To expect a tradesman to actually turn up?

[Oucht]

Pretty big leak in our roof after the heavy rain at the weekend and come Monday morning I contact 3 local companies.
One never replied at all. One said he would get back to me and I didn’t hear even after a second message.
Third who was the one I know is good and the first I got in touch with said he would try to get to me Monday but would let me know.

Silence so yesterday I reach out again asking if I can arrange a day he’s available so I can ensure I’m home from work and this afternoon was agreed.
Well it’s now 7.30pm and I’d say the afternoon is gone with no visit. No call. No text.

How the hell do I get this fixed when no one will even come to look at the thing. Very stressed and very annoyed.

Ah op that’s shit. I am a stress head when things go wrong in my house and if tradesmen are flakey it drives me up the wall. I’ve had a few roof leaks and I’ve been on edge til they were fixed.

can anyone you know locally recommend someone?

I’m literally in panic mode as leaks send my anxiety through the roof.
The one that was meant to come was recommended all over the place on a local Facebook page and I’ve had him round to advise before but on his advise (leaking gutter) we didn’t proceed with replacing it.

Not sure if that’s being held against us.
Have a few other names to try tomorrow but that will be 5 and likely next week that we won’t even get seen for.

It’s dripping over an old style electrical junction box which I’ve tried to tape a plastic dust sheet over to keep it dry 🤦🏻‍♀️

Yes, it’s a constant problem. We’ve given up having repairs fixed, in the main, as we can’t get anyone to even quote, or even visit. The house is falling down around our ears. We have a leaking roof, the whole side and back of house need repointing, we need an electrician to fix the extractor fan, a window is broken, and we have a washing machine and dishwasher that both need fitting -both have been stuck in the middle of the kitchen for over a month. The pointing guy came and said he’d quote, and never got back to us.

The problem is small jobs involve a lot of unpaid travel..... quotes that will prob lead to nothing & if the client does say go ahead.... he'll clear £200 and be expected to give a 12month warranty.

But we did vote to kick out EU tradespeople....... which has led to this state of affairs.

We are good friends with 2 couples whose partners are a tiler/General builder and a chippy and since Brexit, they have never been busier.... and yes we wait months to get stuff done :(

I know that the smalll jobs are not the ones everyone wants BUT
I also informed him that on top of the repair we have wanted a quote on retiling the whole roof, house and garage with new fascia soffit and gutters.
Not a small or cheap job. 4 bed detached double garage house!

Tradesmen were generally flaky and unreliable before Brexit, so you can't blame that. We bought our house 25 years ago and even back then it was a nightmare/lottery trying to get tradesmen to turn up and even if they did, they'd often not bother quoting or send a quote and then go dark when we tried to book them in. Even when booked in, they'd not turn up. It really isn't anything new.

When you get a decent/reliable tradesman, hold onto them as if your life depends on it. Ask them for recommendations - they'll have other trades they work with and one decent/reliable one will recommend other decent/reliable ones.

We've built up a network over those 25 years so have various trades covered, but roofers are still a nightmare, we've used 3 or 4 over the years, but none have proved to be reliable or even good at their job when they finally deem to turn up. Our roof looks a right mess with various "patch" jobs in the valleys and edges, but it's impossible to get anyone to come to "tidy it up". We've even tried to get someone to do a complete replacement, but the 4 we contacted either never rang us back or didn't turn up when promised. Our "tame" tradesmen say the same about roofers, none could recommend anyone as they'd all had problems with roofers they'd used!

@Badbadbunny Can't have it both ways..... one hand saying wages have gone up and more jobs in construction because of not being under cut by Poles etc BUT then say... "oh nothing to do with Brexit.."

Brexit makes things worse..... not that we never had issues before... why else are we seeing soooo many job vacancies (across almost ALL sectors) and stories like the OP's?

Did we all decide to get old and retire recently?

All you can do OP is ring back anyone who you haven't heard back from and ask again..... especially if they came recommended.

I got a text from a tradesperson to say they were on their way, about five minutes out, and they never showed up and never heard from them again!

IME roofers are the worst. I've done a lot of building work over the years without problems, except where roofers are involved.

All you can do OP is ring back anyone who you haven't heard back from and ask again..... especially if they came recommended.

two recommended. One response on 2 texts and 1 call
the mostly recommended one was meant to come today.

I have one more to try tomo who did a repair for us a few years back but he hated the roof as it’s asbestos cement tiles and he’s not local so not holding out much hope whilst my ceilings getting soaked. Soaking 3 bath towels a day catching the drips on the floor.

To be honest I’m starting to think taking a course in the basic plumbing, electrics, bricklaying and roofing might be the fastest way to get anything done.

Haha love this idea! You might just be right!!

It’s hard to get someone for a small job, I get it as people are probably booked on bigger ones

I did have a chat recently with family o/s and we compared notes on the inability to get small stuff done - they had the same

I think it's pretty rude of you to refer to the good tradesmen that you use as tame Badbadbunny.

We have a local Facebook page where people ask for recommendations for tradespeople, restaurants, dog walkers etc, etc, and locals recommend or the tradespeople recommend themselves. It's brilliant. I've had so many small jobs done. I only follow up tradespeople who reply themselves rather than being recommended. Takes the hassle out of having to ring around. The plumber who came to fix a leaky tap is now booked to refurb the whole bathroom. Do you have something similar?

Thats where I’ve found the recommendations.Try again tomorrow I guess. 🥴

I also agree that learning and doing as much as you can yourself is best - getting a skilled tradesperson has been quite competitive for a while now. Covid lockdowns mostly killed the domestic trade, whilst construction sites remained open - with dependable work and higher earnings without the hassle of ..... well, 'customers' like us demanding MNutters for an example.

But there are some things you can't just DIY - need a Gas Professional myself.

OP ... can you/OH not go into the loft, find the leak (it'll be obvious) as you'll see a slot or gap where the light is coming through....
Then use flash banding & a heat gun to seal the gap?

NB.. this only works if you ve not a felted roof but with asbestos tiles and a leak, its probably not felted.

Do it properly and its a quite a long lasting repair.

Failing that, stick a larger container up in loft and catch the water before it goes through your ceiling and wrecks that too.

All the trades people i know (and we know most the local ones in around our area, as we have both grown with them... not that it helps!) carried on throughout LD and none went site work or not the decent ones, that means they lose their ability to pick their jobs & freedom.... they are in such demand now.

It’s where our garage roof meets the house. I wouldn’t trust hubby to get up there without breaking the tiles and making things worse. He’s a bit heavy and even more clumsy and those tiles are super brittle.
We think they’re asbestos cement. House was built in 83.

I think I’ve managed to secure a roofer to come and look tomorrow so we’ll see 🤞🏻