Research by Heat Insulation Ltd, a company offering grant-backed home insulation, suggests that the majority of tradespeople are wasting more than 30 minutes every day making their work area in customer homes accessible by effectively tidying up before commencing work.
When asked what they’d be rather doing, 62% of tradespeople responded in saying they’d rather be doing their skilled job. Coming in second with 17% was finishing earlier, with one carpenter specifically stating they’d like to spend time with their family as opposed to working past 7pm most nights.
A total of 172 tradesmen and women were surveyed across the UK and the survey was aimed at understanding the frustrations tradespeople have in their working day.
How much time is wasted by tradespeople who must ‘clean’ customer homes?
- 1+ hours (8%)
- 30 minutes to 1 hour (65%)
- 20-30 minutes (13%)
- 10-20 minutes (9%)
- Under 10 minutes (5%)
Ricky Swann, Managing Director of Heat Insulation Ltd, conducted the survey as he often hears from fellow tradesmen on how annoyed they are at effectively wasting their time doing cleaning work. He had this to say:
“I’ve personally fallen victim to it a few times and I decided to start a little side project to understand how much time is wasted by tradespeople who I work with across the country for their opinion.”
“We can all appreciate that we are sometimes performing emergency work or going into a space that isn’t often visited, such as the loft, but that shouldn’t really be an excuse. Homeowners could save money by preparing a workspace beforehand.”
“My funniest encounter was roughly 2 years ago when I was installing loft insulation. The house was spotless, and I expected the job to be like any other; easy. However, the loft was crammed full of items the owner wanted to keep but didn’t know what to do with. I found children’s clothing in boxes with dates on in the 1970s. The owner thought they’d come in handy if they had grandchildren, but evidently that wasn’t the case, despite the owner saying their grandchildren are now old enough to have kids themselves.” Added Ricky.
With a tidy home, how much could a customer save by not wasting the time of tradespeople?
According to the Office for National Statistics, individuals employed as a tradesperson earn on average £498 per week. With the average working week being 38 hours, that means they could earn an additional £32 to £65 per week if they all workspaces were free of clutter before the tradespeople arrived on-site.