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Originally Posted by Madhatter
the old boys who did jobs cheap for granmas have given up.
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You mentioned “the old boys who did jobs cheap for granmas have given up.”
Well that is another reason why DIYers do it for them selves.
Prices professionals charge these days are ridiculous, I’m not saying all professionals but I bet most. A friend of mine was doing his home up a couple of years ago and they wanted to have three double sockets fitted, basically in a row above their kitchen work surface. So they hired an electrician to do the job for them, which was fine he did a good job. He wired the three double sockets horizontally in a row as requested at a give distance covering an area of about 1.5M, my friend had also supplied the sockets because thy were of a particular fancy design. He ran the wire up the wall and tapped into the ring main under the floor boards and also protected the cable by covering it with a length of u shaped plastic/ steel covering because the wall was going to be re-plastered after.
It took him about three hours to finish. He had done a fantastic job, everything nice and level etc. he charged them around £150, not a bad price really but when you think, that’s probably half a weeks wage for most people and for what.... 3 hours work. Hmm
I myself would love to be able to call in a Sparky/Plumber/car mechanic /washing machine repair man/ joiner/ plasterer etc etc . At the drop of a hat to do my small miner repairs, alterations etc but seeing that I may have to dish up half a weeks wages, or more for simple jobs and to the professional doing that job they must be easy. I would rather attempt doing them for myself and I do, often with good results. The bigger jobs that crop up now and then, I have no choice, I have to involve the professional and pay like everyone else, through the nose, thank god for credit cards because with them I can now pay what they demand and pay off my credit card over many, many months.
There must be a lot of jobs out there that need doing, but because of high prices and low wages they don’t get done.
I bet if tradesman lowers their prices to a more reasonable and fair price, like they did in the old days then they would get more work.
I don’t know but these days, it seems to me that nobody really wants to have loads of work (busy). They want to make as much money as they can on as little work/jobs as possible and to do that they have to charge high prices, hence the DIYer. But if people were to lower prices and make jobs more affordable to everyone then they would get more work, which would equal more money. but as I say they dont seem to want more work.