how good are the polish plumbers?

[fonta]

Hi all,

I was wondering does anyone know how the polish plumber managed to win the London market in just few years?!

 

[hammers4spanner]

got a polish build company down here that does alot of h/a work and to be fair they are a tad above carp

 

[Chris F]

My experience is that they are a load of cack.
And they won it by working for 8 quid an hour.

 

[AWheating]

doh mata where yow *** from, if yow dew a gud job for a real cheap price yow get more work. Money talks, or i should say less money talks!

 

[Ray Stafford]

We see lots across our branches, and some are good, some are less good and some are downright shocking. Much the same as English plumbers in that respect.

 

[Reg Man]

You cannot stereotype. The best plumbing and heating fitter I have seen originally came from an east german typewriter factory, trained for plumbing in Stutgart when the iron curtain came down. He is undoubtedly the best. Kris, thank me for my endorsement.

 

[AWheating]

its simply business really, if you can pay somebody less money to do the same job you will, be them Engerlish, Eyerish, Scutish, Welshush, Fronch, Bullgerian, Hollendish. pulish, etc.....

 

[hammers4spanner]

You cannot stereotype. The best plumbing and heating fitter I have seen originally came from an east german typewriter factory, trained for plumbing in Stutgart when the iron curtain came down. He is undoubtedly the best. Kris, thank me for my endorsement.

thats just german efficency

 

[Chris F]

doh mata where yow *** from, if yow dew a gud job for a real cheap price yow get more work. Money talks, or i should say less money talks!

You from wolverhampton mate ?

 

[gasmanrob]

Define win? I'm guessing you've read Mr Mullins article rabbiting on about how if you stand outside a construction site in the morning all you will see is Polish Paul and his band of merry Bulgarians clocking in?

well here are the facts.

when the recession hit prices for price work and day rate plummeted. For the most part they haven't returned in places they have but mostly not.

Brian the Brit has a family and mortgage and really need to be earning over £35k PA to at least balance the books

the band of merry Bulgarians live 5 to a room in shared housing that costs them about £40 per week to live in and feeds himself on nothing in order to send us much back to their families as possible.

polish Paul tends to win lots of work.... But only once next time homeowner isn't so keen on paying £8 ph for a bodge

brian in the meantime isn't making it on his own his customers have all turned down his work at £60 ph as carol in the office knows this nice foreign chap that'll do it for less then half that. So Brian goes to work for the machine.

6 months in mrs jones has a damp patch appear on her wall. She calls Paul no joy.. Carol is now quickly getting shunted off the Christmas card list. Ah I remember Brian I bet he'll know what to do.. Ah Brian's gone bust such a shame she crys he was a lovely chap.

so she pulls out the pages and looks for company's that'll come out quick only due to overheads etc they want £90 plus vat ph now the homeowner has a choice.. Pay the £108 or get another polish fella in to lash it up some more, it's 50/50 as to which she does but you get the picture..

just the other day I went to a cylinder that had fallen through a rotting floor because Polish Paul and his merry Bulgarians had left a condense waste disconnected in a crawl space that had leaked everyday for 2 years thus turning the chipboard into cardboard allowing said cylinder to start it's journey to the entrance hall.

it is important to say it's not just polap Paul creating atrocities across the nation. Ian the builder also turns his hand to a bit of plumbing of which similar hilarity ensues

 

[Reg Man]

do you work for Swale?

 

[gasmanrob]

Shhhh say thing like that in here! I'm on a moral high horse at the minute!

 

[fonta]

Well, the reason I asked is because I read of an unprecedented love across the British toward the Polish plumber. "They drive expensive BMWs". Etc. blah blah. Surely a good plumber wouldn't sleep in a small corner of a shared flat. He needs lots of tools and these are expensive... Just a thought...

 

[gasmanrob]

The key word there being good!

tools are expensive yes. But if your doing a bit of everything then you have the basics, a bit of speed fit and you're away. I wouldn't say LOVE but there is a market they seem to be creating for them selves also my post isn't a fair representation of all workers whether nationals or import

 

[plumben]

in my opinion it's due to the fact that cheap usually beats expensive, no matter where your plumbers from most people would rather save £50 than have a quality job done,

prime example I did a days work for a lad I used to work with, (he doesn't do plumbing as a trade anymore) charged him half price and he complained saying to expensive

 

[AWheating]

You from wolverhampton mate ?

dont you swear at me 🙂

i am from the black country tho.

yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, orrright.

 

[Chris F]

dont you swear at me 🙂

i am from the black country tho.

yam, yam, yam, yam, yam, orrright.

Same here mate. I grew up in wolves but moved to bridgnorth 🙂

 

[popeye]

Silly question. Why would you generalize based on where someone comes from. Are people from Lithuania better at IT? Chinese as dentists? Bulgarians as decorators?

I've seen some really good ones and some really shocking ones. Friend of mine had British plumber who decided that only thing that should hold toilet to the floor is few drops of silicone. On the other hand I had an exceptional plumber (British, if that matters) who did excellent job to very exact standards, on time and on budget.

 

[AWheating]

im glad you escaped 🙂

 

[WaterTight]

polish plumbers using plumber polish.

 

[WaterTight]

i once tried to see how long a sentence i could make that had total world ambiguity and still made sense(ish)....i got as far as 3, with minute polish invalid.

 

[Chris F]

im glad you escaped 🙂

And me mate, wolverhampton is a dump 🙂 an Awful dump, I do a a lot of work over dudley, that ain't much better 🙂

 

[nick/matt1]

had a laugh at a job in fareham, where the Polish outfit had fitted a boiler to the wall and wanted it commissioning....only trouble was that the boiler was sited under a carport...the pipe which they perported was the gas supply was the rising main to the flat upstairs, and to boot they had fitted a bath shower mixer on the wall as an outlet. Other faults included no tanking in walls, tiling directly to the earth floor, undermining the exterior walls, no soundproofing or fireproofing between the buildings....etc,etc.Client had paid out 22 grand for the works, only to have the council declare the flat uninhabitable. I did manage to get her a full refund on the boiler, which was a little recompence (supplied by BandQ!)

 

[Ermintrude]

I've seen some awesome poles . The first wave seemed to contain the quality ones. We were pouring a retaining wall and some massive counter balance founds on blast walls. The polish shuttering and steel fixers were amazing. Only let down by the lazy fat British div driving the concrete pump . When I say massive the rebar was T40 and we used a393 as lightweight lashings . The starter bars looked like anti ramrade stuff!

 

[PhoenixServices]

Had this the other day. Tendered for a load of uni accomadation refurbs.
never heard anything back turned out one of the firms that tendered included all the calculations etc.
so now the uni have got polish blokes sleeping on site doing them.