmen to treat me like the housewife when I am the one who makes the decisions and the plans.

Offer drinks
Wouldn't feel obliged to offer food

Tea and biscuits or cake but not really lunch. I did share dinner with one though when we got chatting and I'd made loads!

Tea/ coffee / cold drinks / biscuits as appropriate and if I was making myself something I'd offer

A cup of tea or coffee, but that's all.

Tea or coffee and a biscuit, or a glass of squash if it’s hot, but I wouldn’t be offering them meals.

I've always offered anyone working in the house tea and coffee, and a bacon sandwich if they're here really early, and another sandwich at lunchtime.

Tea/coffee/squash and biscuits is what is usually offered here. I have done ice creams on very hot days for long term workmen.

Occasionally the odd bacon butty or pizza has been served but usually only at weekends when the worker is a friend or friend of a friend.

I'm having a loft conversion done at the moment. I make up a tray so they can make their own tea and coffee or squash and always put some biscuits or treats out. On Friday I got them some chips to share, mainly because I suggested the idea in passing and my wife loves chips so insisted. Will probably make to a Friday thing as it's cheap and I don't eat meat so it was a good alternative to a bacon sandwich. It helps keep them going. It's cold at the moment and it's hard physical work. Most of my wife's family are tradesmen so that probably has an influence. If I have someone for a short job they usually get offered a drink but say no

Nope. I've recently had a bathroom renovated and had two guys here for a fortnight. I showed them where the kettle/tea/coffee/ milk was and told them to help themselves to drinks, which they did. I did buy them a packet of nice biscuits at the end of the first week, but other than that they brought their own lunch and snacks.

Yes and they are gratefully received, why wouldn’t you? Especially if you are making a drink, although DH is a service provider, and the amount of times he doesn’t get offered has increased along with people making theirselves a drink before striking up a conversation with him. So they stand there with a hot drink, he can be outside in all weathers. The type of service he provides, there are often additional requests with set ups outside his remit, pays to get on good side of engineers and a cuppa helps.

I always offer tea, coffee, biscuits etc.
I think it's just good manners.

Coffee or tea. Water. No food or snacks.

gone are the days where a women has to feel any obligation to feed a workmen.

Both DH and I would offer a tradesperson (the last person we had in was a female painter/decorator) tea or coffee, and have a packet of biscuits available.

No! I pay over the odds for a decorator purely because he doesn't drink tea or coffee.

I offer tea or coffee and biscuits.

I did have some plastering done once and left a packet of biscuits out for the men, but I'm not sure they understood that they were free to eat them all (they were Polish and had very poor English). They bought me a packet of biscuits the next day.

Full meals here. Grew up in a farming home; any workmen coming to do anything got a full meal; stew, roast chicken, doorstop sandwiches, soup, that sort of thing for lunch. There would be bacon and sausage rolls for arrival time. I’ve just carried it on. Always cook something like that and just put it all on the table. They can eat or not eat; it’s all stuff that I can freeze and we can have. But I would ask on the first day in case of dietary restrictions. They get kettle access whenever so i’m not doing teas and coffees.
But i’m self employed so always work my schedule so i’m off/only light work when we’re getting things done to the house.

I’m aware this is the odd one out. I’ve been called handmaiden by mumsnet before for doing this, but i’ve never once experienced a rogue trader or bad job and never have trouble getting workmen out at short notice and usually get discounts on parts of the work.