Getting a plumber

[Jeremy Home]

Not really a DIY question, but a serious one.
I’ll do whatever I can myself when I can, because I enjoy it, it’s cheaper, it gets done when I want it done, and if it’s less than perfect I have only myself to blame.
But, occasionally there will be something that I look at, and say, you know what ? I want someone else to do this.
Is it just me, or are plumbers impossible to engage.?
No disrespect to plumbers out there, if you are all massively busy, fair play to you all, but I have posted a job on 3 different websites and had one response.
Someone phoned me, asked for photos, said he would ring back and I heard nothing more.Other than that -nothing.
All I want is for an old bath taking out, and a new one putting in. I need an electric shower taking out, and a new gravity fed shower putting in, with a pump.
I know plumbers can do this, as there’s numerous videos on you tube doing it.
Maybe that’s why they’re too busy? All making videos.
I would be fine to do all that myself bar the pump, but just thought it would be easier to get someone to do the whole job.
Not asking for any tiling to be done. I’ve offered to remove the bath myself, and even take shower out myself. Nothing- no interest whatsoever. I even set a budget of £30,000 (not that I would pay that amount) just to see if that made a difference. Zero response.
To anyone out there, just as a general observation, is this a complicated job? Is it too much agro for a plumber?
Let me know.
Where am I going wrong?
I’ve used these websites(my builder etc) for electricians and got things sorted straight away,but plumbers- forget it.
Why?
It’s puzzling me

 

[JP_]

I found a good plumber on Rated People recently. Maybe I was lucky, he was an ex-British Gas guy, one of the ones forced onto a new contract with worse terms, so he quit.
Found my electrician on Facebook, or maybe NextDoor. Young chap, newly qualified, building up his business.

 

[Deleted member 267285]

I don’t know why you’ve not had a response either, but I’ve heard bad stories with these sites. Perhaps you could engage with one via a local plumbers merchant? Anyone you know who uses one?

 

[blup]

Plumbers and all trades are incredibly busy, everyone is getting work done in lockdown. Make it clear you are prepared to wait and you might find someone good.

I found a good plumber through recommendation (actually a gas engineer who services the boiler) and established a relationship by giving regular work, from which he does small plumbing jobs.

Your location might be relevant.

Blup

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Forget all about any website where you enter the job details. Friends and family recommendations are the way to go, failing that get on the local town facebook sites. If you 'don't do social' media then perhaps you should.

 

[scbk]

A good local plumber, the last thing he is going to do is sign up to any of these websites and wade though job listings - he doesn't have to.

Ask friends/family for recommendations. And most local tradesmen know each other, so if you have someone working for you, ask who they'd recommend for xyz.

 

[opps]

The people that get work from those kind of sites are often inundated with time wasters or people that want the job done as cheaply as possible. I am not suggesting that you are one of those people but it is possible that the plumbers have concluded that you are (no idea why though).

Personally, I would rather find one based on recommendations from people that I know rather than use one of those sites No disrespect intended to tradesmen that use those sites.

 

[Jeremy Home]

Thanks for all the replies.
I’m in Reading.
Definitely not a time waster.
But, yes, I have got absolutely nowhere with this, so it’ll have to be approaching direct.
Thanks

 

[Deleted member 290061]

I don’t know why you’ve not had a response either, but I’ve heard bad stories with these sites. Perhaps you could engage with one via a local plumbers merchant? Anyone you know who uses one?

I've done quite a bit of research whilst trying to get a house part refurbished and I've been told a very similar thing - It seems that the good ones are all word of mouth and have as much work as they can do. I ended up finally getting lucky in that the project manager I've hired is using the tradesman he knows and they have a pre-existing relationship. I wouldn't have been able to find these tradesman on my own.
I feel that it's almost as if you've got to "sell" the job to good tradesman

 

[albaPhenom]

Where I get where everyone is coming from with the recommendations, I’ve just gone through trying to get bathroom work done... did all the Facebook recommendations and had a bunch of local lads come in and look at the work.

After feeling not too confident in most of them and finally settling on a local contractor who seemed to know his stuff and didn’t try to get me to change all the specs to materials that are easier for him to install ... I got let down badly at the last minute.

Thought “f this, I’m looking further afield” Went on Checkatrade, called a few one after the other and ended up getting a great guy in, who gave us a date for works to start, his communication was on point, insisted on using better grade materials and did a great job as far as I’m concerned.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Go to your local plumbers merchant, they will have a few cards behind the counter of who they would recommend.

Andy

 

[sxturbo]

Where I get where everyone is coming from with the recommendations, I’ve just gone through trying to get bathroom work done... did all the Facebook recommendations and had a bunch of local lads come in and look at the work.

After feeling not too confident in most of them and finally settling on a local contractor who seemed to know his stuff and didn’t try to get me to change all the specs to materials that are easier for him to install ... I got let down badly at the last minute.

Thought “f this, I’m looking further afield” Went on Checkatrade, called a few one after the other and ended up getting a great guy in, who gave us a date for works to start, his communication was on point, insisted on using better grade materials and did a great job as far as I’m concerned.

this is my experience too. Our local facebook page is mostly the wives and their wives friends trying to get work in for there hubby / hubby's mate.

so far they have all been idiots, normally just dont bother turning up and give feeble excuses after i have had to chase them, or they just havnt got a clue what they are on about and appear to just bodge all there mates houses.

problem with recomendations is the people that make the recomendations generally dont have a clue what good work is, as long as it looks pretty on the outside.

finding trades really is a bit of a mine field.

i've been really lucky, the roofer i used from checkatrade was top notch and sorted out the leaks where many others wanted to do a full re-roof in cement tile rather than re-using the slate. i've used a guy from my builder for re-pointing because after trying 10 different others no one ever got back to me despite chasing, the guy who dont the work has done a reasonable job after i had to tell him to dig out to 25mm, he was good about it.

i've used which magazines version of checkatrade aswell for groundworks/sewer work, and that was an excellent experience.

out of all of them websites i would trust which's site the most as they vet the trades that sign up, and complaints of workmanship are thoroughly investigated, and if the tradesman doesnt rectify the situation he gets struck off. and which also help the consumer with the legal side if they need to.

The downside to the which site is that because of the ammount of investigation they do into ones business the pool of available trades isnt particuarly extensive.

 

[Bodd]

Go to your local plumbers merchant, they will have a few cards behind the counter of who they would recommend.

Andy

As Andy says
I'd say go to an independent plumbers merchant as most the national ones have staff who know little about the trade either... Then check them out, see if they have any reviews. Even these could be fake, but just do your research because there is alot of pipe pushers out there...

 

[jeff the gasman]

I’ll do it for £29K Sir! A whole £1000 less than your budget. Give me a bell!

 

[Odds]

Out of all the tradesmen i've got in touch with to do work around the house, plumbers are the worst: and whatever you do, do not get in touch with Rightio. I'm still trying to find a fair trade plumber to give a fair price to do a competent job on a bathroom renovation.
I know there're several awkward aspects to the job but i'd rather an honest refusal than the messing about they do.

Best of luck to you.