How Do You Find Trustworthy Traders?

I would always go with a friend, family, work colleague or neighbour's recommendation, we once used checkatrade and while they were doing the work poorly, l overheard one workman say to the other that he paid £2000 for he's advert in checkatrade but can easily recoup it back charging X amount for poorly/shoddy work.

Personally I would always go by someones recommendation that I know and have had work done by them. Or even someone local in your town/village that if need be are close to call back and also have a reputation to keep. A friend has just had a very expensive extension done going by facebook recommendations and the work carried out was shocking to say the least.

Word of mouth is the best way to find decent traders.

The only way I have found to find trustworthy traders is by word of mouth from people who I myself trust. It's even better if they can show the work that has been done.

It’s a nightmare to be honest, such stress having any work done and it’s amazing that there isn’t some regulation for builders.

Word of mouth from friends and family, also try shops that have a trade counter and speak to staff there. I personally work with traders in my store and get to know them, I know lots of them I would not use or suggest anyone to use. I do keep a number of business cards from the traders and give our ones where I would be happy to use myself

I would only go by recommendations from people that can clarify. It’s stressful enough having work done to your house let alone by a cowboy.

The trouble with reviews is that you don't know the people who posted them and what their expectations were, so, if they had low expectations of a product/service then they may not have been disappointed but someone else might be.

If you approach a supplier for building work ask them for the names of some people who they have previously worked for and you can tell by their response whether they are willingly or not and use your own judgement. If the place they worked is local either, walk or drive by the place; if walking and someone is around strike up a conversation and bring it round to building work and ask what they thought of them.

I think that's odd, my boyfriend is a carpenter and he's always taking photos of his work because we add it to his portfolio. It's easier just to show people what it looks like. I wouldn't pay for something without seeing previous work xx

I always ask friends, family or a neighbour. There is a trusted tradesmen page for our area which is absolutely brilliant as people post who to avoid as well as who they recommend.

My sister & brother in law had work done by a childhood friend's partner W, it didn't last long.W promised to buy the left over building materials he had over ordered but never did..

Our other childhood friend T is really close to W's partner's siblings & W did work for her & her partner..

At a family get together T was telling my sister what a mess W had made of their garden & my sister couldn't believe that she hadn't mentioned it before they had hired W to do the work, saying "Thanks T"!

This guy runs his own landscaping business with our childhood friend!!