When looking for various contractors.....

[Fish]

..where do you look, what are your searching habits and how do you choose then from what you are faced with in front of you whether it be a list on Google, Yell.com, Check-A-Trade, Rated People, Twitter, Facebook?

So, you want a roofer, plumber, plasterer, electrician, renderer etc, what's your first point of action and then what?

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

I know one or two people in various trades so first off for me, I'll ask them if they can recommend anyone. Failing that, checkatrade is a good place to start.

 

[GB72]

Generally ask on social media for recommendations. Half the time though I am limited by who actually turns up to give a quote. Would say at least half do not turn up or cancel last minute

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I'm in that position at the moment. I need a builder / handyman and an electrician. Personal recommendation is always the starting point and I always go with people fairly local to where I live on the basis that they will not want to make a mess in their own back yard.

After that anywhere where you can see feedback is good. There is a facebook page for my town where people post on all sorts of matters. Often ranting about car parking or bad service in a restaurant but it is very good for recommendations regarding tradesmen. People put up a query, others make suggestions and then anyone else chucks in their view if they have used them. Always local tradesmen. It works well so that is where I went and have just contacted a couple of people.

I would not use the old methods of yellow pages or yell.com. Social media, facebook etc is the way now. Tradesman put up their details, post pictures of jobs done, people leave feedback. If needs be you can contact the people who had the work done by their facebook link. Are you looking for help or are you looking to see where you should promote your own business?

 

[Val]

..where do you look, what are your searching habits and how do you choose then from what you are faced with in front of you whether it be a list on Google, Yell.com, Check-A-Trade, Rated People, Twitter, Facebook?

So, you want a roofer, plumber, plasterer, electrician, renderer etc, what's your first point of action and then what?

I know at least one person in most building trades so they are normally my first call, after that its word of mouth.

 

[hors limite]

Word of mouth. If you are talking about a substantial job that's going to cost, I would go to the trouble of asking to speak to a small sample of customers.

 

[fundy]

As you know im currently renovating a whole house in an area where never done so before.

For me its been a combination of word of mouth from friends and recommendations from the trades we've got on site already. Have also gone to trade bodies websites for recommendations (ie competent roofer scheme, velux installers etc)

Have also posted jobs on trust a trader (or similar) and completely underwhelmed by the response and quality of tradespeople responding.

Where we are there is clearly too much work and not enough trades (partly through the huge amount of active building sites) as the decent trades are very much cherry picking what work they want to do, getting bored of people offering to quote and not actually doing so or getting ridiculously high quotes from trades that dont need the work so will take a shot at a high price.

You setting up on your own mate?

Oh and if anyone knows either a general builder and/or roofer (flat roof/velux install) who covers Milton Keynes that wants some work at a fair price send them my way lol (chancers need not apply)

 

[Pin-seeker]

I usually do the job myself.
If not I have mates whe are plumbers & sparkies.

 

[chellie]

Word of mouth. Would never use Rated People, Yellow Pages, Google etc etc

 

[USER1999]

I've come down to word of mouth, as Web site feed back, trusted trader etc is so skewed towards the trader it's not worth reading. Having been swizzed out of 140 recently by a plumbing company, I now want a local, family run business only. Feed back counts for zip.

 

[chellie]

Just remembered, the plumber we use won't even have a sign written van. He's busy enough without any advertising at all.

 

[sawtooth]

Local facebook page and word of mouth recommendations. I try to do as much as I can myself. Watched countless youtube vids and such until I feel confident enough to give it a go. Building a bed over a stairbox at the moment, involves taking out and constructing new stud walling!

With facebook trades have to do a good job else their name will be mud and word will spread like wild fire.

 

[Fish]

You setting up on your own mate?

Yes, said I wasn't going to start another business after retiring 3 years ago but ended up doing everything at my mates business and banging in the hours again whilst he was off golfing! So I've pished him off and set up on my own and got all my accreditations and am already quoting all around the country, so I can revisit you again as far as the rendering is concerned if it still needs to be priced?

What I am desperate for is someone who is SEO savvy, I've bought all my domains and built my own website and gone as far as I can with optimising it but I need someone on a small retainer to get me on and keep me on page 1 of Google.

I'm getting direct leads for ECO funding from insulating grants for solid brick properties so those leads are ok, but I need quick visibility for my own work also as I have to wait for that funding to come through for 30days.

Google, Render Properties UK and have a look, it's a little raw at present as it's only 3-weeks old but it's getting there, I'm polishing up the edges daily.

 

[Danielms]

Robin

There is a chap in Nuneaton we use for ours. Will dig out his details for you. He is a cousin of my wife.

Daniel

 

[Fish]

Robin

There is a chap in Nuneaton we use for ours. Will dig out his details for you. He is a cousin of my wife.

Daniel

Cheers 👍

 

[woody69]

checkaTrade.com

 

[Rooter]

Robin, would u suggest moving to render if the top half of your house was wood clad? Mines on the way out and we were just going to reclad, but the thermal properties of the house are crap.. maybe even full render?!

 

[Pin-seeker]

Robin, would u suggest moving to render if the top half of your house was wood clad? Mines on the way out and we were just going to reclad, but the thermal properties of the house are crap.. maybe even full render?!

You could insulate under the clad with Celotex or Kingspan.
You looked at pvc clad?

 

[Rooter]

You looked at pvc clad?

I dare not google that after last time....

 

[fundy]

Yes, said I wasn't going to start another business after retiring 3 years ago but ended up doing everything at my mates business and banging in the hours again whilst he was off golfing! So I've pished him off and set up on my own and got all my accreditations and am already quoting all around the country, so I can revisit you again as far as the rendering is concerned if it still needs to be priced?

What I am desperate for is someone who is SEO savvy, I've bought all my domains and built my own website and gone as far as I can with optimising it but I need someone on a small retainer to get me on and keep me on page 1 of Google.

I'm getting direct leads for ECO funding from insulating grants for solid brick properties so those leads are ok, but I need quick visibility for my own work also as I have to wait for that funding to come through for 30days.

Google, Render Properties UK and have a look, it's a little raw at present as it's only 3-weeks old but it's getting there, I'm polishing up the edges daily.

Site looks fine mate, just a case of getting it out there and getting some decent examples on there.

Give us a shout when you've got some time and we'll have a chat, most of the windows went in last week, they're doing the kitchen ones and bifolds mon/tue so after that we will be in a better position to assess what needs doing with the external walls (we have to redo the rear ones as some of those panels are completely shot, we are likely to choose to do the front if the price is ok albeit thats not as necessary).

Good luck!