home baby sitting while the missus works, sad fecker looking at forums about my work....and I had an idear...

**Could we have a sub forum of this site where we can post jobs we know of or 'leads' where there might be a bit of work for someone**

I work in a bit of a bubble, I get the jobs mostly through my website and facebook page and then referals from those jobs. I often get asked either 'do you know someone who.... or 'is this the kind of thing you do..' sometimes times are hard and if its not plastering or tiling i will go for it, you do what you have to right. Anyway just this summer I have been asked for someone to rerender the outside of a detatched house, paint a small block of apartments(last time was done was 8k) , repoint a house, boiler install, flat roof replacement, and 2 people who had permission for extensions. and as the fella said, i didnt know noone.

i worked on sites in London for 3 years and then went doing what I do now which is groundworks and landscaping. I didnt do an apprenticship other than digging like feck for 10 years, and I dont hang out with my tradesmen mates in the pub, so I am out of the loop.

Looking at these forums, and a couple of others , I recon there is a few tradesmen out there who work all day on their own, come home make the tea and log on. and some of them, especially if you read the painting and dec forum here are very short of work.

There is a recesssion, I dont think it ever ended, but even if 30% are out of work that still leaves a lot who are spending. here in London anyway, they are still spending.

BUT, and I wasnt here back then but I remeber the recessions of the 80s and 90s , and my work partner tells me there is one huge difference now. Look at it as supply and demand. the well off still need the work done that will never ever change, even the normal joe and mary soaps, they still get damp poatches, need the roof fixing, the kitchen remoddled.

So the demand for workers is still there, not huge , like when in a property bubble, but steady enough. BUT the supply is through the roof.

Last time I worked on a big site was the savoy in london, there was well over a thousand blokes working there, and I would say more than 60% were eastern euros. just say they all lost their jobs tomorrow, what are they going to do. they are going to put out flyers, stick up adds in apu's shop, knock on doors. fair play to them. but to put it harshly, they are taking work away.

Take the job we are on now. doing a driveway and other works. customer is an old gent, leafy narf london, house is worth 3.5 mill, but of course times are tight. he wanted all the internal woodwork painted, 7 bedrooms, reception rooms, porch etc. so he went on checkatrade or rated feckers or one of em and got 2 polish fellas. they are sound blokes. but they learned painting a couple of months ago.

there is something wrong there. I used to be happy clappy give everyone a chance, we are all the same type of thing. but I dunno, it has me thinking somewhere in london monday mornign there is a gang of albanians starting some foundations that i should be doing because someone went on google.

i read the posts from all the sub forums here. one of the painters, the bouncy elephant i think, he said theres nothing wrong with being your job. feck it, my jobs my life. if my missus read that shed kill me but its pretty true. and i recon there is a lot of blokes on here are maybe not as sad, but they really care about what they do.

So, what do you think , just a side forum where if we have a sniff of work we can post it?

Sorry, only just seen this.

I'll read it again tomorrow when I have more time and let you know

If anyone has any ideas about the forum etc. please send me a PM as I am months behind on reading posts and might never read them if they are posted in the forum

_________________
DIY | Donnas dream house

That was one of my rants that I was glad to see disappear ...!

In among all the other rubbish I wrote, I think there might be something worth salvaging re sharing job info. a sub group out of the glare of the public, where you could post leads.

There s a forum for landscapers where they have member only groups, where you can do something similar.