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Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 8:02 am
by mickavalon
Hi, not been on here for ages, greetings to you all.
I'm looking for a skilled Landscaper/street mason to come and work with us here in Birmingham/west Midlands. We're really busy and I'm struggling with the balance of grafting and paper work/quotes etc. My must haves are;
Driving license
Setting out
Paving(rigid and semi)
Brickwork would be useful
Experience in all other aspects of quality top end domestic landscaping would be good but not essential as would digger experience
I need experienced people, no chancers.
PM me or call me on my number in contact details. 
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 11:43 am
by Tony McC
Good luck with that, Mick - there's a lot of demand for skilled paviors at the moment. I keep getting asked to recommend possible gangers or just good tradesmen to help contractors looking to expand, but as I keep saying, the best men are rarely out of work.
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 2:00 pm
by mickavalon
I know Tony, I've been looking for the right person for years, met loads of chancers, but not many good skilled tradespeople, well not many you can trust. I've just had to let one guy go, had drink problems and kept making basic errors, which I put down to his drinking. I've a good couple of guys, 1 apprentice and a solid labourer, neither of whom have licenses. So I'm finding myself running the jobs, fetching and carrying as well as meeting new client's, snagging and doing quotes/paperwork. We've got work well into early summer now, and more on the way if I can get the time to do the quotes, so need some back up urgently.:rock:
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 2:29 pm
by lutonlagerlout
same problem here mick
if i could get someone like you describe i would have more time to do the admin
we have had blokes in who could do everything
till you leave them alone 
good luck
LLL
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 4:39 pm
by mickavalon
Fancy a job in Brum Tony?:D
Posted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 9:43 pm
by London Stone Paving
mickavalon wrote:Fancy a job in Brum Tony?:D
Its a bit too far north for him Mick :;): :laugh:
Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 6:32 am
by mickavalon
Yeah but I live in South west Brum, so officially Southern. :laugh:
Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:02 pm
by sy76uk
I'm thinking of looking for a new job. I'm in west Leicestershire and have done loads of work in and around Birmingham. SW Birmingham might be a bit too far to travel day to day though. Is it mainly commercial or domestic work? and is it day rate or price?
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 9:40 am
by mickavalon
We are mainly domestic, and we work all over the West Mid's, but most of the time in Brum. Because we're based in SW Brum, most of our work tends to be this side of the city and out into Worc's/Shrop's/Staffs. Pay rates will be decided upon experience, and could combine day rate and a price work.
We carry out a wide range of work, from Paving to feature walls, fencing, decking, lawns, Swimming pools, green roofs, all the usual and I'd be after someone to help run large jobs and also carry out small jobs on their own. Not sure if the travel would be a bit much, but if you want to send me a cv and maybe some pics of work you've done, we could take it from there.
Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2014 8:13 pm
by sy76uk
Sorry I haven't posted back sooner Mick. If you were closer I'd more than likely be sending you my CV now. I only live 10 mins from the M69 and I can get to the Aston express way in about 45 mins but to get anywhere west of there can take upto an hour and a half. I had 20 years of that and I'm in no hurry to go back to it but... The reason I said that I might be looking for a new job is because for the last year I've been trying to set up on my own. I've got a flexible job as a roofer the gaffer let's me go off and do my own work then straight back once it's finished. I also use his accounts for materials, skip's and we share labour. I've got my own website and an add on yell.com but the paving work is slow. I couldn't use the business as my primary source of income. There's nothing wrong with my workmanship, it's just getting the phone calls to begin with.
As far as experience is concerned I've got loads as a Paver. My Dad's a paver and he had me on site with him lugging block's since I was 8. Most of my work has been commercial. I used to work for interlock paving. There based in Daventry but do work all over so you might of heard of them. As far as the other stuff is concerned, I can lay brick's but not as good or quick as a good time served bricky, I always do a good job on the fencing, I've not done a lot of decking but I'm good with with timber work in general, I love doing lawns, I usually rotorvate and screed the soil before turfing or seeding, never done a swimming pool or a green roof unless your refering to green mineral. My Dad was in engineering before he was a paver and he taght me well so my setting out and levels are always spot on. TBH I don't know what I'm gonna do yet. I wrote the previouse post after a having a bad day. Sorry for that. I don't really want to give up the business but If I can't get to the point where I can earn a living from it I might not have a choice. Thank's for asking for my CV though Mick.
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 11:51 am
by mickavalon
Hi Mate,(not sure what your name is), thanks for the interest, you sound just the kind of person I need. I hope your own venture pans out. You just have to stick with it mate, get a reputation for quality at a fair price, and you shouldn't look back. I've been going solo since 2002, but put the years in beforehand working for others and on and off self employed. We hardly advertise now, but we've got over £60k of orders already, and more quotes than I care to think about, I'm having to turn down work already, which is crap but if you can't do it, what can you do?
What I'm saying is that it takes a good few years to build up a reputation, some get lucky, but most small business owners always find it hard in the first few years, anyone who seems to be rolling in the cash straight away either hit it lucky or are up too no good and generally fall by the way side. Keep plugging at it mate and with your experience you should be fine.
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 12:40 pm
by sy76uk
My names Simon, Mick. I know what your saying. I've got 3 jobs lined up for march. 2 are from the advertising and 1 from a recommendation. I think that if I was doing domestic paving in and around Leicester before I started on my own it might of helped me have a better start with the business. Thank's for the pep talk anyway mate. It helped.
Sounds like you've done well. Hat's off to you mate. I hope I manage to get my business running as well as yours is. I also hope you manage to find the bloke your looking for. Good luck mate.
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:30 pm
by mickavalon
Still looking???:p