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must be starting to bite the builders


just john

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Have had three builders (one French and two English) phone in the last week asking when I'm starting the next phase of our work (too cold and wet) and are they in the frame.
One said he hadn't had anything much for 8 weeks, though I expect he took a month off for Christmas anyway ([Www]), I guess the exchange rate must be starting to bite. [blink]

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Coincidentally today I received a call from a lady canvassing on behalf of  local French artisan looking for any work in the renovation field, devis gratuit!

She was polite and charming and it was the first time I have not been bothered to receive a tele-marketing call even though I wont be using him.

It was the first such call that I have ever had in nearly 4 years and knowing the character of the people around here (I must have a bigger tractor than my neighbour even though I no longer have any land to work and I must take a five week holiday in the South especially if we have no money) it takes a lot to admit that times are anything but rosy.

Even the guys working on the black are starting to cut each others throats.

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[quote user="Chezstevens"]I think most folk are nervous about pouring relatively large sums of money into a diminishing investment - unlike the UK Gov.[/quote]

The key difference being that the UK Gov is not spending its own money.

John

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I asked a friend who works exclusively for English speakers (he does not speak French) to do some tiling work for me. He told me he had work for months ahead - this was about six months ago. He now has nothing. I did the tiling myself. I asked a local artisan to fix a gutter. He has not got back to me, so I shall try to do it myself. I guess I'm not the only one taking this attitude.

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We asked two local lads about replacing our roof - they have done previous good work. This was whilst we were over at Christmas and it took them 24 hours to produce a devis.

We had also asked our local shopkeeper if she knew of anyone who was a good roofer - her hubby is an electrician, so we thought they would know someone.Whilst we were out one day over the Christmas hols we came back from a shopping trip to find a small box of chocolates and a bottle of eau de vie, plus a business card for these builders known to our shopkeeper left on our doorstep! Never seen that before - almost touting for business.

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Certainly from what we hear filtering back to Devon,   artisans are having a very very lean time in our area,  and I gather that some have already closed down,  citing the fact that they can't go on paying cotisations when they have no work.

FR3 Limousin said much the same thing about a slump in activity on the lunchtime regional bulletin on Saturday.

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[quote user="Keni "]

Whilst we were out one day over the Christmas hols we came back from a shopping trip to find a small box of chocolates and a bottle of eau de vie, plus a business card for these builders known to our shopkeeper left on our doorstep! Never seen that before - almost touting for business.

[/quote]

Yes but nice dont you think?

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[quote user="Martinwatkins"]Certainly from what we hear filtering back to Devon,   artisans are having a very very lean time in our area,  and I gather that some have already closed down,  citing the fact that they can't go on paying cotisations when they have no work.

[/quote]

We're in north east 24 and whilst there are fewer enquiries coming in, work is plentiful.

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