Bobski the Builder

garyh3 · 17-10-2008 1:40pm #1

Anyone see that program last night...... "Bobski The Builder " Chan. 4

Pitted two so called builders against each other .....

4th Gen British Builder and a Polish Ex chocolate maker come Builder ......

Holy shmoly..... Now Im English born in Yorkshire but hells bells what a mess from the British guy... and the attitide "yer Im pround of that job" The finish/rendering was just awful and the flat roof and soffits with the joist sticking out christ !!! (Did channel 4 know he was a cowboy????)

The Polish Guy worked hard and did a good job ( i dunno if it was upto standard) as I m not a builder but he and his team put a lot of hard graft & neatness into his work..... so much so that the electrician that the couple hired for the wiring, he hired the polish guy on the spot ...... The Young couple he was working for, in my oppinion were very rude.

Comments

Garyh3

Wertz · 17-10-2008 4:39pm

Watched this with interest myself...with all the bumming and blowing the brit guy was doing I thought it was going to be palatial when it was finished...the state of it! I'd do better myself.
Felt sorry for the polski....he put in a low price to get the job (you'd be lucky to get that extension done at twice the price here) got pulled up on scrimping on materials, says that he did a lot of extras for free and ends up blowing his profit...as far as I could see his finished work was head and shoulders above the other guy's...

Moral of the story? Get an Irish builder in

...

Kintarō Hattori · 17-10-2008 4:45pm

Myself and the missus (polish) watched it last night. The attitude from the british builder was shocking. The quality of workmanship was terrible, so much so that at the end it stated that the extension was under investigation from the council for poor workmanship.

The polish guy seemed lovely, really genuine and proud of his work. I agree with the poster above that the couple he was working for were very rude, they really seemed horrendous. He had agreed a contract with him but at the halfway point they went and changed it which left him shortchanged. He had agreed to do the building, plumbing and electrical but they insisted on getting in their own electrican which the polish chap had to pay from his pocket.

Thankfully though something good came of it and the electrician hired him to do his extension.

It was an interesting programme but I can't help shake the feeling that it was very slanted towards making the polish guy look good and the british guy bad (though he was awful). I wonder if it really was fair.

RKQ · 17-10-2008 5:02pm

It was very a fair programme.
The British builder got money up front, didn't bother showing up on site for weeks and built a poorly finished flat roof extension for 16K. He is now being investigated by the Council. I don't think the programme makers could have scripted that. He was totally responcible for his work - very poor effort. Finger marks in the render! Sagging plasterboard ceiling! Terrible lumpy reveals.

The Polish guy was eager and proud of his work. The Electrician hired him on the spot and gave him 1500 up front. So I assume the quality of finish was very good as the Electrician was impressed. The tiled pitched roof extension only cost 12K.

The Polish guy was bullied by the male client. The new manhole and British Electrician were forced on the Polish builder. These extras should have been paid for by the clients. They really cheated him, were extremely aggressive and totally out of order.

The real difference was the British builder knew contract law while the Polish builder didn't.

17-10-2008 5:04pm

I've worked for eastern european builders on a few jobs in Dublin. They are extremely effecient at getting things done ,but the attitude of people towards them in houses can be very ignorant.

I got dirty looks on one job from the owner of a house ,for complementing the polish lads on how well/fast they worked

Wertz · 17-10-2008 5:16pm

BTW I'd imagine every H&S officer in the land was foaming at the mouth when the british firm's guy started taking the angle grinder to that mystery pipe with the mains cable inside. Lucky lucky guy.

I agree about the programme being fair and balanced...as RKQ said, it would have been a very tough thing to script...

gsxr1 · 17-10-2008 5:50pm

The amount of work I have had to go back and fix because of bobski the builder has kept me bizzy for ages.

Im sure there are loads of good polish lads out there , but beware. there are a good few that decided to be tradesmen on the way over. Like getting any work done by anyone. Get references

amacachi · 17-10-2008 7:32pm

The Brit was like Irish builders, full of nothing but promises that he had no clue whether he could deliver or not.

The programme was fairly obviously biased. The voiceover at the end said that the work had been inspected by the council, not that he's under investigation.

gsxr1 · 17-10-2008 7:57pm

this thread has no place in the DIY Forum. Why is it posted here??

17-10-2008 8:32pm

gsxr1 wrote: »

The amount of work I have had to go back and fix because of bobski the builder has kept me bizzy for ages.

Im sure there are loads of good polish lads out there , but beware. there are a good few that decided to be tradesmen on the way over. Like getting any work done by anyone. Get references

gsxr1 wrote: »

this thread has no place in the DIY Forum. Why is it posted here??

You've already posted in the thread yourself.

gsxr1 · 17-10-2008 8:47pm

311 wrote: »

You've already posted in the thread yourself.

SO! its hardly DIY though

whats the polish got to do with helping lads with DIY

17-10-2008 8:54pm

People who are into DIY ,tend to get professionals in to do jobs aswell.
It's an interest for people and thats why DIY/Duncan is so popular on TV.

gsxr1 · 17-10-2008 9:20pm

311 wrote: »

People who are into DIY ,tend to get professionals in to do jobs aswell.
It's an interest for people and thats why DIY/Duncan is so popular on TV.

maybe so.

But immigration issues and polish people are not really a DIY problem .

If ya have a leaky tap then post away.

Kintarō Hattori · 18-10-2008 12:01pm

gsxr1 wrote: »

maybe so.

But immigration issues and polish people are not really a DIY problem .

If ya have a leaky tap then post away.

Who mentioned anything about immigration issues?

> So far off point.

pipgazebo · 19-10-2008 10:27pm

Never mind the bollocks about ' what is this doing in this thread'.

It is extremely pertinent to DIY-construction in Ireland, right now.

I am doing a self build in Limerick, timber frame, its taken me 9 months to
get to plasterboarding stage. I meet this guy Jarek by chance a couple of weeks ago, he is the english speaking arm of a team of polish plasterers/painters/tilers. I go on a feeling (2K less) and contract his crew to plasterboard my dormer(first self build) and plaster the insides. 2,385 sq feet, with some tricky roof shapes upstairs. 7.2 to do that.

The lads arrive, first thing they do,...no ****... build themselves a coatrack. l had month old breakfast rolls, nasty wood with nails in it, fanta cans, every bit of **** involved in building a house littered everywhere, I had been trying to keep the site clean, but the builders just tossed anything anywhere.

You come into the place now, and it's like the seven dwarves are visiting, all coats, shoes and lunchboxes lined up behind the front door. They have actually cleaned the house as they moved from room to room, for their own personal safety I suspect.

Anyways... I've gambled on the Poles, and whambang! Channel 4, Bobski the builder, I stumble upon it the other night, the very night that I've slipped an Irish plasterer a few quid to come out to the house and check their work. He having told me it was to a fairly good standard but picked up on a few things, accusing them of rushing.

It was like the television decided to address me personally that night. Uber strange. My guy is called Jarek as well, very similar situation
to the guy in the Bobski episode.

I ask him Saturday afternoon, "Did you see Bobski the builder?"
His response. "I have no television."

I list out the things the Irish plasterer has picked up on, he explains to me, that they are only on first coat, with the second coat everything will be perfect.

I'll let ye know how I get on, but I got a real good feeling on this one, not
like that silly twat on c4 the other night. He had a valid point about being
guaranteed a fixed price, but he played to the camera when talking down to Jarek, he'd saved over 4K on the job, and it was done fast and to a very high standard, and then he loses the plot because of a bit of crumbly cement around the edges, that at most would have cost what? 500 pounds to fix, 120 if you used Polish guys to do it.

delly · 20-10-2008 8:34am

I don't see a problem with this topic being discussed here at all as its relevent to the fourm.

pipgazebo wrote: »

Never mind the bollocks about ' what is this doing in this thread'.

As a new user pipgazebo, please take some time to read the forum charter about proper posting etiquette.

garyh3 · 20-10-2008 7:22pm

I Posed here because I though it a fair question as many people do on this board ask for recommendations for jobs to be done by professionls. I myself are a keen DIY'er and have done many jobs in the hosue, but sometimes you have to leave jobs to the professionals. This CH4 programme higlighted the differnces between so called professionals and the work that was done.

What I didnt see on the programme, and which most of us do now, is ask for references. If the british builder had use that poor guy as a reference I would have run a mile becuase im my opinion it was a awful build.

Garyh3