Whats happened to our great trade?

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Volksy

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As the title says what's happened to our great trade?Gone are the days when you could earn £25 per hour working for agencies all I see now is £10~12 per hour which for our trade in my eyes is poor it's a skillful hardworking job which deserves way more you can't walk onto a site and just ask for work without a bloody cv or a cscs card Company's paying poor prices which in my day you wouldn't get out of bed for never
mind bust a gut for moan over lol x
 
Take your pick from Housing crash, **** immigration policys, govt schemes that are just a cashcow, influx into domestic market from housing crash and sites being moth balled...

I also put most of it down to 'jack of all trades, master of none ' maintenance firms ... never seen a decent one in all my years .... most of its laughable and I cant work out how they get away with it .... if I honestly did there standard of work i'd not be able to look in the mirror let alone sleep at night...
 
Volksy said:
As the title says what's happened to our great trade?Gone are the days when you could earn £25 per hour working for agencies all I see now is £10~12 per hour which for our trade in my eyes is poor it's a skillful hardworking job which deserves way more you can't walk onto a site and just ask for work without a bloody cv or a cscs card Company's paying poor prices which in my day you wouldn't get out of bed for never
mind bust a gut for moan over lol x
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In 2009 it was only £12-£14 an hour for agency work.... still shite for what you have to put up with :-(

Danny
 
adamd said:
Take your pick from Housing crash, **** immigration policys, govt schemes that are just a cashcow, influx into domestic market from housing crash and sites being moth balled...

I also put most of it down to 'jack of all trades, master of none ' maintenance firms ... never seen a decent one in all my years .... most of its laughable and I cant work out how they get away with it .... if I honestly did there standard of work i'd not be able to look in the mirror let alone sleep at night...
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Yeah I have to agree and the general public generally dont know what a good skimmed wall is meant to look like which doesn't help!

Danny
 
Danny said:
In 2009 it was only £12-£14 an hour for agency work.... still shite for what you have to put up with :-(

Danny
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I blame the forums where people keep saying ," oh £2 a metre is not bad, I just need 100 m a day and I'm laughing, basically its Danny's fault. But then again its not he never comes out and says I will advertise for **** all because he is not stupid,
 
johniosaif said:
I blame the forums where people keep saying ," oh £2 a metre is not bad, I just need 100 m a day and I'm laughing, basically its Danny's fault. But then again its not he never comes out and says I will advertise for **** all because he is not stupid,
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Lol exactly why we banned those conversations :-)

Danny
 
The fecking arse has fallen out of the country and the building trade is the first to get flushed down the sh*ter.
 
Rhys said:
The fecking arse has fallen out of the country and the building trade is the first to get flushed down the sh*ter.
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Not true in London, good money to be earned still and the majority of the influx ends up in London. I have seen English undercutting polish on a few jobs.
 
There is a lot fo building work going on still just everybody is cutting and scrimping which doesn't help.

I was talking to @Plasterers1StopShop the other day and he said a lot of people are busy just not getting the same money as before....
 
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the good times have gone ,simple as that ,and will not come back, and over the next few years are going to get worse.
 
hector said:
the good times have gone ,simple as that ,and will not come back, and over the next few years are going to get worse.
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Perfect avatar for your mood hector, you should move to,Ireland or even better Greece. Think its tough here, they would laugh at us...
 
hector said:
the good times have gone ,simple as that ,and will not come back, and over the next few years are going to get worse.
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alright happy
Whats happened to our great trade?
:rolleyes)
 
As a contractor I can honestly say that firstly it is very hard to get good prices, if you don't take the prices your offered, someone else will. And secondly it is very hard to find plasterers that 1. Turn up 2.take pride in their work 3.think for themselves 4. Don't moan about what money they should be earning and just get on and earn it 5. Keep clean and tidy and don't treat you as they are doing you a favour coming to work for you, and 6. Think it's OK !! To let you down ..... I apologise to those that don't fit in the above category but unfortunately you are the minority now and it's very hard to run a business with both sides being difficult!!
 
jrplastering said:
alright happy
Whats happened to our great trade?
:rolleyes)
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When I go home, my favourite comment in an Irish pub is,"think its bad now,in 6 months it will be much worse". I think we know nothing of poverty or struggle ,not even a smell of it, 50 inch tvs ,iPads ,laptops, ironically using them to moan about poverty.
 
Plasterersltd said:
As a contractor I can honestly say that firstly it is very hard to get good prices, if you don't take the prices your offered, someone else will. And secondly it is very hard to find plasterers that 1. Turn up 2.take pride in their work 3.think for themselves 4. Don't moan about what money they should be earning and just get on and earn it 5. Keep clean and tidy and don't treat you as they are doing you a favour coming to work for you, and 6. Think it's OK !! To let you down ..... I apologise to those that don't fit in the above category but unfortunately you are the minority now and it's very hard to run a business with both sides being difficult!!
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On very low paid jobs, I would say to the boss, don't tell me till Friday what the wage is, when asked why, I replied because if I knew ,I would not come in Monday.if I personally take on a job I do it to the best of my ability, I'm afraid I will have to,pass some of the blame back onto you plastersltd, if the water is only six inches deep you cannot expect anyone to swim in it and be happy. I know there is apparently a recession, I see house prices rising 50 k around me, I see multi millionaires laughing at contractors scrambling for the crumbs, if its not worth doing , don't do it,
 
hector said:
the good times have gone ,simple as that ,and will not come back, and over the next few years are going to get worse.
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im waking on sunshine, wooah
im walking on sunshine wooah
and don't it feel good.

hes back, mr chipper.the life and soul of Carlisle.
 
johniosaif said:
On very low paid jobs, I would say to the boss, don't tell me till Friday what the wage is, when asked why, I replied because if I knew ,I would not come in Monday.if I personally take on a job I do it to the best of my ability, I'm afraid I will have to,pass some of the blame back onto you plastersltd, if the water is only six inches deep you cannot expect anyone to swim in it and be happy. I know there is apparently a recession, I see house prices rising 50 k around me, I see multi millionaires laughing at contractors scrambling for the crumbs, if its not worth doing , don't do it,
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Not quite sure where we are to blame but ill go with the flow, WE as contractors ( and I'm on the tools by the way, not sat on my arse in the office) don't get to dictate the prices to the contractors anymore, we get told what they are prepared to pay and that's that , take it or leave it attitude. Then with the **** prices in hand ( which I completely disagree with) are left to find half decent plasterers to do the job. But you are right in saying one thing , if your not happy doing it ... DON'T DO IT !! Cos it's hard enough without working with people that believe the world OWES them a living and we're to blame for them not getting it.
 
johniosaif said:
On very low paid jobs, I would say to the boss, don't tell me till Friday what the wage is, when asked why, I replied because if I knew ,I would not come in Monday.if I personally take on a job I do it to the best of my ability, I'm afraid I will have to,pass some of the blame back onto you plastersltd, if the water is only six inches deep you cannot expect anyone to swim in it and be happy. I know there is apparently a recession, I see house prices rising 50 k around me, I see multi millionaires laughing at contractors scrambling for the crumbs, if its not worth doing , don't do it,
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house prices are shooting up near us, plenty of new motors about.
the problem with a recession is, its easily talked into and very difficult talked out of.
 
Plasterersltd said:
As a contractor I can honestly say that firstly it is very hard to get good prices, if you don't take the prices your offered, someone else will. And secondly it is very hard to find plasterers that 1. Turn up 2.take pride in their work 3.think for themselves 4. Don't moan about what money they should be earning and just get on and earn it 5. Keep clean and tidy and don't treat you as they are doing you a favour coming to work for you, and 6. Think it's OK !! To let you down ..... I apologise to those that don't fit in the above category but unfortunately you are the minority now and it's very hard to run a business with both sides being difficult!!
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a honest contractor well i never
 
hector said:
the good times have gone ,simple as that ,and will not come back, and over the next few years are going to get worse.
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I think it depends where you are hector ,I'm the busiest I've been in years I'm actually turning it down which is something Ive rarely done and hate doing and getting very good prices as well ,long may it last.
 
superspread said:
I think it depends where you are hector ,I'm the busiest I've been in years I'm actually turning it down which is something Ive rarely done and hate doing and getting very good prices as well ,long may it last.
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same with us at the moment except we as a firm are still taking on work even though we cnt really fit it in and im turning down private jobs that come to me so that we can fit in the gaffers work
 
It's up and down with this job, you could be snowed under with work then nothing.. You could be sat at home for days thinking your phone is bust and a few phone calls later you'd be snowed under again and turning work away.
I've been sat at home for the best part of a week, one call came in that landed us a large 19th century 4 bedroom lodge and the builder has started a 6 bedroom extension on it..
Then after looking at a small bathroom re-skim the joiner asked for a card - that turned into a small extension with more to come.
You don't know what's round the corner.
 
Plasterersltd said:
Not quite sure where we are to blame but ill go with the flow, WE as contractors ( and I'm on the tools by the way, not sat on my arse in the office) don't get to dictate the prices to the contractors anymore, we get told what they are prepared to pay and that's that , take it or leave it attitude. Then with the **** prices in hand ( which I completely disagree with) are left to find half decent plasterers to do the job. But you are right in saying one thing , if your not happy doing it ... DON'T DO IT !! Cos it's hard enough without working with people that believe the world OWES them a living and we're to blame for them not getting it.
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I for one could not do your job, I understand the difficulty in getting decent spreads in but good spreads will only stay for good rates , I understand that the main builders are dictating rates but they can say what they like if subcontractors are willing to,take it on and find people to do it, you have to reach a point when its not worth your while, the margins are not there, take on smaller jobs,let these ones go that have low rates and are difficult to,get people to finish, I used to give away £££££ worth of work every year upto 2008 ,it became pointless in 2009 for a while so I knocked it on the head and walked my dog for a few months, the developers came back to me and asked me to come back usual rates and I did , if I had gone to "polish rates" as asked I would have to stay on them now.
 
thats whats done your knees asif all they dog walking:rolleyes)...............see where turning work down out of principal gets ya
 
jrplastering said:
thats whats done your knees asif all they dog walking:rolleyes)...............see where turning work down out of principal gets ya
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Great peace of mind out in the park with my Labrador, people come and talk to you all the time, London is humanised in the parks when you have a dog with you.
 
Plasterersltd said:
As a contractor I can honestly say that firstly it is very hard to get good prices, if you don't take the prices your offered, someone else will. And secondly it is very hard to find plasterers that 1. Turn up 2.take pride in their work 3.think for themselves 4. Don't moan about what money they should be earning and just get on and earn it 5. Keep clean and tidy and don't treat you as they are doing you a favour coming to work for you, and 6. Think it's OK !! To let you down ..... I apologise to those that don't fit in the above category but unfortunately you are the minority now and it's very hard to run a business with both sides being difficult!!
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to be honest for the prices that are being dished out they are doing contractors a favour even entertaining the fact of turning up spreads are pd off with contractors full stop if ,also these contractors who expect a rolls royce job when they are paying raleigh bike prices need to wake up these blokes do it for a wage to have a decent standard of living and this is being taken away from them by greed of others ,ive heard every bs story from contractors about why the moneys going to be paid late ,not making anything etc all bs they wouldnt do it if they wasnt making anything in fact i would say more likley the contractor is making a hell of a lot more than the subbie and knows it contractors want ,want ,want all one way first time a subbie asks for anything they aint interested ,and i bet anyone on here would walk away if the job wasnt worth doing for the price i know i would and have done
 
jeanclaudevangyproc said:
to be honest for the prices that are being dished out they are doing contractors a favour even entertaining the fact of turning up spreads are pd off with contractors full stop if ,also these contractors who expect a rolls royce job when they are paying raleigh bike prices need to wake up these blokes do it for a wage to have a decent standard of living and this is being taken away from them by greed of others ,ive heard every bs story from contractors about why the moneys going to be paid late ,not making anything etc all bs they wouldnt do it if they wasnt making anything in fact i would say more likley the contractor is making a hell of a lot more than the subbie and knows it contractors want ,want ,want all one way first time a subbie asks for anything they aint interested ,and i bet anyone on here would walk away if the job wasnt worth doing for the price i know i would and have done
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Selling tiny minuscule trowels might help x xx
 
:RpS_biggrin: it was good while it lasted ! these contractors p**s me off moaning about blokes bad finish n stuff you get what you pay for period you cant walk into a porche garage and ask for a top of the range model when you only have enough to by a corgi model of one and what p*sses me off even more the majority of them have never been a spread ! my last gaffer was a diamond core driller ffs
 
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