Bloody tradies - where are the good ones ? [Melb]

[tommo82]

Time for a rant.

A couple of years ago I renovated my house and while I did a considerable amount of the work myself, had the dis(pleasure) of using tradespeople to get some of the jobs done like laying down some new floors, architraves, electrical, carpets, etc.

I learned back then that it's difficult finding reliable tradespeople - and generally they are unprofessional and slack (I did find certain exceptions to this, but I am generalising here). I ended up having to redo most of the electrical work in my home after the sloppy job that the electricians did, and refit most of the skirting and architraves.

Now my neighbours and I are trying to get our curved front verandahs replaced (old Victorian style), as well as have the facade painted.

You'd think it would be easy to find people who wanted to do this job, but alas, it aint. I've been trying now for 2 weeks to get painters out to even quote the job, and I've finally managed to organise 1 quote for the roof in the same period.

Most of the tradies I enquired with either don't answer the phone, don't return messages, or miss appointments to come and discuss/quote the job.

I then lodged the jobs via "Service Central" who dispatch them to tradies (I had reasonable experience in the past using them). Hopefully I'll have some better luck now.

I always compare these clowns to the company I work for - if we were unresponsive and unprofessional like this we'd be out of business yesterday.

So after all of this - does anyone know any reliable/recommended painters and roof plumbers (two separate jobs) in Melbourne area?

[xlr8_87]

yep, a sad but true fact! one of the reasons i should hopefully make a killing when I qualify (carpentry). do the job well, and people recommend you!

another thing to factor in as to why you aren't able to get people to even quote, is because of the skills shortage australia has at the moment. Everyone is already tied up with other work. No point going to quote something you're too busy to do.

[danja]

My brother runs this site:
Welcome | Quotify.com.au

Basically, tradies pay to be listed in their database, you put your details in and submit a request, the system pulls a number of matches up and gets quotes from them, then you get to choose the best one. People rate their experience with them after using them, so you can get a feel or the quality of the guy and use this to weigh up which one to choose.

Check it out, they don't have every trade, but quite a few.

[Troy711]

Usually when my dad (also my boss) gets a quote that he doesn't have the resources to do he loads the price up. It is amazing how many people don't shop around.

[STEALTHY™]

Usually when my dad (also my boss) gets a quote that he doesn't have the resources to do he loads the price up. It is amazing how many people don't shop around.

Thats standard practice. Either 'make it worth my while' or 'i'll quote so high you'll go somewhere else'

[tommo82]

yep, a sad but true fact! one of the reasons i should hopefully make a killing when I qualify (carpentry). do the job well, and people recommend you!

another thing to factor in as to why you aren't able to get people to even quote, is because of the skills shortage australia has at the moment. Everyone is already tied up with other work. No point going to quote something you're too busy to do.

I understand problems with resources. But it's common courtesy if someone has made the effort to seek a quote/proposal from your company, that you should at least tell them "thanks but no thanks".

I suppose that's a bit much to ask of this particular industry though.

[Troy711]

Thats standard practice. Either 'make it worth my while' or 'i'll quote so high you'll go somewhere else'

Pretty much. We did 2 jobs for a builder and got paid at around twice the standard rate just because the guy wanted the jobs done so bad.

[Troy711]

I understand problems with resources. But it's common courtesy if someone has made the effort to seek a quote/proposal from your company, that you should at least tell them "thanks but no thanks".

I suppose that's a bit much to ask of this particular industry though.

Doing a quote isn't as simple as taking a look and saying 'yea, hows 2 grand sound?'. If you do a quote for someone and they don't accept it then you have wasted your time.

Have you worked in the building industy at all before?

[tommo82]

Doing a quote isn't as simple as taking a look and saying 'yea, hows 2 grand sound?'. If you do a quote for someone and they don't accept it then you have wasted your time.

It depends on the job. Tonight, I had a painter around who quoted me on a job. He spent 5 minutes looking at the house and wrote $1,300 on a piece of paper.

I spoke to a roof plumber earlier today and gave him a detailed explanation of the job. He didn't want to physically inspect the site. He is going to email me a quote in the morning.

When I had my entire house rewired in 2007 I drew up an entire wiring schematic with cable types, distances, fittings, dimensions, switchboard layout and gave it to the sparkies. They quoted from that.

Your claim that all quotes are complicated is total nonsense. It's as hard as the tradesperson wants it to be. If you want to spend ages preparing quotes, that's fine. In my experience most have simply provided quotes on the fly as long as they receive sufficient information (I presume they've loaded the price up to cover their risk).

The time you waste in doing quotes is the cost of doing business. Like it or lump it. That's why they tend to do them "on the fly".

Have you worked in the building industy at all before?

No, luckily. I work in an industry that prides itself on attention to detail and punctuality rather than tardiness.

[one_and_only2004]

No, luckily. I work in an industry that prides itself on attention to detail and punctuality rather than tardiness.

Obviously you're an electrician then

[tommo82]

Obviously you're an electrician then

No. See my previous post.

[one_and_only2004]

what is it you "do" then?

[tommo82]

what do u do for a living?

[xlr8_87]

It depends on the job. Tonight, I had a painter around who quoted me on a job. He spent 5 minutes looking at the house and wrote $1,300 on a piece of paper.

I spoke to a roof plumber earlier today and gave him a detailed explanation of the job. He didn't want to physically inspect the site. He is going to email me a quote in the morning.

When I had my entire house rewired in 2007 I drew up an entire wiring schematic with cable types, distances, fittings, dimensions, switchboard layout and gave it to the sparkies. They quoted from that.

Your claim that all quotes are complicated is total nonsense. It's as hard as the tradesperson wants it to be. If you want to spend ages preparing quotes, that's fine. In my experience most have simply provided quotes on the fly as long as they receive sufficient information (I presume they've loaded the price up to cover their risk).

The time you waste in doing quotes is the cost of doing business. Like it or lump it. That's why they tend to do them "on the fly".



No, luckily. I work in an industry that prides itself on attention to detail and punctuality rather than tardiness.

valid point, but there is a massive difference between trades. For example a painter will know roughly how much it costs to paint (x) square metres of wall, now all he has to do is whack the paint on and job done. It's a bit more difficult for a carpenter to quote building an extension or something, a lot more to take into account.

Sadly, common courtesy is out the window these days, but if you think of it as a tradesman gets 10 calls a day requesting quotes, each call will take a couple of minutes (at least). There's half an hour's pay gone. If he has to go out to quote you, depending on location, there's an hour or so.
It's all time, and these days, no one has enough! yet when they get home, they spend hours on the tv/computer. Ironic hey!

[Troy711]

valid point, but there is a massive difference between trades. For example a painter will know roughly how much it costs to paint (x) square metres of wall, now all he has to do is whack the paint on and job done. It's a bit more difficult for a carpenter to quote building an extension or something, a lot more to take into account.

Sadly, common courtesy is out the window these days, but if you think of it as a tradesman gets 10 calls a day requesting quotes, each call will take a couple of minutes (at least). There's half an hour's pay gone. If he has to go out to quote you, depending on location, there's an hour or so.
It's all time, and these days, no one has enough! yet when they get home, they spend hours on the tv/computer. Ironic hey!

Well said

[Garth]

Obviously you're an electrician then

electricians rule


depends on which trade you get, some trades give a rats arse, others dont, keep with it, dont be disheartend by the entire process. good usualy will come from it.


but shop around, and dotn always go with the cheapest quote. you get what you payed for