next door neighbours get a plumber in to tile bathroom

[LM Ceramics]

come back home tonight from work and noticed a plumbing van next door he was carrying rubbish out and it look liked broken tiles, so i waited till he had gone i thought id go round and be cheeky and see what they were having done my neighbour said were having bathroom re tiled and the bath re surfaced and that was it, i said i could have done it for you he replied i did consider you but the plumber is a friend of a friend and hes doing it really cheap so i didnt think youd be interested.

13 years they have lived next door to us we got on aswell. i wont look at him in the same way so i left the house sat in my van had a sulk then went to quote another job.

funnily enough theres a roofer next door to me aswell (the other side) and next door to him was having a new roof didnt even ask for a quote

 

[CJ]

Who needs neighbours like that :lol::lol:

If it goes pear shaped.........you can stand back and laugh

 

[White Room]

Sometimes it's not what you know it's who you know

 

[LM Ceramics]

i know cj i hope it does go pear shaped then ill laugh and laugh, maybe secretly they thought i was a tosser who knows

 

[LM Ceramics]

dont say that cj ill end up bursting into tears again

 

[White Room]

Hopefully your'll get an invite to see the new bathroom

 

[LM Ceramics]

i hope so whitebeam if i dont get an invite then ill just knock on the door and make an excuse "ive lost my key can i use your toilet"

 

[pjtiler]

never work for friends, family, or neighbours

 

[White Room]

Spot on pj, Your've done this before hav'nt you

 

[MrSpoon]

thats pretty low not to mention it to you atleast, ive done work for neighbours and its great, just kind of feel abliged to do it for a cheaper price tho, on the bright side, out of the 16 houses on our little cul-de-sac 7 have had their garages converted, all by the same builder (apart from one) and the render is rough as owt and falling off, so looking like i have a couple of small rendering jobs to do, i wont repair any of the render, just hack it off and redo it again, nice steady stream of work coming in now :yes: well i say stream, its more of a wandering puddle

as regareds pj's comment, i tend to agree, its good practice for a new starter such as myself, but the only benefit is experience, no proffitable gain atall, or very slim, tho i have now started doing jobs at a more reasonable price to make it worth my while, to any other joe bloggs tho its standard price wth no mates rates

 

[White Room]

So did they got done on the cheap then, Rendering to be falling off after how long

 

[MrSpoon]

the rendering was done by the same builder who did the conversion, looks like he rushed the render tho, doesnt even seem flat and smooth and certainly didnt bond properly, ive not done any yet but when i will ill moste like do 2 houses at a time as its only about 2square meters below the window on each house, ill probs charge £60 labour for each house as it wont take long to knock off the old render, lay a scratch coat on and a bellcast, and pop home for some grub, relax and pop back over to put on the rest and float it up, lovely stuff :yes:

sorry missread your post, the render lasts about a year before its started to blow off the wall

 

[chris.tiling]

Had a similar experience...was booked in to do neighbour's bathroom 2 weeks after I got back from holiday. Got back and went to confirm that my start date fitted in with plumber and neighbour said "couldnt wait that long so got someone else to do it"...no "sorry" or "thanks anyway". Turned out they got someone to do it a week before I could. I walked away and said thank God I wasnt doing it as I could imagine him being a pain of a customer! You are also right...I wasnt going to make much £ out of it either

 

[Fekin]

never work for friends, family, or neighbours

I've done family and friends, but I wouldn't like to do neighbours.

 

[Deleted member 1779]

never work for friends, family, or neighbours

Exactly. Maybe they thought they were keeping the status-quo

Difficult pitch. If you quote too high then they feel obliged to let you do it.

Quote too low and they think its charity.

 

[LM Ceramics]

just a thought whether it might be true some neighbours wont ask you to do a job even if your tradesperson next door incase of something going wrong and you fall ou. is that a possibilty?

 

[bearwithme]

Lm, some people dont want to ask their neighbours. they feel they may have to compromise or if something goes pear shaped they dont want to fall out with you. if they get an outsider in they can keep it strictly business. they may value your friendship and just not have wanted to bother you and make you feel obliged to do it cheap. i know i'll be accused of talking ****e !! haha. however it's not always about price!

 

[MICK the Tiler]

never work for friends, family, or neighbours

Wise words Indeed.

 

[LM Ceramics]

i think your right there bearwithme thats probably the case

 

[Droopy]

Neighbours are the worst to work for IMO.
They expect family/friends rates and pester you no end.
A couple of my neighbours are Taxi drivers, but I don't phone them up and ask them for a discounted run home from the pub.
Yet they expect a discount when I go to work for them:yes:

I also have neighbours who only say hello when they want something tiled :lol:

 

[andy-p]

sfunny but i have done hardly any work for neighbours either in all the time ive been tiling and ive moved 3 times.. im not just talking about next door or a few doors down either, but in the whole estate !!
i remember one guy who used to walk his dog past my last house and would always say to me you must come and measure my floor sometime, you know the type a time waster, and going thro my head would be " yeh when hell freezes over buddy" ...

 

[MrSpoon]

come to think of it, one of my neighbours appologised to me for asking if i could tile her conservatory :huh2: but i live on a little street anyway and everyone gets on like some sick american film, just that we dont all bake food for eachother, we just invite eachother round and get rather drunk :lol: so more like friends than neighbours, there are other neighbours on the street that aren't as close and i would dream of doing any work for them as people have mentioned incase there are problems or whatever

 

[andy-p]

hey mr spoon !! that beer looks good , think ill head down to the fridge and crack one open... :8:

 

[graham31]

always a precarious business doing work for neighbours in case something goes wrong and like it has already been mentioned you feel obliged to do it cheaper.

So the up start of it is you don't make any money for doing the job and run the risk of falling out way your neighbours and making life feel uncomfortable