never use a full bathroom fit company, split the trades up and manage it yourself.
The problem is that many "supply/fit" companies don't actually employ any trades, they only sub the work out & probably never check quality unless they get complaints. You should also ask yourself why are they on "checktrade" or any similar trade website; if they are any good at what they do, they won't need to ply for trade.
Subbing out yourself can be even more risky if you’re inexperienced at managing trades & have no real idea what’s involved. Unless you really understand what’s required & good practice in each trade, it’s a stone bonk certainty that if something goes wrong it’s always going to be someone else’s trade that screwed up & then you will have a moving target, trying to kick several asres instead of one.
It’s very sad there seems to be so many chancers & cowboys around who really have no real idea of what they are doing & may have been working a checkout or gardening last month. True tradesmen seem to be thin on the ground but I still believe the best option is to employ someone who specialises in complete refurbishments, actually knows what they are doing & can either undertake or manage ALL the work; but then it don't come cheap & I would be biased.
problem being with live in a country who has no idea who to fix the problem of crap trades .
simple to fix make all of them pay £1000 each to take a course and an exam in whatever they are skilled in once they pass their photo is taken and added to a government website where you can find trained people.
Then a civil servant is sent round to inspect each job for quality and signed off added to the profile of that person, failure to comply and carryout the course results in 6 months in prison and 2 year work ban.
simple.
I agree with your first sentence. There is nothing to stop a couple of monkeys who cannot tile, or design bathrooms, from setting up a business designing and installing bathrooms. They are probably learning on the job, though they are not learning much in the case of the two I met.
But having each job inspected would be a bureaucratic nightmare. You would need a shed load of inspectors, each trained to inspect work, and they would need paying, so the customer would end up paying, increasing costs. Would they inspect all jobs? A replacement tap? A replacement sink? A new bathroom?
I think as you say there should be courses, and to tile you'd need to pass the tiling course. At its simplest you tile a wall, and get a pass if it meets basic standards. And you attend classes first if need be. And to install bathrooms you need a set of basic skills. To do plumbing work you need to pass a plumbing course.
But what about painting and decorating? Does the course test for neatness? For straightness of lines when cutting in?
The chap who installed my kitchen was a methodical careful worker who did a first rate job. But someone could pass a kitchen installation course and not be a grade 1 worker. Or perhaps they would become a grade one worker after fitting 10 or so kitchens. It's hard to test that.
I think at the end of the day the customer needs to be very careful about vetting a trades person, and assume they are crap until proven otherwise i.e. personal recommendation.
