I met Celah a few months ago. We had to replace a mixer in the shower. The plumber did his thing but left us with a gaping hole. If ever you find yourself in our situation, you will know. It was more or less open season for other tradies to quote whatever they want. Imagine a 2 tiles by 2 tiles area, materials won't cost much (we supply the tiles). So a bit of gyprock. A bit of skills. A bit of waterproof material. Time to let things set and time for membrane to dry. Maybe two visits. The quotes came to $6-800.
Celah is retired. He is Turkish. Swore a bit when he was doing his work. Every now and then he had to sneak outside to have a smoke. He worked for Woolworths for a long time. Then became a handyman. He is also trained as an auto mechanic.
Celah quoted us $400 instead. Keep in mind, he is a handyman but not a licensed tiler.
He did the job well. Paid attention to details. He chipped away at the old grout on the replacement tiles. Regrouted the area afterwards.
We actually had him to come back and help with other stuffs as well. A man of honor one may say. We were looking to replace some taps and shower heads. But I got the wrong parts. He could not do the job that day. He left and he did not charge us at all. He said I did not do anything for you so could not charge you even though he drove up all the way. Next time he dropped by, we went to Bunnings and bought all the parts together. His rate was lower than quotes I got from other plumbers.
With Celah, need to speak a bit louder to him. One side of his hearing is not well. Also he can be running late. His GPS can be temperamental with his old phone. However, his quote will be competitive. He has done tiling, change taps, change lock for us.
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LoginDoug
Celah came over and helped us the rebuild the stone wall in the garden. The job involved clearing the roots between the stones and then re-pointing and rebuilding the wall. We have had quotes between $2-2500. Celah completed the job in a day with a mate. He charged us $900 + materials (12 bags of cement).
Doug
Had him over again. Celah charged us $150 to fix a leak. And another $150 to install a new basin set (taps + spout). Access wasn't the easiest. Good excuse for other plumbers to charge more. Plus if they have to come out to quote for only changing a tap ? So I think $150 was not bad. He did a good job. Again, he paid attention to the little thing.
Doug
I was thinking about the retaining wall again. I am a happy camper. The day after, I had to move some soil to fill in the gaps between the path and the retaining wall. It took like an hour but ended up saving easily $500 vs. other quotes we got. Also Celah did a thorough job when building the retaining wall. He took an axe to work down this massive tree root in the way.
Doug
Celah came back and helped with rebuilding the retaining wall. He did a good job and within the same day. Took him 4 hours. In full disclosure, I had to refill the trench with soil he dug up after concrete sets over night as it would take him an hour to drive here. He charged us $370. Other folks quoted $800-1200.