DIY/Builders merchants canal side

[Slim]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

More assumptions.

No I have not discussed the price.

I am going to look at a place that sells wood.

I am going to two nearby businesses who fit boats, that is their business. They know I am coming to see them. They know I want the galley sorted 

They are right beside the place that sells wood .

If they cant replacece two small worktops and four doors in two days how long do you thing it will take.

The guy who has seen it said 2 to 3 daya.

I don't know what else I can do to get the job done.

I certainly won't bother posting on here again

"The Guy" who said "would take 2 to 3 days", is this the person you've not heard from since?

[JungleJames]

On 24/09/2023 at 13:37, MtB said:

 

^^^ This ^^^

 

Anyone telling me how long the job will take, will instantly find themselves looking for another tradesperson. The bloody sheer arrogance of it!

 

Presumably you told them is was a £2,000 job too, as you've mentioned on here several times.

 

Its no surprise no-one will quote. Or estimate.

 

Its not just the job we size up when visiting 'to quote', its the customer and their expectations too. 

 

 

And sometimes it's the other way round!

Like the gas engineer who came to size up my brothers place, only to find he wasn't able to answer simple questions (Well what should be simple to a gas engineer) posed by my dad.

 

His parting comment as he left the house was:

"I don't suppose I will be getting the job will I"

 

Not all trades people are the same, and you do need to do your homework. Too many are bodge artists, and I can see where Lady G is coming from at times.

 

For example, the guy who fitted my new boiler, brought someone else round to fit some new radiators.

Complained the radiators were a different size (didn't realise I had ok hearing!!!) then proceeded to bodge the radiator job. 

 

There is also a big difference between gas fitters and gas engineers.

I had the former for the boiler. Did a very neat job, unlike his mate on the radiators, but I ended up getting someone else in to set up the boiler correctly, who took the time to explain what could be done to improve on it.

 

Lady G has clearly had too many bodge artists. It makes you wary.

 

Her way of writing may wind people up, but I can see where she is coming from.

 

PS. Lady G, Your price and time length for a decent new galley seems a bit far fetched though. Go on like that, and you'll end up with another bodge artist.

[Jon57]

On 24/09/2023 at 18:10, LadyG said:

No @Tony Brooks I am not the kind you describe. 

I don't complain when someone does the job badly, I just walk away, however there seems to be so many people who are not professional, in fact they are bodgers, that I am far more cynical nowadays. 

I can tell a good job from a bad one.

Very few seem to discuss what is the best way to do a job, so I am forced to instruct them. Good people are often employed by boat businesses.

There are some who are not employed because they are unemployable. 

 

I’ve been in the fitted kitchen,bedroom,bathroom business, replacement kitchen doors for over 40yrs. I worked for a short while for a very well known leading kitchen manufacturer going round the country sorting customer complaints out.

Replaced the bathroom floor tiles on my previous boat (3 days in total) 1/1/2 square meters. Jobs on boats are always awkward and longer for obvious reasons. If you think it will take 3 days good luck. Don’t forget all the work which has to be done even before you get to site. Customer visit, sourcing supplies (custom made doors sizes in solid would make your eyes water) travel to and from site etc. All this time has to be paid for. If you want to organise all the materials yourself and get them to your boat do that. But please don’t tell everyone it’s a 3 day job.👍

 

I would be more than willing to have a look at the job and give you advice. But I wouldn’t touch the job with a  very big barge pole.🤭

[MtB]

4 hours ago, JungleJames said:

There is also a big difference between gas fitters and gas engineers.

 

I very much agree. But unfortunately Gas Safe Register at their inception abandoned the job title "Registered Gas Installer" and now insists we are all engineers now. "Gas Engineers" actually, GSR tells us we all are. And it grinds my gears as so many of my peers now have jumped up ideas about their status and abilities yet most (but not all) are thick as mince and have very little technical understanding (as your Dad found out).

 

The business is most definitely experiencing a schism, with boiler installers ('box slingers' as we scathingly call them, being good at screwing boxes to walls and joining up pipes) having no idea how a boiler actually works and us 'boiler technicians' turning our noses up at the idea of fitting anything and making a career out of fault tracing. 

 

 

[JungleJames]

19 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

I very much agree. But unfortunately Gas Safe Register at their inception abandoned the job title "Registered Gas Installer" and now insists we are all engineers now. "Gas Engineers" actually, GSR tells us we all are. And it grinds my gears as so many of my peers now have jumped up ideas about their status and abilities yet most (but not all) are thick as mince and have very little technical understanding (as your Dad found out).

 

The business is most definitely experiencing a schism, with boiler installers ('box slingers' as we scathingly call them, being good at screwing boxes to walls and joining up pipes) having no idea how a boiler actually works and us 'boiler technicians' turning our noses up at the idea of fitting anything and making a career out of fault tracing. 

 

 

Well luckily I've now found one who is a proper engineer, will fit boilers, and will service boilers.

He now gets my business every year servicing the boiler.

 

There is actually a very good website/ business, who have vetted the really good gas engineers.

It costs us mere mortals extra, but they will work out everything that we need, then pass our details onto the closest engineer.

 

I signed up after I should have done, but at least I got someone that knows my boiler like the back of his hand!

 

Luckily I had done half my homework before I got the new boiler, so the choice if boiler was all mine! Not the installers. 

[MtB]

7 minutes ago, JungleJames said:

Well luckily I've now found one who is a proper engineer, will fit boilers, and will service boilers.

He now gets my business every year servicing the boiler.

 

I find there is not enough time in a lifetime to get to know all the boilers in the UK "like the back of one's hand'. 

 

I've picked a handful of them and only work on those. Even then I'm fully occupied with fault-tracing and repairs and turn down all installation work as any fool can do that. Similarly with servicing, unless it's someone who simply can't find anyone to do it. (Warm air mainly.)

 

Look after this bod you've found as he or she will rapidly get fully committed with too many customers, I'd imagine.

 

 

[JungleJames]

2 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I find there is not enough time in a lifetime to get to know all the boilers in the UK "like the back of one's hand'. 

 

I've picked a handful of them and only work on those. Even then I'm fully occupied with fault-tracing and repairs and turn down all installation work as any fool can do that. Similarly with servicing, unless it's someone who simply can't find anyone to do it. (Warm air mainly.)

 

Look after this bod you've found as he or she will rapidly get fully committed with too many customers, I'd imagine.

 

 

You are wrong about installing. If done correctly there is a lot involved, and not many can do it. That's what I found out after the event. Hence why, despite the initial guy doing a very neat job, I had to get someone else in to set it up correctly. The initial guy hadn't taken into account the fact I am not going to need full power etc.

 

I would suspect the reason for you not wanting to install, is there probably isn't as much money in it for you. 

 

Anyway. Happy now. I have a decent boiler that should last many years.

 

Yep, my gas engineer is very busy. In demand for full installations from the ground up. But he seems happy doing the servicing. It's easy money for him now he has it set up correctly. I get the impression he likes to keep customers as well.

 

He has done right by me, so I do right by him.

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by JungleJames