# Forum More Stuff Debate & Technical Discussion  good tradies

## jags

Hi All 
After all the bitch sessions that go on with tradies on this forum . 
I thought i might just say that for every ten bad tradies there just might be one great one .
And it's all about finding that great one and not telling anybody so they don't get to busy to come and help you . 
That's the real reason we all love to bitch about tradies all the good one's are to busy .. 
In  the last week i had a plumber that lives in the street that i have used before come and move a tap and fix a leak at the water main (one washer ) and 30min cut weld pipe new tap , when i said how much he said ''   buy me a beer some time '' . Now that's a good plumber . 
And when i rang a sparky to get a second quote for a job  yesterday he said that he was around the corner so would pop by now rather than having to come over  later .  We discussed what needed to be done ,run wires and conduit for 3 x 240v outdoor light for garden wall and a outdoor gpo  on the other side of the house , and that the wires for the lights would run right under where the new path was going to be laid tomorrow .So i would put 90mm pipe under the path so that the conduit could go though it later .But he said that he could move a job and get here at 8 am to put the conduit in as there was no point doing the work twice . (now that service )
With my help we finished digging  the two ditches 600mm deep for the conduit ran the new wires for the lights and gpo and then installed the conduit ready to install the light when i get then  .This all took 3 1/2 at $70 an hour . 
Just thought it was worth giving credit where cedit is due .
And if you want there numbers don't bother PM me as i wont give them to you ,   :Harhar:  
just kidding  
Rob

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## Terrian

Well, seems no one else has had good experiences with tradies. 
Looks like we might be in luck with getting a sparkie,  my son (just about finished his chippie apprenticeship) has a couple of mates who are sparkies, fingers crossed  :Smilie:

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## commodorenut

Had a very good plumber do all new copper pipe in a bathroom reno, new seats in the wall taps for the bath & shower, and new PVC pipe the length of the house, replacing clay (I did the digging), plus some work on the kitchen waste, and new plumbing in the laundry for washing machine taps, and an additional toilet, all for $700 including materials (around 10 years ago - before copper skyrocketed). 
He worked quickly when he was working, but stopped quite a lot for a smoke, and took 2 hours for lunch.  I was beginning to worry, but he had been recommended.....
I didn't need to worry, as when he billed me, he said "ah, I only really did 4 hours work yesterday, and 2 hours today, so just make it 6 hours for the labour OK?"  
Another great tradie was a tree surgeon I used in 2001.  He was only young (but with 5 years experience working for someone else) and kicking off his own business.  Did a magic job in tight confines - no damage to any fences, clothesline, or the neighbour's pool (tree overhung it).  Glad to say he's now got a fleet of vehicles & lots of guys working for him, so good guys do find success.

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## Terrian

> He worked quickly when he was working, but stopped quite a lot for a smoke, and took 2 hours for lunch.  I was beginning to worry, but he had been recommended.....
> I didn't need to worry, as when he billed me, he said "ah, I only really did 4 hours work yesterday, and 2 hours today, so just make it 6 hours for the labour OK?"

  Sounds pretty much like the plumber I use (except he doesn't smoke, but he does like to chat  :Smilie:

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## Ausyuppy

The plumber I use is great. He was local to me at the time and I was trying to support the locals. I had an issue with smelly drains and toilets that drained themselves.  
Anyway, he spent two hours trying to find a problem, he still couldnt so he felt bad that he couldnt find an issue and only charged me an hour for labour. Needless to say, he now gets any plumbing work that I need done. Always on time and gets the job done. 
I guess the worst thing about him is that he takes 3 months to bill, but that can also be a good thing  :Smilie:

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## elkangorito

An old saying comes to mind: 
"The bitter taste of poor quality remains long after you've forgotten the sweet smell of a low price."

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## Terrian

> I guess the worst thing about him is that he takes 3 months to bill, but that can also be a good thing

  'our' plumber isn't quite that bad, but I have had to chase him to pay the bill  :Biggrin:

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## autogenous

Unfortunately its because usually people only bitch when they get a bad one.  People rarely make the effort to pass the number on when they have a good experience. 
The issue about quality can also be that everyone wants the cheapest price amongst trades.  Now if they have to compete with the alcoholic tradie down the road who doesn't care enough as long as he covers rent and a enough beer then at some point they have to draw a line at making a living.  Plumbers are a little bit easier because they charge by the hour.
This scenario goes some of the way why people cant get decent trades. 
The other is that a tradie may come out and quote a job, do some calculations spending 4 hours doing a quote for a one day job and wear out the car only to be told they weren't cheap enough.  It wears thin after a while. 
Best bet is to find trades you know and work out what is fair.  I have to be pretty sure I have a chance at getting a one day job or I wont even get out of bed.  Its a quick way to go broke quoting small jobs and losing them to the dodgy cheap guy down the road who does a crap job.

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## Haveago1

It can be troublesome finding a good Tradie, but when you do you make sure you look after them. 
I use a 'semi -retired' sparky who charges $60.00 per hour and cost only for materials. He turns up ontime, returns my calls and only charges for the time on the job.  
Unlike the old adage '_$60.00 per hour, $80.00 if you watch and $100.00 if you help'_, he likes me to help - it makes the job quicker and easier for him, even if some may consider that he is doing himself out of a few bucks for the saved time - I sure appreciate it. I make sure I pay him cash as he is finishing up and he gives me a valid receipt. 
The plumber I use works with a 4th year apprentice and only does jobs that will take a full day, for which he charges $600.00 - and again does not mind if I help or do the prep work to hurry things along and only charges for the materials used at cost.  
He starts dead on 7am and does not stop until the job is finished, having lunch on the go and the occassional cup of coffee. I had to replace the outside stackwork on our house and relocate and replace with plastic the entire terracotta sewer pipe down the side of the house to to the main line. 
I dug out where the new line going the day before - through the middle of a paved pergola - and they did the rest. Again I paid him cash when they finished and even gave them an extra $50.00 for the lunch they did not have, as I reckon if they know you appreciate their work and are not a problem payer you will more likely get priority for later jobs.

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## elkangorito

> Again I paid him cash when they finished and even gave them an extra $50.00 for the lunch they did not have, as I reckon if they know you appreciate their work and are not a problem payer you will more likely get priority for later jobs.

  If the majority of customers were like you, I'm sure there would be a slightly better attitude from tradies.  :Biggrin:

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## Frediko

> Unfortunately its because usually people only bitch when they get a bad one. People rarely make the effort to pass the number on when they have a good experience.

  
I've been reading this forum for a while and i think that this is the most fair comment i have heard. So much bad credit is given to those tradies who "don't show up" etc. i think people need to realise that they have good reason for not showing up. I have NEVER had a problem with tradesmen and i put it all down to only calling them when a decent size job needs to be done, and i either accept, or do not accept the price. I have friends that argue with tradies over the phone asking them to justify their prices......the way i see it, i don't have to use them if i am unsatisfied.....so why argue. (i have tried telling those friends the reason tradie never show up for them......it's cos THEY are tight, NOT the tradesmen) 
I'm new to posting.....are we allowed to reccomend good tradies' business names?

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## watson

> I'm new to posting.....are we allowed to reccomend good tradies' business names?

  From me.........Yep....would love to see it.

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## Frediko

> From me.........Yep....would love to see it.

  Can i write them here openly on the thread or only PM you 
Like i said.....sorry for being new. I did read the rules but maybe i missed the part where it says you can't post them as it may appear like advertising for them or something. not sure

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## watson

No need to PM me with them Freddy...........post them yourself here or start a new thread with a title like Tradies Recommended by Frediko, or some such.

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## Frediko

> No need to PM me with them Freddy...........post them yourself here or start a new thread with a title like Tradies Recommended by Frediko, or some such.

   
Ok, i'll start a new thread so at least ppl can try out some GOOD tradies and perhaps see what i see rather than only complain about the bad ones. Mind you, it does take doing the right things on their part. As i have learned here......not watching them while they work, not arguing price (that'll make ANY tradesman walk away). 
Like i said, i just finished building a 3 story 75sq home with me running it all and ringing each trade. Prior to this, i had a small 2 bedroom house with constant small little jobs going on again and again......mainly electrical due to the terrible work done before i bought the house.  Tradies Recommended by Frediko:
Plumber - C Cannizzo Plumbing (Great as long as you don't try to help)
Electrician - Phazon Electrical ( Excellent prices and had really great ideas that i didn't think of that looked better and saved more money)
Plastering - Has been removed as don't have the exact company name
Builders - Mardan Investments Pty Ltd (they took care of the extra work done later....and did it EXTREMELEY well at a great price) 
Just google them or i could list their contact details if they aren't listed on the internet.......(if i'm allowed to)..........i know for sure the plasterers aren't on there

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## col5555

Perth trades: 
Plasterer in Perth. Can recommend a great plasterer and fair priced.  
Grano worker didnt use them but saw them lay a whole slab next door and wished they did mine. Cant comment on price. 
Unfortunately at this stage my list of who not to use is bigger so you can PM me and I can tell you who to avoid.

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## Electron

There's an old saying that go along the lines of "Just because you're an excellent tradesman, that doesn't make you a good businessman" and for me, that's the crux of the matter.  I often hear complaints about tradies; some are related to quality of workmanship, some relate to price, but the vast majority relate to unreliability and poor communication.  The fastest, neatest, and cheapest tradie in the world doesn't automatically have the organisational skills to ensure he turns up when he's supposed to, or the ability to "face the music" by ringing a customer and advise he's going to be late for an appointment at the moment when he knows full well that he is going to be late.  In general, my opinion is that price tends to indicate what you're going to get; if all the tradie has to sell is the lowest price, then you can reasonably expect the other parts of the equation to be lacking - but that's NOT a hard a fast rule, so don't slaughter me on it!  This situation does have me in two minds, though, because a measurable part of my business comes from other sparkies being unreliable and unable to use a phone when they should - this leaves the door open for those who recognise that price is not always the only factor, but that service plays an important part.

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## Electron

A sudden thought.  There is a web site called TrueLocal.com.au where tradies can advertise their services - a basic listing here is free but many of us pay for an upgrade to try and make the listing more effective.  This site sort of works like eBay because customers can rate a tradie on how they found him - like Ebay it does open the tradie up to unfair and malicious comments but the overall trend will show which are malicious and which are genuine.  It hasn't been going long and doesn't provide much feedback just yet but the more people use it, the more effective it will become.

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## Smurf

We'll I'm still sitting here waiting for the plumber to turn up. Almost 3 hours late and counting. 
Says it's something about paperwork not turning up. Yeah right...  :Annoyed:

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## Fantapantz

I think all the good ones are too busy. 
My experiences follow. 
air-con Last guy. Great.
Air-con-guy before...shoddy....flashings with 50mm gaps pumped full of silicon. Exposed pipes on the exterior left with packing foam around them. 
Electrician. Last one installed the cieling fan wrong and short circuited the remote. One before turned the hot water system around to save himself five minutes and cost me extra to get the plumber to move the pipes. 
Plumber. Installed the hot water system wrong. Blew the release valve that I supplied because he put it inline . Joints were leaking. Had to call his supervisor in to fix the job.   
BobCat. Had five different ones. Only one was what I would call good. The others were slow, and incompetent. One even smashed my gate because he lost control.  
From my experiences I'm never getting a tradie from the local paper. I'd prefer to pay extra for someone that can afford a decent size add in the yellow pages.  
And the good ones you'll probably have to wait atleast 3 weeks for to do a 2 hour job.

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## Smurf

A few good ones around Hobart: 
Gas fitting and related work - Gasmania. Used them 2 years ago, on time, efficient and the price seemed reasonable.  
Woodheater repairs and installation, fireplaces, chimneys etc - Heath Stanton. Had him do some work a couple of times - always on time, efficient, knew his stuff and reasonably priced. Freely offered advice on some other work that needed doing that I hadn't spotted and told me how to DIY if I wanted to keep the cost down (or alternatively he could do it). 
Solar panels - Nu Energy. They installed the panels on my roof and sorted it all out. No hassles. 
As for the plumber I mentioned in an earlier post, he turned up eventually without all the tools needed to do the job and over 5 hours late. Let's just say I ended up doing about a third to half of the work, using my tools, in order to get the job to a stage that was good enough on the day and I'll be finishing it off probably tomorrow (doing it myself). :Mad:

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## chromis

*Perth Good and Bad.....* 
Gas and water plumbers Boucher Jones & Co guy named Rob was on time and very good at his job. Plus a nice guy to boot. It’s good when you get a laid back tradie and not someone who walks in with attitude. 
Insert Generic Aircon House Company Here - Sent a group of cowboys to install aircon. They stood on the roof and swore at the top of their voices and remarked on girls walking by. Didn’t listen to where I wanted the ducts installed and generally made it known while they were working the house was THEIR space not mine.  It wasn’t a pleasant experience. 
Spectrum Cabinets- Fred - Had kitchen created by him and the work was spot on, we got exactly what we wanted and he was helpful. His wife comes with him and does the clean up on his jobs. Both very nice people.   
Western Cedar blinds. On installation one of the blinds was made too short. It was tough getting them to come back at a time which suited me and not them. I had to do a bit of arguing on the phone with the desk girl. Not the best customer service and not cheap either. 
I don’t mind taking an annual leave day to have something done around the house but the rule for me is if they need to come back because they stuffed something up they should make some effort to fit in with me. I think that's only fair. 
Builder who removed a wall and put in a timber roof span was great. Good price, neat, nice guy. 
Re-Roofer- Did a great job with replacing iron roof and a good price. Wish he didn’t take the extra roof iron with him after the job, I was planning to use it, but I wasn’t going to argue with him over something trivial when he did a great job. 
Express Floor Sanding- Did a really smart job but not the cheapest around but also not the most expensive either. 
Electrician did a whole house rewire which included the meter box, switches installed lights, points. Took ages to do it and then didn’t come back to finish the job which was just a couple of things. I called him 4 or 5 times to ask if I can pay him but he never returned by call. Five months went past and I was feeling guilty that I hadn’t paid him so I thought maybe he doesn’t want to finish the job so I called and said I had the job finished by someone else but I still needed to pay him. He called back and told me he had retired due to health reasons. He came over to collect his money which I had no idea how much that was. He said just pay me a $1,000 because he thought he had stuffed me around.  He wouldn’t take any more money than that.  I was blown away by that. 
Window-Door Installer- Took way over their estimated time to make the doors and windows. I wasn’t around when they installed them so they took advantage of the person who was here and didn’t complete the job. They made excuses why they couldn’t fit the door handle but the truth was they installed it skewed and then took it off to cover up their stuff up. The door frame didn’t account for the double brick cavity so I have had to make a wider door step and trimmings to make it look any good.  I guess you pay that much for cedar doors you expect the job to be finished off with architraves. Maybe that’s just my expectation.  
Jeff Green Tree Lopper 
Much cheaper than other loppers and you never know he has been because he cleans up really well. Just comes in and does a no fuss job. 
Limestone Retaining Wall- Landscaper 
Was into the deal I put to him where I purchased the materials and supplied the labour and he came along with the knowhow and the tools. 
Dude Next Door- Ceilings 
Him and his mates put up ceilings for me and charged a good price. They didn’t mind that I asked questions and learnt (something I told them was part of the deal) so I could do a back room myself when it came time to do it. He is my neighbour though.  Still when it came time for me to give it a go he gave me tools and advice and was nice enough not to laugh at my workmanship. 
Irrigation- The two companies I had to come in and work out why the bore value was jamming every few months were useless. In a past life I was a qualified horticulturist and did a year of irrigation. But since I hadn’t done that work for quite a few years I didn’t really trust that I knew any better than they did.  After about 500.00 bucks I did the job myself and used a brass valve and refitted the whole system and it has worked for a year without fault.   
Lessons- 
Know when to be useful and know when to stay out of their way.   
Don’t expect people will know what you want without giving a good run down or hand drawn plans but don’t go overboard. 
Do your research on prices and quality of materials so you known before hand what is a reasonable price. 
In my experience if they are big companies you can expect them NOT to be on time. The one man tradies have been mostly good on that account. 
Get someone to recommend a tradie. I have always had good experiences with this senario.  
I never (if can be helped) let a tradie come in while I am not there and do the job. You can’t trust that everyone will finish the job to a good standard.  If you’re not there it’s too easy for some people to take advantage and cut corners.

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