Finding workmen

[UncleEbenezer]

On the assumption that my house purchase completes OK, I'll be looking to get some jobs done professionally. On the immediate/ASAP agenda are putting up a shed, replacing a balcony door/window, installing fitted wardrobes, and some minor plumbing enhancements.

Any tips for how best to find the workmen for these jobs nowadays?

[swill453]

Local Facebook group.

Scott.

[ReformedCharacter]

On the assumption that my house purchase completes OK, I'll be looking to get some jobs done professionally. On the immediate/ASAP agenda are putting up a shed, replacing a balcony door/window, installing fitted wardrobes, and some minor plumbing enhancements.

Any tips for how best to find the workmen for these jobs nowadays?

I live in an old house and over the years have needed professional help for jobs I can't do. I wish there was an easy way to find good tradesmen. I've 'sacked' a kitchen installer, a shower installer and more recently the bloke who I arranged to fix my garden wall walked off the job when I complained that he'd messed me around on the start date and was a little expensive. I've employed a very decent general builder and someone to actually fix my wall on the recommendation of other people that they've worked for, but that obviously isn't always an option. I wish there was an easier way!

Good luck.

RC

[csearle]

On the assumption that my house purchase completes OK, I'll be looking to get some jobs done professionally. On the immediate/ASAP agenda are putting up a shed, replacing a balcony door/window, installing fitted wardrobes, and some minor plumbing enhancements.

Any tips for how best to find the workmen for these jobs nowadays?

I would go by recommendations from satisfied customers (friends) if I were you. C.

[more]

Unfortunately, builders that can do the job tomorrow are probably best avoided. The builders that can do a good job have too much work already and will charge over the odds, and will not able to do anything anyway. It really is worth considering buying the tools, do some research and do it your self. Most builders around were I live will charge £50 per hour, plus, and are not keen to do less than a full day work.

[richlist]

On the assumption that my house purchase completes OK, I'll be looking to get some jobs done professionally. On the immediate/ASAP agenda are putting up a shed, replacing a balcony door/window, installing fitted wardrobes, and some minor plumbing enhancements.

Any tips for how best to find the workmen for these jobs nowadays?

My tip is to make friends with local estate/letting agents. As a landlord i know that most, if not all of them have a handyman / jack of all trades who can turn their hand to most maintenance/building jobs and certainly the ones that you list. Managing large numbers of properties calls for reliable, capable, honest & quick guys who can do any job. If you are in my part of Essex I'm happy to provide contact details of the guy I use (gleaned from my local lettings agent).

[EssDeeAitch]

On the assumption that my house purchase completes OK, I'll be looking to get some jobs done professionally. On the immediate/ASAP agenda are putting up a shed, replacing a balcony door/window, installing fitted wardrobes, and some minor plumbing enhancements.

Any tips for how best to find the workmen for these jobs nowadays?

I have used tradesmen from CheckaTrade before with success. https://www.checkatrade.com A similar organisation is Rated People https://www.ratedpeople.com but I have not used them.

[Laughton]

Another recommendation for checkatrade.

[Dod101]

I am fortunate that I have had a house in my area for I guess more than 40 years although have only lived here for the last 25 or so. I have therefore got the local tradesmen pretty well sussed except for roof work which is a bit of a nightmare. I think asking around the local neighbours is probably the best way. The people who bought my last house from me were moving in to the area and I left a list of tradesmen that I use and that helped my standing with them (the workmen) no end!

If you are getting fitted wardrobes from a national supplier they will provide the workmen of course. I think the other point is not to beat them down too far on price or goodwill will evaporate very quickly. That of course applies to most contracting type jobs.

Dod

[Sussexlad]

We have a local monthly mag called 'The Post'. I would unhesitatingly use any of the local tradesmen who advertise in there - as I have - because if they weren't reliable, they'd be ditched.

[mc2fool]

Any tips for how best to find the workmen for these jobs nowadays?

I have used tradesmen from CheckaTrade before with success.

And we've had cowboys from Checkatrade before, despite lots of apparently positive reviews and high scores. There are no guarantees. Good luck!

[AleisterCrowley]

Seem to be a lot of Builder/gardener/handyman wanted posts on 'Nextdoor'
People are unlikely to recommend cowboys (unless they are related to them) as they would lose credibility on the site, which is a social sort of thing

[88V8]

Recommendations are only as good as the person doing the recommending.
If they are an ignoramus who doesn't know good work from bad, you might as well poke Yellow Pages with a pin.

When we moved here from 120 miles away, we used builders recommended by the PO. They turned out to be well-presented very tidy incredibly expensive botchers.
A long resident of the village recommended two chaps he'd been using; They were very keen, and quite cheap which I think was why he had used them. But not much good. Eventually we parted company.
There's a builder lives in the village that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

I found a good drystone waller on Google, used him for a couple of jobs. Paid him dayworks which being an old soldier he milked for all it was worth, but I would happily use him again.

Last winter I wanted a lime plasterer, couldn't find one to do the job so I did it myself. My first lime plastering, and having taught myself I've recently done some more.

The key thing when giving out work is to ensure that you know how to do it yourself, so your can judge those who come to pitch for the job.
Otherwise, it's all a bit pot luck, I'm afraid.

V8

[bungeejumper]

This probably won't cheer you very much, but we've found that we have to change carpenters every 18 months or so if we want to maintain quality. (Similarly with small roofers.) We run a fairly large listed building that requires regular attention to the curly 18th and 19th century woodwork - and we find it's really easy to get recommendations for quite good young carpenters or roofers.

The catch, however, is that they seem to have an alarming habit of hitting the bottle, the skunk or indeed the needle after a year or so. For some reason, woodwork and suchlike seems to attract the kind of feckless young losers who would once have drifted from one casual job to another - they might otherwise have been mangling your car at KwikFit, or maybe doing erratic shifts in the pub for as long as it took to fund their next fix of their preferred substance.

We've seen so many bright-eyed young chippies who've gone right off the boil after six months - we found one slumped unconscious in the company van, right outside our property, with a can of Special Brew still in his fist! We talk to their bosses, and they roll their eyes and say that Gary isn't working for them just now.....

Small roofers, of course, change their mobile phone numbers every six months because so many of them don't want to talk to their former customers any more. We had a plumber who managed to screw up a solder T joint so badly that it leaked in all three directions! But probably the best of the lot was the double glazing chippy who manufactured and then fitted a sealed unit window unit without noticing that the felt tip writing on his pane of glass was on the inside of the glass-and-air sandwich, not on the outside. So there was no way of cleaning off the writing, which was sealed forever in a glass tomb. And he hadn't noticed. Duhhh…

If I seem to jest, I apologise because this is actually pretty tragic. We bought an amazing hand-built kitchen cupboard, with a scalloped Queen Anne "ceiling", that had been crafted from very old reclaimed timbers, and which is still the pride of our kitchen. We asked the shop owner whether this young genius could be commissioned to make more of the same for us. You'll need a ouija board for that, he replied. The poor silly sod had popped his last balloon a month previously.

BJ

[sg31]

This probably won't cheer you very much, but we've found that we have to change carpenters every 18 months or so if we want to maintain quality. (Similarly with small roofers.) We run a fairly large listed building that requires regular attention to the curly 18th and 19th century woodwork - and we find it's really easy to get recommendations for quite good young carpenters or roofers.

The catch, however, is that they seem to have an alarming habit of hitting the bottle, the skunk or indeed the needle after a year or so. For some reason, woodwork and suchlike seems to attract the kind of feckless young losers who would once have drifted from one casual job to another - they might otherwise have been mangling your car at KwikFit, or maybe doing erratic shifts in the pub for as long as it took to fund their next fix of their preferred substance.

We've seen so many bright-eyed young chippies who've gone right off the boil after six months - we found one slumped unconscious in the company van, right outside our property, with a can of Special Brew still in his fist! We talk to their bosses, and they roll their eyes and say that Gary isn't working for them just now.....

Small roofers, of course, change their mobile phone numbers every six months because so many of them don't want to talk to their former customers any more. We had a plumber who managed to screw up a solder T joint so badly that it leaked in all three directions! But probably the best of the lot was the double glazing chippy who manufactured and then fitted a sealed unit window unit without noticing that the felt tip writing on his pane of glass was on the inside of the glass-and-air sandwich, not on the outside. So there was no way of cleaning off the writing, which was sealed forever in a glass tomb. And he hadn't noticed. Duhhh…

If I seem to jest, I apologise because this is actually pretty tragic. We bought an amazing hand-built kitchen cupboard, with a scalloped Queen Anne "ceiling", that had been crafted from very old reclaimed timbers, and which is still the pride of our kitchen. We asked the shop owner whether this young genius could be commissioned to make more of the same for us. You'll need a ouija board for that, he replied. The poor silly sod had popped his last balloon a month previously.

BJ

As a rule of thumb, carpenters are the more educated and reliable of the building trades. Plumbers tend towards coke, plasterers are heavy drinkers, electricians are either very good or so busy they are useless. Bricklayers are sound.

As far as general builders are concerned, the good ones are very busy so the ones who can do the job reasonably soon are invariably useless.

Very few in the building trades will ring you when they say they will or produce quotes on time.

If you do find a good reliable tradesman treasure him, there are few of us around and I'm retired but I might be able to fit you in next year.

[Dod101]

Just north of the Central belt in semi rural Scotland it is obvious that I live in a different world. Our painters and decorators, plumbers, and electricians are all very reliable and trustworthy. My only problem is a roofer. I know not why but a trustworthy and competent one seems to be very difficult to find.

Sorry for all the problems further south.

Dod

[stewamax]

We have (pseudo) Georgian leaded light double-glazed windows.
Some years ago we contracted for three panes to be replaced:
- one was fitted in the wrong frame i.e. (a good pane was removed and trashed)
- one was fitted back to front (with the exterior lead on the inside!)
- the third pane was never fitted after I fired the contractor for incompetence

I have a lot of double-glazed panes (over 120) and we 'lose' one to misting every so often. Since misting is not always apparent in the summer (the best time to replace panes) I stick a tiny round orange sticker in the corner of a failed pane so it is easy to locate and reduces the chances of a botched fitting.

[88V8]

Some years ago we contracted for three panes to be replaced:
- one was fitted in the wrong frame i.e. (a good pane was removed and trashed)
- one was fitted back to front (with the exterior lead on the inside!)
- the third pane was never fitted after I fired the contractor for incompetence

Just as well they hadn't become orthopedic surgeons.

We had some units fitted to new (repro) windows last year. The units were hand-made glass and cost an arm & leg.
The [recommended] glazier stared backing them in with no spacers. Then he huffed and puffed about the special gloop one has to use for fronting them.

After one window - of eighteen - was done, I decided that I would back them in myself, and just get him to do the fronting. That worked out pretty well. But if I hadn't known how they should be fitted, he would have done the whole lot wrong and I don't suppose they would have lasted long.
Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to builders.

V8

[quelquod]

Just north of the Central belt in semi rural Scotland it is obvious that I live in a different world.

Scottish Central belt here and luckily there is lots of new house building around which seems to have soaked up most of the cowboys who are willing to take steady work for peanut wages. Heaven help new house buyers from what I’ve seen on my (and my wife’s) entertainment show house viewing, and I presume that the show houses are at least partly snagged!

Having had a small electrician business I know a good view tradesmen so picking a decent one isn’t too hard (though getting fitted in might be). Even so there doesn’t seem to be the knowledge around sometimes. I had to point out to the joiner working on our extension and conservatory that you should eyeball the joists to get any bowing in the same direction, a plumber fitting the new radiators left out a couple of metal pipe inserts in the speedfit (leaked later), and the brickie mismeasured the footings and tried to bill me over his quote for his extra time and concrete. Sadly even the decent tradesmen seem to have the odd dumbo ‘apprentice’ goferring for them. Outside of (sort of) electrics and gas decent apprenticeships seem a thing of a bygone age.

[richlist]

This thread is going off topic.
The op has a list of very basic jobs that need doing.