Renovation boom revives demand for old skills...

[eezageeza]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/48936906-c8be-11e5-a8ef-ea66e967dd44.html#axzz3yzzPnoZi

If the link doesn't work (the FT has a paywall) try googling the headline, and following from there :

'Renovations revive demand for old skills'

 

[malcolm]

Good luck to them.

Trades are undervalued. It is a bit like Engineering which is valued so much more in other countries that every single one of the friends I studied with have moved abroad. I find that really annoying when I want to go out for a beer with them.

You get the few tradesmen who are really interested in the work, and a minefield with the rest which won't be addressed by the ever increasing rules and regs which don't even mention the use of appropriate materials but increasingly prevent anyone who wants to do the job properly from doing so unless they have completed the 2 week course.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Excuse my language, but I think this is bollocks. It is a race to the bottom, to find ever cheaper and easier ways of dealing with problems and perceived problems, with the associated fraud (damp and timber remedial work) fear and laziness that is rolled into the mortgage process. Very few people care, there is no market for skilled trades that cost more than for a simpleton's botch. Maybe Historic england, and the National Trust and variouos cathedrals will keep a handful of people going, but I haven't seen a boom in historic building renovation using traditions skills, or even traditional sensibilities anywhere, not even in London where everywhere is being gentrified. Work usually involves sash windows being reinstated and a nice facade fronting a large open plan modenist white box space. Cement, plasterboard and sqirty foam are king.

 

[Lime]

Excuse my language, but I think this is bollocks. It is a race to the bottom, to find ever cheaper and easier ways of dealing with problems and perceived problems, with the associated fraud (damp and timber remedial work) fear and laziness that is rolled into the mortgage process. Very few people care, there is no market for skilled trades that cost more than for a simpleton's botch. Maybe Historic england, and the National Trust and variouos cathedrals will keep a handful of people going, but I haven't seen a boom in historic building renovation using traditions skills, or even traditional sensibilities anywhere, not even in London where everywhere is being gentrified. Work usually involves sash windows being reinstated and a nice facade fronting a large open plan modenist white box space. Cement, plasterboard and sqirty foam are king.

Yep!

 

[DJH]

Can't help but agree chaps...

In my experience a roofer does not a good leadworker make...however I'm sure things have improved since I retired. We used to judge a new man on jobs if they arrived with a slate ripper in their tool bucket. We were invariably right and they were out of their depth and departed to pastures new...

Doug

 

[Roger H]

I had the misfortune to accidentally watch 'Original Features' with Nick Knowles yesterday night.... An episode in Oxfordshire where the 'original features' of the previously thatched barn were not enhanced by the builder dropping it to ground level and rebuilding it apparently in cement... Apparently an 'expert stone mason' his seminal advice was that you could tell a good wall if the stone was laid horizontally.

Nick opined that any mystery joint holes in your roof timbers were inavariably evidence of previous use as parts of a ship.

If you are of a sensitive disposition I would suggest avoiding this programme...

 

[Lime]

Well I'm at an age where I regularly hear young (compared to me) experts stating "facts" on TV about post war Britain that are not true.
(I know because I was alive in the time they are fantasising about!)
"My" past is being made up and reconstructed in the minds of those who haven't got much past and, because they have probably been to university, their opinion becomes the received wisdom on the subject.
Their view point and experience are so limited and confined to present day values I wonder about their elementary education.
It is often painful to listen to their fatuous explanations and annoying when they extrapolate assertions based on their fantasy.
Much of the blame for this is the almost total reliance on the WWW for information by almost everyone including schools and other educational establishments.
The WWW is the most barren place I know for historic accuracy and detail.

 

[formerly known as]

Excuse my language, but I think this is bollocks. It is a race to the bottom, to find ever cheaper and easier ways of dealing with problems and perceived problems, with the associated fraud (damp and timber remedial work) fear and laziness that is rolled into the mortgage process. Very few people care, there is no market for skilled trades that cost more than for a simpleton's botch. Maybe Historic england, and the National Trust and variouos cathedrals will keep a handful of people going, but I haven't seen a boom in historic building renovation using traditions skills, or even traditional sensibilities anywhere, not even in London where everywhere is being gentrified. Work usually involves sash windows being reinstated and a nice facade fronting a large open plan modenist white box space. Cement, plasterboard and sqirty foam are king.

Sadly, that comment is spot on. I am looked at with pity when I mention my work with traditional materials.

 

[Toby Newell]

Really?

Not entirely sure this is 100% accurate.

I am hanging up my apron shortly. I can make more money painting toilets for the council.