Getting jobs done

Joyce Goldenlily · November 2023

I have started a couple of projects.
1. Having a sofa recovered.
2. Having my large conservatory roof and house guttering cleaned.

I have been staggered at how difficult, and how long it has taken me to find anyone to do these jobs.
Cornwall is supposed to be a county of the self-employed, but no one seems to want to do anything anymore.
When hunting for an upholsterer several companies did not respond to my initial inquiry, several have gone out of business, and a couple said they were too busy to take on any more work. Plumbs turned me down because they do not have an agent in my area. I did eventually find someone willing to take on the job but not until after Christmas, fair enough, I was not expecting it to be done yesterday.
I have also eventually found someone to visit the house to discuss cleaning the conservatory etc. One man refused to visit the property but sent me an estimate, from pics sent via e-mail. It sounded as if he wanted to come and wash down using a power washer but was proud they did not use scaffolding to reach nooks and crannies or the high areas. Hmm. I am not impressed

There are apparently a lot of scams going on down here in the West Country at the moment with people offering/advising householders to have their gutters cleaned out. They walk around on the tiled roofs, breaking tiles, and not doing proper work so beware.
They put self-printed paper "business cards" through letter boxes saying a very nearby neighbour is having work done, can they clean your gutters while in the vicinity? Only a mobile tel. no. No company name etc. Beware!

I am not surprised people are taking up the offer after taking so long to find what I hope are reliable firms for the work I want.
Fingers crossed. Time will tell.

Dovefromabove · November 2023

I use the local page of the networking website Nextdoor to seek personal recommendations from people living in my area. I’ve never been disappointed yet.

Put Nextdoor.uk into Google and you should get it. Then you can join the appropriate bit for your area. As with the GW website you can communicate via a Private Message when it comes to giving your name, address etc.

Lyn · November 2023

@Joyce Goldenlily. I know exactly what you mean, my daughter lives near you, she’s fortunate to have a good all round husband, he’s good at decorating and odd jobs and works for other people on his days off.

It’s a very dog eat dog area, if someone is ‘self employed’ as they call themselves (on the UC) gets caught doing a job on the side, someone will probably shop them in to the authorities. A lot of them are cowboys.

Fire · November 2023

"no one seems to want to do anything anymore."

I find the same.

Lizzie27 · November 2023

@Joyce Goldenlily, I believe most (professional) window cleaners will also clean conservatory roofs and they usually use their own distilled water with a long reach pressure hose to do the roof - at least they do round here. Unless yours is particularly complicated, it should be a lot cheaper than having to have scaffolding erected.

Have you tried Checkatrade for your area? The tradespeople are supposed to be vetted and checked for insurance. Our brochure is saying they guarantee works up to £1000 if the tradespeople default.

I have to say that unfortunately I think it would be cheaper to buy a new sofa rather than have it recovered these days. I paid £340 for a small armless chair to be resprung and recovered and that was at least ten years or so ago.

Obelixx · November 2023

I'd like new covers for our sofas too but it would be very expensive just to buy the fabric and do it myself, let alone find anyone to do it for me.

Buying new sofas would be cheaper but I can't find any in fabric I like (leather not for me) or with the high back we like for back and neck support.

Meanwhile, I have a single armchair to re-upholster and have got as far as stripping it down to the wood frame and the springs. Learning curve coming up.

Ergates · November 2023

We desperately needed our gutters emptied. I usually do them myself, I can reach most on a stepladder, and bodged the rest with a high reacher window cleaning thingy with the hosepipe tied to it. However they got neglected while I was convalescing earlier in the year, and there was grass growing in one of them.
I asked a friend who by coincidence had just had hers done, and she passed on the details of the one man company she used ( her hairdressers husband ) and he was very good. I don’t know how I’d choose from all the ones advertising in our local parish magazine.
Im trying to gear myself up to look for a builder to do some repairs for us, but we have found it so depressing in the past. The best people we have had, have come from local recommendations, some of the worst we have heard about were the ones who turned up on spec, with only mobile numbers and left broken roof tiles and wet lofts.
I think most gutter and window cleaners now use their telescopic vacuum cleaners and washers for safety reasons. Our guy did use a ladder to remove the greenery, but he had a camera mounted on the vacuum cleaner so he could see down the gutter and the down pipes. He also used a rubber end on the vacuum tube to avoid scratching the coating on the metal guttering.
I recently checked the price to have a synthetic duvet laundered, and a pair of curtains dry cleaned, and decided it would be cheaper to buy replacements. Something wrong here!
Good luck with your searching.

Lyn · November 2023

I’ve taken synthetic duvets to the launderette. They have very big drums.

Now we have pure cotton, not had then cleaned or washed yet.

Obelixx · November 2023

@Ergates - I take ours - synthetic and down - to a launderette and bung them individually in the biggest machines they have. Go and do the shopping or have a coffee and then put them in the tumble dryer for a good long session. The tumbing is essential to unclumping feathers. Browse the nearby garden centre while I wait.

Very cheap and very efficient.

Joyce Goldenlily · November 2023

I know that it would be cheaper to buy a new sofa but I have been looking for a Knowle style sofa for a long time, they are so comfortable and the seats are higher than modern ones, new sofas are very expensive and not in the fabric or style I want. Unfortunately, the fabric I chose is no longer available, even if it was, the upholsterer said it was not suitable for upholstering a sofa, it was really only soft furnishing quality so the hunt continues.
As far as my conservatory is concerned, it is 16" long, linked to the house by a box gutter so it is difficult to reach the centre of the roof span and I have no way of cleaning out the box gutter. My concern is if a cleaner put weight on the roof and broke the seals of the frame. You then have leaks inside. The chap who called said they use a vacuum to clear guttering as well as a pressure washer, they also treat the framework to slow down the development of algae and moss. He recommended cleaning the conservatory every 2-3 years. which sounded reasonable.
When talking to the man outside my house I noticed my neighbour has a buddleia growing out of the top of one of his downpipes, and yet he was on his roof repointing the chimney stack near the downpipe during the summer. The tree is about 4' tall. His problem, not mine.
I have been forced to find others to do work around my property because at 82yrs and being told I had a heart attack at some in the past, unbeknown to me, I have to slow down and avoid hard exertion. I have always done most of my own redecoration etc. so find it very difficult and costly to hand over the reins to strangers.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions for widening my search. I have an inherent dislike of Facebook and very rarely use it. Some of the neighbourhood sites could well prove useful.

SueAtoo · November 2023

If you have a local Neighbourhood Watch, they usually have a list of recommended tradesmen (and women)

Getting jobs done

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