Always a joy to watch ,imformative and a great rapport between you both.. keep it up

After getting my fingers burnt after recommending tradesmen, I now tell anyone who asks for a builder, look around your area. See a wall or extension that is similar to what you want. Knock on the door and ask who built it, and more importantly did they finish it! Are you still friends.would you use them again. You might have to knock on lots of doors, but it will be worth it.

Really enjoying the podcasts have watched them all keep them coming

Want to build a house or a major remodel? Talk to a good trim carpenter - he'll know who does good work because he's the one who has to make it look good. He'll know which framers, plumbers and electricians do quality installs because he'll know who has flat/straight walls and foundations, and lights and fixtures will all line up and be uniform.

good builders are hard to find, just like good customers are!

Really enjoying it! Keep up the great work!

Booked into early 2020 now. All my business is and has been via face to face recommendations. It costs me £0 😊

I think to listen to skilled trades talking about their experiences and advice gave from that experience is really interesting and very useful, thanks!

the best thing I hear from this podcast is that when you see people working in the street look for contact look for the click that you feel is good with those people if so ask there number and then as a job is finished you can ask the customer himself if it is a good job and if you can see it because there are plenty of starters who have a hard time starting with a company and arent recommended because they don't have a network yet

I grew up in Wargrave in the 50's and our local builder was a Cliff Maidment (Easterlings Ltd). Did all the general building Odd-jobs for the area and had a great workforce that covered everything ...... and YES! he was also the local undertaker :-) My older brother was a Brickie/Hoddie/Grave-Digger ..... Those were the days :-) Referral sites are a 'convenience' but don't go the extra mile, unlike 'checkfred dot com' ... (Only for the Thames Valley though) As for the thought of licencing every trade in the building industry, pushing people through Money-Syphoning-Courses' to get those licences will do nothing for the quality of work (as Australia and America have proven). Remember when you took your driving test? Did you drive the same way 'after' you passed?? ..... Like Thingamejig you did :-) It's the same with these courses - we can all Gen-Up on what we know they 'want' us to repeat Parrot-Stylee, but after we have that [iece of paper it can be a Licence allright - 'A Licence To ROB' (For the few obviously) You say about building great relationships with clients. I had a great working relationship with a family that had a very large house with ongoing plastering work needed. It lasted a few years until they took on a builder who was an absolute 'charmer' but the worst tradesman. I refused to follow his work as it made mine look bad, so had to make my 'excuses' to leave well alone in future as I didn't want to offend the family. Though I did say that 'I' wouldn't be recommending their new builder to anyone. Hopefully it put them on full alert - who knows? So glad you brought up the 'not busy' angle as well. I hardly ever book in work more than two weeks in the future because you are Soooo dependant on other tradesmen being punctual. Many's the time you're all set to start a booked in job and you get a phone call the night before with the customer saying they need to put you off for a couple of days because the electrician/plumber/carpenter is all behind like a cow's doo-dah. (Putting all the other pre-booked jobs in jeapordy) 'Then' you get a call out of the blue from someone needing a job done urgently!! You've been saved, they've been saved, but if the customer followed the advice of some (Roger) that you should choose a very busy tradesperson over one that's readily available, we'd have both lost out. And yes Roger .... that programme does exist - on one of the low-down Freeview channels. Can't remember the name, it's American of course ;-) Good Podcast chaps (As Usual)

I highly recommend word of mouth both for the client and tradesman. From my perspective I was a London based sole trader general handyman for nine years until I took semi-retirement last September. 99% of that time I was booked up three months in advance as a minimum and worked entirely by word of mouth. I never felt the need to market myself or join the likes of checkatrade. I've brought a fixer-upper in Devon and will have to go back to work when that's finished but hopefully I can achieve a similar thing down here and already have people asking me about work. Luckily for me it won't need to be full time so I should be able to avoid the whole advertising malarkey again.

I bet Robin really enjoyed that plasterer story - well done, Roger. Bottom line, it's hit and miss on finding a reputable builder.

Great tips as usual 👍

Busier than ever. My work already taking me into 2020 . Hate turning away work but already 2 jobs I have recommended to another Builder . No advertising , no name on my van . Long time since I had to do proper written estimate .

If a builder uses their family name and not some fancy name to entice you and have been in the game for a good length of time (10 years plus) and are still busy then it's a good indication they're good.

The worry of getting royally shafted by builders has put me off owning my own home for 40+ years. I didn't have the knowledge or confidence to know I wasn't going to get screwed and left with a hole in my finances and a house I hate and can't even live in. This channel has been hugely empowering for me. My carpentry skills never extended past sharpening pencils before, but now I can look at houses without feeling like I'd rather rent forever than deal with the nightmare of ownership. Cheers guys for giving me hours of reasons - in 2020 - to smile, laugh and learn, all while building the confidence to take life to the next level and move past sharpening stationery.

Alright lads, loving these podcast style videos and looking forwards to seeing some more on sight construction footage too. As an idea for a video why don't you each think of one job where you feel like you real nailed it and got the best price and delivered the best finished product to the customer, break it down for us. You could then contrast that with a job where it went down the pan because you didn't get it right and again share your learnings from it. It'd be interesting to see the different perspectives on this from plumbing and carpentry backgrounds. I just thought seeing as there's an anecdote a minute coming from you lads, you could give us two big hitters each, a positive and a negative.

Hey guys, good advice as always :)

I always ran as "just in time business as a roofer" , Long drawn out new roofs were a nuisance , because work always comes when it rains hard and it needs patching up the next day. Recommended work always repeats we never ever ran out of work .

Thanks for this video guys. This was very useful. One of the things I sometimes worry about when looking for builders is whether I’ll get a builder that doesn’t have strong knowledge or experience of the work I need doing. And then they may come and do the work and not do it properly, causing problems later down the line, e.g. I’m looking at getting a retaining brick wall replaced which is a bit wobbly, but then I fear if I just call some brickies for quotes, they may not know if/how to do the drainage so water can drain away properly without causing the soil to become saturated and weaken the new wall. Maybe I’m overthinking this...!

As a carpenter, I hate working for builders. They always say that the job would only take so long that don’t always reflect reality and want to pay when they want to. Absolutely true Robin, I hate the generic term”builder” as a trade. There are jack of all trades like Roger and master of one, that are very versatile but they are far and few between.

As an apprentice plumber I had a close call when soldering in a care home. We were installing a new boiler with fresh flow and return runs. The pipework went from ground floor to the basement. We had insulated the pipes with hair felt Lagging. I was soldering some elbows when the end of the Lagging went up in flames. I raced upstairs, pulled up the carpet and unscrewed the floorboards. Luckily I was quick enough and had a drill to hand and could pat down the fire. It could have so easily of been a disaster with a care home full of residents.

ITV or CH5 can't remember which channel used to run a series called "Cowboy Builders" that opened my eyes to how clever some of these cowboy builders operate and con people out of thousands of pounds. Never take a builders word for honesty or skill, always check, check and verify. If the builder is genuine he/she won't mind you checking or giving you his/hers contact details.

I love this guys

I found a great builder, half way though the build now but I got the recommendation from the local Facebook group. I find people "say it as it is" on there and sanme firm was mentioned time and time again so went with them.

may be you could do a vid on this subject especially for a bathroom scenario?

Would be good to watch a video on payment of tradespeople - should a customer be asked to pay up front "for materials"?, deals for cash, etc.

I'm a soletrader, carpenter and I would like to see a podcast about rogue customers, and how customers should address tradesman. I work throughout Berkshire, Hampshire and Surrey and I have at least 5 customer names that are to be given a wide birth. A piece of advice I would give the general public is remember tradesman talk too. If you ask someone to come and finish a job and you have clearly knocked the tradesman/builder/developer that has done a reasonable job. Be aware your name will go on the naughty list.

Do a podcast about health related issues, like how to prevent and deal with injuries, which safety gear/precautions are necessary/redundant, etc.

I still think individual project managers should become a real thing so all a customer need is a good project manager that has all the good trustworthy tradesman.. Keeps a check on quality, pricing and after care

We should adopted the Australian licensing system where every tradesmen has a number that can be checked with a government department {fair trading in Australia}.. Any bad trades can be weeded out.

You can look on you tube now ! 😉👌🏼🧱👍🏼

Good video 👍👍 comedy duo.

My clay air bricks on my side wall are below the block paving and when it rains heavy, rainwater is seeping through the air bricks. As a consequence I have a moisture problem on that sidewall but I don’t think it’s being caused mainly by the air bricks but more to do with the plaster that’s cracking off the plinth below the render. Added to that problem when I moved in a surveyor from Rentokil recommended Injecting Damp Proofing Cream into the plinth below the render, and as far as I can see it didn’t make any difference to the salts I’m now seeing on my sidewall inside the house where my gas boiler and smart meters are. A damp surveyor recommends removing the old air bricks on my sidewall and installing plastic air bricks with sleeves to increase better airflow, but because these plastic air bricks are shorter in height they will be above my block paving and not below it. A recent conversation I had with a ground worker said I should install engineering bricks underneath each plastic air brick to reinforce the plaster, so when it weathers it won’t start breaking apart. The ground worker also recommends installing an ACO channel drain alongside my sidewall to keep rainwater away from my sidewall and air bricks but I just felt an ACO channel drain was OTT, a bit over the top, and when I said that he didn’t get back to me. I looked on Checkatrade and Trustatrader and read the reviews, and when two builders came round to my home to give me a quote, I felt they were overcharging me, taking the mick, or they didn’t seem like they were knowledgable enough to do the job. I’m now wondering do I need a bricklayer or a ground worker to install plastic air bricks with sleeves, patching up the plaster on the plinth below. The problem is I need to reconnect the power to my outbuilding and need a new armoured cable laid down across the garden soil, up to the garden patio slabs, so I’m not sure whether to connect a new armoured cable from my outbuilding to the old electric cable that is coming out underneath my garden patio, or take the paving slabs up so I can fully remove the old electric cable that is connected to my fuse box inside the house and lay new armoured cable from the outbuilding, across the garden soil and underneath my garden patio. If I do that because I want extra power powering my outbuilding I’m sure I’ll need a ground worker, but can ground workers install plastic air bricks as well.

Hi Guys I have a question for you. Just bought a bungalow which is all paramount stud walling, I need to move a few walls to make the bathroom bigger to accommodate a shower. Also I need a full rewire What would you recommend overboard and skim or knock out and start again with replacement. with stud timber partition. My worries are that as built may not be able to take the porcelain tiles in bathroom, Abacus board fixing problems as the stud centers are around 36" rewire may be a bugger also, I am a retired carpenter so am not totally without knowledge just needing some other pro opinions. Cheers

hi, guys love the channel please keep it up. but I am a bit choked off with so call tradesmen they let you down to many time being an x gas engineer I never let anyone down but unfortunately its the nor these day it so annoying we should be able to charge them for time wasting Simon

I'd like to see a directory of tradesmen who can't join the directory until there work is seen by book holder / editor even with a really small fee annually to pay cover someone a wage running around looking at these trades.

Now days a good marketing plan can be as simple as a Facebook page with examples of your work and a free wordpress page that you can blog about your work and interests.

one that you have to wait 6 months for cause there booked up, normly a good sign. never choose the guy that can turn up tomorrow lol

hard to know where to look, bit hit n miss really. website are good tho, and if they make there own T-shirts with a logo :) normally as long as u research what u want to do, when u meet them,talk thru the job a little, u should be able to tell if they know what they are doing.

I'm a small builder my sales pitch is no standard to low no finish to rough

Our local building firm also run the builders merchants and the undertakers.

"BLIND BUILDER" it could be lorra lorra laughs! Another great video guys, looking forward to the marketing one coming up and maybe if there is one on building a good website. I have to disagree with Roger though on his view if a business only uses a mobile number, but that's only because i only have and use a mobile (ha) i don't have a home phone. My mobile number is my only works number, office number and contact number. I don't see the point in paying for landline number as being a lone crusader i'm always at work or on the move. I understand for bigger companys that have several employees and much bigger overheads they need more than one number though. Hehe i have to laugh though i've noticed Robin's been wearing a white 👕 and not navy hehe. Have a good wknd S.B. Team me and the wife xx

I would never use any of those 'recommendation' sites after two very bad experiences using them, and two attempts to get work done with no response whatsoever. Better to get a local personal recommendation - but even then, getting them to come and look at the job proves difficult. I'm still looking for a bathroom fitter for a complete bathroom refit - got a garage full of the gear, all ready to fit, but can't get someone to do the work. It's in a bungalow - they don't even have to climb stairs!

Hey guys ! …. Can you recommend a good tiler, that wont dot and dab a shower floor ? …. #Lookingforthenextepisode

Sadly we have been flooded with DIY tradesmen who are not really qualified sufficiently to carry out work in period work properties . Many lack trade insurance , have the appropiate tools and access equipment . A few do not want small jobs and select new builds rather than small repairs

But this is talking about guys that rely on work to bring in the income … that rely on the money, we have others that do it for the love, they are the best … money blurs vision, love lasts.

Always ask to see there public liability insurance certificates, this way if they dont have any then most likely not a above board company.

Totally disagree about being ready to work, my electrical company is ready to go to your job when it suits you if you need me there tomorrow I will try my best My business model is to get there as soon as possible, I never book in work for months at a time I leave myself flexible for the day to day stuff

Check out there work maybe go and see them working just because there in some trade group doesnt mean there top quality

You talking about the lintel reminded me of when I build my kitchen nearly 30 years back. I was reusing the door and the architect drawings said I needed a 70mm lintel over the door. The yard only had 100mm so got that. Trouble was that it lowered the floor by 30mm and I had put a lot of the hardcore down already. Now the floor runs down to the door. The under cabinet plinths at that section runs down to the door! I'm sorry and sad you get exactly the issues I get. You think that people will do what is required and regret not pointing out in advance the bl***dy obvious so they do not balls it up.

Historically the local builder would have the workshop and forge to make and pitch line coffins so would often branch out into funerals. I learned my woodworking nearly 50 years ago with an old guy who taught me how to make them. So the builder/undertaker isn't such a joke they have often been in business for many years.

Beware companies that describe themselves as " award winning"

Hire skill builder team

Avoid Checkatrade, have only had cowboys from there unfortunately! Robin is right, as a punter it is extremely daunting finding and building a relationship with tradesmen, more so if you've been screwed over in the past!

Roger are you talkin bout gypos🤔

Don't use check a trade / or trusted trader sites as they sign up any Tom dick and Harry , all they are interested in is making as much money as possible from so called tradesmen and when things go pear shape they are not interested....keep well away and go off good recommendations from friends and family who have had work done by builders and are happy with them , it's not fool proof but at least you can go and see the work they have done and get an idea of what's involved......👍

A builder can get away with murder when you work for the general public but not on site work , as a chippy I worked for Taylor Woodrow and I had a site agent Forman and then a charge hand checking my work so I could not get away with anything, so I worked on Saturdays for the general public and they got a good job and a fair price as that money was for my own pocket money 🍺

Builder, "stroke" undertaker? I wouldn't stroke an undertaker, even if he was glazed in embalming fluid.

I was in the fmb for years and what a waste of money.

Used Trust a Trader once absolute garbage.It was a simple bathroom refit and it was a complete disaster.Tilling was crap, he put two big holes through the wall were he hammered the studs from the rad through into the bathroom never made good. Glass shower screen safety bar he didnt fix in and no receipts for any work. I don't think any of the photos of his work were his.

A up Lads, Good builders have retired, now I can't find 1, Ha Ha, this next os called Builder are at McDonald's, these days, Ha Ha

dont believe the plasterer story

Lol.... Please don't encourage your tradies to build their own websites. Would you get a web designer to build your house? You don't know what you don't know. Your cheap website could be costing you a fortune.