Waiting for a plumber to get back to you, how long do you wait?

[keithski122]

Is that just plumbers who are really slow or all tradespersons ?

All of them.I'm just redoing our bathroom so had to get estimates from chippy for moving a doorway, a plumber to replumb rad,fit shower/bath, and tile, and an electrician for rewiring lights and extractor.All of them I had to nudge to get the estimates however apart from the plumber I knew their work.I now have a plumber, an electrician, a chippy and from before a builder I can trust and would reuse. I don't tend to bother with the three quotes thing now as these tradesmen do good, reliable and reasonably priced work.get them in give me a rough price and if I'm happy with it they've got the job.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

All of them.I'm just redoing our bathroom so had to get estimates from chippy for moving a doorway, a plumber to replumb rad,fit shower/bath, and tile, and an electrician for rewiring lights and extractor.All of them I had to nudge to get the estimates however apart from the plumber I knew their work.I now have a plumber, an electrician, a chippy and from before a builder I can trust and would reuse. I don't tend to bother with the three quotes thing now as these tradesmen do good, reliable and reasonably priced work.get them in give me a rough price and if I'm happy with it they've got the job.

We're all busy. A big company I'd be expecting a quote I. A couple of days max.
A small company a week.
They could have 6 other quotes pending before they get to yours

 

[brightspark]

in 30 years I rarely have to price work. just give a rough price and that's sufficient. if someone wanted a definite fixed price and there was a weeks work id price a week and a day so 200 quid on top to cover any obstacles sometimes you can do it in less than a week so you have scored . buti never tell them how long it takes as they get a bit miffed if you score but if you loose out they wouldn't pay you more . that's the idea of a fixed quote

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

in 30 years I rarely have to price work. just give a rough price and that's sufficient. if someone wanted a definite fixed price and there was a weeks work id price a week and a day so 200 quid on top to cover any obstacles sometimes you can do it in less than a week so you have scored . buti never tell them how long it takes as they get a bit miffed if you score but if you loose out they wouldn't pay you more . that's the idea of a fixed quote

I always quote
No misunderstandings on what I'm doing. It's all there in black and white and all extras are charged.

 

[keithski122]

We're all busy. A big company I'd be expecting a quote I. A couple of days max.
A small company a week.
They could have 6 other quotes pending before they get to yours

Plumbers must be busy. The guy I used finished at ours one day at 6.30 yet he still had another job to go to.He also ended up coming out on two sundays(no extra charge) as he had so much on.

 

[addjunkie]

I always quote
No misunderstandings on what I'm doing. It's all there in black and white and all extras are charged.

But this means your quotes need to be very specific, to allow for extras to be charged, or you may fund yourslf with irate customers

 

[brightspark]

I always quote
No misunderstandings on what I'm doing. It's all there in black and white and all extras are charged.

99 percent of my work is all recommendation and I only work local mainly for people I know its good because I never have to hassle customers for the money. only ever been had on 2 jobs one for 50 quid and the other 500

 

[earthman]

allways did get paid more than an electrician . dunno why

Possibly due to the fear of water damage and not being 100% sure of attaining an 100% water tight seal at the end of attempting a repair themselves?
Well that's how I feel about it, compression joints are bad enough for example, I've removed and replaced a rad for example, appeared to be water tight for a few days afterwards, good job I left some paper on the carpet, some drops appeared like a week afterwards. I've never even tried soldering a joint, no doubt the first one, two or several attempts at it ain't going to work,.....what do you do then? At least a compression joint can be tightened up a bit more.

Some folk are dead frightened of electrics, I do get that but generally from a DIY attempt, it either works or doesn't straight away and you are back to square one,...having to do without a light or socket for example isn't such a big deal compared to having a water leak in the house for example.

 

[Olderisbetter]

We mainly do work based on repeat business and our quotes are always given tongue in cheek as non of the jobs we have ever done stick to plan, No offence but when a lady is involved even if she has a plan it can be subject to change so we allow for that and only once has a person had issue with it and to be honest they were as mad as a cotton bag of of soup with at least one alteration a day.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

But this means your quotes need to be very specific, to allow for extras to be charged, or you may fund yourslf with irate customers

They are.
Longest I'm ever in one place is a month .
Usual job length is 2-3 days.

 

[Olderisbetter]

I always love how a couple see a job from different views, Normally the MR from the wallet and the MRS from the wow or glam factor, This below the neighbours downstairs toilet that was originally an outside toilet that got built around so now indoors, It had a leak that could have been a cistern swap or new close coupled set up put in but then his wife turned it into a full floor to ceiling tile job and concealed flush yet the door casing which doesn't got all the way to the floor was ignored as it was the husbands cost saving trick

 

[earthman]

That were on purpose I think, a gap for a bit of ventilation.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I always love how a couple see a job from different views, Normally the MR from the wallet and the MRS from the wow or glam factor, This below the neighbours downstairs toilet that was originally an outside toilet that got built around so now indoors, It had a leak that could have been a cistern swap or new close coupled set up put in but then his wife turned it into a full floor to ceiling tile job and concealed flush yet the door casing which doesn't got all the way to the floor was ignored as it was the husbands cost saving trick View attachment 214970

Gluing a couple of ofcuts underneath while not perfect would at least have looked less obvious

 

[KemppiFrog]

When I was taking over buildings that the builders had abandoned in Iberia. (as in taken lotsa money, then ran) I frequently had trouble getting trades to turn up on time. So I bought the kit and did it myself, mainly because the delay held up the guys who were actually working on other trades.
Result is that I gave up on plumbers etc and now do it all myself. Cheaper and on time.

 

[sg66]

Is your boiler tripping the electric?

 

[earthman]

Is your boiler tripping the electric?

No.

 

[sg66]

No.

What's it tripping?

 

[earthman]

The boiler into 'fault mode'.

 

[Olderisbetter]

Gluing a couple of ofcuts underneath while not perfect would at least have looked less obvious

Yes i have to agree and it will get done when i paint the utility room which is joined to the toilet.

 

[Farside]

I had a plumber/heating engineer pop round to have a look at our tripping boiler problem 4 days ago, he made a note of the details/parts needed, said that he would find out the prices for said parts and work out his labour charge,.....I've heard nothing since.

I'm guessing that he just don't want the job then or am I being harsh here? What is an acceptable/reasonable time to wait just to hear back from such a tradesman??

4 days is too much. Some heating engineers take a busted boiler in winter quite seriously and do their best to sort it quickly.
Otoh, some are lazy uninterested gits.