Having been approved in 2009, Robinson’s are proud to be the longest serving Building and Roofing company in Bath approved with BANES Trading Standards as part of their Buy with Confidence scheme.
As members of Buy with Confidence, we hope to show to our customers that we have a commitment to professional standards, not just in our approach to the actual work we undertake but how we expect you as the customer to be treated. Unfortunately the building and roofing industry can be negatively viewed due to the actions of rogue or cowboy traders. As a Trading Standards approved company, you can trust that Robinson’s offers the level of service you would expect – professional, on-time and correctly priced.
Every member of Buy with Confidence is vetted by BANES Trading Standards, auditing their complete business practices and paperwork, looking at any previous complaints as well as requiring a DBS (Criminal Record Check) check for all employees.
Being accepted into this scheme shows that businesses truly care about their customers and have the customer at the heart of their approach – a value upheld by use here at Robinson’s Building and Roofing.
All reviews on Buy With Confidence are vetted, so you can guarantee that these haven’t been faked. The reviewer is contacted and verified and then the company informed, helping weed out false reviews. See our dedicated Buy with Confidence reviews as well as all the other fantastic reviews we’ve received from customers.
For further information on Robinson’s, please see our About us page.
About usThis is one of the biggest challenges when you are looking to have any works done, whether its planned or you have a leak and need someone to come out straight away.
The times when you need that instant response are the times when, unfortunately research cannot be done and you’re rely on blind luck that you get someone trustworthy.
Here at Banes Trading Standards we suggest that if possible, ask around your friend and family for recommendations but on those occasions when this isn’t feasible, we suggest using our website, Buy With Confidence.
Every company listed on here has been vetted to make sure that they put the customer first and there approach is honourable. Our belief is that the rogue traders will stay well away from Trading Standards leaving those on this scheme companies you can trust.
Where time is a luxury, ask a minimum of two – three tradespersons to come and have a look. Ask them about the project and discuss any concerns or anything specific you want to have covered.
When you receive their estimate have a look at that’s written, if its short and sweet with very little scope of works, this could lead to disputes in the future as to what’s covered and what’s not. The more detailed the better as it firmly lays out what is expected. Also cheapest is not always best.
From our experience, the times when customers have contacted us the most are those occasions when an emergency repair has had to be carried out and you’re glad that anyone can come out.
We’ve come across repairs to tiles being done using Polyfilla through to actually no repairs being done at all and only a piece of plastic placed under then tile allowing just enough time for the payment to be made before the repair fails. Also, it seems that a lot of older customers seem to be suspectable to these scams and confidence tricks, its always heartbreaking when we turn up to a property and find that the customer is in tears blaming themselves for being taken in.
Our advice is to try and get a list of trusted companies in advance for those moments when time is critical and you don’t have time to do your research. Also, if the company has good customer practice, they will not ask for payment there and then. From the customers we’ve spoken to the majority of the rogue traders demand payment there and then as they know the repair they’ve carried out is not fit for purpose.
When the work is planned, we agree with asking several tradesman to come out and have a look, we always encourage the customer to ask questions so even if they decide not to use us they are hopefully better armed as to what standards to expect from their project. When meeting customers I often think about the first day I started in this trade and how little I knew so I have no problems answering any questions no matter how silly they feel they might be.
Be patient when choosing a builder. The most reputable ones are likely to be booked well in advance, so begin looking in plenty of time as you may have to wait for them to start work.
Depending upon the size of the project, you may need to get a written contract from them covering all the details of your agreement. This should include the cost of materials, scaffolding and any other works covered by their estimate. The agreement should also contain the price, any staged payments, retention periods. This will ensure both parties understand what they are agreeing to.
We agree that any good tradesman will always be busy and if you find a tradesman that can start very quickly on larger projects when all others can’t, there’s normally a good reason why they are quiet.
Also, price is always important, if you’ve got several estimates and two are around the same price and one is half the price, ask yourself what are they skimping on. Either they are earning very little money each day, using very cheap materials compared to the other two companies or more likely providing a price which will gain them the job and once started suddenly find “extras” which will ultimately cost you more than they other two estimates.
Also how detailed the estimate is will often be indicator to you. If as said above the estimate is very sparce with little detail of the works covered it allows for the tradesperson to easily add works not covered, quickly increasing the price. A good detailed estimate will cover you against this to a large degree.
Avoid paying large deposits up front. Depending upon the size of the project you may wish to agree a schedule for payments and this should appear in writing within the contact. Consider making staged payments as a means of keeping the work progressing, however always ensure that payments made are proportionate to the amount of work completed.
Never pay in cash and if possible pay a proportion by credit card if accepted as this can provide you with extra protection.
Also have a look to see if the company who are providing you with an estimate have a set of Terms and Conditions as this will set the frame work of you contact with the company you are instructing.
We agree that depending upon the size of the project a payment schedule may be a good idea as this will cover both parties. It should not be slanted in the favour of either side but based on any materials being delivered to site or completion of stages of the project.
Never pay anyone cash or in advance for anything other than something specific to that project. For example if part of your project you are having a bespoke wood carving commissioned then this would be specific to the project and non standard, so a prepayment would be warranted. Payment for roofing felt and battens etc should not require a pre-payment to be made before hand as they are general materials which can be applied to any roofing project.
Many older properties have older tiles on their roofs such as clay double roman tiles. I’ve know some clay double roman tiles to be 100 plus years old with many of these tiles still in great condition.
Be aware of roofers who will try and to up-sale new roof tiles. That a lot of them won’t tell you is that they will sell these older tiles to reclamation yards making profit from these and then making a profit from the new tiles they sell you.
Another trick some roofers will do is allow a set amount for replacing broken roof tiles within an estimate. Some companies will allow say £200 to replace broken roof tiles and they only need to replace 4 but will still charge you £200 as specified.
The fairest way to the customer is to not allow any monies for replacement tiles but add this at the end based on the number actually needed.
If we need 10 tiles then only 10 should be added onto the invoice.
All scaffolding companies will provide a price which covers a standard four week hire with a hire rate of usually 5% per week of the initial hire rate. Any roofing contractor charging
If you ever have you roof felt and battens renewed, it is often tempting to change the roof tiles for something more modern. Unfortunately, what customers are often not told is that changing roof tiles can often lead to long-term damage of your roof. Older properties will normally have clay tiles on their roofs when built and the roof structure will have been designed to take this weight. Modern concrete roof tiles and often twice as heavy which means that the weight the roof structure has to bear often doubles leading to long-term sagging and structural failure if you roof structure is not adequately upgraded.
Being trading standards approved one of the biggest things we find when being called to repair previous traders work is something as basic as the sand they’ve chosen.
Typical builder’s sand or yellow sand is often to blame. The reason for this is that the grains of yellow sand are too fine and when used to on roofs they often fail as the mortar bed holds no strength. Generally, the reason why this is used for some contractors is that its cheaper and for others its easier to get a nicer finish.
The sand we recommend specifying is Sharp sand as the grains are much more course and provide superior strength and finish.
Any good tradesperson should be proud of their work and should be happy to provide photos of the work they’ve just completed. Just because you cannot get on the roof and inspect it yourself doesn’t mean that you should accept below par work.
Unfortunately Trading Standards will tell you that this is one of the biggest scams that they have to deal with.
Never have work undertaken by anyone who as kind as they seem to tell you about a problem there and then. Ask them for their contact details and by all means consider them to give you an estimate but my advice is to stay clear of anyone who cold calls.
Looks for reputable companies to come out and inspect to see if there is initially a problem and who can then provide you with a detailed written estimate.
For more information on cold callers from Trading standards, please follow this link.
01225 872637