Do You Feed and Make Drinks for Tradesman
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If it's just a half day job I don't do food but always offer tea, coffee etc. However my grandson in law is in the building trade and they very rarely get offered anything not even a drink. He went to fit blinds recently and the lady expected him to remove all her photos etc from the sill which i don't feel is part of the job. She would surely complain if he dropped one.
My bathroom fitters have had at least 3 hot drinks each shift this last week, especially as they had to go outside to do some of the work in this icy weather. I also did them a full English on one of the days and both remarked that they dont usually get treated so well. Why not? They have been great at their job, solved all problems and cleaned up at end of each shift.
Cant believe some folk are so inhospitable.
I make my house full availiable and accessible. Workmen can use the loo,kitchen.smoke ..have a can of beer if they want.Come and go at leisure.Ask for drinks or food.Ask me for help if do-able.Just don't disappear unannounced and leave the job unfinished or pinch the cutlery lol.
MelissaLee1 glad to hear it as I have heard lots talking about their experiences of being treated as if they are servants. I would think you are asking for sloppy work if you treat tradesmen badly.
When our boiler has its annual service it takes the gas man 10 mins then he chats with an cuppa about running and cycling with my husband for the next half hour, charges nearly £100.
Whenever I need any work done at home or the garden , I always make tea or coffee. I’ve done that a lot over the years. I live down South and the tradesmen have told me they haven’t been offered tea, coffee or even a glass of water.
We don't often have tradesmen in but the ones that we do have become friends. Our electrician and our plumber has become friends so I always offer tea and coffee and if they will be there for a while then I offer food too.
In our old house, the painter became a friend too. He was there for about 5 days and we has him in for breakfast and whenever I was making a cup of tea I offered him one too. If it was a warm day then I always made sure they had enough water and even an ice lolly if wanted.
When you find a good tradesman you want to be able to keep them so it's important to treat them properly.
Lynibis our electrician was saying that there are less young people going into it. He is always busy because there is a lack of electricians where we live and he is always highly recommended. He has done work for my parents and a few friends based on our recommendations. Having a trade is a good career, especially if he is good at it.
We will always someone a drink either hot or cold but we have never fed a tradesman. But to be fair we hardly have any as my husband does all the diy.
eyeballkerry I don't think they would expect food, I always offer but don't push it if they decline.
A recent tradesman visit to my mother's house to install a boiler refused hot drinks but we did end up giving him 2 small bottles of Lucozade. He worked really fast so despite being one man installed the boiler in one day and did a brilliant job. The boiler installation was about 800 pounds including VAT. I guess of that 500 pounds was labour costs as there were also some parts included. 500 pounds for a days work is pretty decent to say the least and when I say day I mean about 6-7 hours, about 80-100 pounds an hour. However very pleased with the installation cost compared to many other installers who quoted much more. He deserved the money. I think my brother had a boiler installation which was over 3 days with 2 people doing it which was considerably more money if I remember rightly. I'm not sure his boiler installation was any more complicated than my mother's though.
BonzoBanana was it just to install as I am sure that is very cheap with boiler included. My one a couple of years ago was boiler and install, £1400 one man, one day.
Lynibis Just the labour charge and some fittings. The boiler had been in storage a few years, it was bought when on offer and staff discount years ago for about £350 plus maybe £30 for the main vent bit (flo? flu?). The current version at full price is about £800-900 but doesn't look anywhere near as nice as the older model which is about 50% bigger. So I guess the total install price was about £1200 give or take £50. The boiler is I guess about 2 models up from the base model enough for a 4-5 bedroom home maximum but went into a largish 3 bedroom home.
Whenever we have had workmen I always offer a brew to them or a cod drink I think it's just a little appreciation for their work
Always make them a drink and get the biscuits out. Then I tell them to help themselves if they want another cuppa. I don’t want to be hanging around and hovering just to keep making tea.
Yes we do,we treated our builders like family, Inised to make Bacon & Egg sandwiches every day & buy Buns & Cakes for them..
I don't own my house. I'm a council Tennant so most workers that I've had experience with hate woman so treat me badly. So I don't offer anything. I don't see why I should. If the job takes a long time then there have breaks so normally go to McDonald's.
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