Another bodged bathroom

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1) You have builders who are not specialised in plumbing doing a horrible job, charging lots of money, who have been working for years

2) you have DIYers who think they will give it a go, trying to save some money - you wouldn't DIY your car engine would you???

3) you have polish plumbers/and fast trackers who do crap work with no pride whatsoever, for peanuts!

The rest of us who care about what we do, and try to do the best job possible, have to just get on within a climate where we are automatically presumed to be cowboys/rip off merchants due to the amount of monkeys doing crap work out there.

We are tarred by the same brush alas!!!!

 

[dontknowitall]

Alas, us fast trackers are also tarred with this brush!!!

😛

 

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I personally think fast trackers fall into these categories:

50-60% - doing cheap work badly (it is hard to be tough enough to really learn/create a business)

30% - not working as plumbers

10% - have worked hard enough to skill themselves (if you have been going for 3+ years like this, then you most likely know what you are doing!)

This is a broad generalisation though!

I am quite the expert now in most areas of plumbing - however i know when to call in someone else when I dont know what I am doing as well (boilers/tiling/electrical for example)

I am going to stick with one trade and learn it well!!!!

 

[Alby-shellshear]

A lot of what I am reading comes down to pride and common sense without either a job cannot be done to a good standard IMHO, I am a D.I.Y.er who takes pride in anything I put my hand to if I think it is out of my capabillity I would seek advise from the experts I.E. YOU, I have had to turn DIY as a lot of so called trades are conmen pretending to know what they are doing when in reality I knew more than they did, idiots trying to con good working people should be shot on the spot I jest

 

[kirkgas]

Hmmph!!! I learned on a fast track course then set myself up. Keep being asked to do bathrooms and not yet had to return to fix leaks - not quite true but leaks materialise after a day or two and are then fixed quickly. No return calls a few months down the line as yet.

I tend to agree with what's being said though - too many people who do not take a pride in their work and some of them have been in the construction world for years.

this is exactly what i have been saying for yrs, it isnt the courses that are to blame, the theory of them is fine, it is the indiviudals who decide on their own standards, you are "recent" to my trade, i have been in it for 32yrs, but it is up to us how we behave/perform in it, well done sir

 

[tamz]

rember back in the 70's a lad named ringy fingy showed me the quick way to get floorboards up,,with a pickaxe,,dont get craftmanship like that these days

When chipboard floors started being laid i found an Estwing multidrill was dead handy.
Only had to put it to that use occasionally when some new joiner decided it was quicker to lay floors without hatches. They soon learned it was quicker to leave them than it was to fix them😀.

For those who don't know here's a picture of one

http://www.estwingtools.co.uk/images/E312C.JPG

 

[Bernie2]

Naughty! Naughty! Tamz.

A mate of mine, told us about a mate of his working on a site where the brikkies where slow cutting the balanced flue holes out. So he did it himself with a lump hammer, resulted in a new external brickwork panel required. But he did not have trouble getting the holes cut after that.

To me its all daft, its common sense, these things need doing and people usually know when they should be done.

But how often do we get co-ordination on jobs?

Watched the road gang recently, taking up the paving stones to replace them with asphalt, to find one contractor taking them up and laying the asphalt, while another contractor was coming virtually right behind them digging it out to lay their services. Its madness that a little bit of co-ordination should be able to sort out.

 

[tamz]

😱😱😱
Only ever had one joiner complain my "drill" was blunt 😀😀 but i had a short fuse and a family to feed then. His mates soon learned.

As you know Bernie, on sites it is usually all down to the money. Everyone is on pricework and price waits for no man, joiner or brickie. We and the agents would tell them what was needed but they would just carry on regardless until you pulled them up.

Btw i still have a great hate of joiners😡 Not individually but as a trade. They have absolutely no respect for other trades.

For roadworks there is supposed to be some scheme where they check with each other to see what future works are planned in each area. Obviously they have lost each others numbers as i have seen that happening a lot too.

 

[easyt]

When I was working I found that coordination between statutory undertakers and highway authorities for programmed work was pretty good. The regulatory agreements only cover highway works over a certain area. (Might have been 100 sq m ?) Statutory undertakers can be denied access to areas of new work except for emergency work.