Subhuman scum.

couldn't you have made them a cup of tea? I don't know, self, self bloody self some people ;)

I think a lot of DIY in this country is embarked on because people don't want to have anything to do with bolshie arrogant thoughtless builders. We avoid letting them anywhere near our house unless absolutely necessary.

I've always thought of Gloucester as south midlands and Bristol as the start of the west country. I guess, if I thought about it enough I'd say th border between the two was somewhere around Stroud or Dursley.

at least the builders are doing something (if at the wrong time). We have had the opposite problem.

The building next door to ours is a small block of flats owned by the council. About two years ago one of the tenants had problems with damp seeping into her internal walls. The council, after a couple of months, decided that it was caused by a leak in the roof. They had to put scaffolding up to get to the roof, with half of it in our garden. We agreed to this to help out our neighbours.

The repair work was eventually done two weeks ago after a long series of complaints from both our neighbours and ourselves. It took three hours. The scaffolding had been up for fifteen months. It's still up now. I've just raised another complaint with the council. As the scaffolding has the name of a private company on it, I guess that the council is paying rent for it, and that must by now have well out-weighed the cost of the two brick layers who spend an afternoon on it doing the work.

London is in the south midlands as well.

I hate them soft southern bastards in the channel islands.

NOISE CONTROL
Attention is drawn to the Control of Pollution Act 1974, which allows the Council to set the times during which work may be carried out and the methods of work to be used. These requirements can extend to the following work:

a) The erection, construction, alteration, repair or maintenance of buildings, structures or roads;

RECOMMENDED TIMES OF WORKING

Hours of working – the recommended hours for work within a Residential Zone are:

Monday to Friday: 8am to 7pm

Saturday: 8am to 1pm

Sunday and Public Holidays: No noisy operations

...the shortest day of the year. Perhaps they wanted to start at first light to make sure they get a full day's work in. Bastards.

and take great exception to the generalised disdain all too many of the desk-jockey classes seem to hold builders in, encouraged by those nice-and-cheap-to-make "Builders From Hell" -type daytime TV programmes.
The customers want us to do the work that they can't and that we can, but too many of them think they can pay us peanuts and then try and squeeze freebie extras out of us while looking down their noses at us.

They can fuck right off.

Building tradespeople have valuable skills and expect to be paid in just accordance to them. They have mortgages and families too.

My particular skill is as an Electrician. I had to study and pass exams to be able to do my work and I have to retrain (at my own expense, generally) regularly to keep up with what's current in the statutory regulations I need to work to.

As for drilling before 8am, I agree it's not pleasant for the neighbours and personally I'd want to avoid it, but perhaps your neighbour who is paying them is insisting it must be done to a very tight deadline (i.e. yesterday). Possibly the leaving on of the bright lights, for security of the site, is at his instigation too.

Omelettes and eggs, omelettes and eggs. There is no practical way I know of to drill a wall silently and at this time of year there's not enough daylight for getting sufficient work done in a day to make it pay, without using artificial light.

There are, of course, bad builders who shame the rest of us, same as their are crap accountants, IT consultants, journalists, lawyers, doctors etc. When do we get "Accountants From Hell" or "Lazy Procrastinating Solicitors" on afternoon TV?

Have got a really good one that does jobs for us and he is a Godsend. We also have a great reliable plumber.
I agree with you totally that it is the bad ones that tarnish your reputation - same in all walks of life.I don envy you all the changes in legislation every 5 minutes that's for sure.

Ive been put off by dreadful experiences with builders over the years to the point where I just won't even consider trying to get anything done unless I'm desperate. Only today I was looking at the kitchen and bathroom in my mum's retirement flat which I'd love to have replaced, but I just can't face it, or put her through the torture of it. They'll have to stay as they are. I know a good decorator, plumber and sparky so for small stuff we're ok, but a rough rule of thumb is "if it might involve a plasterer, I'm not doing it". There must be a massive market for reliable, tidy, efficient builders, which is presumably why they are so hard to find. I dont even mind paying proper money for a proper job, but I've had incredible difficulty in the past just getting them to turn up and quote. Dreadful. More Poles!!!

depending on your point of view the builder either resigned or I sacked him. He then sued me for nearly the full cost of the job despite leaving us with a non functioning boiler and a stripped out kitchen, bare walls, wiring I didn't trust so had to be ripped out (I was right, the electrician who cut it out found several bodges) and an illegal RSJ. I could go on but the upshot was three visits to the small claims court with a judge who thought we should be able to sort it ourselves, tosser.
We had several visits from builders who looked at the disaster, sucked their teeth a bit and then declined to even quote for the work as they didn't like taking on other peoples cock ups. Then two unlikely looking guys came in and rescued us and didn't even overcharge us
Anyway, like Twangothan above, we can't face having any more major work done, even by people we trust. The noise, mess and potential for cock ups is too much.