Bitter old spreads

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I went to a building site a few weeks ago now where they are chucking up houses left right and centre for fun. 2+1 gang of brickies are throwing a pair of three bed semi's up in 2 weeks. I got talking to the guy running the site as my brother was running bricks and blocks in there on a daily basis, we got talking about the plastering and he was telling me the lads that were doing the plastering were travelling around an hour each way to the site so they were by no means local, 2 plasterers were skimming a 3 bed semi that was already boarded top to bottom in 2 days, its not the youngsters doing the courses ******* this job up its shite like this going on thats shagging the job up, if you can skim a house out in 2 days you aren't a new comer to the trade by any means so why are people doing this, you can't possibly go any where from here, what next ......? All the time you hear people '' I ve done a room today'' ''well I've done 2 rooms today'' and before you know it its a ******* house next... the only thing people seemed to be interested in now adays is how fast can you get in get done and get out, there is a sliding scale where speed and quality fit together, and as the speed and quantity increase, the qaulity has got to decrease. I,ve seen some so called time served plasterers work and to be quite frank, I wouldn't pay them with ******* tap washers, its nothing other than shite. I priced a job a while back and was substantially undercut by a local 'time served been established since' and all that **** plasterer. I happen to know the joiner who was working there after him and he said it was shocking the standard of his work, trying to fit skirting to his walls etc.

For me its gone too far now, but if you were safe in the knowledge that people would stick together you could tell the builders and developers etc to go and get ****** with their **** prices safe in the knowledge that the bloke behind you would say the same, instead the rates get cut so people find a quicker way to do the same amount of work to keep their earnings the same, so the rates go down again and so the cycle goes on, even though the rates are on their arse, the price of the house doesn't plummet or the van sat on the forecourt etc is still the same and diesel prices are on the increase, but while there are people who are willing to do it for **** all and a good percentage of them are established people then nothing is going to change. If this was the case then the quality and craftmanship of the people doing the work would come into play more.

This goes for most things in life now a days, everything has to be done yesterday and as quick as possible hence why its like it is.
 
well. to add my bit if i may. my opinion is that from myself doing nothing at school, leaving at 16 and falling into plastering, is that all i have learnt is that the building trade is in hindsight the last place i would ever want to be. plastering can be ok sometimes, but i see it as a trade where skill is unappreciated and you are not paid for what you produce. the prices people work for today are in my opinion partly because of people that as has been said do a course and have an attitude that makes them believe they are capable, and also that the majority of people i have met that plaster, as well as other trades seemed to have a good level of skill, worked heard and earnt well, but for one reason or another dont seem to have a pot to piss in. unfortunately prices are dictated by how much does someone need it. in plastering it seems a lot that people really need it. as soon as you have kids, a wife etc, you get stuck in a position where you cant afford not to work. and that is always taken advantage of. i was told when i was just starting out by a chippy, my old boss had 10 guys working for him regular, plus tackers, mf etc. his ex partner was twice the spread he was, and i mean ridiculously good. speed and quality. best iv ever seen. but he was skint and was physically ******. my old boss was a good spread, but perfectly healthy and very rich. one was a spread and one was a business man. self employed is hard enough as it is. for me i am fortunate enough that aside a **** situation i am in the position to get out of the trade. not to do another job or because i am rich, but to **** off and see if i can do something else somewhere else. i would never advise anyone to get into plastering nowdays. maybe in a few years things will change but for now its generally a hard graft for little reward. there is still decent money in the niche markets, but overall the trade is dead. its a shame because it is a good trade to know, but only 10% of it it used daily nowdays because of the quick and cheap attitude. for me things arnt going to change for the foreseeable future. i think its either get out or stick at it and grind it out untill things get better if they do. everything keeps getting more expensive and wages keep going down. my mate i had a drink with earlier, i plastered most his house a few weeks back, but have said no the the rest as im done, just got a spread to finish for £100 a day. says it all
 
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they way I see it,with a business owners hat on,
If your not making a living learn/do something else, or specialise in one aspect, the plastering world doesnt owe anyone a living, its the same principal as if you was running any other business if your profit margins were getting less you'd look as to why. you wouldnt run another business at a loss so whys plastering any different. The games changing even in the reatatively short time [12 years]since i did my apprentice and you need to change with it. I cant see it ever getting back to where it was pre 2008, the problem is pastering is wrongly seen as semi-skilled now hence why rates will drop.
 
timeservedspread said:
Hello to all my fellow spreads,

Seeing as I’m sat on my arse with not much work booked ithought I’d put my views across on the diabolical work situation we are facing.

My plastering history is, at 18 years old i was given an apprenticeshipby a master plasterer and fibrous plasterer who between them probably suppliedme with about 80 years combined knowledge of both trades.

My apprenticeship was around 5 years, I’m now 43 yearsold and I’m just about as f'd off as i could be with the way our trade has beendumbed down into what can only be described as a farce of epic proportions.

I know from reading posts who the real spreaders are andthere is a fair few on here.

I lay the blame for the diabolical mess we are in on theclowns who operate these (get rich quick) courses, churning out completenovices with serious attitude problems?

Half the questions asked on this site are from monkeyswho are undercutting genuine spreads and who have either been on a course orlaboured on a spread, the f'ing cheek is beyond belief.

Do plastering course / go to screwfix and buy tools / getvan and vinyl lettering / = you are now a plastering contractor?

Well I’m sorry but you are most certainly not!

There is a reason we call ourselves "timeserved" tradesmen and that is we served our time through hard labour not af'ing plastering booth in a heated workshop?

If so-called plasterers need direction on how to do thejob they profess to be so good at then we should not be helping them.

They are the same reason we have to work for peanuts andthey are the clowns who price us out of domestic work.

Site work regs and prices are beyond a joke and in thepast when a recession has happened we always had the domestic market to fallback on, but not now.

We need to adopt the same rules as the Americanplasterers have, a British equivalent of The Operative Plasterers' and CementMasons' International Association of the United States and Canada (OPCMIA).

This is the only way to get the chancers out of our tradeand to make site contractors pay the proper rates for what is without doubt thehardest of all trades.

I’m 43 and sat on my arse at home ringing round for workand pricing jobs which i won’t getbecause some "skimmer" (whatever the f'@k that is) is doing it for 50quid a day.

My years in the plastering game have given me; hands thatlook 200 years old and that don’t havemuch blood circulating in them / 2 arthritic shoulders / i also need a new hipand knee within the next 7 years.
Bitter doesn’t even begin to describe how i feel at thisstage of my life?

Rant over, the upmost respect to my fellow "timeserved" spreads

Jonny
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pm your details, i should be able to pass something on
 
Don't bellitle the lad working quick theres always someone faster round the corner, its supply and demand simple you can't argue the toss about rates because someone else will do it
 
delivery , here goes ,
A bloke walks into W.H. Smiths an says,"Do you have that self help book for men with small cocks?"Female assistant says "I don't think its in yet "He replies "Yeah that's the one "​
 
Nickelarse what your saying is right ,but where am from in the merseyside area your lucky to get 100 aday off builders ,other people on here might tell me different,I meself prefer pricework but theres a limit to what Iwill work for, I would rather feed the ducks on the canal then work
 
efc plastering said:
Nickelarse what your saying is right ,but where am from in the merseyside area your lucky to get 100 aday off builders ,other people on here might tell me different,I meself prefer pricework but theres a limit to what Iwill work for, I would rather feed the ducks on the canal then work
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Is that price work or day work?
 
.....[.carried on]for silly prices,I admit I have done but not anymore slaving away for a pittance . Me arlfella told me once that if you worked for nothing you would never be out of work,but like someone said if you dont do it someone else will and theres plenty of people around here who will.
 
efc plastering said:
Nickelarse what your saying is right ,but where am from in the merseyside area your lucky to get 100 aday off builders ,other people on here might tell me different,I meself prefer pricework but theres a limit to what Iwill work for, I would rather feed the ducks on the canal then work
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im from very close to london, so i guess the prices are different. standard has always been 150ish. but everything costs double down here also
 
My first ever post on this site so here goes; I have been established in the south west for 15 years and by the sounds of it have experienced similar trends in work as others. The problem as I see it is not a lack of work but an increase in competion and low pricing. What I have done to keep busy through this recession is to try and stay busy when quiet. If I have a slack week then I canvas, A slack month then I network. If im busy I do more of both. There is a reluctance in the old school to advertise or try and market themselves, I have heard so many tradesmen say they never need to advertise but suffer like the rest of us when things go quiet. I have tried so many advertising streams and had little reponse, but a few work really well for us. Think outside of the box and work is there to be found, I have spent thousands on marketing that has been a total waste of time. I spent one day and about £30 putting adverts in newsagent and post office windows, about 25 all together (not crappy handwritten postcards, nice glossy printed with images of work and testimonials) and picked up nearlly 3 weeks work within 2 days. I now keep a couple of window ads permanently and they always chuck a job , albeit small, every couple of weeks. We keep a stack of flyers in the van and always chuck a couple through letterboxes when we are out and about. yellow pages, thompson website etc doesnt do a lot for us but more localised small scale advertising seems to bring in fresh clients small and big. hope this doesnt sound smug, just wanted to share what has worked for me with any decent spreads reading this
 
hi oilcan welcome.
i think it all depends how long your business has been established as to what is required to be done. 15 years is not a long time ,so you will have to work at it. i remember when i had to go out every evening to quote for work. i only go now when i know that is a cert. in other words you have to build up a large customer base. then you will not need to advertise
 
15 years is not a long time . . . .???? It's long enough surely. If you haven't established yourself a good reputation in 15 years through times like these then I'm not sure you will. Just my opinion.
 
Having a quick think about the jobs I have lined up over the next couple of months and where they have come from. Off the top of my head the ones I can think of - one is from word of mouth, and four others are from previous customers, two of whom came from advertising and the other two were also w.o.m. :RpS_thumbup:
 
NRM2007 said:
15 years is not a long time . . . .???? It's long enough surely. If you haven't established yourself a good reputation in 15 years through times like these then I'm not sure you will. Just my opinion.
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what i mean is that 15 years is not a long time to be completely advert free
 
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DannyMac said:
Do you advertise in local rags Bubbles?
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I have carefully selected/targeted my advertising and my total budget is less than £100 per year, although currently I am researching other avenues............not trying to be cryptic but I'd rather not discuss it too much in the open forum Danny :RpS_thumbup:
 
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