I'd say use the search Tommy! It's been discussed a lot on here.
It's actually fascinating to see the enormous range of opinions on all the "trade finding" companies and the similar "vetting" ones (like checkatrade) and also the supposed "weed out the cowboy" schemes (trustmark).
I saw a post slagging one or other a few days ago and since then I've been whiling away teabreaks doing searches for one or other names to see the fur flying. There are definitely a lot of people that aren't what I'd call fans of what seem to be being called "parasites".
I'm actually interested in this (partly from a professional point of view and partly from a punter point of view) in that, from a non-cynical position it appears to be a good idea to have a system to post a job, get quotes and then the trader pays a small amount when he gets that work... however I can also see from reading through here that the system seems wide open to abuse and has a whole lot of issues with it.
Is there any way to solve the problem? Could any site/scheme exist that would tick all your boxes? how would it be possible to weed out the cowboys? The trustmark scheme claims to do that but obviously doesn't... is the only way to have every single job checked (or random job checking) by some independent organisation? If so, who decides who is competent to run such an organisation? If you did a job and an inspector said it was no good and you disagreed, how would you expect to resolve that?
The problem is that several people (myself included) would probably not know the difference between a proper good job and one that appeared to be good but was only superficially so and would fail within a few years. There is, quite simply, no way of testing that kind of thing without vast experience in the trade... and if you're that good, surely you'd be trading and not inspecting other people's work?
There's a whole lot of contradiction going on in these threads badmouthing the "find a trader" sites as far as I can see - most people want regulation and to weed out cowboys but don't seem to be able to agree on how this can even be achieved.
I think this one will run and run... it's entertaining reading anyway.