Jp macmanus

[LUKE]

I 'built' my previous house, a huge house for a guy from a one-earner, large family originating in the village slums.

When I say I 'built' it, I mean I sourced the plot, drew the plans, organised the financing of it, liaised with an architect, negotiated with a selection of builders to get the right balance of spec and cost and was on site as often as possible to make sure it all went well.

The builder we eventually went with was superb to work with and, I believe, very honest and I'm not sure he made an awful lot of money on the project.

Over time, when we wanted work done, painting, decorating, new bathrooms, etc, I can't think of a single tradesman I didn't think was a total cowboy bar one painter who seemed only to want enough for him and his family get by modestly on, and one plumber who asked for a tenner after spending three hours fixing a leak in my toilet. When I objected and told him he was doing himself he replied, "No, I could have done this in half an hour but I enjoyed the chat with you and it kept me away from the wife for the evening!"

And all the other guys wanted big money for routine jobs, three and four times per hour what I was earning as a senior lecturer. To be entirely honest, it made me very resentful and mistrusting and to this day I only know one tradesman, a sparks, who hasn't struck me as ripping me off.

And things have got so much worse since Brexit. They all seem to use it as an excuse for high prices.

In our current house we needed the bottom of the doors shaved after we got the carpets fitted. There were nine doors and I reckoned half an hour per door but was willing to pay the joiner what I reckoned was an honest day's pay: £250. The guy priced job 'per door', which was working out 'way more than that.

And that seems to be what they do; break the job up into piece meal items and charge per item, same way garages end up charging fortunes for routine maintenance servicing.

Can you imagine a nurse charging an employer £10 for administering a medication, £20 for changing bedlinen, £30 for a bed-bath, etc?

But the world seems to have accepted these practices and that's why some of these tradesmen are driving about in megatrucks and living in £600k+ homes when they're effectively only working four half-days a week. At times I think 'good luck to them' but it means it takes me ages to find a tradesman who will do a good job for a price that doesn't feel exorbitant.

My brothers and I have often said our mother was right. We shouldn't have gone to university, We should each have taken up a different trade. We'd have been millionaires by now. The five of us could have formed a housebuilding company if we were a brickie, joiner/carpenter, plumber, electrician and decorator.

I'd say 80% of my dealings with tradesmen have been positive even though I had one lucky escape with a roofer.Personally I believe you cannot equate the pay of a tradesman to the pay of a teacher or nurse -the reason being they have no guaranteed income on a Monday morning and are subjected to jobs being cancelled and bad debts.I'm happy to pay that premium to good people but won't allow myself to be tipped off.

 

[LUKE]

% THIS.

I would no doubt have more money in the bank today had I done any of the following: gone into law after obtaining my law degree, crawled to the likes of Brough Scott at the Racing Post, crawled to the Stanford lads at Flutter.com, crawled to a load of venture capitalists and prospective angel investors to have a properly-funded start up, crawled to Dermot Desmond and agreed to let him fly me to Dublin re Betdaq, and various other things besides - but I'd have been miserable as sin my whole life if I'd done any of that and instead I have lived life on my own terms, I've got a roof over my head, I eat and, above all, I'm happy.

I'd prefer a course of root canal treatment to being any of the professions listed in this thread and my own personal experience is that there are plenty of decent people out there who will do a job I can't do - and don't want to learn to do - at a fair price.

Slim's got the right idea (ie same idea as me broadly speaking) about life from what I've read of him here.

Great post.

 

[Slim]

% THIS.

I would no doubt have more money in the bank today had I done any of the following: gone into law after obtaining my law degree, crawled to the likes of Brough Scott at the Racing Post, crawled to the Stanford lads at Flutter.com, crawled to a load of venture capitalists and prospective angel investors to have a properly-funded start up, crawled to Dermot Desmond and agreed to let him fly me to Dublin re Betdaq, and various other things besides - but I'd have been miserable as sin my whole life if I'd done any of that and instead I have lived life on my own terms, I've got a roof over my head, I eat and, above all, I'm happy.

I'd prefer a course of root canal treatment to being any of the professions listed in this thread and my own personal experience is that there are plenty of decent people out there who will do a job I can't do - and don't want to learn to do - at a fair price.

Slim's got the right idea (ie same idea as me broadly speaking) about life from what I've read of him here.

You and me are more alike then we like to acknowledge. That's a deep post.

 

[The Fortune Teller]

The only honest thing I can say about money, is that I'm glad I haven't had any hungry stomachs to feed other than my own these past 40 years.