Does everyone else struggle to get reliable tradesmen?

[Beeharris]

Hi,
I've recently had to have an old garage taken down and a new one put up.
Had so many problems, needed a better base, the guy I got for that was a cowboy, got done eventually, had problems with the garage company letting me down 4 times.
Now the electrician that took the electrics out of the old one like 2 months is not turning up ever when he says he will.

The problem is that I've had to ask my neighbours and his son to pull up the paving stones like the electrician asked so my kids haven't been able to play out, and also I still have things in storage which is costing weekly money.
So. I'm thinking about getting someone else but should I agree a price with the old electrician who took it out of the old one or because he can't finish the job not pay him?

The whole thing has been so stressful and I can't believe how hard it is to get tradesman to actually turn up and do work!!

Do you have legal advice with your home insurance?
I'd speak to them to see where you stand about the extra costs you've incurred because he's failed to finish the job.

But yes, we've had a nightmare with plasterers, gas men and builders who make arrangements & don't turn up. It must be lovely to have so much work you can pick & choose!

YES. I am totally retraining as a tradesman because you obviously have so much work that you can afford to stand people up!

I find it impossible too! Are you in London (don’t have to say but I am). I have friends in other cities who seem to just put in a call and people show up and do the job. But all the tradies I know are crazy busy and balancing masses of jobs, you just have to keep calling and calling so they remember you. I really need to renovate my kitchen now but I am so worried about being stuck without one for an extended period of time. I tried to get a new sink put in to tide me over a few months ago and was without water in the kitchen for almost two weeks and then it leaked. In the end I went to a plumbing supply shop and asked them to recommend a list of plumbers who I then just cold called. One took pity and squeezed me in on his way home. I’d actually bought the sink three years before but the guy I eventually managed to get out to fit it back then didn’t actually want to do it when he arrived! Then I got busy. I’d keep calling your builder and ask him what his plan is? Did you agree a time frame when he started the job?

Thanks for ur replies I'm so glad I'm not the only one!
I'm in the North West which I know is another busy area but it's really hard.
It hasn't just been the electrician that has pushed things back its also the garage people (a big company), and a builder!

The other thing is it's actually pretty intimidating waiting for new guys to turn up to quote I'm on my own with the kids an I'm 5 foot and you end up with 2 guys in ur house and it's not nice.
About half of them end up staring at u anyway and I'm not overly sensitive but I don't like the situation at all.

I find this a lot. We have been let down by (recommended to us) electricians, architects and gardeners. Those who do come (window cleaner last week) ask a large fee (£80 to clean my windows?!) I am in the south east, and my parents (who are in Wales) are just amazed by this. Their experience is that tradesmen near them are taking all offers of work as there is simply less of it, which makes them very reliable and keen to do a top job so that you will recommend them.

Yep exactly same problem! Having to get a family member down from Yorkshire to replace a gas hob for us as can’t find anyone locally who’s interested!

Yes frequently, we’ve temporarily abandoned our small extension, as out of 30+ builders contacted only 3 gave quotes. The first was about £5000 over the top, but could have been more subject to materials. The others were £10000 and £20000 more!
As for gas installation, we always use BG, they’re not the cheapest, but they turn up, do a guaranteed job for the price they quote.

JT05 - I know what you mean about British Gas, but I found they were literally 5 times the amount of others (luckily I found an OK gas fitter)
But I do know why it's tempting to go for big businesses, you feel a bit easier about holding them to their word rather than getting dominated by a builder.

I swear if I hear someone say "use local tradesmen" or "foreigners are taking our jobs" I'll scream lol

Yes.
They don't want to do small jobs (such as installing a bathroom sink). They only seem to want entire room conversions.
They tell you they'll quote for work, then you never hear from them again. I've had two people round to quote for painting my entire house, I even told them they could do it at their convenience, and heard nothing.
And every single one criticizes the work any other tradesman did: "Who installed thaaaat?" with much shaking of the head.

Oh yes, or they quote ridiculous prices when they clearly don't want the work.

I couldn't get a plumber to install my dishwasher. I had to wait until the kitchen was being done and the kitchen fitter got his mate in.

Yes definitely although I have found that once you have had one job done and proved yourself it's easier to get subsequent jobs done as they quite often have a network of friends in associated trades. That said I can't seem to get a gardener this year now that last year's has ceased trading despite me wanting regular maintenance on top of a one off overhaul.

Our plumber ( recommended btw) left us without water. He claimed that he was popping out and would be back in an hour.
He returned five days later with a crap excuse.
I also don’t want to hear any more racist crap about’ foreigners taking our jobs’

Yup. Plumber meant to be ripping out shower this morning, we have a leak behind the wall. Got a text to say he'll now be here tomorrow.

Here we go...

Definitely! When we redid the bathroom a couple of years back, we had no lights or extractor fan for about a month as the company kept sending out apprentice electricians who just couldn't figure out how to install it.

Just finished dealing with an oddball builder who installed a new roof but strung us along for about 2 weeks saying the velux window was faulty and they had to send a rep out to look at it. But it doesn't really need to be fitted as we can just pull down the flimsy ladder to the loft and pop the window out and jump off the roof in the event of a fire wtf! He still expected paying in full when he was halfway through the job (still had to move some beams around inside the roof). My DP said to him you need to sort the window out before we pay you in full and he miraculously figured out how to fit it 5 minutes later. This was late on one Friday. Why he pretended he didn't know how to do it for so long I have no idea.

He then lost his shit with us the following Monday for 'smirking at him'. He'd been moaning on at us that he'd lost £2k working on our house as it had been scaffolded for about 3 weeks but he couldn't get on with the job due to the rain, how that was our fault I have no idea! We were also in a rush that day, so figured giving him a nod and a smile was fine. He was working on a neighbour's house so figured he'd want to crack on with it. But no he took it that we were mocking him and flagged us down in the car to demand payment and again reiterate that he'd lost money spending so long working on our house. We were actually on our way to pay money into the bank so we could pay him, but apparently that wasn't good enough. Never met a tradesman who considered being paid within a working day of completing a job as being a bad thing! Needless to say we won't be using him again.

I'm struggling to even get quotes off them. Emailed about seven companies to get some fencing replaced - only three replied to do a quote, and after they'd been round only one actually sent me the quote without being chased for it. Don't they want the work?!

Yep. I spent one hour in my house with a company I found on checkatrade, amazing reviews. Then it took them one week to send me a quote... Finally, I gave them a call that I have other quotes and that I really need to decide now. Then they told me they definitely won't send a quote unless I'm willing to disclose the pricing of their competitors. I refused and never heard back from them.

I have found that once you have had one job done and proved yourself it's easier to get subsequent jobs done as they quite often have a network of friends in associated trades

Yes indeed. FAR better than randomly phoning up tradesmen from ads, leaflets, etc. When we first bought our house and were making improvements, we got a small network of "trades" from our plumber including an electrician, joiner, plasterer etc. We used them regularly and they were reliable. As time passed, they retired or moved away and we went through a period of not having any "tame" workers to call on.

We've been trying to get people to replace our back porch. We've phone over 10 joiners/window replacement firms, so far and made appointments, only half bothered to turn up and of those only 2 have bothered to give a quote. We gave the go ahead to 1, and arranged an appointment for them to come and measure up properly, but they didn't bother coming and didn't bother phoning either. So we're left with just 1. It's not as if it's a cheap job - quotes averaged £5k for a very small porch.

We've found the older/better tradesmen are so busy with repeat work they don't even advertise so they're hard to find. The ones who constantly advertise are usually crap, hence why they need to advertise, i.e. no repeat work. The big firms only want big jobs and are exceedingly expensive as they have to pay salesforce wages, admin/management wages, etc., yet still tend to use cheap/naff subbies to actually do the work. It's a right mess and about time the entire industry was given more respect with more kids encourage to follow a proper trade.

It's not too bad here , we are in Yorkshire. Just need to watch out for the cowboys but generally it's not too bad getting people out. Seems to be a regional thing.

I think it must be regional, I bet some areas of Yorkshire will be the same, but it seems that its places that have a lot of people and work.
I was really stupid with the concrete base thing cos I put it on a trades fb page and 2 people recommended one guy an he came and did a terrible job. When I properly looked into it it had been his girlfriend and sister.
I wouldn't mind but he was creepy and stared at me everytime I went near the window or outside and made quiet comments to his mate. Urgh
He said for a week that his "concrete people" kept letting him down. But personally I think he couldn't get a credit account with anyone. He ended up getting van loads of concrete from b&q and my neighbour said its so sandy it'll chip a bit.