On 13 Sep 2016 at 7:16am Frustrated wrote:
Who do you have to sleep with in East Sussex to hire plasterers/rulers/plumbers/gardeners? Too much work at my house (and not sufficient skill). Has everyone secured £300 day work with the DFL trendy conversions? Even a reply from some of the tradesmen contacted would give me a nice warm feeling. We need more trained immigrants!!
On 13 Sep 2016 at 7:38am Mike wrote:
I couldn't agree more. I tried several local builders and tradesmen for some refurb work. Few seemed interested and prices came in between £50k and £85k. In the end, and much to my surprise, I found a small contractor from Hove who I negotiated a much lower price with. He had access to the various trades at very reasonable rates (circa £200 per day) although the tiling cost me nearer £300 per day.
On 13 Sep 2016 at 8:18am JaX wrote:
I'm afraid builders today only want easy jobs for easy silly money. Not interested in hard work for a fair price. It all stems from 'Loadsamoney'. If you don't cough up, we don't turn up.
On 13 Sep 2016 at 8:40am Frustrated wrote:
I'm willing to pay a fair rate- don't expect them to work for warm thoughts and job satisfaction like nurses, teachers etc.... A crying shame our youngsters aren't going into trades instead of paying 50k for media studies degrees
On 13 Sep 2016 at 10:45am Plasterer's Dad wrote:
Title says it - If you want a small amount done at a time at weekends.There is my boy, who gave up new site work because of the lack of proper plaster finish required, i.e Dry Lining finished with Tape and Jointing. And the contractors screwing you down on price. So he has a moderately paid maintenance job and does weekenders. My family has been in the building game since 1920. It's not all loadsa money unless you're self employed and a certain type of person. The only real saving is the fact that we improve our own houses for material costs only and know several other trades. As Mike said, £200 a day is fair. I have heard gardeners charge £15 an hour . As to plumbers, who knows. I was trained as one and being retired now haven't got the time - seriously I am into my garden. 
On 13 Sep 2016 at 10:51am Frustrated wrote:
I am pretty lucky that hubby is extremely practical and can get on with most stuff - with me as builder's mate...but it is a slow process and a competent DIYer is not as good as a trained professional...I'd just like to be able to get people in (£200 a day is not a problem) and get the work finished....
On 13 Sep 2016 at 11:13am No training wrote:
It's a long list of issues, but the fact is thank god for the polish builders.
Basically too many big companies doing 90% of the building work, they don't get involved in small job, leaving not enough small builders to fill the gaps (as the big companies and erratic planning rules put most out of business).
But it mainly stems from the problem that the big companies would rather employ from the EU than teach apprentices.
I got good at DIY, no other option due to the problems above!
On 13 Sep 2016 at 12:15pm Reliable Plumber wrote:
£300 a day for an experienced gas registered plumber is about right. Remember it doesn't all go in our pockets!!!
Beware of third world labour, been to two clients recently who employed east European builders who were half the price the locals quoted. On both occasions they disappeared way before the job was finished ie when the money ran out. And you can guess what fun it was trying to get someone in to finished it !!!
On 13 Sep 2016 at 12:18pm Old Adage wrote:
Buy cheap, buy twice
On 13 Sep 2016 at 12:43pm Fairmeadow wrote:
Small builders and contractors have three types of prices: for jobs they need to keep going (e.g. cost plus 20%); for jobs they don't really need but will fit in if you are happy to take your p,lace in their queue (cost plus 50%); jobs they don't really want to do but will do if it is really worth their while(more, sometimes much more). There are also jobs they just don't want to do at all. In deciding which group you fit in they will be assessing (a) how your job fits with what they prefer to do and whether your job matches the scale they operate on; (b) whether they think you are likely to be a good customer or not; and (c) how busy they are, how busy their key subcontractors are and whether they can get the materials. At present most local builders are working flat out, cost plus 20% is unlikely to be available and bricks are hard to come by, since we closed most of the brickworks during the recession and the rest are contracted to national house builders.
On 13 Sep 2016 at 1:04pm No training wrote:
£300 a day is £78k a year, even after expenses (including cert) probably £60k, not bad. Presumably the renewal isn't that expensive either (refresher course needed at worst).
I do sympathise that you have to visit a job, price the job, and probably return at a later date to do it, but presumably you have: hourly, daily, weekly and monthly costing's to reflect this?
So for a few days of work you're not charging the same pro-rata rate as you would for a small job?
You add in a point about "third world labour" (I think you meant EU labour), you meant builders? Are you really saying UK builders don't do the exact same thing (have you never seen cowboy builders)?
On 13 Sep 2016 at 1:19pm Frustrated wrote:
Of all the tradesmen contacted, the one shining star is my Polish electrician who works at a remarkable pace, charges £150 per day and does a great job. I've reached out to some other Polish builders in Brighton, not because they're necessarily better than local builders but because I want someone to return my calls, tell me if they are not available (instead of ignoring me or giving stratospheric quotes to put me off), give me an accurate quote and get the job done. No local tilers available.....
On 13 Sep 2016 at 3:58pm Reliable Plumber wrote:
No Training, can you tell the name of the drugs you take that whisk you off into that fantasy land in which you live ?
Did you forget to factor in pension contributions , holiday pay, sickness pay, bad debt , jobs that aren't ready when they've booked you in , jobs that lose money etc etc
Try it sometime. See how you get on
On 13 Sep 2016 at 7:15pm Local builder wrote:
I own a local building company and have a tiler who I use that is always willing to fit stuff in, with regards to day rate a decent builder with a labourer is going to charge about £350 a day
On 13 Sep 2016 at 8:31pm Tom wrote:
I'm in the wrong game
On 13 Sep 2016 at 9:42pm No training wrote:
I specifically said RENEWAL, I'm not suggesting there is no training to get your gas safety cert, presumably as you're a "reliable plumber" you actually don't need much training other than a short refresher to pass each time. You can hardly list pension, sickness and holiday they're a fact of being an employer (you probably pay staff half what you charge so it more than makes up for this). Not really sure how you can lose money on a job, presumably you work time and materials and get paid at the end of the job, anything contract based you charge enough deposit to pay for the job cost?
Thanks to the polish builders I say, at least they don't expect to be on 80k a year as basic salary, god help thee UK when we leave the EU.
On 14 Sep 2016 at 12:00am Oooh Err wrote:
No Training likes Poles the same way Keirh Vaz likes them
Expects anal for 150 a pop
Dirty farker
On 14 Sep 2016 at 6:58am No training wrote:
Yes that's right ooh er, but the difference between you and I is I like the female ones.
On 14 Sep 2016 at 11:38am Tell me wrote:
But surely No Training if you like the back door , does it matter what's at the front ?
On 14 Sep 2016 at 1:30pm No training wrote:
You assume I give it, I might like to take it...?
On 14 Sep 2016 at 2:51pm ClarifiedButler wrote:
Can anyone advise on the best trade to get into given the current economic landscape? Looking to retrain and thought maybe plastering, but the work for plasterers seems to be in terminal decline...but at the moment they are still pulling in decent salaries.
On 14 Sep 2016 at 3:39pm No training wrote:
Yes it's banking.
On 15 Sep 2016 at 10:26pm dilbert wrote:
completely sympathise re the quote thing and getting people to call you back. As a potential customer we know the drill and that you might not want to do our job etc etc it makes the whole process so laborious, excuse the pun. I'd rather someone say up front they don't want to do the job to save all the unnecessary chasing and hounding for a quote.
On 17 Sep 2016 at 12:45pm Frustrated wrote:
Clarified Butler - I'd choose tiling. Of all the tradespeople contacted, these seem to be the ones most in demand, charging the highest £££. Even finding someone to knock off old tiles is a challenge.
On 17 Sep 2016 at 6:43pm Frustrated no more wrote:
Bloomin 'eck- I've found someone!!! Polite, punctual, experienced and available to start soon. Meanwhile the guy who was supposed to start next week has gone all silent on me/not returning calls etc so it was a pleasure to tell him he was no longer needed (I think he didn't want the job but the words 'I'm no longer available- sorry' must have been a step too far. it's a bit like Tinder this lark (without the fun)