Get Proper Builders In She Said

I have worked in the building trade for over 30 years. In that time I would say around 95% of all the tradesmen I have worked with I wouldn’t let them any where near my own house to do any work.
It does not matter what qualifications they have or how many years experience they have ,they still can be totally useless
John

That’s quite a scathing statement. I’ve worked with some tradesperson, who have no pride in their work, and just interested in making money. But not in your percentage terms.
 
It’s not a major job to sink the back boxes in but there will be making good needed around the box. The old back box won’t just magically pull out. For a start there’s going to be a couple of cables in there I would hope. Re plastering and painted around the boxes will be highly likely.

Cheapest and worst looking alternative would be one of these. Least disruption. Not ideal but it’s an option at least.


I concur, I replaced a socket in my bedroom and a thread just fell off the back box. So I had to brute force it out and replace. Little bugger it was! And then I had to install a new one and fill around the slight cosmetic damage.

In this 80's built house, all the back boxes are 25mm as well so a pain with cable management as some of the cables just don't want to go where they need to without some persuasion.
 
Afraid 25mm back boxes for socket outlets are used predominantly in new builds, especially with dry lined walls. Saves having to chop out the walls.

Not saying it’s good practice, but times money.

I did make the point about electrical certificates & compliance (if applicable) back in #41. Hope OP’s not encountered problems with that.

Oh I know they’re used widely but it’s by people on price as you say who want to bang out a house. Rubbish job.

Houses are built so cheap now, I’m praying I can avoid a new build when the time comes to get a mortgage. Naff dry lined walls, poly pipe everywhere.

I don’t really think 25mm boxes are fit for purpose, well they’re fit for the purpose of cheap accessories but not much else
 
Oh I know they’re used widely but it’s by people on price as you say who want to bang out a house. Rubbish job.

Houses are built so cheap now, I’m praying I can avoid a new build when the time comes to get a mortgage. Naff dry lined walls, poly pipe everywhere.

I don’t really think 25mm boxes are fit for purpose, well they’re fit for the purpose of cheap accessories but not much else
I just moved into a new build from a 1989 new build :)

Agree about 25mm boxes though, so passé.
 
I concur, I replaced a socket in my bedroom and a thread just fell off the back box. So I had to brute force it out and replace. Little bugger it was! And then I had to install a new one and fill around the slight cosmetic damage.

In this 80's built house, all the back boxes are 25mm as well so a pain with cable management as some of the cables just don't want to go where they need to without some persuasion.

Yeah that’s the thing, the way some are commenting, it’s just a case of flicking the back box out with your little finger :D there’s a couple of cables to think about too which will be doing their very best to stop it coming out. Especially on solid walls!
 
I do it no trouble, apart from a bit of making good. So I don’t see why some are making a big thing of it. Just saying.

Guess it’s horses for courses, like I might find plumbing in a toile, troublesome.
 
I have worked in the building trade for over 30 years. In that time I would say around 95% of all the tradesmen I have worked with I wouldn’t let them any where near my own house to do any work.
John

Agree with this, in fact, I don’t sub contract at all as I didn’t find any that work to the correct standard. Apart from an electrician which has taken me ten years to find. Went through so many of them before this one.

Site workers- forget it, they don’t take the necessary care to work in the same domestic market I work in.
 
Agree with this, in fact, I don’t sub contract at all as I didn’t find any that work to the correct standard. Apart from an electrician which has taken me ten years to find. Went through so many of them before this one.

Site workers- forget it, they don’t take the necessary care to work in the same domestic market I work in.

I'd disagree. I've worked on & off in the industry since I left school, a long time ago. I've also come across some bad workmanship, but on the main there are many in different trades who pride themselves in their work. If you were to visit the different plumbers, tilers & electrician forums, you were find a different opinion to the one being banded about here.

There's some that argue, I'm not one of them, that suggest the domestic market is where poor workmanship & expertise prevails. I don't see where your argument holds water. Even in this particular thread, they are obviously several different tradespersons posting. Are you suggesting, that most are cowboys by nature of percentages?
 
It’s all about your perspective. If we assume that we would class ourselves as the benchmark for quality and pretty much every job you see is worse quality than you could do yourself then 95% is an accurate description. Purely speaking about the trades in my industry.

In fact, it was only last week that I completed a Bathroom for a designer that I hadn’t worked with before. He came on site and we had a chat with the customer. I had mitred and resin filled/polished the external tile corners instead of using tile trim. The designer noticed this and said to the customer that he could get 200 Tilers in to do the job and he might see 1 out of the 200 who could do this. So, perhaps 95% is an under estimate.

I think what @27neth was originally getting at is that a lot of the tradesman he has worked with, he wouldn’t get to work in his house because in all likelihood he could do a better job himself. It’s a fair point and I agree with him.

Nobody has mentioned that they are cowboys, purely said that they wouldn’t have them work in their own house.

Regarding people who participate in internet trades forums, these people are a different breed. Generally they are far better tradesman than most. They are usually on these forums as they want to better themselves/share information with other like minded trades. Obviously a generalisation. I am somewhat informed as I’ve been a member of these forums since the early noughties.

It’s all personal experience though. The company I used to work for spent five years looking for good Tilers. We’re talking 50 people who didn’t make the grade. My example above, it took me ten years to find a really good electrician. It’s basic stuff, on the job sheet it says to double up on dust sheets with the bottom layer being poly backed dust sheets. Turn up on site and the guy has an old curtain underneath a pair of steps and that’s it. Customers carpet is worth tens of thousands of pounds.

It’s not all about the quality of work, it’s the whole package. A lot is about respect towards the customers property.
 
I think it depends on the personal exposure to standards and types of work. There are people who are used to working on high value jobs and understand the customer. I've just recently left a supervisory role at a 5 million turnover plumbing company. Out of the twenty staff, I'd only have 3 or 4 either working with me or in my own house and trust them not to cut corners or leave a mess.

Cleanliness and presentation is a big issue, spot checking trades I've found radios on full blast, play fighting, inadequate protection of customers property, eating food in customers houses. Poor communication with customers. Last yr I had to dismiss 3 people for poor attitude and standards, not a pleasant job but they were warned numerous times, shown and they gave promises they understood what was expected.


Technical knowledge I'm not so fussed about especially on commercial heating system, these are often designed in conjunction with the manufacturer and adapted on site. Technical knowledge is shared between those with more experience and the manufacturer to over come problems.
Changes to spec and design on builds are a normal part of life, I think this is where customers expectations fall short, just because an architect has drawn the design on a plan doesn't mean it will necessarily translate to a real life application on site. So flexibility is needed both in budget terms and end product.

In the ops case the work is just shoddy with poor standards all round.
However some customers are a pita, these days as I'm older I know how much a job is worth in fiscal, mental and physical expenditure, if they don't like it they can find someone else. No obligation quotes mean just that, no need to get upset because the parties budgets differentiate.
 

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