Why is there so much disdain towards tradesmen on MN?

[Enfys1982]

I’m genuinely baffled by it. Most of the men in my family are in trade. including my dad and brother. They are not lazy cowboys or crooks, my dad has worked since he started his apprenticeship when he was fifteen and has never been out of work since (he’s now semi retired) and barely had a day off sick either. He pays all his taxes and his is a registered Limited company with companies house. All are as honest as the day is long. No tax dodging or cash in hand jobs.

Please also be assured that none of them are ‘thick’ as posters are implying on one thread. You won’t see a ‘thick’ plumber or electrician as they need good GCSE grades, particularly in Maths, English and Science, to get a place at college to train. It’s very, very competitive and anything less than a B is pushing it for a place. They’re not going to let ‘thick people’ install gas boilers or rewire peoples homes ffs🙄

Rant over!

I've now been waiting 7 weeks for a plumber to come back and replace my cracked shower tray he said he would be back later the same day he quoted. Staturday double time. He also owns the house I rent so I can't go anywhere else.

Most self employed tradies I know leave the house at around 6-7am, work a full day on the tools, do some evening quotes as they have to fit around other peoples working hours, get home and have to write up those quotes/do other paperwork.

It’s gruelling and relentless, and like a PP said most are generally good at their actual trade but not so much the self employed part. It’s no excuse for poor customer service but working 12+ hour days, normally 6 days per week, will mean things get missed or they seem disorganised.

One of the things my DB (an electrician) moans about a lot is just poor project coordination. He will ‘first fix’ a house and then have to wait for the builders or whatever to do the work before he can go in for ‘second fix.’ What normally happens is the customer or builder will call and say “we’re ready for you days early,
come tomorrow.” Or something gets postponed and the second fix he’s booked in for 2 weeks is now 2 months away. How is anyone supposed to manage their schedules like this?

I think if many of the people complaining actually worked as a tradie for a couple of months, even the most organised would find it crumbling pretty quickly.

And yeah you get some shit cowboys, luckily no one I know or have had work on my house (the perks of growing up surrounded by good tradespeople!) but realistically most are working bloody hard to juggle it all and I have the utmost respect for them, because I couldn’t do it!

I'm starting to leave 1 star reviews and my piece of mind to all the no-shows and other time wasters.

Please everyone, do the same. It would be helpful to have that information before I waste time&money on yet the next bunch of useless tools.

Completely understand that it can be a difficult job but think it’s unreasonable to expect paying customers to be understanding when they take annual leave and stay in all day waiting for someone who doesn’t turn up. If the tradesperson can’t/won’t quote or show up they should just turn down the work.

Oh @Mumsanetta I totally agree with you there. Luckily I’ve never had someone just not turn up and even my slightly chaotic and exhausted DB would call a day or two in advance if there was a change of plans for whatever reason. I’m surprised that so many people have this experience as a norm!

We had a GasSafe registered plumber install a replacement boiler and an extra radiator. After he left, we found 3 separate leaks in the new pipe work, causing the downstairs ceiling to partially collapse, the boiler kept cutting out, and the new thermostat didn’t work. He blanked us and didn’t respond to our texts and messages after the first two times he returned telling us the boiler and thermostat were fine and that we simply didn’t understand how they worked! He promised to come back and repair the ceiling but never did!

We finally got another GasSafe plumber to come out. He diagnosed the boiler fault as lack of gas pressure and showed us the installation check list which first plumber hadn’t bothered filling in, so he hadn’t bothered checking the pressure. Thermostat hadn’t been wired in at all, and the new pipe work wasn’t the right gauge so the joints to existing pipes weren’t right, causing the leaks.

So, no, proper registrations etc don’t seem to mean much at all.

@UsernameNotAvailableApparently

Maybe you should try not "be surrounded by the trades" in the family and actually have a go at being a client.

Your perspective would change quickly.

I work in construction and admire all the trades, they work extremely hard, put in a lot of hours and work unsociable hours too.

They work a lot harder than a lot of other industries that MN put on a pedestal.

I had an awful teacher at school, therefore most teachers must also be shit. By the same logic that most posters have on this thread. Or are we only allowed to generalise certain industries?

@QueenCamilla I don’t have every single tradie type in the family and have therefore been a client many times for multiple construction projects - like I said, I’ve never had an issue.

Maybe because I treat them with respect, let them use the toilet, don’t chase them for a quote the moment they leave my front door, and even leave tea and snacks out for them, I get the same respect in return

Thinking about my own experiences, I'd say about 50% were professional and did a good job.

The other 50% did a botched job, or didn't turn up when they said they would.

But would you be allowed to think all teachers were shit if 90% of them that you had come across were?

I don't know about others on the thread but my experience is with multiple plumbers, electricians, plasterers and roofers. Literally the only trade that hasn't let us down is the window fitters, which I suspect is because we used a 'proper' company rather than Dave the Window Fitter

Another GasSafe plumber installed our new gas fire. There was a pungent smell from day one. He came back a few times, checked a few things, but convinced us it was just dust burning off the coals. After a couple of months of no improvement, the installer basically washed his hands of it and told us to contact the manufacturer, which we did. The manufacturer sent an engineer to inspect it who condemned it, disconnected it and put a big sticker on it saying dangerous, do not use. He said the installer hadn’t completed the installation checklist and hadn’t followed the installation instructions as there were several mistakes in the installation and it needed removing and refitting again as it was producing toxic fumes - we got the original guy back and he just couldn’t do it for some reason and had to get another installer to fit it. Once that had been done, no more pungent smell! Considering he was GasSafe registered, it makes you wonder how rigourous is the training, testing and supervision.

You do realise that even when you do all that and treat them with respect, lots are still awful to deal with, do a crap job, etc!

You must live on one island with 10 people then 🙄

Yes, I've met a "thick" electrician or two.

After one of them left, two light switches stopped working. He also stopped answering his phone. The wiring was of course done wrong when I finally got someone round to fix.

On another occasion, an electrician broke all the deep original skirting boards on the walls he was rewiring. I actually cried when he left. I re-wired and chased in all the cables myself after that and...didn't break any skirting boards, not even a little.

In the house I'm in now, all the socket cables run around the rooms behind the skirting boards. Those of you with those wonderful electricians in the family - ask what they make of that.
Even I know it's not within a "safe zone.

I would imagine all those who have friends and family in the trades, don't get an experience that is any way representative of the average person.

We really need several areas sorted in the house, but the idea of having to deal with all the stress of terrible communication and being treated like shit is really putting us off

And before someone comes along and declares 'it must be because you are a shit customer', that is bollocks. We are pleasant, keep out of their way but make ourselves available for questions, don't have any weird toilet or radio hang ups, provide plenty of tea and biscuits and pay the bill before they've even started the van.

Crikey, I must have led a charmed life. All the many tradesmen I’ve employed in the 40 years I’ve lived in this house have been excellent - that includes my builder, plumber, electrician, joiner, double glazed window installers, painter, boiler engineer, handyman, bathroom fitter and chimney sweep.
I think it helps that I live in a village in rural Perthshire. Any local tradesman with a bad reputation would rapidly go out of business, as it’s all word of mouth and personal recommendations round here.

Haha, that's quite funny.

I need a builder to remove a chimney stack from two floors and support the rest in the attic. An electrician would need to be on the job, since the previous "geniuses" have passed all the socket cables downstairs-upstairs via the chimneys.

I'd love to pass you the phone book(Google) and watch you work your magic. That would be very amusing indeed.

I never had an opinion on tradesmen until I bought a house and needed some work done. It is actually infuriating to invite someone into your home to get a quote for a fairly standard job just to be spoken to as if I’m a complete dimwit who couldn’t possibly understand anything. So many times. I’m at the point where I’d love to have more work done but I just can’t deal with what seems to be generally accepted behaviour that I’m expected to put up with.

Is it every single tradesman? Of course not. I have met a few brilliant ones and have clung to them. But I can absolutely see where the stereotype comes from now.

I'm in the North East and the trades here utterly suck.

It was a tad better down South. I had an excellent plumber/gas man there. Everyone working with him were top guys.
Had a half-reliable carpenter. Half-reliable is amazing!

I wish someone could pay me a daily rate to fix my own house. Even a minimum wage. I'd take time away from work and with a little help do a better job than trades can.
I'm actually scheming now... 🤔

Maybe because I treat them with respect, let them use the toilet, don’t chase them for a quote the moment they leave my front door, and even leave tea and snacks out for them, I get the same respect in return

I love the idea that leaving out snacks will mean your new gas fire won’t have to be condemned.
I provided 2 cooked meals a day and enough tea to satisfy the whole of Yorkshire when I had my extension built but it still was an absolute shitshow despite my actual main builder man being reasonably good and a very nice man.

This has been our experience! Especially in London, in various parts of town!

SW slightly better but assume they behaved better as it’s a smaller place so word got around more.

Mostly people on MN seem terrified a tradesman might defecate in their toilet.

Sorry OP, but the examples on this thread have sort of proved why people speak about tradesmen with disdain.

The 1 in 100 who is actyally good, honest ans reliable will be booked up for the next 3 years so the rest of have to deal with the cowboys or learn how to do everything ourselves via YouTube which isn't possible for things requiring electricians / plumbers!