Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be at the end of my tether with tradies

132 replies

hereismydog · 04/04/2025 18:06

I’ve had three occasions recently where I’ve needed a tradesperson to do some work in my home. Several have come out and had a look, said they’d be in touch with a quote and then absolutely ghosted me. Three have given quotes, arranged a date to do the work and then not turned up at all, or cancelled 10 minutes after they were due to arrive. One started the job, left a gaping hole in my roof (in early December, when I was 38 weeks pregnant!) and then went AWOL for a week. He also refused to speak to me and would only ever speak to DP, even though I would be the one at home to let him in. He would ring DP at work and ask him to pass on a message to me, even though he had my number Confused

I’m always very clear about the work I need doing so it’s not like I keep changing my mind and messing them about, and none of the jobs have been especially complex, nor too small to bother taking on.

Is it me? Or do I just live in an area with REALLY shit tradies? Not limited to one trade either; I’ve had similarly shit experiences with builders, roofers and plumbers so far!

OP posts:
HurdyGurdy19 · 05/04/2025 09:11

I am convinced I am on a local trades blacklist 😂

I will ask for recommendations on the local Facebook page, and contact a few. They either don't respond, or if they do, might give a quote, but then don't show up.

I think I'm a good customer. Pay on the day, loads of teas, coffees, biscuits, home made cakes etc. Don't hover over them. I work from home so always around if they need to ask something.

I just don't know what I'm doing wrong 😅

ilovesooty · 05/04/2025 09:18

taxguru · 05/04/2025 08:55

Yes, not rocket science is it? I always worry about the tradies who are constantly advertising - why would you need to advertise when there's such a shortage? I worry it's because they don't get repeat business because they're crap! The long standing trusted tradies we've used haven't even had sign written vans - they're entirely incognito, no websites, no directory listings, etc., but they're always busy enough. That's because they get word of mouth referrals - all were recommended to us by other respected tradies - find a good one and ask them for recommendations - the good ones recommend other good ones! It's a kind of secret society between them! Even better, because it's a kind of informal network, they help each other out, so virtually "project manager" themselves, i.e. the plumber will just make a phone call to a sparky friend when he needs someone to wire in, say, a bathroom heater, all without our involvement - they just do it between themselves. In the past, when we've randomly picked an unknown, say, plumber, they've just done the plumbing and left us to find our own electrician to wire in the electric shower - making it a longer and more complicated job to get two different trades synchronised.

Show quote history

Yes - the guy who installed and services my boiler is retiring. Someone who's done a lot of building and decorating work for my friend has a son who's a plumber and heating engineer. She's booked him in to service both our boilers on the same day next month.

helpfulperson · 05/04/2025 09:24

0ohLarLar · 04/04/2025 18:17

The problem is we stopped training trades (plumbers, electricians, builders, bricklayers etc). So now we simply don't have enough of them, there's very little competition. This means that even if they are poor and provide shit service, we have no choice but to use them.

I live in a pricey part of the country and tradespeople tend to earn good money working short hours as there's such a shortage of them.

Its one factor contributing to rising property prices.

I think this sums it up. We need them more than they need us.

NellieJean · 05/04/2025 09:38

The only way is to build up a relationship over time. We’ve lived in the same house for a long time and have a reliable builder/decorator, plumber/heating engineer, roofer, tree surgeon and electrician. We don’t bother getting quotes from anyone else because if they were more expensive we wouldn’t use them, much cheaper we wouldn’t trust them and a bit cheaper not worth taking a chance. Last week we had an electrical problem, called at 1.00 p.m. he arrived at 5.00p.m. and charged £50 to fix it.

askmenow · 05/04/2025 11:12

Fairyliz · 04/04/2025 23:30

Blame Tony Blair he was the one who encouraged everyone to go to university instead of learning a trade. As a result we now have a shortage of trained people. This means that they can mess you around and charge you what they like. If you don’t like it, there’s plenty of work around for them.

You know I was just thinking that…. Training our youth for the trades was denigrated by that twat Blair and over 50% of school leavers channelled towards a Uni education.

So now, predictably, we have a dearth of good tradespeople and have poor quality, ill informed, people running the Government, some of whom really should never have gone on to further education.
Just look at David Lammy! And Rachel from bank Customer Complaints and the chap Reynolds who lied about being a solicitor … oh wait …isn’t he the Business secretary 😂😂

That’s what Blair’s social engineering has done to our country.

askmenow · 05/04/2025 11:31

Chumpfriend · 04/04/2025 23:34

This is my current irrational rage.

We have a person in our family who wasn’t too invested at school. So left without real qualifications. Has, not unusually, realised that they now need some practical ones to better themselves. Can they get any kind of help or loan? Absolutely not.

So the country is crying out for properly trained electricians, plumbers etc and if you want to qualify you’ve got to fund the course yourself. Absolute madness - but don’t worry you can go to Uni and do a pointless course at 18 and get all the money you want.

Why on earth isn’t there some kind of learning fund available to those who weren’t or aren’t exams/university fodder, that is repaid in exactly the same way and delivered through approved providers? It would let them get the qualifications they need and provide a better qualified workforce.

This person is the hardest working person I know and is currently working 7 days a week - working overtime to pay for said course alongside their normal job. The sums required are minimal compared to to a degree but huge for young people having to self fund.

All trades are utterly unappreciated and undervalued. If we allow people to get better training and create a proper path into what is pretty essential work then things will improve for everyone.

Also hard agree about the current standards - it’s painful trying to get anything done!

I wonder is it perhaps that we now don’t have the trainers to teach people the trades because said trainers can earn much more £££’s actually doing the jobs rather than teaching?
I recall one non academic sibling going to Brums Matthew Boulton college to learn a trade, but does that even exist now? He’s done well in life.

Perhaps we could incentivised the large
building companies to set up on site training schemes for the 16+ school leavers. We simply don’t invest enough in our youngsters.

taxguru · 05/04/2025 11:45

@askmenow

Perhaps we could incentivised the large building companies to set up on site training schemes for the 16+ school leavers.

We do in the form of the modern apprenticeship schemes and the apprentice levy. If big firms don't train up their own, then they pay the apprentice levy which is supposed to pay towards other ways of learning. If they train up their own, they either don't pay the levy or claim back from it. Trouble is, like everything these days, it's mired in bureaucracy and red tape so firms wanting to use the scheme to train up apprentices need their own small army of administrators to tick the government's boxes as it's heavily controlled/monitored.

Personally, I think we should go back to the 80s and bring back the YTS, JTS and ETS training schemes - yes, people complained about them some of them being cheap labour for just making the coffee, but an awful lot of people on those scheme did get proper jobs, training, qualifications, experience, etc.

socialdilemmawhattodo · 05/04/2025 11:54

Justlovedogs · 05/04/2025 00:10

Where in the UK are you, @hereismydog? I have a pretty decent builder/bricklayer and plumber on hand (DH and his mate) and can usually rustle up other trades, too but you'd need to be in Kent.

I'd love to get their details. Just planning a new bathroom. I'm in West Kent.

Powersout · 05/04/2025 22:15

LikeSeriously · 04/04/2025 23:58

Are you being the dramatic, annoying little lady, sort yourself out and let the man get on with it, make sure you praise him daily, and question nothing. Maybe pay him extra 🤣🤣
Ah Op seriously I could have written your post myself saying all of the above a few years ago, it’s a walking nightmare, then when the work is done you so traumatises you can hardly bring yourself to like it. Just have lots of wine to get yourself through it😉

Show quote history

That's how I feel - that even when it's done I won't feel happy as there's been so many cock ups along the way. The heating manifold being installed in the utility means that we now can't fit the boiler in, which means it has to stay in the bathroom which means we're limited on size of shower tray.
What I tried to unsuccessfully convey to him the other day was that 10 years ago when prices were half what they are now, people may have been able to tell him to just get on with it. As it stands with the cost of work now, the average person has to watch every penny. He also doesn't get that it's a consumers market - we all know what we want from much research on the net but no, big man knows best!!!

Fatrosrhun · 07/04/2025 11:21

I’m with you. I’m waiting for my third electrician- he’s two days late, changed it to today but didn’t respond to my text or call yesterday asking what time he was coming roughly so I could plan a couple of errands round him. The plasterer rang him this morning and he replied to him that he’d be here late afternoon. I could have opened my cafe (closed as I thought the electric would be off). The last two electricians were also lovely when they came round. Both said they’d be ably to start the following week and would send a quote through, then both also ignored the couple of texts/calls from me and never got back to me at all. Why couldn’t they just say they couldn’t fit me in or something? Why leave me sat there wondering? I just don’t get it. I can take a no, but I don’t understand the ghosting!

springbringshope · 07/04/2025 11:23

ThinWomansBrain · 04/04/2025 18:11

"Tradies"? what a vile term - maybe treat the contractors that you are using as people rather than some kind of sub species.

You find outrage where there should be none. In many places that’s what they call themselves. And they are proud to be tradies. Bet you get outraged on behalf of other ethnicities too 🙄

FirstSheIsWise · 07/04/2025 12:25

LikeSeriously · 04/04/2025 23:49

I genuinely think we need more women in trades as I think as on a whole we are more efficient than men. I am being serious when I say getting a new kitchen really affected my mental health. Working and saving all that money and picking what I wanted, being treated like a queen in the showroom. Deposit paid and then treated like a piece of shit on their shoe for 8 weeks while work was being done. Big fat lazy assed men with their ass cheek showing. Doing very little each day. Not over the trauma yet 🙈

Thinking similarly I employed a female decorator. She was an absolute piss take, and did a very shoddy job. We've basically had to redo everything. One of my worst tradie experiences sadly.

Pinepeak2434 · 07/04/2025 12:29

LavenderFields7 · 04/04/2025 18:53

Also locksmiths…quote for new front door lock…£1800 😱 Why?! Who pays this?? I have an expensive car, so I can only think that they see this on the driveway and think they will have a go overcharging. Infuriating.

I also think this so always move my car off my drive.

AtomicBlondeRose · 07/04/2025 12:32

DP is a gardener, primarily employed by retired people, and regularly gets asked to do tasks that are definitely not gardener jobs, mostly because he’s a man with a van and tools and turns up when he says, so they think they might as well ask him while he’s there.

Pinepeak2434 · 07/04/2025 12:33

I have had years of dealing with tradesmen after redeveloping three houses and I gave up using independent people and went with larger firms, they’re more reliable and always come back to sort out anything that hasn’t been done quite to standard.

Pinepeak2434 · 07/04/2025 12:38

FirstSheIsWise · 07/04/2025 12:25

Thinking similarly I employed a female decorator. She was an absolute piss take, and did a very shoddy job. We've basically had to redo everything. One of my worst tradie experiences sadly.

Show quote history

I once hired a female decorator and had a similar experience. Towards the end of the job, she brought her young teens along, and I found them poorly painting and sanding my very expensive built-in units. They ended up sanding away some of the carved details in the wood. They even dragged metal ladders across my new wood flooring. At the end of the day when she was clearing away I’d ask her not to bother hoovering as she’d scrape the metal part of the hoover over all my new wood flooring.

Jabtastic · 07/04/2025 12:38

Descended from tradies here. These idiots you describe are the buffoons who voted for Brexit because they didn't want to compete with skilled, conscientious workmen. Our workmen are all Eastern Europeans and are 'tidy workers' as my dad would call them. The locals are semi-skilled highwaymen.

We urgently need to reform and re-balance the education sector to encourage the right mix of trades and graduates.

MMBaranova · 07/04/2025 12:44

Have found it all hit and miss. Find good ones and don't let go (and pay promptly).

The off the scale quotes get me. Decided to get three quotes for some work last year. 1st repeat cancelled on me. 2nd came a day early when nobody here and got the hump because of that. Faded away. 3rd 'it's caused by X and will cost £4K+'. 4th 'it's caused by Y and will cost £3K'. 5th 'it's the early stages of X and is a £300 job'.

5th did the work five months later. Seems good. On the day wanted £250.

CrotchetyQuaver · 07/04/2025 12:44

I think finding good tradesmen is like kissing a lot of frogs to find your Prince. When you do find one capable of speaking directly to a female and carrying out their instructions rather than only being able to talk to a man, then you cherish them and get them back when you need them in future. It's an absolute minefield, I pay with my own money, I decide what needs doing, I phone them and yet some will still only talk to my DH, he then goes off track and complicates the job spec (unnecessarily, think I want an ugly garden wall knocked down and the gap turfing over. He adds in a load of other odd garden jobs but can't remember exactly what he said when I ask him to be more specific...) drives me round the bend!

Mrsbloggz · 07/04/2025 12:50

Fairyliz · 04/04/2025 23:30

Blame Tony Blair he was the one who encouraged everyone to go to university instead of learning a trade. As a result we now have a shortage of trained people. This means that they can mess you around and charge you what they like. If you don’t like it, there’s plenty of work around for them.

I agree with this!

Jabtastic · 07/04/2025 13:10

Yes I blame Blair too. At least university education was free back then. So many degrees now leading to high debt but no graduate job at the end. Middle of the road kids are being forced into university by parents meaning that only the absolute bottom tier are seeing trades as an option. These are the same children who couldn't manage time keeping or organisation at school. We expect them to learn as adults.

User2346 · 07/04/2025 13:25

My bugbear is tradesmen who come around and act like it’s beneath them working for you. If I had a tenner every time a tradie’s last job was next door to George Michael’s house or some other celebrity I would have enough money for a fortnight in the Maldives. Always next door to the celebs house never the celeb 🤣

MissGeist · 07/04/2025 13:31

I've just realised that I've been waiting for quotes for two weeks from a window/jet wash cleaner and a double glazing company. Bloody tumbleweed.
The jet washer is the fourth one I've asked for a quote, maybe I'll be fifth time lucky....

IHateWasps · 07/04/2025 13:38

You are being very unreasonable to call them “Tradies”. I have never heard anyone use that term in this country before. Please keep that dreadful Australian slang where it belongs.

Cancelthebreak · 07/04/2025 15:42

IHateWasps · 07/04/2025 13:38

You are being very unreasonable to call them “Tradies”. I have never heard anyone use that term in this country before. Please keep that dreadful Australian slang where it belongs.

We do say chippie and sparkie for trade people in this country though so why is tradie offensive?

Swipe left for the next trending thread