Removing rubbish

[oldtimer]

Hi people. Please be gentle with me. My lady friend came home from holiday, turned the heating on and a rad split.
Explained to her on the phone how to isolate it and told her to contact the plumber who had worked for her before.
She told him that she wanted him to replace the split rad, plus four more which were the same age.
He gave her a price for the rads, plus trv's plus labour which she agreed to. When she got home from work, he had replaced the rads, taken the old rads and copper away, and left her to dispose of all the packaging etc.
Now I realise there is no scrap value in the packaging, but to pay out the best part of £900 and then have to load your car with cardboard etc and dispose of it, is a bit much.
Just wondered if this is normal practice.

 

[woodsy]

I agree with many of the threads. It is a professional tradesman that clears up after himself. I have received more letters from customers thanking me for how tidy the job is left than the work itself and I often tell people my biggest earner is my vacuum.
Having said that, small amounts of rubbish gets split between there bins, and on larger jobs I offer the alternative of a mini skip as my local tip will not let vans in. When the customer is offered the cost of the skip or take it to the tip themselves I generally find they want to take it themselves. To me the contractor is guilty of lack of communication with his customer.

 

[kay-jay]

Respect to you! :smile:
I now have started to do same. The amount of plastic waste from syphons, waste pipe, fill valves, showers etc, is crazy! Let's hope the stuff is actually properly recycled & not buried in the ground.
I try to repair anything that is in serviceable condition & that also saves waste.

its all a load of cobblers.
we have all these recycling classifications of plastics and so on - yet the local vauthority on its website still carries the message that they can only recycle plastic 'bottles' so rest just gets landfilled or sent on holiday to india

 

[AWheating]

Those that remove rubbish, what does it cost you at the private tip? Is it based on weight? And how much does the extra licence/insurances cost you?

 

[woodsy]

Those that remove rubbish, what does it cost you at the private tip? Is it based on weight? And how much does the extra licence/insurances cost you?

I have the waste carrier license at a cost of £150 ish for three years, and the private tips I tried went by weight but when you worked out your time, fuel etc it was more expensive than a skip.

 

[AWheating]

Does your van insurance cover you for transporting waste that was not purchased by you? Ie. rubbish that's from materials brought by the customer on a labour only job? I'm not sure mine would?

 

[Alex Knight]

Luckily I work for a building company so we always have skips on the go to dump rubbish

 

[smtplumbing]

tbh i remove all my waste, when i have a boiler job the copper and brass is kept rads and boilers i call the scrap men, the cardboard i save and take to a company that take it for free for recycling, and plastics get put in my home bin then excess rubbish either saved or green bin/ burned, found a new company that takes wood eg doors flooring etc again for free. big jobs like bathrooms customer is charge for the skip and any other rubbish left over gets binned, tho i charge for the skip some have refused at there own so the skip needs to go to mine then there charged extra

 

[lame plumber]

Some of the replies have quite surprised me on this thread. I'm totally with Ray and the other like minded people with regard that any trade waste, which includes the packaging I would expect to be taken away by the trade that carried out the work. I think customer perception and further recommendation would be a key factor in this. Appreciate that some may state on the quote that they don't take away, but it seems like ducking a responsibility. Regarding giving a scrap man a ring to take it away, I unfortunatley live in an area that is prone to fly tipping, that is typical of the sort of waste we are talking about. No you wont find metals or valuables in any of that and it's clearly the same groups that are doing it by the repeat type of waste that appears. Would you still take the same approach if this was happening close to your home ?? Not trying to be inflamatory but sometimes there are consequences further down the line that you might not be considering. Another thought, how would you feel if a sparks left your property and left clipping of cable and sheathing, junction box knockouts, empty carboard boxes etc at your home, or maybe the window fitters left the old window frames and doors for you to dispose off. Would you then give them a recommendation to others, You might if the quality of the work was good, but then you might add that the only problem is you have to clear up after them. Probably not what you would want your customers saying about you.... Off to hide behind the couch now. :cheesy:

I have never seen a sparky that cleans up after themselves Re waste, I am of the opinion that you have bought the product so the new rad is yours along with the waste that comes with it, if you want any waste at all removing thats an extra to be paid for as written in all my estimates. All waste is left cut up and piled tidily for you to dispose of. I personally trained to repair and maintain things not remove rubbish, the council already has loads of people paid to do that and gives you nice big bins to put it in.

 

[Ermintrude]

If I just paid you £6k you will be taking all the rubbish

 

[lame plumber]

If I just paid you £6k you will be taking all the rubbish

oooh, you know my callout fee, but for that I only arrive on your step

 

[Millsy 82]

how would you feel if a sparks left your property and left clipping of cable and sheathing, junction box knockouts, empty carboard boxes etc at your home

I have never seen a spark tidy up after themselves. Im not entirely sure if they know how to use a hoover :grin:

 

[Millsy 82]

I think it makes you look neater if you take it away. The customer would be happier as well. Surely you add the cost of disposing it to the bill.

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

Does your van insurance cover you for transporting waste that was not purchased by you? Ie. rubbish that's from materials brought by the customer on a labour only job? I'm not sure mine would?

Why would you ever tell them, how would they find out unless you volunteered the information. My van is insured for carriage of own goods, so just take ownership of the rubbish

 

[Ermintrude]

I have never seen a spark tidy up after themselves. Im not entirely sure if they know how to use a hoover :grin:

Freakin Hoover, a brush or dustbin would be a good start!

 

[hammers4spanner]

Regardless if you take the rubbish or not the OP and many other custs would highly likely find something else to moan about. Unfortunately that's what everyone does forget the good bits let's moan about the ikle bits

 

[bright spark]

I agree with IDCHAPPY. Take it all. It's amazing how people's minds work. Ye could have done a champion job, but all they'll remember is the rubbish left and there goes any recommendations. Clean up one house, keep the lady happy and you'll clean up on the whole street.

 

[deandive]

Il put it all in bin bags on a private job, and leave it for the cust to dispose of, they bought the materials the rubbish belongs to them. Taking rubbish is a giant pain in the posterior one of the contracts I work on insist we take it all away, three boiler boxes of rubbish in the back of my trafic and with the rest of the gear I carry round its full. Ive been tempted to set all the cardboard alight in the garden, but im sure the council nazis would have something to say about that.

 

[hammers4spanner]

You can burn your rubbish in your garden as long as your not near a busy road and your constantly doing fire

 

[Ermintrude]

Next warm air you strip remove fan and capacitors. Fabricate a gasification boiler. Burn your rubbish with no smoke and heat your garage, DHW or just the garden

 

[armyash]

Fairly surprised by some of the replies on this thread, as i work for someone it's no skin off my nose to take all rubbish which gets put in the bins back at the yard but I always thought it was standard practice to clear everything away after yourself on a job anyway.

I suppose if you are self employed and getting rid of waste is another thing to take your time up then I can see why some guys are happy to leave it to the customer to clear away.

As already mentioned though if I had someone do work at mine, windows, carpets or what ever and left rubbish behind I would not be impressed, even with a good job I would just think it looks a bit unprofessional and lazy. I wouldn't kick up a fuss about it because i'm not petty and would still use them again but would tell them to take the rubbish next time.

Back to the original post the fact that the plumber was happy to take the rads then he could have taken the packaging too.

I would always take rubbish as last impressions are just as important as first impressions. Could do an excellent, neat job but then leave a bad taste in the customers mouth by leaving mess behind. It would take the shine off a job well done.

If guys have it as part of their quote or just agree with customer that they are not taking rubbish then fair enough, that's for the customer to accept.

Just over a year ago I had a job to go and fit a couple of radiators, did the job, cleared away tools, then went to check system pressure and make sure everything was getting hot. All sorted and I left but I forgot to take the rubbish. I didn't remember until I got home that night and it was my first proper employment in the trade and I started flapping so I called the customer and said sorry and said I could come back and get it. She was fine about it and said don't worry. She was decent about it but I could imagine some people phoning the office and complaining and I hadn't been there long. It's just not worth giving a customer a reason to complain.

 

[Roger Welton]

The only time I leave rubbish behind is if the cust wants to keep the scrap.

 

[morganb]

I will normally take all rubbish away with me, I'm lucky enough to be able to burn anything that will go on a bonfire. Around my area the bin-men are also very accommodating, on more than one occasion I've left more than a few bags of rubble from a bathroom re-fit that they've taken without any hassle. If the customer is at home I take it back to mine to leave out for them.

 

[aligorgon]

if its a mate i leave it for them, if its a proper customer i will take it away.

 

[REDSAW]

its not mine so you can keep it,

i know some will do the dishes and make the beds too, but not me!

comes with the price(minus skip cost)

 

[fogarty]

Just do what sparks do and hide it under the floorboards.

 

[WHPES]

I tale rubbish away unless it's a small amount and will go in the customer's bin / recycling without over filling it. I can get rid of card for free to a recycler in town and the plastic protectors go in the plastic recycling. Wood goes in my stove.

Rubbish under the floorboards is one of my pet hates (as well as being a fire hazard) and I always vacuum under there before replacing boards. I did once have a good find - loads of cigarette packets from 100 years ago and a couple of beer bottles with original labels. I put them on ebay and did quite well.

 

[lambchop]

Written in the contract all rubbish is left on site, (agreed location beforehand) in manageable rubble bags or flat packed tied up cardboard. If they pay for skip will gladly put it straight into that for them. My van is for me, my lunch and tools not gash. My life is a lot happier and easier since adopted the approach

 

[Gma]

I normally take all the rubbish with me unless there's a skip on the job, put it in a big box trailer I've got and take it to a tip when full normally a month or 6 weeks to fill it, burn any card etc tho!
takes a morning or so to do a tip run tho.

 

[TBServices]

I don't take my rubbish away. I have no way to dispose of it so it stays on the job. If I could take it to the tip, I would. Simple.

I explain this to customer beforehand, if there's a lot of rubbish (bathroom) they order a skip or do multiple tip runs in their own vehicles, if it's just a boiler and rads, chances are it can be moved in one run to the tip or fit in the bin without too much nuisance.

I didn't spend 26k on a car to fill it full of other peoples shyte cos the council won't let me use the tip.

 

[Mrs Tara Plumbi]

We take all rubbish or arrange for it to be removed from site.
But I can understand totally the reasons given by some for not taking it - it seems the important thing is to communicate with customer before hand so they know what to expect.

We are going to be more expensive but that cost covers waste removal. Not removing waste makes sense if you need to keep prices low. We don't compete in the budget plumbing market.