Research by Heat Insulation has suggested that the majority of tradespeople are wasting more than 30 minutes every day cleaning customer homes.
A total of 172 tradesmen and women were surveyed across the UK, in an attempt to understand the frustrations tradespeople have in their working day.
When asked what they would rather be doing, 62% of tradespeople responded in saying they would rather be doing their skilled job, with finishing earlier coming in second at 17%.
When asked how much time is wasted by tradespeople who must ‘clean’ customer homes, respondents said:
- 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, conducted the survey and said: “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.”
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, it has been suggested that they could earn an additional £32 to £65 per week if all workspaces were free of clutter before the tradespeople arrived on-site.
