I've been lying in bed for four hours waiting unsuccessfully to fall asleep, so I've come here for a grumble.
I really wish I could have faith in being able to go by past performance in the building trade.
Roofer did a wonderful job reroofing my house, so two years later I went back to him to reroof my flat. It dragged on and on, bits of it leaked, it was left unsealed overnight, they ignored my specific instructions to check in with the tenants on site each morning who were having to live through this, instead they were zipping up the scaffolding and bashing away at the roof with no warning, they got worse turning up, didn't return calls, so eventually I fired them and paid them off.
Scrabbling around I found an old receipt from a chap who'd repair by by window roof some years ago. I spoke to him and he was able to come and finish the job off, and did it perfectly.
Last year I needed my yard resurfaced, and some internal building work at home. Ok, I'll go with the chap that did such a good job for me a couple of years ago. Job dragged on and on, almost broke up the concrete hardstanding that was specified to stay, almost tarmaced over the broken concrete that was specified to be removed, instead of straightening the garden edging it was smashed up and replaced with road kerbs. Refused to take instruction from my business partner on site 'cos "you're a woman, you won't understand, love". Managed to stop it getting out of control, removed about a third of the work, and just got everything that had been started finished to satisfaction.
All the best advice is to go with somebody who has done well in the past, but I'm dispairing of past work being an indicator of future quality. Of the trades I use I've only got a plumber left, and he's been a star for 15 years, and at least I know that when my knees finally go he can take over the electrical work as well as he's a plumber-electrical engineer, in particular, not just a fitter, and insists on his apprentices he takes on going through on-the-job and college fitters' training and then engineering training so they're not just box stackers but understand the underlying concepts and can design a system not just follow the instructions on the back of the packet.
I'm currently feeling like I'm circling a drain again as I have a bathroom refitted and just feel that everything *will* go wrong, particulary as I'm juggling dealing with my other tenant's scote of an ex-boyfriend who came around to try and make up with her and ended up kicking the door down instead.
I dispair of constantly having to re-seek out the same trades. My ex- wife said the other day that "they" do one decent job to suck you in knowing they will be able to feed off you for future jobs.
I know this doesn't apply for the majority of people on here. Just feeling a bit pissed off with the world.
JGH