Can't get builders to quote!

[MammyT]

We're in North London/South Herts and can't get builders to quote.. We have two builders in mind who have done work successfully for our friends. One of them can come around in 3 weeks and the other has been around (at least twice) but hasn't submitted a quote after 6 weeks!

It's not a huge job so why the delay?!

Is there really that much work out there that people can't be bothered quoting?

I believe that, due to the massive amount of work on the olympic facilities, yes there is a shortage of tradesmen especially in the south east of England.

If they are not acutally working on the project then they are taking on jobs which would otherwise be done by those who are.

Prob cos the job is too small. For an employer to put a team in for say 2 days isnt always worth the bother. Pricing a job is a nightmare and unless the builder feels it a good one (good profit) prob as you said cant be bothered. Really he should decline if not interested after 3 weeks forget it they are not interested.

I would try Mybuilder.com worth a look anyway, more smaller traders on there. Also Trustmark is part of the trading standards check and have bonefide workers on there.

Contargy to belief trades people have to make a good profit and Ive seen posts on here where people expect jobs done for cut price because work is quiet - pointless, overheads are enormous and its better if we overprice the work so we dont get it but dont lose reputation on not getting back to people. However, I too get constantly fed up with trades not even replying to e-mails and left telephone calls - very unprofessional.

I can't get one & my job is at least a fortnights work.
I've phoned 12 now. One quoted but got lots of stuff wrong. One cane round then nothing. None of the others even phoned me back

Have you tried mybuilder.com? I've used before with success.

None in my area

I've used checkatrade.com a few times - worth a look?

I had to chase to get my quotes - lots won't bother quoting if they get a sniff of you being a little non-committal...they waste too much time pulling together a quote. The other thing is lots of good builders are very choosey aboit the jobs they take on - I ended up feeling like I had to impress the builder and convince him that he really wanted my money - mad really, I thought the building trade were struggling...seems I was badly mistaken, I eventually got my quotes but it took 6 weeks.

Thanks all. It seems like I'm not alone anyhow. It's probably a 2-3 week job but a fair high margin one.

Hey ho, let me try some of the websites you've mentioned here.

Thanks!