Had to say no

[monkeycat]

Hi
Got a call this morning from a guy who said he wanted his bathroom floor tiling, nothing else in there. Said it had to be done today or tomorrow because plumber has brougt him forward a week. I'm still waiting for first job so I thought this would be great, sounded dead easy.

When I got there he showed me the job. He'd done all the walls himself (he's a plasterer) and they looked good, but it was a wetroom. He wanted a drain in the floor with the tiles sloping to it for drainage in the shower corner and the rest tiled normally.

I think I could have done it with more time to prepare and research what I needed to do. But with such a small time to do it I told him "I'll be honest with you, I've never done one like this before and I'd need more time so I could do it right." He couldn't give me more time because of the plumber so I had to say No. I'm gutted really cos I need a job to get started.

Not sure if I sounded a bit stupid or unprofessional by telling him what I did, but I don't want to do any bad jobs, particularly my first.

He was ok about it and said he appreciated my honesty but it still feels bad turning down work.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, wondering what others would do in this situation.

On the bright side, I've done three other estimates this week, so I think I'm getting better at dealing with customers. Fingers crossed I get one of them.

Paul

[beanz]

Personally think you did the right thing mate. The worse he can say about you is that you are new to the trade. If you'd cocked it up, he'd be bad mouthing you to every tradesman in the area, and it'd take a long time to recover from that.

[kilty55]

hi mate,my opinion is you done the right thing by walking away from a job you didnt feel comfortable with initially,,probably would have told the customer i didnt have time and not said i dont know how to do it,but at least you were straight with the guy,,im sure your 1st job wont be too far away matestick in

[monkeycat]

Thanks for the replies. How long into your career did you do a similar job to this.
The guy I bought my van from is a tiler too (9 years I think). I called him to see if he wanted to do it, and I could help and learn from him, but he's busy. Think he will help me out in the future though which is good.

[davy583]

well done mate i I'm in the same boat. if i don't think i can do the job well i don't do it. the way i think is those jobs will come later when i have more experience and a bit more confidence.

good luck with those quotes

[365drills]

You did EXACTLY the right thing.

Installing a bathroom is a major project and if the client cant co-ordinate the trades its their problem.

Andy Alpin and I walked away from a job the other day so know exactly how you feel. Our client was a preganant woman who's boyfriend tiled the bathroom with heavy porcealin laid over lino ( I kid you not..) . Finish was awful - Wonky tiles etc. Leaks behind the tiles from radiator. Six tiles had been broken drilling them. Toilet pan not fitted correct and leaking.

When we arrived she said she was on the dole. She wanted to pay £100 a day for three days work to us both. Do the whole thing for £300.

When we worked out exactly what was involved (in what is a basic rescue) then it came to £1500 with the bits WE COULD SEE !!!

Jobs like that....... WALK AWAY!

However, if you leave people with a comeback (which we did) then if they do change their minds then at least they can pick up the telephone.

With residential work the customers always want more than you can quote for. With commercial work everyone knows the score however the day rates are fairly set and quite low.

[monkeycat]

Thanks Richard and thanks for the drill bits which I got from you the other day. They look real nice in the packaging. Wonder when I'll get to use em!

[365drills]

Hey Monkeycat thanks for the order. Have no fear because in no time you will be using them.... Even if you use them on soft ceramics. Now we lost that job I have spent my afternoon being creative and posting a project to the intenet.

Lack of work neednt stop the marketing and promotional sides of any company.

Example of this Fridays afternoons work with marketing

Good luck with yours!

[david campbell]

you will probably feel confident to do a job like this sooner than you think,but gradually build your way towards it,start on jobs you are capable of leaving a good end result and before you realise you will be taking on jobs you never expected to do!

p.s,you done the right thing,your reputation will not have been damaged because you haven't made any mistakes!

[CJ]

Don't bite off more than you can chew

[monkeycat]

Thanks for all the replies and support. What do you think is the ratio of estimates you do to the jobs you get?

A couple of the estimates I've done this week seem like they're going to do it themselves and just want some advice. Anyone else think this?

Paul

[Eddie]

I agree with everyone else, you did the right thing, walking away. If you had started it, and got into difficulty, it could have really knocked your confidence, it's hard to get back if your confidence is gone.

[mikethetile]

you were right mate...........honesty is always appreciated ,you never know when you will meet this guy again and he will remember that you were straight with him

well done......

mike

[brian c]

done the right thing m8.

[faithhealer]

1st jobs are nerve racking anyway, you did not need this job yet. Good luck

[Fekin]

Good to hear of people sticking to their limits and not just thinkinh "lets have a go and see what happens".

Right choice

[doug boardley]

you did the right thing Paul, if you'd got it wrong it'd have wrecked your confidence and reputation before you're up and running, good,brave call. Well done!

[rob]

well done for walking away, always hard to do when you need the money however better off not putting yourself in a position you can't get yourself out of! I have had jobs like this (over my head) and you just end up with sleepless nights worrying about it!

There will be more jobs

[Rob Z]

Hi Paul, Nothing's worse than having rush because of a deadline....on top of this being your first wetroom installation...you would have been too stressed to do it well, and more importantly, to have paid attention and learned as much as you could have if you have sufficient time.

I remember my first shower pan installation (our version here of doing a wet room installation)...I read a lot of articles, I drew diagrams, I planned and planned ahead of time what I was going to do...and then I took probably 3X longer to do it than I need now to do the same work. But I learned how to do and it and the thing didn't leak.

Hang in there, and hopefully your buddy will be able to show you the ropes soon and you'll get cracking right away.

[tile55]

I'm with the rest of the guys here, if in doubt - don't do it, there will be plenty more opertunities in the future and do your leaning on easier projects and work your way up gathering experiance and confidence as you go along.

At this present time I am working on an 80% conversion rate for quotations.
The main thing for me is 'confidence' and knowing what you are talking about. Instill the confidence in the client and the only reason for them to say 'no!' will be the cost.

Good luck for the future.

[LM Ceramics]

well done mate many new tilers may have taken that job on and failed i think you did right not to bite more than you can chew there will be another ob round the corner and eventually you can look back and think im glad i didnt take that job on

[cornish_crofter]

I did my first wet room a few months ago.

I wasn't in quite the same position as the OP, but wasn't far off. I had done floor and wall tiling before, but I don't do it regularly. I did a total of 4 bathrooms for these people including the wetroom.

When I do a job that's a bit different I like to stretch my envelope a bit by doing one or two things on a job that I hadn't done before. With this job there were quite a few things that I hadn't done before, so I was struggling a bit. And to be honest there were times when I wished I hadn't taken it on.

On the plus side, I, like the OP, was straight with the customer and told him that I had never done a wetroom before. The great thing was that the customer was quite happy for me to learn on his job. "So this will be your first one then Hugo" came the reply.

Both the customer and I researched it fully and agreed the best way to go. They were going to have a glass door going into the shower area but they decided against that part of the way into the job. This did cause a bit of grief as I hadn't put the necessry falls into the rest of the floor. But I understand it's working well.

Having said that we had the time to research it fully. The OP did not.

To be honest I have turned down plenty of jobs on the basis that either the client could get better value for money by going elsewhere, or I just considered it beyond me at the time. Last year I passed on a £35k garage conversion, because I simply did not have the resources or the expertese to do it quickly.

[whitebeam]

Agree with all the other guys with the views expressed

[obobsmith]

100% right thing to do reputation intact