Can a tradesman be wealthy?

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windy

windy

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Was in the pub with a mate last nite. He is a time served tiler with 19 yrs experience but and this is the big but HE IS A LAZY LAZY %&^&

Because of this he ends up with the dross jobs working for agencies who give him a few days here and there. Does domestic stuff when he can be bothered to show up. :RpS_cursing:
The lad is a good tiler and can plaster to a "reasnable standard" and now has his first baby on the way. He was talking of new start for next yr etc.

He wants to do a "10 day bathroom fitting course". So he can get in the job at entry and hopefully quote for bathroom fit,plastering and tiling work all in.

Whether he does it or not is irrelevant because i know he is a lazy b*****d and will get all stressed out and start messing people aroung on 4k bathroom installs. SOmetimes he even leaves his tools at jobs and tells the customer he will be back tommorrow and never goes back
:RpS_lol:

So my thought is how come you get the odd tradesman who leaves school with no quals etc does a bricklaying apprentiship and years later becomes a millionaire homebuilder/property developer. When others chase the 9 to 5 with the council with the safe pension and never earn more than 22k over thier lifetime.

Also in the current climate what do you think of his chances as a complete bathroom fitter will be. Cud a 10 day course teach enough. He has a basic awareness of plumbing as he has worked alongside trades on LHA work all his life.

I wish him well but if the lad cant market himself to get £90 a day tiling after 18 odd yrs then is he the sort of person someone will pay a lot more to do a nice bathroom job.

Not plastering stuff as such but its about the tradesmans mentality really..
 
Hello,

I did loads of work for a bathroom fitter and a 10 day course cannot cover it.... I think you have to have half a brain at first to get it right! I have worked for weeks for this chap rip out fitting skimming tiling teh lot an dthere is so much work to get involved in.

Also that most people only have one bathroom so if you **** up they dont have a shower for a week or in some cases have no toilet.... I have been in properties at 2am skimming them so that teh customer has very little inconvenience.

He sounds like a bit of a waster to be honest.... but maybe he can change
 
i find you get 2 types of tradesman, the first type is the one that will either work for someone their whole lives or be self employed but only do the work that is handed to them. then you get the people who look for work all the time, work any hours they have to to get the job done and will travel the country (world in some cases) to find work. its no coincidence that the latter are the people who will have the money/experience that gives them a nice lifestyle. my mate moans about the money i can make in a week, yet he sits in a warehouse all week telling polish people how to do their jobs. so the people who never stop working and travel all over deserve the money. if hes any good he will make money, if hes no good then he'll go back to tiling for agencies all the time
 
You will never make big money grafting on your own you have to grab the big jobs and employ the staff or go down the developer route all agg and riskey but some peoplle are good at it but many fall at the first hurdle.
 
I think you have to be a bit of a c**t to make real money as a tradesman. By that, I mean getting others to work for you and not giving them a great rate, plus turn out work to a standard that is just passable and charge top dollar for it, so you need to have no conscience. I've worked for a few like that and they're not popular people. I do alright but could earn a lot more if I wasn't so fussy with the boarding and the finishing, but then I couldn't live with the thought of someone saying that my work was sh1t. All my work is repeat customers and any new work that comes in is from being recommended.
 
in my years in the trade plumbers are most wealthy without question on a single trade bias , builders do ok also , in our trade you have to have people working for you to reach the same level as plumbers and builder , imo you cant make enough money from the materials in our trade on a single work for your self bias , most plumbers earn well and make 20% on there mats before they walk through the door
 
agree with most of the above...

there are easier ways to make money ....

i make a living and thats about it..
 
when the baby arrives, he either do one or pull his finger out.

it's takes a bit of time to adjust to being a dad.
 
its all down to the individual mate, i had my eyes opened in the early 80's in germany when i saw a couple of guys getting out of 500 sel mercs and 7 series bmw's and dressed for the golf course... 1/2 hour later they were spreading walls on... that made my mind up to stick at the trade and become the best i could.. i have never ever let the work come to me in all my life... i have been all over the world in my 37 years as a plasterer... made some very good money and most of all enjoyed my job 100% so its not about the money although that helps a lot its about applying yourself and getting to a standard of life your happy with
 
What do u think of his chances of getting half decent at bathroom installs after 10 days if he has a basic idea already?
 
Depends on the bathroom if it's just a straight swap then they are a piece of piss but if not then that's a little different
 
I do plastering for a couple of bathroom fitters, 10 day turn around is the norm.
 
Answer is NEVER ,the pure definition of wealthy changes as tradsmen earn more soon millionaires will no longer be considered wealthy but billionaires - now thats something to aim for.
As for tradesmen they will always be kept in a certain bracket - everytime time we start to make a bit we seem to have an influx of immigrants or a recession, designed to keep us where we belong.
 
I do all kinds of General building work including fitting out several bathrooms a year.
I have never been taught as such or trained and never seen a college in my life.
I just picked these skills up over the years in the business, i can solder and bend pipes fit baths shower sinks etc as well as do kitchens all tiling plastering and small building works.
A lot of the skills you require to fit bathrooms etc are common sense and not difficult to learn if you have common sense.It certainly takes the right sort of person to be able to do these things.
I think you could learn to tile solder and bend pipes to a certain standard within 10 days. You will be able to swap bathroom suite like for like and tile with cheap crap tiles etc.
But you will not have any reall knowledge or understanding of the industry which will be your down fall.You wil have to learn how to adapt and use different methods and materials.Youl come across situations that ur course did not prepare you for such as instaling maserators and pumps working with say old 20 thread pipes and old lead pipes stop cocks etc.Youl work in flats where you dont know where stop tap is etc you will come acroos fittings and solvent weld youve not seen before and you will be fcked.
Even tiling as simple as it appears,easy at ur college on new flat level stud walls with 6 inch tiles,i could teach my 5 year old to do it.
But youl come across uneven walls that need doing with travertine / limestone mosaics or highly polished tiles that get damaged whilst grouting ur college wont prepare you for this.Nor will they prepare to fit fit fancy radiators under floor heating very expensive wall hung toilets and shower cublcles steam showers and jacuzzi bath tubs.
The above items are very popular with the advent of the internet areas such becoming very cheap and very common in most new bathrooms i do.
By all means go for the course and get an insight into the trade and knock out a few simple bathrroms but dont think you can do full refits or refits of a good to high satdard cus you wont be prepared mate.
 
Nice one skimming your dead right especialy with tiling nowadays loads of natural stone people dont want ceramics anymore the trouble is they dont want to pay for the real gear and go for the cheap Chinese Porcelaine etc. from the DIY outlets and if you dont know how to deal with that crap youl get in big trouble.
 
a lot of it is down to who you know not what you know,and taking a chance.

A good mate of mine i know, joiner by trade,i went to school with him,not the brightest lad he left school with nothing did his apprenteship started doing domestic.got to about 25 year old,family 2 small kids house moragage etc.
said to me one day im buying a building plot im remorgaing my house to do it but im a bit short he said you want to go halfs as bank wont stump up full amount against my house value, i said basically your nuts your risking everything etc being that the plot was at planning stage and not passed yet so he was taking a massive gamble as he could be left with nothing as it was doubtful wether he got it.i turned him down,being that i would have to remorgage my house and i didnt want to risk it,,anyhow he got the money by hook or by crook selling his car etc.
any how long story short,He got permission in the end built a detached 4 bed house valued at 380 thousand lived in a short while to cut his tax liabilities down,sold it cleared around a hundred grand on it and now runs a successful devlopment company by doing barn conversions hes 30 now same age as me,has all the trappings nice house,car etc.granted it was in a better economic times 5 year since,but hes grown year by year.
i now do his plastering for him, and i swear barely a day goes by where i dont kick my self for not taking a chance whilst i was able to.

you just have to take a chance to make serious money,you wont make serious money working for a living,you will make a living but that is it.
 
im not gonna slag your mate off but i can tell similar stories, and the only winner was the bloke with the house... everyone else got mugged off..
going into business with people when youre just a tradesman is gonna leave you just a tradesman working for the businessman...
 
then fair crack to the lad, if he's done it with sheer nouse and not stomped hard working innocent people in the process I take my hat off to him... :RpS_thumbup:

I wish I had that sort of nouse, as well as the determination and self control required...

otherwise known as 'vision' and 'tenacity'
 
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Having a few houses a new van and bmw on the drive doesnt mean ur particulary wealthy,with a lot of people it just means there mortgaged to fcuk !!!!
Having £600,000 cash in the bank ( desposible ) with no mortgage is a different matter.

I know many people that appear to be wealthy but actually have nothing but a whole lot of debt.
Maybe oneday they will be wealthy!!!!!!!
Remeber you dont own it till you paid for it.
 
but in this story the lad turned a plot of land into a 380 grand house and cleared 100k profit... im assuming thats net profit..
if youve got a 600k mortage but the house is worth 1.5million that puts you 900 grand up gross...
I think these days youre gonna have to have a bloody good wedge and tons of nouse before the banks will go near you with credit, so appearances probably arent as deceptive as they used to be....

I would honestly trade everything ive ever learnt in the building game for that sort of business skill... you'll always earn more money with your head than you will with your back...
why bother spending years learning how to break your back for a living when you can spend a few years learning how to get other people to do it for you?

only thing Ive got a problem with is the line between 'business skill' and 'exploitation'....

all i need these days is a good businesswoman with a nice big arse to cuddle up to and ive cracked it... :RpS_biggrin:
 
Ive had my houses and lost em got them again and lost them yet again,reason i lost them marrying the Business woman with the nice ass mentioned above !!!!!
 
the banks wont lend you nothing at the moment i can personally vouch for that.
im currently building a house for myself and bank wont lend me nothing until i get it out of ground.even tho i have a decent lump of equity in my currently house and 3 years self employed books to back it up, and me personally buying the land. they dont want to know, and on top of all that there knocking self cert on the head so self employed will find it even harder to get a morgage now.
with a bit of luck i wont be doing this in ten years time,
im 29 my back aches when i get up in the morning my hands are that 'leathered' they look like jordans fanny,and ive only been doing it 13 year,a great deal of respect to lads that that have been doing it decades.
for any lads starting out send me a pm and i will personally tell them to do a different trade.
but on a plus note i will never be as down in the dumps as nelly is about the trade.
 
skimmin2day said:
Ive had my houses and lost em got them again and lost them yet again,reason i lost them marrying the Business woman with the nice ass mentioned above !!!!!
Click to expand...
:RpS_biggrin:

maybe blokes like us were just meant to suffer mate, where would all the business people be without us eh?

maybe i'll adjust my plan to include 'ugly as f'ck businesswoman with nice arse' then.. mantlepiece / fire etc... :RpS_biggrin:
 
skimmin2day said:
Having a few houses a new van and bmw on the drive doesnt mean ur particulary wealthy,with a lot of people it just means there mortgaged to fcuk !!!!
Having £600,000 cash in the bank ( desposible ) with no mortgage is a different matter.

I know many people that appear to be wealthy but actually have nothing but a whole lot of debt.
Maybe oneday they will be wealthy!!!!!!!
Remeber you dont own it till you paid for it.
Click to expand...

I like it!!!!!!
 
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