To expect just ONE tradesperson to do a good job?

[EtnaVesuvius]

We’re having work done on our house at the moment so have employed various tradespeople - everything from carpenters to plumbers to garden services.

I’m not super fussy/difficult and haven’t always gone for the cheapest quote but almost without fail they have done a crap job - either spectacularly so or just with lack of attention to detail. I honestly wouldn’t recommend a single on of them.

What is happening?

I've hired many nationalities, varying price points- all shit. all lazy all slapdash- you basically need to marry a tradesman to get a half decent job.

I should also add that while I didn't go out looking for a cheap job, in both cases I think the work was competitively priced. The kitchen came in at just under £15k including £2k for a range cooker, all units, solid wood worktops, lighting, rewiring the house to accommodate moving the kitchen into our bedroom, redoing the plumbing to accommodate the move, stripping out fitted wardrobes, stripping out the old kitchen, replastering that room completely, laying new flooring in both rooms and commissioning a local company to make a quad wardrobe for the new bedroom. The bathroom was £13k including gutting the room completely installing a false ceiling, new lighting, panelling all walls, solid wood worktops, custom making shelves and even putting up a new curtain rail for us in a bedroom just while they were there. For Edinburgh that's extremely good value. ( Oh and I don't do cash in hand so those prices also include the VAT.)

Sometimes even the expensive ones do a shit job. Paying more is no guarantee of anything.

Yup. Paid for ceilings to be plastered. They left grooves and marks all over it.
Gutting resealed. Leaked even worse.
New wooden floors laid. All out of alignment and uneven.
New car tyres. They destroyed the powder coating on the wheels.
Bicycle in for repair. They ruined the shocks.
Car in for oil change. They forgot to put the oil cap back on.
Luckily DH is very handy so could rectify all these. But he already works very long hours.

@EtnaVesuvius Well you must have if they're all doing rubbish jobs!

Always best to find tradespeople via word of mouth and check previous work completed - if you've done this I'd be questioning the recommendations you received.

I think part of the problem is the historic specialisation. People that learnt a trade working for a large company and then going it alone where multiple skills are needed.

Likewise where multiple trades done by different people on the same job with little or no understanding of the trades they are working alongside.

There are lots of good tradespeople, both Brits and European but not enough to fill the requirement. They tend to keep to their established and trusted customers (yes customers can be very untrustworthy).

This country hasn't invested in good training in ANYTHING for decades and vocational training is increasingly devalued in education

I’m seeing more than just lack of training though. It’s sloppy workmanship, dishonesty and lack of care. An ‘it’ll do’ attitude rather than taking pride in their work.

It constantly astounds me that tradespeople are happy to cut corners and think the customer won’t notice. I feel like I’ve become a serial complainer, but all I want is for them to do a decent job for fair money.

If I was that slapdash I’d get fired, but they have no repercussions because they just move on to the next job.

Yes YABU
every single one causes hundreds if not thousands of pounds worth of damage
and leaves having done a job that I need to employ someone else to fix or learn how to fix myself. Or just accept that the thing in my house I paid a ton of money for - bathroom kitchen carpet windows whatever - has a shite finish and I may as well have got the cheapest item and installed it myself

I've found a plumber. He came out the next day, arrived on time, did the work perfectly and wasn't expensive
As he left he said "oh and I am gas certified too"
Never letting him go

I blame the internet too.
people went by word of mouth and had a reputation to protect.
now they can stick up a new fb page and be going again in minutes.
we need some disability adaptation done and it's torture just getting quotes.

Yes, I guess that's what happens when there a lack, the space gets filled by chancers.

My only suggestion is to get recommendations from people you trust and know have had work done and you can see (not your local FB page and definitely not those awful trustatrade types sites, I know people making more than I do through them that I wouldn't trust to sweep up!).

I AM super fussy /vigilant and a very good planner. Like the kind of tradesmen I employ.

IME excellent trademen don't need to advertise for work; their reputation passes by word of mouth. (As do the reputations of good clients). I hire small one-man trades and their charges are not expensive.

If I need a plumber I'll phone my trusted joiner or plasterer for a recommendation. When contacting the plumber I tell him who recommended him to me. Knowing full well that plumber will then ask joiner " Have you worked for bazooka? " I have built a reputation as an excellent person to work for, very clear, particular, attentive and straightforward. The site will be clear and ready when they arrive; hot drinks offered at regular intervals otherwise I keep out of their way. The day they finish the job, I pay.

Such rubbish... We had a big extension, started off with British workers, all decent work. (apart from the fact the boss screwed everyone over 😄) , then came the Romanians, who did completely shit work, then I found a fellow Hungarian team, some've done a good job, some were utter crap. My friend's Bulgarian husband did a really good job.
So which Eastern Europeans?

I had to have some roofing work done (dry verge). I got 3 quotes and went for the middle one as friends had used him previously. I wasn't at home when it was finished. I came home to find mess everywhere, bits of old mortar, nails, metal - some of it on the lawn. He basically bodged it around the gutters, the rest of it appeared to by fine. I phoned him and told him in no uncertain terms that he'd be coming back to clear up and finish the gutters properly. I hate doing this especially as I'm a lone woman, and I knew I was going to have to be there to check he did it properly. It was awful.

I've also had new fencing, new guttering, and a wall repointed. None of them are great, and all have had to come back to finish or put right things they have or haven't done. The mess that is left frustrates me more than anything.

I have however never had a bad plumber or electrician.

Oh my gosh! Completely agree! The latest in a long saga of crap tradespeople has been that I have just been ripped off by a builder who has taken £13000 of my money. He's done nothing except damage the property. Now I don't have enough money for repairs, let alone getting the work done :(

@barkymcbarkface

Yes, it’s the having to basically stand over them that I hate. Unless I am here the whole time checking everything they think they can get away with doing a crap job.

Also, it often doesn’t become apparent that they done a crap job until some weeks later.

Yup, most of them are shit.
So many chancers out there due to demand of work outstripping the supply of proper tradespeople.

With a bit of luck, a decent recession will only leave the decent ones left and the others can crawl back under their rocks.

That's what worries me about the roofing. Who knows if it's now been done properly. I'll only find out if the roof begins to leak...

Surplus2requirements, I wonder if it's anything to do with the numbers being pushed into university. I'm in my late fifties and probably half the boys (sadly it was only boys) on leaving school went into a trade. Many of them are now retired or semi retired, but most were excellent tradesmen - they had proper training at college, good on the job training, learnt the basics of other trades too, and, perhaps most importantly, learned to take pride in their work. DH was apprenticed as a joiner/cabinet maker, but can turn his hand to bricklaying, glazing and plumbing which makes him very useful to have around the house!

These were intelligent lads who would probably be pushed down the university route these days.

I know loads of tradesmen. All aged 50+. Do great work. Dh's brother is a Builder and we know 50+ people through him.

We've had an extension, garden redone, kitchen fitted and worktops, new flooring done. all windows replaced, all internal doors replaced, electrician , plasterer, painter, bathroom fitters. and we've had trades people doing work for us over the years and they've all been absolutely fabulous.

Go polish. Cheap. Or find someone who knows loads of other people, like above.

Plus I would never let anybody go, not paid the final payment, until I was absolutely 100% happy.

I've had good work done and bad work done, and it doesn't come down to price or even knowing the tradesperson. Some are excellent but many are not, and since everyone is constantly getting work done now, even the bad ones are busy.

I do think people are less capable of maintaining their own houses these days, and I think that needs to change.

We had an extension built in 2015. Our plumber was fucking useless.
The toilet never flushed properly and the fittings to the tap in the laundry room never got finished and the water pressure and tap in the downstairs toilet is still wonky. It’s made worse as these are dhs contacts/friends. Oh, also a light fitting was botched, you can still see it and one switch has since stop working. Also, the floor panels in the kitchen are not fixed.
We’re never at home to watch over them, which is part of the problem. I’m not paying these fuckers next time if they can’t do a proper job.
The plumber we had in the refresh our bathroom did a mint job. He’s always booked. He’s coming to redo out downstairs toilet as the fish broke and we have to refit a whole new frame. Can’t wait for him to come, he done an amazing job and cleaned up really well after himself.

"DH let him go before I had said it was ok. "

"I hate confrontation. "

Therein lies the problem. I don't have confrontation in my day-to-day life but believe you me if there's a problem I'll stand up for myself at the first opportunity. More fool you if you don't.

There's also a thing of passing on numbers around here.
One plumber gave us a name, called name told he uses a site surveyor to book his jobs. Had survey by guy (SB) hated him, didn't listen I made four requests which he ignored completely,showed me a cookie cutter bathroom which would be useless, told me that I just had to explain to plumber why loo needed to be opposite (needed so walker could fit) and started pressuring for deposit, even offered to go to my Dads for the ok.
Told him next day no thanks.
Three more people have passed SB number on, one of them a family friend. And one plumber passed my number to SB.
Asked family friend and apparently he gives £100 for each customer you find.
Unsurprisingly the online reviews are shocking.

That is extremely generalised. I am married to a plumber who has been in the trade for over 30yrs .He never has to advertise gets his work by recommendations. He is on time , always cleans up after himself .He actually refuses to touch another plumbers dodgy .I can honestly say he has never had a complaint. But please don't say all British tradesmen are bad .Some are extremely good at their jobs .I am sorry OP you have have some bad tradesmen they are out there unfortunately.