Tradesmen and furniture deliveries?

[movingagain20]

I know no one will know and I guess we won't for a while as I'm expecting the guidance to be clear as mud, but does anyone think tradesmen will be allowed to do jobs or will it be essential or emergencies only? We are due to get our hive heating and smart meter fitted and DFS
Sofas delivered this month, I appreciate this is not a big deal in the scheme of things! Just speculating, I'm assuming these things didn't happen in the lockdown previously?

I think that will be fine. It's people doing a job they can't do from home.

We're having a new kitchen fitted, starting Monday. I'm expecting that to go ahead.

I hope so. We're supposed to be having a new boiler fitted. Ours is still working but temperamental so we want it done before it finally packs up. I think it should be ok as the plumber said he was able to work throughout the last lockdown.

It will depend on who you have employed to do the work. There wasn’t a ban on such work in the last lockdown but British Gas refused to carry out non-emergency work. They furloughed a lot of their employees whilst still taking full payment from customers like me on service contracts.

British Gas are a pain in the arse. We had a service plan with them and they wouldn't service the boiler (I consider that essential) and when we needed to call them out it was so long until we could get an appointment that the boiler had started working again! We cancelled the contract and had the boiler serviced by a local plumber who will be fitting the boiler.

I work in the furniture manufacturing industry. We're expected to carry on as normal if there's another lockdown. We were technically allowed to continue during lockdown number one but a lot of us were furloughed as people weren't buying so deliveries were much slower.

Guessing our smart meter is out then! Hive is due to go in on the 4th actually so if it's true that it's Thursday we might be ok with that, will that be a British Gas engineer? Wonder if I can ask him/her to fit a meter too 😂

Oh the other one is Sky, anyone know if they sent engineers into homes in lockdown?

I've got a kitchen starting next week, and fitter is expecting it to go ahead too.

Mind you, I ended up with half a bathroom over the last lockdown, as we couldn't get some of the stuff.

@Waxonwaxoff0 thank you, I'm a bit nervous it'll be a doorstep delivery as I will be by myself and not sure I could drag in a corner sofa and assemble!

Unless they bring back the furlough scheme it won't be like last time where everyone was at home for weeks/months. Unless you work somewhere that can't physically open like a pub/hairdressers etc you'll be at work. I'd expect furniture deliveries to be as normal.

OP a friend of DH is a sky engineer, they weren't allowed to enter peoples homes during the first lockdown. They did Skype calls instead.

DFS delivered to us during last lockdown and assembled sofa (they only had to screw legs in but still). Furniture village on the other hand cancelled our delivery without explanation, went no contact for a while and then two months later agreed to deliver but not assemble...

You picked the right company 😊

We had an engineer come in to mend our washing machine during the last lockdown (this was classed as "essential" apparently, as was mending a cooker or fridge).

We had to agree to keep our distance and provide him with soap and a clean towel.

I imagine that heating systems could get designated as "essential", but you might find that the sofa will simply get left outside your front door. Who knows!

No idea, to be honest. Our bathroom refit is meant to start on Monday and I'm nervous but we are putting all possible safety measures in place. I need to call the plumber later/tomorrow but doubt he'll know any more than us! Technically as soon as the bathroom is ripped out I guess it becomes 'essential' work. I am already worried about keeping things safe and the news isn't helping right now.