Social Housing Jobs

[sparkside1]

I have been offered a job as an electrician for a heating company, wiring up boilers and heating plans in social housing.
Is it worth doing or is it a soul destroying venture? Has anyone got experience of this work? The contracts are based in the south east outside of London.

 

[johnsparks23]

What's the money like?

 

[trev]

I did 3 years with a local authority on the decent homes programme. It was great, money for old rope really BUT some of the places we had to go into were proper flea pits.
One house was inhabitted by a junkie, we spotted some used syringes before we unpacked the gear. Walked out and refused to do the work, they had to move him and all his stuff out and get a specialist cleaning company in to do a full sweep of the place. They even used a metal detector to make sure there were none left.
Must have cost them thousands. Scumbags!

 

[sparkside1]

28K basic plus van. tools and equipment is my problem.

 

[sparkside1]

well Trev, that's the kind of tenant I was thinking of. To be honest, I have walked into places where I didn't want to put my tool bag down due to the filth but that was private owners! Do you get many problems with the tenants themselves?

 

[Brightspark2]

I know someone who did it for a bit and said it was boring...

OK at first but then its the same thing day in day out...

 

[trev]

There were one or two who we had problems with but all you do is walk out and let the tennant liaison people sort them out after all, it's their job.
It has to be said though, the vast majority of the people I came into contact with were absolutely great. Especially the older ones.

 

[GMES]

Agree with Trev, you can get some proper hovel's, but don't judge all people the same a lot of decent folk out there.
Personally if it were me, I would put up with it for as long as you can, and get as much overtime as possible, bank as much money as you can. If you dont like it get out and try something else.

Life is about experimenting and trying different things you never know you may really enjoy it!

 

[johnsparks23]

I worked with a team doing council re wires. It was hard graft. I presomally
dont like domestic work, dealing with the tenants.
we had a few BS claims against us for damaged property.
Doing the heating systems seems like a fairly straight forward job. On that money though,
you'd need plenty of overtime.

 

[sparkside1]

The money is a concern here and not sure there is a much overtime available. Nothing is finalised and I may be able to negotiate a few more pennies. What is the norm regarding salary for this sort of thing? I'm not wanting a career in this, just something for now whilst I look around for a descent commercial job.

 

[londonlec]

Heating can be a good number. I've worked for a few firms before on a price and earned decent money.

 

[Engineer54]

The money is a concern here and not sure there is a much overtime available. Nothing is finalised and I may be able to negotiate a few more pennies. What is the norm regarding salary for this sort of thing? I'm not wanting a career in this, just something for now whilst I look around for a descent commercial job.

If you are out of work at the moment and looking for something to bring some money in, what's your problem?? Especially if you are looking around in the meantime for commercial work!!!

 

[Pete999]

Did a rewire contract in the 70s (yes I know a long time ago) some of the places were bleeding horrible Used prophylactics all over the shop, used sanitary towels under the beds, dog shyte, sometime human shyte, undies dirty barstewards

 

[Engineer54]

Did a rewire contract in the 70s (yes I know a long time ago) some of the places were bleeding horrible Used prophylactics all over the shop, used sanitary towels under the beds, dog shyte, sometime human shyte, undies dirty barstewards

Ah, ...but have you ever come across a horse being kept/stabled in the front room, or stepping through the front door and sliding straight through to the kitchen on a layer of engine oil?? lol!!

 

[Pete999]

That's bizarre

 

[Engineer54]

That's bizarre

Bizarre but True!! I've written about it here a couple of times now. Helping a friend out with a council contract for rewiring the last 16 houses on the well known Tilbury estate that no one else would touch!! lol!! He had broke his leg, so it was me his trainee and him (doing what he could)....

The oil was from the father and his two sons stripping and rebuilding motorbikes throughout the ground floor, everything you touched was either oily or greasy, ...Everything!! lol!! The horse, well at least we didn't see it until around 3pm, but hells bells you could certainly smell him. Some sort of rag and bone man, so you can imagine what the house was like!!

The houses by the way were quite big 50 year old 3 bedroom jobbies not the modern rabbit hutches you see today. Certainly opened my eyes as to how some people lived!! lol!! To be honest i really don't know how they got away with living as they did in a council property

 

[Maddison]

We used to travel 2 hours each way sometimes and not know what heating system we had to do. Was it going to be a nice easy combi boiler with wireless stat or full wired Y-plan. Usually had to do 2 a day plus test and certify it.. and get home so we got pretty nifty at it . If your not too bothered about going in some places with your rubber gloves on then take it. It could be worse you could be walking into the job center every week and having no luck with a job. Take it as it comes you might enjoy settle in and meet some good blokes

 

[trev]

Ah, ...but have you ever come across a horse being kept/stabled in the front room

Yes, wiring some small light industrial units years ago across the road from a housing estate. We noticed something moving around in this house through a window, one day when we saw the tenants going out we wandered over to have a look. Sure enough it was a horse, a small one but still a horse.
There's some very strange people kicking about.

 

[Guest111]

I did some of the LA work years back,some houses were ok some were the pits,here's some examples of the bad ones.Caught impetigo working in one house,another had some kind of skin burrowing bug and was so bad even the council fumigators wouldn't touch it,we went to one were the client was barking mad and attacked one of the lads with an axe!A woman who was so busy drinking ale and chatting up my mate that she peed herself and carried on like it was normal,this was early afternoon,a tenant who refused to get out of bed and expected us to work around him,and the most frightening one was a bloke who decided to do some diy while the house was a mess,received a severe electric shock and tried to blame it on us.We had every man and his dog there,electric board,hse,council top brass it was scary,in the end it turned out he'd damaged a cable trying to fit a new light.It's not all bad there are some nice people out there,I myself live in a council house,but you have to remember that these days the council really only have a responsibility to house vulnerable people and unfortunately these are often addicts and other forms of low life who aren't too bothered about little things such as cleanliness.

 

[Pete999]

Bizarre but True!! I've written about it here a couple of times now. Helping a friend out with a council contract for rewiring the last 16 houses on the well known Tilbury estate that no one else would touch!! lol!! He had broke his leg, so it was me his trainee and him (doing what he could)....

The oil was from the father and his two sons stripping and rebuilding motorbikes throughout the ground floor, everything you touched was either oily or greasy, ...Everything!! lol!! The horse, well at least we didn't see it until around 3pm, but hells bells you could certainly smell him. Some sort of rag and bone man, so you can imagine what the house was like!!

The houses by the way were quite big 50 year old 3 bedroom jobbies not the modern rabbit hutches you see today. Certainly opened my eyes as to how some people lived!! lol!! To be honest i really don't know how they got away with living as they did in a council property

Not Steptoe was it??