Trending
A good handyman is worth holding on to. Ask anyone in Suffolk who has waited three weeks for someone to come back and finish a job, and they will tell you the same thing: the work is usually the easy part. Finding the right person is what takes the time.
The good news is that you don't need to interrogate anyone. Seven questions, asked politely on the phone or over a cup of tea, will tell you most of what you need to know before you hand over a spare key or a deposit.
Insurance is the line between a professional and someone doing a bit of work on the side. Public liability cover protects you if a worktop is dropped or a tile goes through a window. Employers' liability matters if they bring someone along to help. Ask to see the certificate rather than accepting a cheerful "yeah, I'm covered".
Then check three details: the business name matches the person you are hiring, the policy is in date, and the cover is realistic for the job. A sole trader hanging a door and a two-person team refitting a bathroom are not the same risk. Anyone legitimate will be relaxed about this. If the question makes them prickly, that tells you something useful.
References are only useful if they are relevant. Someone who has fitted a hundred blinds may never have tiled a shower. Ask for two or three recent customers within a few miles of you, and actually ring them. Two questions do most of the work: did he turn up when he said he would, and was the final bill what was quoted? Add a third if you can — would you have him back?
Reviews on Google, Checkatrade and similar sites are worth a look, but read them for patterns rather than stars. One complaint about a slow reply is life. Three mentions of an unfinished job is a warning.
"I'll do it for £400" means very little until you know what that covers. Ask for the scope in writing — an email or a text message is perfectly fine — and check the following.
When you have two or three quotes in the same format, comparing them becomes straightforward. Be cautious of the cheapest figure and of anyone asking for a large deposit up front. A modest deposit for materials is normal; a request for half the job in cash before work starts is not. If the contract is significant, it is worth taking proper advice before signing anything.
Plenty of tradespeople sub-contract, and there is nothing wrong with that provided you know about it. Ask directly who will be on site and whether the person quoting is the person doing the job.
If your work involves gas or electrics, the answer matters more than usual. Gas work must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer, and certain electrical jobs in England and Wales have their own notification rules. Ask for registration details and check them with the relevant body rather than trusting a logo on a van. If you are unsure what applies to your job, your local council or the relevant registration scheme can tell you.
Jobs rarely go exactly to plan. Skirting comes off and reveals damp. A concealed pipe is not quite where everyone assumed it was. The right answer to "what happens if you find something unexpected?" is: stop, explain, put the extra cost in writing, and wait for your go-ahead. The wrong answer is discovering it on the final invoice.
Use the same conversation to agree how and when you will pay. Staged payments tied to milestones, with the balance on completion, keep everyone honest and give you some leverage if the work stalls.
Get a start date, an estimated number of working days and a finish date. Then ask what could disrupt it — material lead times, weather for outdoor work, or other jobs already booked in. Someone running five projects at once may only be with you for two hours a day, which is fine if you know and frustrating if you don't. Ask how many jobs they are juggling and how they keep them moving. A straight answer here is worth more than an optimistic one.
A few practical checks tell you a lot. Do they trade under a registered business name, provide a proper invoice, and accept a bank transfer rather than insisting on cash? If they are clearing rubbish away, ask about their waste carrier registration. Fly-tipped waste can come back to the householder, so it is worth confirming. If you are not sure what your council requires, a quick call will settle it.
Local knowledge helps too, and it is not just small talk. Suffolk housing stock varies enormously: Victorian terraces in Ipswich, flint and chalk walls in the villages, timber-framed buildings around Lavenham and Hadleigh, and coastal properties from Felixstowe up to Lowestoft where salt air makes short work of cheap fixings. Someone who works in your area regularly will have met those problems before and will price accordingly.
None of this takes long. Fifteen minutes on the phone and a couple of reference calls will separate the reliable from the risky, and it is far cheaper than putting right a job that was never done properly.
Trust your instincts as well. If someone is vague about insurance, reluctant to put anything in writing, or pressures you to decide today, thank them and move on. Good handymen in Suffolk are busy, so ask early and be prepared to wait a few weeks for the right one. When you find someone who turns up, communicates and finishes the job, keep their number — and tell your neighbours.
Photo: Ralphs_Fotos / Pixabay
