Back in the 4th floor flat again today, one of the jobs was to fit a bath panel.
Lady had the bath installed 2 years ago by an installer suggested by MFI (where she ordered the bath).
Panel was 2" too short. Not surprising as the bath 'feet' were on 2" thick timbers.
Conversation with the lady revealed that the installer had promised several times to return & fit the panel.
Turned out that the tiles above the bath were already in place & the installer had raised the bath by 2" so it met the tiles, obviously not considering the size of the bath panel.
Some tradesman would be best advised to cease trading before they lose everything. Some people just dont know how much they dont know. Just be grateful he didnt leave an array of 1" sharp screw points sticking out at the customer.
In the guy's defence, it's conceivable that he *might* have originally offered the customer the alternative of a proper job, ie including retiling, or a cheaper option as carried out (although if so, it doesn't excuse not fitting the bath panel).
Since the tiles were already in place it was hardly the previous guys fault ie he had to raise the bath on 2" noggins to bring it level with the tiles. Who knows what the excuse was about the panel being short and lets face it certainly wouldn't have been left undone if the woman had the bill to pay when the job was completed?
I recently stayed in a B&B where the bath had been replaced and a single row of non matching tiles had been stuck above the bath on top of the old tiles. It looked b****y stupid!
And another thing... ...When you get a tiny square shower cubical why don't they fit the shower head at or near one of the rear corners instead of the middle of the back wall.
And why we are at it, why is the toilet paper holder in the most inaccessible place.
At least they don't "chain" the TV remote to the bed-head anymore. I haven't seen that done for a while. It used to be quite common even in quite posh hotels.
Absolutely. I'm currently booked solid until the 8 October with more jobs coming in every day. Smallest job I've ever done is to change a single light bulb - albeit 30' above a stairwell.
Two jobs today. Lady with a blocked gutter on an extension & some flatpack drawers that had falled apart. Second was a church with a door parted from the top hinge & a Yale lock that wouldn't shut properly. Took £180 labour only.
Thats where the niche market is for me. Lady called today, wants 1 x mirror, 2 x pictures & 2 x shelves fixing to walls. She had called 6 other firms who all said the job was too small. That will take an hour for £45 leaving most of the day free for other jobs.
Sparkies are all Part P organised, plumbers are all CORGI registered, so can't afford to take on smaller jobs. Putting up a new light fitting or changing a tap washer are jobs they can't be bothered with.
My charges are geared to pay me more for smaller jobs see
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calls came in today for small jobs, 1 of which I've probably lost because I can't do it for 3 weeks.
My 'tag line' is "For all those little jobs that need to be done".
If I get a call asking for an estimate and they say they have 2 other companies giving quotes, I just turn it down - can't be arsed to compete.
The market for small jobs is huge & very profitable. That's the secret to this handyman malarky.
It's just that it's the opposite of what the guy from Cambridge who came here 3-4 years ago said (I wonder if he's still lurking?).
Some of you will remember that he moved over to trying out being a handyman, as he was then finding little work in IT due to ageism (which is pretty much where I am now).
After about 2 years he gave it up because he couldn't find enough small customers to make it worthwhile. He said that there was enough work if he was prepared to take on the bigger jobs but that he didn't want to (or couldn't) do that.
I wonder if your high density location is the difference?
Agreed but how do you juggle the timings? The problem I find is that the job that ought to take 5 minutes takes half the day and then you're phoning up the next person to put them off. Or the half day job takes 5 minutes or the client is out or whatever and you've got to find something else to do.
My ideal is to have a biggish (bread and butter) job I can go to when it suits me and book in a small one first thing (my jam), moving onto the b&b one when I'm ready.
But there is not enough hours in the day to make a real profit doing the smaller jobs.
Most of wasted time is based around getting to and from the next job, an hour or so is wasted discussing with the punter what they want and getting your tools on the job and then getting them together in the van for the next job and also you might end up having to stretch a 1 hour job which usually ends up being 2 hours. You then could find getting to the job you have to leave the job to go and get items required for the job which amounts to another hour or so? I bet if you were to do a time and motion study for one week or even one day your hours amount at least 3.5 to 4 hours lost due to none related work, thats not forgetting the dinner hour also.
Been there and done that and ended up taking on the 1 or 2 larger jobs in the past.
Or could it also be the 3-4 years? I reckon the home improvement bug is still around, but some people are getting bored of doing it themselves. This only needs to be a slight effect to give TMH a lot of work.
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