Whats happened to our great trade?

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Site work - overrun with skimmers, main contractors still blaming the recession but still selling the houses for massive profits.

Domestic - overrun with skimmers/maintenance men/chancers, customers either want a spot on finish for a dog $hit price or just want a dog $hit price.
 
mac_plastering said:
Site work - overrun with skimmers, main contractors still blaming the recession but still selling the houses for massive profits.

Domestic - overrun with skimmers/maintenance men/chancers, customers either want a spot on finish for a dog $hit price or just want a dog $hit price.
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In a nut shell
 
mac_plastering said:
Site work - overrun with skimmers, main contractors still blaming the recession but still selling the houses for massive profits.

Domestic - overrun with skimmers/maintenance men/chancers, customers either want a spot on finish for a dog $hit price or just want a dog $hit price.
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Trouble is most people dont want to pay for proper plastering... ie float and set.... so whats the point... I think I have only floated a handful of houses out and the rest were Dot and dabbed
 
I blame dot and dab, agencies, these website bidding firms, 5 day courses, plastering contractors not giving a ****, house builders not giving a **** and finally easy fill :)
 
Its only money who cares you could make 60 grand and lose the lot the next day from one bad payer
 
johniosaif said:
On very low paid jobs, I would say to the boss, don't tell me till Friday what the wage is, when asked why, I replied because if I knew ,I would not come in Monday.if I personally take on a job I do it to the best of my ability, I'm afraid I will have to,pass some of the blame back onto you plastersltd, if the water is only six inches deep you cannot expect anyone to swim in it and be happy. I know there is apparently a recession, I see house prices rising 50 k around me, I see multi millionaires laughing at contractors scrambling for the crumbs, if its not worth doing , don't do it,
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This is what sums it up for me, the rich are getting richer and there is not a single thing we can do about it. Everyone undercutting each other so the man at the top makes a bundle...
 
stuart23 said:
This is what sums it up for me, the rich are getting richer and there is not a single thing we can do about it. Everyone undercutting each other so the man at the top makes a bundle...
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Too true! Sorry state of affairs it is. Supply completely outstrips demand. An imbalance that as long as anybody can just chance it and crack on will take years to redress.
 
West Midlands – The highest requirements are for labourers (710) and wood trade and interior fit out (640). There are little or no requirements for: bricklayers; plasterers and dry liners; roofers; floorers; glaziers; specialist building operatives; scaffolders; plant mechanics/fitters; plus plumbing and heating, ventilation and air conditioning trades. this is what i found earlier on a site for trades this is what its like round by me this is the truth not the bs colleges push out make 60,000 a year being a plumber!!
 
Small time tradesmen still want good clean & reliable plasterers they can rely on, and are still willing to pay decent money .... Same with domestic customers!

I never was on this amazing (pre 08) money & never put all my eggs in one basket.
Infact nothing has changed really apart from the cost of materials, tools and vehicle running costs.

One thing about a good recession is it sorts the wheat from the chaff & sees off all the get rich quick kids.
 
DMA said:
Small time tradesmen still want good clean & reliable plasterers they can rely on, and are still willing to pay decent money .... Same with domestic customers!

I never was on this amazing (pre 08) money & never put all my eggs in one basket.
Infact nothing has changed really apart from the cost of materials, tools and vehicle running costs.

One thing about a good recession is it sorts the wheat from the chaff & sees off all the get rich quick kids.
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Not really, good men lose out, unscrupulous men carry on, they care not a tot for quality so its easy to be competitive.
 
Pre 08 was good for me, earnt some really good money as I was young & very eager, I'd also been taught well.

Problem was I was only 19,20,21 and blew everything I earned anything I wanted ie beer-drugs-clothes
 
like wise i was a slave to stella everynight pub after work good times gone now im a slave to 2.98 bottles of cider and the couch haha :RpS_laugh:
 
mac_plastering said:
Pre 08 was good for me, earnt some really good money as I was young & very eager, I'd also been taught well.

Problem was I was only 19,20,21 and blew everything I earned anything I wanted ie beer-drugs-clothes
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pre 08 I was 42, investing every penny from my dog years, nearly out of the plastering game, the down turn tied me up and dragged me back to plastering, trying to get out of it again but I am never short sighted, deal with what's in front of you but always aim to move up the chain.
 
Plasterersltd said:
As a contractor I can honestly say that firstly it is very hard to get good prices, if you don't take the prices your offered, someone else will. And secondly it is very hard to find plasterers that 1. Turn up 2.take pride in their work 3.think for themselves 4. Don't moan about what money they should be earning and just get on and earn it 5. Keep clean and tidy and don't treat you as they are doing you a favour coming to work for you, and 6. Think it's OK !! To let you down ..... I apologise to those that don't fit in the above category but unfortunately you are the minority now and it's very hard to run a business with both sides being difficult!!
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your company will not last the corse, the tail is wagging the dog, you must give the prices to the builder or they will take the piss out of you if you are daft enough to accept there price.
when you pay peanuts how can you expect to attract anyone that can do the work?
 
DMA said:
Small time tradesmen still want good clean & reliable plasterers they can rely on, and are still willing to pay decent money .... Same with domestic customers!

I never was on this amazing (pre 08) money & never put all my eggs in one basket.
Infact nothing has changed really apart from the cost of materials, tools and vehicle running costs.

One thing about a good recession is it sorts the wheat from the chaff & sees off all the get rich quick kids.
Click to expand...

more likely genuine tradesmen will bail out as it becomes unfeasible to carry on for low rates leaving the door wide open for chancers and the like ,and ive had my fair share of small builders ive given fair prices only for them to come back at me with stupid so called quotes off others who i know for a fact either are fresh from college or are not spreads and i know this because genuine spreads wouldnt work for what they came out with
 
I think we need to go back some time. in the late 80s We the employer were getting screwed by labour that was in short supply and thought a good days work was from 8am to 1 pm. Wages were high and the best recruiting ground was the one oclock train out of London. Enter the common market labour.(referred to on here as the Poles)Work ethic 8am till 5pm and skilled tradesmen as well. To add to this screwed by the CITB for 25 of our turnover said to be for training apprentices. (one of the only surviving quangos). What happened next ,they set about turning the trades into little jobs (ie skimming etc etc) Where is the apprentice now? In my day we had thousands of them. The CITB then had the cheek to tell us to convert our City and Guilds certificates into NVQs then we would be allowed to buy their wonderful CSCS certificate that would allow us to work on site. F*****g cheek there we were being run by a bunch of non tradesmen who didnt have a clue. Then to add to this we were recruited to check the Europeans qualifications and award them the said NVQs. We were paid £300 to do this per student. I didnt last long as most needed an interpreter and I exposed a health and safety risk(ie something falling from above, man yells warning in English, interpreter does his bit but heho to late its killed the worker).I was asked to leave even though I was the most qualified plasterer in the UK in their employ. Then enter the training Company ( Learn to do it in a day, a week for £500) What have you got ? a load of chancers devaluing the trade. (as is said if you can p**s you can paint) There is no easy answer to this one. All I can say is do a good quality of work and a full day of work for a fair price and you ill win in the end
 
jeanclaudevangyproc said:
to be honest for the prices that are being dished out they are doing contractors a favour even entertaining the fact of turning up spreads are pd off with contractors full stop if ,also these contractors who expect a rolls royce job when they are paying raleigh bike prices need to wake up these blokes do it for a wage to have a decent standard of living and this is being taken away from them by greed of others ,ive heard every bs story from contractors about why the moneys going to be paid late ,not making anything etc all bs they wouldnt do it if they wasnt making anything in fact i would say more likley the contractor is making a hell of a lot more than the subbie and knows it contractors want ,want ,want all one way first time a subbie asks for anything they aint interested ,and i bet anyone on here would walk away if the job wasnt worth doing for the price i know i would and have done
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Like I said, I'm on the trowel, not sat in the office. I decided to become a contractor because I was constantly pd off with the poxy excuses the contractors I was working kept coming up with. My blokes / subs are paid every Friday without fail regardless of wether I've been paid or not as that's not there responsibility, it's mine. I work at night and weekends to get work in and chase payments, and for that I take a very small amount off the price or day rate, and I mean small. The prices are **** for the contractors and **** for the subs and the demand from the main contractors is to deliver high standards. What I don't get is why there are so many plasterers out there that hate plastering but we have to ( well I don't ) put up with there unprofessional conduct and attitude. Surely we all work too many hours in the day to spend them working miserable, grumpy and negative ! We are all in the same boat yet most complain about how much waters in the boat instead of picking up a bucket and bailing it out! If you want to save our trade guys then is starts with us sticking together !
 
Plasterersltd said:
Like I said, I'm on the trowel, not sat in the office. I decided to become a contractor because I was constantly pd off with the poxy excuses the contractors I was working kept coming up with. My blokes / subs are paid every Friday without fail regardless of wether I've been paid or not as that's not there responsibility, it's mine. I work at night and weekends to get work in and chase payments, and for that I take a very small amount off the price or day rate, and I mean small. The prices are **** for the contractors and **** for the subs and the demand from the main contractors is to deliver high standards. What I don't get is why there are so many plasterers out there that hate plastering but we have to ( well I don't ) put up with there unprofessional conduct and attitude. Surely we all work too many hours in the day to spend them working miserable, grumpy and negative ! We are all in the same boat yet most complain about how much waters in the boat instead of picking up a bucket and bailing it out! If you want to save our trade guys then is starts with us sticking together !
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what is the point in taking a risk with your money for little reward. working on the trowel in daytime, chasing work and money at night time. putting up with all that aggro. you would be better off just earning your own money and let the other plasterers fend for themselves
 
A guy working in the house next door to me today, I stopped and said hello and got chatting.

What do you do, he says
I told him I was a plasterer, even though it says on my shirt everything I do, my phone number, website and a picture of our lasses crack on the back.

Ad you, I asked.

"Everything, I'm like a maintenance man, do everything me, plastering, dotting, lofts, windows"

A very random string of talents just spewed from his gob, while he stood their in his longsdale t-shirt resting against his 57 plate hatchback corolla.

Ha, the countries fooked
 
Once had a guy come to site and say he was looking for work , the boss said, what can you do, he said I can do,a little of everything, boss ,said sorry I need someone who can do,a lot of everything.
 
mac_plastering said:
A guy working in the house next door to me today, I stopped and said hello and got chatting.

What do you do, he says
I told him I was a plasterer, even though it says on my shirt everything I do, my phone number, website and a picture of our lasses crack on the back.

Ad you, I asked.

"Everything, I'm like a maintenance man, do everything me, plastering, dotting, lofts, windows"

A very random string of talents just spewed from his gob, while he stood their in his longsdale t-shirt resting against his 57 plate hatchback corolla.

Ha, the countries fooked
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How much you selling the t shirts for Mac??....:RpS_sneaky:
 
Yes if you two aunt in epping forest you can be found on Hampstead heath i expect !! LOL in the 80's i did some work for ABC agency £6.50 an hour !! but the site agent used to book you about 90 hours a week......
 
malc said:
what is the point in taking a risk with your money for little reward. working on the trowel in daytime, chasing work and money at night time. putting up with all that aggro. you would be better off just earning your own money and let the other plasterers fend for themselves
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The whole point for my effort is to change how things are in a small way, because its wrong the way things are, if we all did the same then all the smalls would make a massive change ! The way forward is to stop looking backwards and change things for the better !
 
Plasterersltd said:
The whole point for my effort is to change how things are in a small way, because its wrong the way things are, if we all did the same then all the smalls would make a massive change ! The way forward is to stop looking backwards and change things for the better !
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Plasterersltd for PM!! Lol
 
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