I’m very annoyed at the mess a plasterer recently left in re-skimming my bathroom. He even left his unused bag of plaster in another room obviously trying to hide it.
This reminds me of some electrical work I had done which I was quoted a very cheap rate. When the job was done he charged about $200 for about $5 worth of materials. He gets the job underquoting, then makes it up in materials.
Hence I wanted to ask others about their horror story’s so we may all learn for the future.
pricedr
There is no exscuse for not cleaning up after a job is completed – basic house keeping is good PR and good Health & Safety practice. The plasterer probably put the bag in the other room so it was not under foot and forgot it.
As for the electrician or any other tradey, a cheap hourly rate will be made up on materials – the good old swings & roundabouts theory.
Your best bet is to get a written quote for the whole job.
Steve
I tend to help my tradesmen, this allows you to learn and safe money in labour costs. Not a bad idea if you don’t mind putting in a hard day’s labour.
I’ ve got a friend who’s an electrician and he leaves a mess when he does a job. When the customer asks him about cleaning it up he usually replies with “I’ll clean it up at my hourly rate if you want!”. They usually scurry off grab the broom and clean it up themselves.
I totally don’t support his attitude here but this is the way he does business. Does he get a lot of business? ………..yep.
He hits hard with his bill and doesn’t care about lack of recommendations from disgruntled customers etc. If the customer is kind and helpful this just puts up a sign to him that they’re ready to be ripped off.
Funnily enough he will do a good job for the hard ar*e customer that says something like “You better do a good job and clean up after yourself or I wont pay you.â€My advice with tradies is to be on site whilst they work. Get a quote for the complete job including clean up. Spot check them every now and then but don’t just hang there all the time. Don’t get too friendly but inform them that if the job is low quality you wont pay them.
Before you pay, Id get a building inspector to check it out – and if its not upto standard – don’t pay!
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Building inspectors are rather costly. If it is a relatively small job thats been done, bringing one of these guys in just does not make much sense.
If there is a problem with the quality of the work done, it is far better to rationally discuss it with the tradesperson than following a more litigous route of building inspectors etc.
Qwerty,
If I was doing a job for you and you tried to talk down to me like that,I would be packing up my tools and going.Most tradesmen take pride in their work and aren’t going to leave a poor job.Do you tell your doctor or accountant or baker the same thing??????If they charged as much as my plumber I probably would [blink]
Cheers,
Simon Macks
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I agree with Qwerty.
an electrician i know said same thing, get them to charge by the job if you can, not the hour..
If you get any good tradie..stick with them! and recommend them..
Agree with Yorker..watch and learn, make a coffee, plus ask questions and keep an eye on things..you’ll learn a lot, goes for any work you get done
REDWING
“Money is a currency, like electricity and it requires momentum to make it Effective”
Count The Currency With This Online Positive Cashflow CalculatorHi Tools,
Hey mate hope I didn’t offend you. Basically I’m a nice bloke really. I don’t employ many tradies as I do a lot of the work myself. But I do see, via friends and family, the results of crappy tradespeople. Just last weekend a mate had a slab laid in his backyard for a double garage. The concrete truck cleaned his excess concrete etc onto his front nature strip and street and took off! My mate had to get out there and shovel the rubbish into an area where it could set and be disposed of! In the same week he got his wife’s car back from the panel beaters and the bonnet looks like some preschool kid went over it with the spray gun! One of the worst jobs I’ve seen in a long time.
Quality tradespeople are few and far between but they do exist. The biggest problem is trying to find them.
Also Tools seriously would you pack up and leave a job if the client said do a good job or I wont pay you?
I work in the telecommunications industry and the jobs we do as defined in the clients contract basically say the same thing except with liquidated damages clauses in place until you get it right!
I’m sorry I don’t agree with your statement about most tradies take pride in their work. Some do most don’t. For most it’s a race against the clock and the result is the bare minimum that a client will accept and pay on.While there is such a surplus of work and a shortage of tradies, the situation wont change. When building approvals drop down to normal levels or below when there is a general economic slowdown, then tradies will have to bother about reputation and referrals. Unfortunately, at the moment one has to treat them like children and use what means possible to get them to do the job and do it to a minimum standard (except the odd few who take pride in what they do).
i could tell u plenty of ripper “bad tradie” stories,but will share a coupla the best.. (or is that “worst”[blink])..
Plumber comes to fit new loo.I go make him a cuppa..next i hear that dreaded sound of flooding water & a panicing tradie…while my loo,hall, & bathroom are flooding,i ask him “didnt u turn off the mains?” His reply? “No,didnt think i’d need to”!!!!!![angry2] It gets worse…being an old house,there was NO MAINS! So,while my house floated downstream,he was madly digging up the nature strip to cut the water pipe.
What did i learn from this?
A)Be willing to wait for a GOOD tradie.
B)Always check they are licenced & insured (luckily he was)
C)As already mentioned,hang around if u can & quietly learn.It may save u time,money,etc in the future.
Another one was the plumber that sent me a bill for3hrs roof work.What he didnt know was that just b/c my car wasnt there,didnt mean i wasnt!He was up there for a grand total of 45mins!When i rang him & told him he should be ashamed of himself & that i’ll certainly spread the word around town about his rip-off tactics,he cancelled the bill & apologised for his “miscalculating the time”.[angry2]Funny that the local plumbing shop owner told me he knew the same guy had been caught asleep in his car,& charged someone for that time too!
Lesson here? Also as already mentioned,be on site when any workers (not just tradies) are going to be present.
Photographic before & after shots may be useful too.I could go on……oh yeh,i happen to have one of those tradie dad’s,that takes pride in his work.He cleans up after himself,too.& doesnt charge like a wounded bull.
He’s a sparky if anyone needs any work done,let me know.In Brisbane Misty? I need a sparky..
wont explain to thourally but dont organise to hav renovations done while on holiday overseas and out of contact
[blink][angry2][confused2]
Pricedr,
As a tradesman I try to assist all the trades that I have limited knowedge of(if I have the knowledge,then I’ll do the job myself).That way you learn a little.I always offer to clean up for them,this way they give you a little more info.As a rule tradesmen don’t give away any trade
secrets.We tell you that it took five years to learn our trade,so go to TECH and do the trade
yourself.
By the way you didn’t complain about the quality of his work.So be thankful that the job was do right.That’s the main thing after all.
Cleaning up is nothing.
bbruham.
This is a tradesman.[fear]
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