Thai Jobbing Workmen Always Seem To Turn Up

[Pilotman]

Having been the 'victim' to UK tradesmen for years, who as a group are as unreliable, poor deliverers and feckless as you can get, its a pleasure to work with local independent  jobbing handyman in Thailand, who come around when they say that they will and do the job you ask them to do.  Okay, their methods are odd and the quality of the work may not be up to western standards (an understatement on many occasions) , but so long as you don't give them anything too complicated to do, at least they get here and finish off the job that you give them.   I generally find them a refreshing change form the UK breed. Interestingly, I have come across 3 ex UK builders who now operate in Thailand and they proved to be as unreliable as the ones they left behind. I'm sure not all are like that, but the ones I have met certainly are.  Give me the local village tradesman/handyman any day.   

[Kwasaki]

The only foreign builder's I've come across in Thailand were con artists if you ask me. 

 

Were the 3 ex-British builder's qualified and was there work a high standard.

 

We found a local Thai guy in our village years ago and always use him but have to wait in queue.

 

I've shown and taught Thai guys here ways of doing things but I never came Thailand to ever do any work, have supervised a couple of times for friends and given advice but never like to get involved to much.  

[Pilotman]

1 minute ago, Kwasaki said:

The only foreign builder's I've come across in Thailand were con artists if you ask me. 

 

Were the 3 ex-British builder's qualified and was there work a high standard.

 

We found a local Thai guy in our village years ago and always use him but have to wait in queue.

 

I've shown and taught Thai guys here ways of doing things but I never came Thailand to ever do any work, have supervised a couple of times for friends and given advice but never like to get involved to much.  

Of the 3 I mentioned, only one did any work for me, (well his Thai slave labour did the work) and he was, as expected, unreliable,  the other 2 were clearly crooks on the make and I gave them short shift.  All had building businesses in UK. 

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, Pilotman said:

 All had building businesses in UK. 

I knew they were gonna say that. ????

[BoganInParasite]

In the last three years I'd say approx 50% of Thai tradesmen annoyed me via Thai time turning up to inspect or start jobs. But in terms of quality and timeliness once commenced I rate my happiness with the outcomes at about 80%. And price at 90%+. Over the time we've got to know who we can trust to use and our home builder and his contract foreman have provided reasonably reliable recommendations.

[RocketDog]

3 hours ago, BoganInParasite said:

In the last three years I'd say approx 50% of Thai tradesmen annoyed me via Thai time turning up to inspect or start jobs. But in terms of quality and timeliness once commenced I rate my happiness with the outcomes at about 80%. And price at 90%+. Over the time we've got to know who we can trust to use and our home builder and his contract foreman have provided reasonably reliable recommendations.

You may have to kiss some toads to find the prince in Thailand , but once you do he proves invaluable. Typically they cover many trades and have people they supervise to get the job done at a more than reasonable cost. 

In America this is a monumental task. 

Since I bought a house two years ago I was lucky to find one young entrepreneur who did a variety of repairs on tile, electrical, concrete, plumbing, and installed ceiling insulation. I generally pay him pist-work more than he asked and have never regretted it. 

Most such depend on recommendations; ask for them. 

[Stevemercer]

One good thing about workmen in Thailand is that, having found someone and got a quote, they usually start the job immediately and keep working until it is finished.

 

Back in Australia yu might have to wait a few weeks (or months) before someone can get started.

[unblocktheplanet]

Our local crew works for a Xian cult (don't even ask!) in BK. They hang out & get pie-eyed on laokao in water bottles every sunset. But they're hard workers, do a decent job, accept direction & criticism, and tidy up after themselves.

[scorecard]

21 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Of the 3 I mentioned, only one did any work for me, (well his Thai slave labour did the work) and he was, as expected, unreliable,  the other 2 were clearly crooks on the make and I gave them short shift.  All had building businesses in UK. 

 

And this situation is not new.

 

Some 25+ years ago I bought a second hand townhouse in a village in Sth. Pattaya. 

 

Both bathrooms needed total demolish, re-design and re-build. A neighbor mentioned there was a new guy (from UK) living in the same village and he had started a business some 1 year before to do building work inside of residential accommodation but he did not do work on the outside of the premises (obviously WP stuff).

 

He came and gave me a quote for total demolish, re-design and re-build. His price, including all materials was about 35% higher than local quotes.

 

He insisted that he would bring 2 or 3 samples of everything for customer to select and his Thai workers would buy tiles, toilet, hand basin, shower accessories etc. He would not buy products selected at showrooms by the customer.

 

I asked to see his previous work. He said yes but kept delaying the 'inspections', and it worried me.

 

I asked around and discovered that he had  done some work on 3 houses in the same villages. None had been completed because of the poor quality of work, wrong tile colours, wrong toilet sets, toilet/shower etc., locations not as agreed with the house owner.

 

In every case the house owner had stopped the work and told him to not come back. Two house owners had given him a small token payment, the third paid him nothing.

 

My Thai wife asked further around the village and found about 5 or 6 houses where total demolish, re-design and re-build of bathrooms, kitchens and more had been completed, by one local Thai contractor (Thai boss and 3 workers, 1 Thai, 1 Cambodian and one Burmese), all at very reasonable prices, contractor very co-operative on selecting materials etc., a little bit slow but excellent work.

 

We had to wait about 1 month then within about 4 weeks our 2 bathrooms were finished and we very very pleased with the work.

 

We made a progress payment every Friday. When all finished we gave the boss the final payment, plus a bonus for the boss and his 3 workers, all 500Baht direct in their pockets. 

 

 

[gunderhill]

Coming from the  construction industry in the UK  I've  found Thai workers lacking in almost every aspect of their work, often with not even basic  tools, little   skill and a poor attitude to their work. They take  no pride in what they are doing.

After thinking I could  simply  employ locals to do my construction work here I   gave up and did  all the work myself because their work was  simply  too atrocious/dangerous in all cases, from watered  down <deleted>  weak concrete to unearthed electrics, steel not  buried deep  enough inside  concrete for strength etc etc.

Untidy and oblivious. Nothing has changed in the last 15  years, none of them seem to do an apprenticeship and they all  copy  each others  mistakes time and time again.

Once its  covered in concrete or  chap/render it's  all nicely  hidden, water  pipes not sanded  down and cleaned before  gluing and that's  hoping they remembered the glue, never  seen a country where so  many constructions have water leaks.

[Thingamabob]

20 years ago my wife found a builder and his team to build a large western style house in Rayong. Excellent work, finished ahead of time, very reasonably priced.

[NoshowJones]

I have never had any problem with Thai tradesmen or whatever turning up, and have always been pleased with their timekeeping and their standard of work.

Everything from house extensions to roofwork, plumbing, electrical work etc, as I said, never a problem.

[scorecard]

18 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

20 years ago my wife found a builder and his team to build a large western style house in Rayong. Excellent work, finished ahead of time, very reasonably priced.

About 8 years back, we bought a house and land in a new moderate price village in Chiang Mai. Customers welcome to add on, change designs etc, (at a reasonable extra cost as long as the facade followed the main theme.

 

We asked to have a good look at 2 or 3 completed and 2 or 3 work in progress.

 

We discovered the actual builder was a well established good reputation building coy owned by 2 Thai civil engineers, both spoke good English, they had 2 Thai supervisors and all of the rest of their teams were Thai Yai hilltribe people, many of whom spoke some/good English.

 

My Thai son engaged many of the young Thai Yai workers (m and f) and discovered they were very happy workers. Son asked why? Immediate responses: Bosses are good men, pay very good wages, all O/T recorded and paid, never late, and they quickly take any injured workers to a local hospital, wait while they get attention and they pay the bill. Also take care of an sickness in children of the workers, and good food on the job 3 times a day, and wifes' welcome to come to the sites and take away food for themselves and their kids every meal.  

 

Son asked questions like 'who did this wall' or similar, quickly the worker came forward, son said 'this is very good work, congratulations.' Older worker commented 'he/she does good work and very proud of his/her work. If not good, we always do it again'.

 

Son told me all of the above. I spoke to the 2 Thai owners/engineers, I asked 'why are all your workers Thai Yai folks. Quick solid answers, 'because they listen and ask questions to be sure what they must achieve, always polite and respectful, good team work, they're not lazy, no problems with 'hang over' from whisky night before etc., they're always on the job at correct time, they do good work. 

 

They built our house (5 bed 4 bath, western style big kitchen) and we very very pleased. We gave a small private tip to every worker every Friday and at the end of the project.

 

A few weeks after we moved in a new house was under construction opposite us. I walked around the in progress building and asked, 'did you guys build my house (pointing to my house)' Many responded YES and asked 'is your house OK?',  A few minutes later one of the very young guys (18 years old) privately said to me in OK English 'I did all the wall paper in your house, is it OK, if not a will ask the boss if I can come and fix any problems'.

 

In fact the papering work was just excellent, all perfect, and I said this to the young man and thanked him for his excellent work. He said 'you happy and I happy' and went back to his task.

 

I waited till there was a private moment and slipped 500Baht in his pocket and said 'secret, OK'. He was quite shocked and thanked me and said 'yes I understand and my wife thank you too'. 

 

Later we discovered he and his wife were married at 16 years old, already had one toddler and a new baby. My Son's Thai wife said, at home. we can't take care of all of them but we can help this young, respectful and hard working couple.

 

She took 5,000Baht from her ATM a/c. She asked around and privately met the young Thai Yai mother, she took her and her kids shopping for a pile of clothes, books, and other items for the 2 kids, and non perishable food on her credit card and gave her the 5,000Baht cash then took her back to her camp. The young Thai Yai wife said 'I will save the money for kindergarten for hill tribe kids'. 

 

 

[elgenon]

On 4/26/2021 at 12:47 AM, Kwasaki said:

The only foreign builder's I've come across in Thailand were con artists if you ask me. 

 

Were the 3 ex-British builder's qualified and was there work a high standard.

 

We found a local Thai guy in our village years ago and always use him but have to wait in queue.

 

I've shown and taught Thai guys here ways of doing things but I never came Thailand to ever do any work, have supervised a couple of times for friends and given advice but never like to get involved to much.  

I hope you don't teach them the British ways. 555

[Johnny Mac]

But were they sitting around all day drinking mugs off tea while reading a copy of yesterdays Sun?

[brianthainess]

On 4/26/2021 at 2:33 PM, Pilotman said:

Having been the 'victim' to UK tradesmen for years, who as a group are as unreliable, poor deliverers and feckless as you can get

I once saw an add in the UK for a building company, that read Quote

" You've tried the cowboys,  Now try the Indians "

[sanuk711]

I have had some disappointments, the standard one seems to be after coming around measuring up everything giving a price---half way though the job I hear some of them saying to my wife..."Its bigger than what we thought" ---'Oh--There is more work then what I thought"  etc.

 

Living in Issan you also do get some who down tools and go plant rice, I don't take them.

When I came to live here in the 90s I knew a lot of Bar girls, some would head home to help at that time of the year--but the ones that were good at their work---would just send the 200-Baht a day for the family to employ a local to do it.

 

That way, they were obviously well ahead financially.

 

[Kwasaki]

3 hours ago, elgenon said:

I hope you don't teach them the British ways. 555

You can teach em good ways it's not exact but close. ????????