hmm the foreign people wouldnt be needed if a lot of english tradesmen wernt over priced and badly skilled... There desperatly needs to be a system put in place where you have to know what you are doing when doing a particular job and definatly something in place that means people can claim back from damages caused by dodgey workmanship without them having to fork out or go through a lot of hassle themselves. The main problem is someone can start up a limited company and then just go and rip a load of people off then close the business and then open a new business the next day in another family member's name and do the same again and again.. What is wrong with people taking pride in their work... im really hoping the recession will flush out a lot of bad tradesmen and the good ones will shine :)

I was surprised by how many cowboy builders there are out there. We’ve had the misfortune of being a victim of one particularly bad cowboy builder, the trouble was on the surface everything looked really good and we had no problems at all for a number of months , long enough that we used him to do lots of other things on our home. I still get very angry with myself for being fooled, even though I know he had done the same thing to many other people. When we threatened to take the builder to court he made us an offer which I accepted, I regret accepting it now as it didn‘t come anywhere close to the cost of putting right his messes but at the time because things were so bad in the house I wasn‘t up to fighting him in court.

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Sanity left when the builders arrived!!

Sometimes everything does look absolutely outstanding on the surface and in the detail that you can actually see. It isn't just about those details though, it should be about all the hidden details, also, which the client will never actually see.

There is not any shame in thinking a job was done absolutely spot on, only to find out later that it wasn't. The shame should only be attached to the person/persons who did the work in the first place. these are the ones cutting corners to whack in a cheaper price, thus nicking work off of tradesmen who take the time and effort to do the job properly. Even worse are the wan**rs who charge the same amount.

That is pretty shocking
I used a guy out my local paper once, english guy, advertised as a plumber got him to fit my electric shower.
Alarm bells should have rung when I came home and found he had tapped the wrong pipe (tapped the 3/4" tank cold instead of the 1/2" main)
Also alarm bells should have rung when his "electrician mate" fitted an MCB instead of an RCBO (non RCD box) and fobbed me off about the electrical completion cert. By the end I would have been as cheap, hiring a mainstream plumbers out of the yellow pages than some muppet from the classified section of the local rag.
Then again at work we had work done, local plasterers and builders made a hens a**e of the lot (inc a 12" drop in floor level at one point)
Eastern european joiners on the other hand, did some really nice work all over the shop and knocked a table together in under 15 mins, dead level, which you could have several people stand on. Without any moaning or grumbling either.

On the other hand, the old man has worked with some truly awful eastern europeans, along with some really sound eastern europeans who are having the p*ss taken out of them.

Blimey, only just seen this thread

He loved a bit of silicone didn't he


Although I think this is my fav, classy

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Professional Kitchen & Bathroom Fitters | Master Painters and Decorators | Brighton & Hove

He liked using flexi pipes to the shower outlet elbow and to the valve. Screwing through shower screen upright into the bath. Gripfilling the floorboards down and the ply ontop of them. Why put new floorboards down and then ply thin enough to pick your teeth with prior to tiling the floor. Why not chuck 18mm ply down. Why box in central heating pipes along the wall when you have had the floor up??? Put them under the floor. He had the system drained anyway cos the 3 leaks saw to that ha ha.

Tile trims were held on with silicone. Corners were acheived by bending it over lol.

He did the toilet also..............reverse fall to basin waste. Boxing in when he could have run stuff under the floor. Oh yeah, the plaster was falling off the walls too. I think he used a butter knife to put it on.

what a f****ing chancer

Don't tar all handymen with the same brush - this guy was a cowboy pure and simple!

SurreyMultiTradePersonCan...nah, doesn't work so well.

So true, we are not all like that guy!

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By eck!

The old standard handyman joke springs to mind.

He was a handyman only because he lived round the corner

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Dave

www.drlgas.co.uk

No but work hard at your skills for a few years and you might get there!

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As always help on here is free, however if you think you have saved a decent sum of money why not click the link to find out about the charity we're currently supporting? A couple of quid makes a real difference.

donnas-dream-house-charity-t52110.html

WOW!! - most of that stuff is horiffic! - as a "DIYer" (whatever that is) even I can recognise the EXTREME poor quality there.... My philosophy is, rely on word of mouth/reputation, judge for yourself what you think a job is worth and TALK to the tradesperson... you pretty soon get an idea 1) if they're up to the job or 2) Talking out of their @rse!

as Clint says ... "A GOOD MAN KNOWS HIS LIMITATION
ATB,J.