Solar installers scaffolder experiences

[Jaycee]

Hi ya

A member of my family is a scaffolder, and is looking into working with some local solar installation companies, and has asked what is the industries perception/experiences of scaffolders?

Can you give me your comments?

Thanks in advance

 

[moggy1968]

terrible, totally unreliable, don't turn up when they say and don't take the scaffold down when they should. A totally unprofessional approach to the business and zero customer service. They act like they're doing you a favour putting the scaffold up.

Be reliable and offer good service and your relative will already have a USP on every scaffolding firm I have used!

 

[FB.]

I'm a customer, but.....

The scaffolders double-booked, so my scaffolding didn't arrive, and after the electrician chewed someone's ear off, the scaffolding turned up around 11am on the day of the installation.
However, the roofers (who were proceeding to eat and drink me out of home after waiting for three hours!) were quite glad to have some input into how the scaffolding ws done, since they felt that a slightly unconventional scaffold was quicker and easier for them to work with - not least a slight change in the height of it relative to the roof level they were working on.

 

[JulianC]

Our scaffolders are the complete opposite. Very obliging, good with the customer and cheap. Can't fault them at all.

 

[SRE]

Rough as a badgers bottom ..... but always have the scaffolding up on time - taking it down seems to be another matter. Can only communicate with customers by grunt and only if they like the customer.

Guy that owns the company has brilliant customer service but he just can't get his guys to follow the same route. Caught one them when they were at our having a p down the side of the shed - I was in the house - could they not have managed to ask to use the toilet!!!!!

 

[Glen Powell]

Scaff companies in my opinion do not take deadlines into account, when they eventually do get to the job they do not take care to bypass Mrs Jones roses or Mr Smiths prize turnips, turn up, decimate the lawn, break the gutter, crack a few tiles and off they go.

They then may turn up 3 weeks later after Mrs Griffiths has been without Eastenders or Corrie due to scaffold blocking satallite signal, dead grass due to boards in place or gouges in drive through boards not being in place.

Then a complaint is made and no MD or decision maker available to take liability to the issues and therfore leave the solar company to rectify problems and foot the bill.

We have had to replace a garage door and as good as replace a drive at the same property because of 1 scaffold company,

As you can gather I love them to bits and unfortunatly cant be without them

 

[Gavin A]

our scaffolders are great, worked there arses off for us in the busy periods, and do the best they can in getting the scaf erected on time, and taken down shortly after we ask for them to while fitting in their other customers.

They'll also do silly jobs for us miles away occasionally if we need them to and not charge silly money for it.

 

[Jaycee]

Sounds like a mixed bag of experiences!

I have always believed that if you do a good job, charge a fair price, and try to provide good customer service then you will always be busy.......and that's what I told him!

What's the going rate per install for a scaffolder, if you don't wanna post here, then you could send me a pm, just so I can tell him where he needs to put his pricing, don't want him to be too expensive, or too cheap.

 

[moggy1968]

location has a major effect on pricing. where in the country are you?

 

[Jaycee]

location has a major effect on pricing. where in the country are you?

His business covers Devon and Cornwall

 

[sambotc]

Jaycee, PM'd you

 

[Glen Powell]

Mixed pricing there, I do not think its really appropriate to mention costs on an open forum but what I can say is exeter and surounding area is more expensive than most, excluding 10 miles of m25 or within,.

 

[finchy]

We don't put a margin on scaffold price so have no problem discussing prices. They are the only subs we use and are transparent with the costs. Our chaps are very reliable, they are scaffolders after all and not craftsmen. They charge on a sqm cost with a minimum charge, if it's out of normal range they whack a fuel charge which is reasonable.

 

[Gavin A]

but not as expensive as inverness I'd bet

 

[Glen Powell]

but not as expensive as inverness I'd bet

Too bloody cold up there for me, I do a rain check on pricing that one

 

[Gavin A]

I have family up there who're well into the green stuff, so we seem to be up there every couple of months for a couple of 4kW jobs a time, then back down the road. It seems that we somehow manage to still be a couple of grand cheaper than any local firms, and have actually been installing PV up there longer than any of them (nearest was about 100 miles away when we did our first 2 up there).

tbf, they do tend to turn up mob handed for a simple scaf job, so I can see where the money's going...

 

[Eco Chap]

We used a few different firms to begin with. Found a lot of them to be not so good. Can't say I've ever seen much tube and fitting scaffold correctly erected to date.

We do have a preferred firm who are generally good, as above though the gaffer is brill his employees don't quite follow the same trend.

A lot of our lads are pasma and cuplok/quiklok stage scaffolding trained so fortunately we can do a lot of jobs ourselves. Keep it in-house 

Again aslong as he's polite and doesn't p on the tomato plants he'll shoot straight up the list of preferred scaffolders

 

[sedgy34]

Hi ya

A member of my family is a scaffolder, and is looking into working with some local solar installation companies, and has asked what is the industries perception/experiences of scaffolders?

Can you give me your comments?

Thanks in advance

we use 2 different scaffold companys the one promises the earth takes too much on and lets people down (not good)

 

[SolarCity]

The firm we use is very good. They're reliable, reasonably priced and good with the customers. I'd recommend them to anyone in the Birmingham, Solihull, Coventry area.

 

[Eco Deal]

where did you do Cuplok / quicklok stage training and how long did it take?

We used a few different firms to begin with. Found a lot of them to be not so good. Can't say I've ever seen much tube and fitting scaffold correctly erected to date.

We do have a preferred firm who are generally good, as above though the gaffer is brill his employees don't quite follow the same trend.

A lot of our lads are pasma and cuplok/quiklok stage scaffolding trained so fortunately we can do a lot of jobs ourselves. Keep it in-house 

Again aslong as he's polite and doesn't p on the tomato plants he'll shoot straight up the list of preferred scaffolders