... to ask how you actually get a tradesperson in????

[Wroxie]

We need, in order of urgency, a roof repair, a stair repair, and a quote to repair/refinish hardwood floors.

I've had five different roofers come to 'quote' for the roof repair in the last two months and absolutely zero of them ever called or texted back with the promised quote. Well, one did call back, to tell me he's decided not to take on any new work for the foreseeable future. I had another guy come to look at it this morning and he was eager to start right away but he also smelled like rotten garbage and made an inappropriate comment about my 20yo daughter based on her photo hanging in the hall so that's a no-go.

For the stair and flooring work I have contacted tens of companies/individuals found through internet searches, recommendations, local social media groups, etc. and cannot get one person to even acknowledge my calls or texts. If they answer they say 'just text me the details' and then I never ever hear back.

I have money, I live in a decent post-code in a fairly large city. I see other people on my street with scaffolding up and people working on their houses (and yes I have asked these workmen to pop over and have a look at my place on their break but they always say call the office and I never hear back).

How does anyone actually get someone in to do work? I am this close to climbing on the fucking roof myself.

Rated People. They have to pay for the lead so they actually turn up.

Same problem here, been trying to get someone to replace my barge boards for 2 years, i've asked everyone i know, even asked any builder i see, they laugh.. its now getting to the point of roofing timbers rotting.
I'm at a point of giving up and letting the house fall down, then i'll live in a caravan in the garden.

@Larryslockdownlunch when I was younger I had a landlord who refused to replace a repulsive and cracked toilet - so my housemate and I got a book from the library and a $80 toilet from Lowe's (like B&Q in the states) and did it ourselves. It was really not that hard at all - and with youtube you'd probably have an easier time of it than we did. Just a thought!

I'm probably going to look into doing the broken stair and floor refinishing at my house soon if I can't find anyone but I should probably stay off the roof of a three-storey-plus-loft terrace.

1. Relative of close friend.
2. Offer to over-pay by a set percentage.
3. Pretend to be particularly stupid/vulnerable/helpless when they come round to quote.
4. Contact large, inefficient, expensive national company and get them to allocate the job to a fairly disinterested contractor who will at least be obliged to turn up.
5. Use a cowboy who doesnt pay tax and will be unaccountable for shoddy workmanship and hope to hit lucky.

I always say you were recommended to me if it's through Facebook and ask them bluntly do they want the job. I find odd jobbers more reliable

Even before the pandemic, we struggled to get a roofer and in the end up we managed to build and tile a garage roof ourselves. Not sure I could do anything taller though.

We bought a refurbishment project and it’s taken us a year to get an electrician, the builders seem happy to come and quote for jobs and then disappear and we only managed to get one in a for a few days because he had an argument with the rest of the team. He then tried to charge us more than the quote by a long way but the job was no more complicated than expected.

Not just me then! I’ve had four plumbers round to quote since January and I’ve still yet to receive one quote. I always tell them what I want doing before they come out so if they don’t want the job why not say so?! I’d be willing to pay whatever it costs because I can’t do it myself!

I wanted some working doing to my drive (redone and a new wall built). Found a company highly recommended by a few friends on Facebook. Messaged them and they said they could come out to give me a quote the next day. Didn’t turn up. They messaged me the next day to say sorry. They were busy could they come the next day instead. I said sorry I’m on a 13 hour shift the next 3 days but you can either come when I’m not here (told them exactly what I wanted) or come on my day off. They sent me a really arsey message back and then blocked me!!! So weird when they were the ones who didn’t turn up in the first place 🤷🏻‍♀️

My cousin is an architect and works with a fair few builders locally (SW London) and she told me she's never known waiting times like this. Some firms are booked solidly until well into 2022!