icouldtelltheworld Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 13 hours ago, Genie said: The worst adverts by far are the Nationwide poem ones. Thank god they’ve gone away. This with bells on. The trend for spoken word poetry in adverts really needs to disappear 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 32 minutes ago, rjw63 said: I want a few slabs laying for a shed base, it's like no one wants a small job. You're right - there's a huge hole in the market now for up and coming handy-men to get these kinds of jobs and earn a career out of it. If he/she did a good job for you, you'd have their number for years after and you'd probably recommend them to mates. I think there's just a dearth of skills tradespeople coming through to be honest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuart_75 Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 33 minutes ago, rjw63 said: I want a few slabs laying for a shed base, it's like no one wants a small job. Drive down every street and you see builder's vans parked up, scaffolding up, lots and lots of people with spare cash being thrown at their gaffs. You're best trying those little handyman ads in the free local magazines that come through the letterbox every other month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 Weird innit, population of 750 million in Europe yet nobody can dryline for pocket money. It’s like we got used to cheap labour then voted to end cheap labour not realising one of the side effects could be the end of cheap labour. I bought about £400 worth of timber back in March, that same timber would now cost me well over £500. I picked up some external ceramic tiles for £10 a meter, they are now £20 a meter in the ‘sale’ section. We need to factor in things like that when we look at current quotes. Trades also know you’re sat on cash because you can’t have your holidays. Personally, I’d wait 8 or 9 months until the gold rush has finished. Queuing for a builder is never going to encourage keen pricing. It’ll sort itself out eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 3 minutes ago, chrisp65 said: Weird innit, population of 750 million in Europe yet nobody can dryline for pocket money. It’s like we got used to cheap labour then voted to end cheap labour not realising one of the side effects could be the end of cheap labour. I bought about £400 worth of timber back in March, that same timber would now cost me well over £500. I picked up some external ceramic tiles for £10 a meter, they are now £20 a meter in the ‘sale’ section. We need to factor in things like that when we look at current quotes. Trades also know you’re sat on cash because you can’t have your holidays. Personally, I’d wait 8 or 9 months until the gold rush has finished. Queuing for a builder is never going to encourage keen pricing. It’ll sort itself out eventually. And, they'll keep charging silly money if silly people pay it - so fair play them for having those skills! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted June 28, 2021 Moderator Share Posted June 28, 2021 Someone else (Mike?) mentioned this book a short while back. I found my copy at the weekend. It will probably become a best seller again soon 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Silvers Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 RE - DIY, YouTube is you're friend, a lot of jobs we pay over the odds for are relatively **** easy, if you have the time of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 A positive out of Brexit may be a surge in multi skilled men and women looking to capitalise on the gap left by foreign tradesmen. A cousin of mine is raking it in at the moment doing garden work, patios, block paving and stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 2 hours ago, stuart_75 said: Been searching for a builder for some minor works in a living room, 1-2 days work max. Quoted 2 grand by one and anyone else either doesn't answer their phone or says he's booked up for the next 12 months. I give up. Yep, i've been trying to have an office/summer house built in my back garden since July last year. Half of them don't turn up to quote, some of them come and measure up and then never give me a price. Others give me a ridiculous price at twice the normal rate. One guy gave me a good price and then ghosted me afterwards when i tried to book in dates. Another builder with recommendations was going to start in March, now he's hoping to start in August. If you don't need it urgently, best to wait till 2022. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 1 hour ago, lapal_fan said: You're right - there's a huge hole in the market now for up and coming handy-men to get these kinds of jobs and earn a career out of it. If he/she did a good job for you, you'd have their number for years after and you'd probably recommend them to mates. I think there's just a dearth of skills tradespeople coming through to be honest. Brexit and Covid. All the skilled Eastern Europeans have gone back home, leaving a massive shortage of tradespeople. And demand has gone crazy with everyone wanting to spend their holiday money on doing up their house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 23 minutes ago, Genie said: A positive out of Brexit may be a surge in multi skilled men and women looking to capitalise on the gap left by foreign tradesmen. Possibly in the long-term, but in the short-term we are short half a million tradespeople that are needed/wanted now. Those who already are skilled are working flat out, so no extra capacity. Those who are longer-term unemployed, well there is no hope for them to ever become skilled, because if they can't get a job at the moment with so many vacancies in every sector, they will probably never get a job. Probably good for those school leavers, but it will be 4-5 years until we see a decent impact from them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 1 hour ago, lapal_fan said: You're right - there's a huge hole in the market now for up and coming handy-men to get these kinds of jobs and earn a career out of it. If he/she did a good job for you, you'd have their number for years after and you'd probably recommend them to mates. I think there's just a dearth of skills tradespeople coming through to be honest. Worth trying My Builder; we found a handyman on there and can now contact him directly if we need - as you’ve said above Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 35 minutes ago, ender4 said: Possibly in the long-term, but in the short-term we are short half a million tradespeople that are needed/wanted now. Those who already are skilled are working flat out, so no extra capacity. Those who are longer-term unemployed, well there is no hope for them to ever become skilled, because if they can't get a job at the moment with so many vacancies in every sector, they will probably never get a job. Probably good for those school leavers, but it will be 4-5 years until we see a decent impact from them. A forward thinking, Brexit government should have foreseen these type of shortages over the past 4/5 years and been offering excellent training opportunities for apprenticeships in the construction industry. Also HGV driver shortages was a long known risk but not addressed. Bless him though (Boris), he’s doing his best. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted June 28, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, bickster said: Someone else (Mike?) mentioned this book a short while back. I found my copy at the weekend. It will probably become a best seller again soon Yes, I've got that. I am hoping one day it will be worth thousands as the pages inside the book have all been glued in upside down. I would have been given mine circa 1997 but so many of the pictures inside are clearly 70's / 80's.maybe even as far back as 60's. I wonder how long they had been printing the thing for. Edited June 28, 2021 by sidcow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted June 28, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted June 28, 2021 3 hours ago, ender4 said: Yep, i've been trying to have an office/summer house built in my back garden since July last year. You and 50m others! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 5 hours ago, ender4 said: Brexit and Covid. All the skilled Eastern Europeans have gone back home, leaving a massive shortage of tradespeople. Have they? There have been 5.6m applications for 'settled status' from EU folks living in the UK. Not bad considering the Government said there was 3m - 3.5m at the time of the Brexit vote. If many have left, how many were in the UK at the peak? I'm not making a political point, more of a point that the Government has no measures in place to accurately know who or how many people are in the country, which is very poor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 2 minutes ago, Xela said: Have they? There have been 5.6m applications for 'settled status' from EU folks living in the UK. Not bad considering the Government said there was 3m - 3.5m at the time of the Brexit vote. If many have left, how many were in the UK at the peak? I'm not making a political point, more of a point that the Government has no measures in place to accurately know who or how many people are in the country, which is very poor. All the Eastern European engineers i work with are still in the UK. Is it the HGV drivers and construction trade types that have left the country? The media suggest there’s now a shortage but I don’t know first hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 Congratulations I'm a rookie??? What is this madness? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted June 28, 2021 Share Posted June 28, 2021 3 minutes ago, maqroll said: Congratulations I'm a rookie??? What is this madness? Just wait until you reach the heady heights of ‘contributor’ (the perks are a-mazing!) 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted June 28, 2021 Moderator Share Posted June 28, 2021 34 minutes ago, Genie said: All the Eastern European engineers i work with are still in the UK. Is it the HGV drivers and construction trade types that have left the country? The media suggest there’s now a shortage but I don’t know first hand. Quite a few Taxi drivers have seemingly left 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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