Rogue Traders

[Mark]

Looks like I've been had by a roofer who took too many shortcuts. I've had that company do three jobs over the last few years and paid them over £1000 in total. They're not a new company at all and are well known in the area so this is rather unexpected.

I got suspicious because a fault they'd been paid to repair kept coming back (they've had two attempts and insurance roofing guy has had two more but his job was only to effect temporary repairs).

So, found a new guy this week (friend of a friend) who has had a look and is currently stripping back about half the work they've done and replacing it properly. Fortunately, he seems keen to do it all mates rates, which is good for me and for him (I've already asked him to quote for another job that needs doing and will have him back next year to redo the other half of the work done by the original company).

Anyone else got any tales of woeful tradesmen?

[Jonny69]

The residents association are a complete bunch of penny pinchers here. They will literally get the worst people in if it saves them £5. We had the roof replaced on the flats and bin room and they left the place in a complete state and the roof unfinished for weeks. Then when they finally finished they had blocked the drain on the bin room with tar. The room started to fill with water and permanently had 3" of water on the ground, so people weren't going in and putting their rubbish in their bins, just chucking it in the room. Then we got rats as a result, then the bin men refused to collect the rubbish and the problem got worse and worse. Nothing I could do about it because I'm a tenant.

So they called in Rentokill. Only Rentokill just made a little space and put one trap down, didn't sort out the source of the problem and several weeks later it was just much worse and the bin men still weren't collecting. I got annoyed with it all and dragged all the manky split rubbish out so it completely blocked the walkway so everyone could see what they had done and had to walk through it, then proceeded to bag it all up neatly and distribute it in bins round the property, followed by a bleach and clean in the bin room.

The woman who runs the residents association is so blind to reality she couldn't see what I was doing and had the audacity to ask what I was doing, when it was pretty obvious, so she got a proper earfull off me followed by everyone getting snotty letters through their letter boxes. Strangely enough the rats haven't come back now there's nowhere for them to live and nothing to eat. Why can't Rentokill do that? Why am I better at their job when I know nothing about the subject and have no special kit?

Anyway, to this day the roof is substandard in my opinion and there are areas that I can see lifting and probably going to leak.

I think the point of my story is if you want a job done properly do it yourself. I know this isn't always possible but I simply don't trust other people's workmanship most of the time.

[Mark]

Put me on a roof and I'd die. Simple as. ;D

Give the choice... :)

[Jonny69]

I got ripped off by a body shop once as well. Had a smash in my Anglia and busted up the front of the wing. I asked them to weld in new metal, didn't check it properly and later found out they'd just wagged it up with filler.

I think this is why I'm 'so good' at making stuff. I just have a go and 9 times out of 10 I do a better job.

Put me on a roof and I'd die. Simple as. ;D
ROFL. Me too, I know my limits :D

[Mark]

Just got the quote for the 2nd job and it's going to cost a little more than what he's doing today. Ooof. Could really have done without that but fact is there's a bloody great hole under one of the tiles and the cement holding down several others is very obviously spalled. Got to be fixed before one of them comes off and smacks someone in the head. :(

[NokkonWud]

I'm quite lucky in that I'm surrounded by people who know stuff that's all trades related.

My father is an Electrician, Plumber and Combustion Engineer, so that's all covered. One of his oldest mates is a Mechanic. And I worked in a Working Mens Club for 3 years and know plasterers and the like from there who I got on with really well. Then, the nature of my dads work he can get things fabricated cheaply/free.

I'm lucky.

[Jingo]

I have a link to pretty much every trade going through work, and I'm lucky with the ones I don't as my friends seem to cover the rest!

Most of the time things aren't particularly cheaper- but I'm happy to pay knowing any work undertaken is to the highest quality. :)

Mark - If these people are 'regulars' in your area I would look to report them to the Federation of Master Builders or equivalent - you won't likely see any recompense, but they will be listed (or not listed as trustworthy) and this may help others in the same predicament as you in the future.

[Mark]

They're not rogue enough for that sadly, and it's partly my fault too. I didn't ask enough questions before letting them loose.

Oh well, they won't be getting any more business from me.

[Jonny69]

Not exactly rogue traders but another example of people doing a bad job. In the garage yesterday one of the gardeners came in and asked for a pair of pliers to fix one on the lights, should have had his own tools, especially something as basic as pliers, but I'll let it by. Only now I've got a flickering security light right opposite my bedroom window and it's keeping me up. Useless bunch of clowns.

[Burble]

Go 'fix' it with a hammer. That'll stop it flickering.

[Mark]

Just had phase 2 of the roof repairs completed. This was mostly new work but work the previous guys should have told me about because it was dangerous. All the end tiles on my roof were supposed to be cemented down (standard practice, I presume), but he found he could just lift them off and the cement underneath just fell to dust.

The previous roofers obviously knew about it because they'd shoved a piece of wood under the end of one tile to stop it falling into the gutter. :/

In other news, my new roofer got a call from my previous roofers the other day asking if he'd be willing to do some work for them. I'd told him who did the previous work, so he told them where to get off. Bwahahah! :)