When did plumbers start to believe that domestic jobs were below them?

I have only once employed someone to do a job for me which was to lay slabs for a base for a garden shed. I contacted three different companies though a couple were sole traders I think you call them for there quotes and got three different ones as was expected I then asked how they intended to do the job as I know how to do it and would have done f younger. Two of them had not really got a clue in fact all he was going to do was bung the slabs down on top of the grass whereas I was looking for the turf removed, ground levelled, plastic sheeting laid and then a san/cement mix.

Only one said that was how he intended to do the job, he wasn't the cheapest nor the most expensive but at least he knew how to do the job.
 
I have only once employed someone to do a job for me which was to lay slabs for a base for a garden shed. I contacted three different companies though a couple were sole traders I think you call them for there quotes and got three different ones as was expected I then asked how they intended to do the job as I know how to do it and would have done f younger. Two of them had not really got a clue in fact all he was going to do was bung the slabs down on top of the grass whereas I was looking for the turf removed, ground levelled, plastic sheeting laid and then a san/cement mix.

Only one said that was how he intended to do the job, he wasn't the cheapest nor the most expensive but at least he knew how to do the job.
Having spent plenty of time doing stuff for other people you should always make sure you define everything you want as just asking for a shed base as cheap as possible will just get you someone who will meet that criteria.

Once did a rip out of front hedge and remove the lawn and drop down a few bags of gravel for a guy and that lasted about a week till his wife decided to use the drive and her heels sank into the mud... Then the fun happened as she was not happy as those heels were expensive and she tore her husband a new hole and it cost him a lot more at the end than paying for a decent job in morecways than one.
 
Having spent plenty of time doing stuff for other people you should always make sure you define everything you want as just asking for a shed base as cheap as possible will just get you someone who will meet that criteria.
I agree about defining exactly what you want but there are the correct way to do a job and the cowboy way and laying slabs directly onto grass is definitely the cowboy way.
But of course one would expect a good tradesman to define how he going to the job anyway though to an ordinary punter this will undoubtedly be meaningless which is why cowboys thrive.
That said we do have google and YouTube so people should quite easily look up the correct way a job should be done.
 
There was a comment a while back about the cost reflecting the plumbers experience, but in the case of a leaking tap, or installing new taps, which are straightforward ( for them! ) I would expect a newly qualified plumber to do as good a job as one of many years experience! If it were a complicated plumbing job, then experience is obviously helpful.
 
This now speaks volumes about your argument on this thread.

‘I’m going to take my ball and go home’

No. It speaks volumes about what a bunch of bullies there are on this thread which has degenerated into a series of attacks on one individual and speculation and taunts about his personal life and private circumstances.
 
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I agree about defining exactly what you want but there are the correct way to do a job and the cowboy way and laying slabs directly onto grass is definitely the cowboy way.
But of course one would expect a good tradesman to define how he going to the job anyway though to an ordinary punter this will undoubtedly be meaningless which is why cowboys thrive.
That said we do have google and YouTube so people should quite easily look up the correct way a job should be done.
Theres lots of people who just want the cheapest job so putting down some membrane etc adding another £30 will be told to f-- off and we did walk off quite often and would see the result a few weeks later when someone else had done it to their price spec and it was quite funny as they'd sometimes reach out and ask how much to fix it....to which we said no thanks.
 
I would expect a newly qualified plumber to do as good a job as one of many years experience! If it were a complicated plumbing job, then experience is obviously helpful.

You would think so wouldn’t you. Unfortunately that is not the case. The NVQ Qualification I always considered to be incredibly useful and I used to always recommend school leavers complete at least the level 2 and go on to level 3 if they could.

I did the equivalent in the early 90’s which was City and Guilds and I went on to do the Advanced Crafts. The courses nowadays are very different.

I’ve completely changed my stance on that course now. It teaches them practically nothing useful. There’s so much health and safety in the course nowadays that they are missing out on valuable experience actually doing the work. I would put the course down as a taster course to give people a rough idea of what Plumbing is. Hand on heart, even after doing the course, a hell of a lot of the people with their ticket could mess up a tap washer change.

If a young person came to me asking for an apprenticeship. (A few have and I’m training one now) I would recommend starting work straight away.
 
There's been some talk on here of inexperienced plumbers (and other tradespeople) only taking on simple jobs and charging less.

But who's going to advertise themselves as inexperienced?
 
There's been some talk on here of inexperienced plumbers (and other tradespeople) only taking on simple jobs and charging less.

But who's going to advertise themselves as inexperienced?
And who would book them?
New thread on GC - 'Help! Hired a plumber to change a washer in my tap and he flooded my house!' :rotfl:
 
So, not biased at all.

So you’re playing that game now 🤣… What are you implying, that the information in this thread that has been provided directly by plumbers and tradesman, accounts for nothing because they work in the industry, therefore they are biased 😒, and that these professionals are agreeing and sticking together as a form of justification, and that there is some kind of hidden agenda? That’s ridiculous logic, just like the rest of your logic in this thread.

If I have an inform opinion of the industry, and other members of this site who are professional qualified plumbers and tradesman have also commented (who are strangers that I don’t personally know), to give their informed opinions as well, where these are much more inline with one another and what I had said regarding pricing than what you have said, which they are, then this is strong valid evidence to argue against your claims… It’s probably as close to the objective facts in a small discussion like this than it’s going to get. It’s not your field, you don’t have the expertise to be able to support your claims and theories… It’s no different to if plumbers and tradesman were to start making claims about IT work, and told you that they know more than you, that you are wrong about things in your profession, and are ripping people off.
 
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I cleared the blockage
 

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