I have to admit that the thought of finding a good tradie can be pretty daunting at the best of times. Might go a long way for explaining the growing list of jobs needing to be done around our place!
I tell you, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve opened the local paper and done the ‘ring around’ to be left waiting for the return phone calls that rarely eventuate.
Then you need to work out for yourself if you trust what they say, if the rate is competitive and if they will come and quote for the job (if they turn up) let alone carry out the work.
I love my husband to bits but in all honesty he’s hardly Mr DIY so if I can’t fix it then it will likely get left until we get a professional on the job. Which then goes without saying that with our busy life I ‘may’ have one or two odd jobs around the house that needed doing.
So when I was approached by hipages to review their trades sourcing platform I was pretty inquisitive. Not only did it mean I might actually cut a few jobs off the list, it was pretty timely with the horrid winter weather fast approaching. Over 110,000 recommendations on hipages, across over 1,300 categories making the process of finding a reliable and suitable tradie easier than ever.
You see I’ve had this ‘blockage’ in our downpipe that runs off the back pergola. And every now and then when we get sudden downpours or excessive rains, it floods. And I mean FLOODS the back pergola area. So it was perfect timing as I knew I needed to do something SOON or I’d regret it!
So I jumped onto the hipages website, entered my postcode, added a few details about my job (the type of job, urgency, a brief description and of course my contact details) and let hipages do the work for me. Then I went on with my day as planned and let hipages send me up to 3 plumbers or roof repairers who best suited the brief. #easy
First came David from Harvey’s Plumbing Service – great guy and we had a great chat with me on the phone. After reading all the reviews about him on the hipages website from past customers I decided to go with him. Glad that I did! He sorted out the downpipe flooding issue really quickly (and even cleaned out my gutters while he was up there too!)
Lucky too, because wild weather hit 3 or so days later and along came with it a heap of FLASH FLOODING! Think I dodged a bullet with that one!!
Now this is what happens when it rains HARD! 😉
Given that was so easy, I then called on hipages to get a handyman to come and fit me a new doggy door in our laundry. We had one fitted a while back ago although the ‘genius’ who fitted that (not from hipages) clearly wasn’t thinking straight because he fitted the solid doggy door to the screen door and just cut a hole in the main wooden door! So what happens when it gets cold?! The freezing air comes in through the door and straight into our laundry! #genius
When I questioned him he told me that’s how he fits all the doors, which it’s not because he fitted one at our old house a few years before (the other way round!) Anyway we wanted him out because he was then going to charge us to fit the other way round. #cutslosses
This gave us a great chance to test the hipages platform for a handyman so we did. This time round I downloaded the app and loaded the job up in no time! The hipages app allows you to:
- Post a job
- Take a snap to help describe your job
- They’ll find you up to 3 suitable tradies and you can choose the best tradie for you
- Messaging centre so you can easily have a conversation with your tradie in one place
Before I knew it I had several responses, and ended up choosing Gabor Karl from Halcyon Handyman and Home Maintenance Services. He was fab, turned up pronto and really didn’t cost me much at all.
He came, he sized up what I needed, went to the hardware store and bought me a door, came back and fitted it. DONE! So easy, wish I’d done it ages ago!
Admittedly I bet if it weren’t for hipages we’d still be waiting! It does make you think ‘right that was easy, what else do I need’ as you have all the trades at your fingertips and it doesn’t cost you a cent!
Plus, hipages support you through the entire process of getting a job done; they’re not onsite, but they’re on-hand to help. If you don’t want to use the app or the website they can take your job over the phone too.
So if you’re looking for a painter, electrician, plumber, locksmith (and everything inbetween), give hipages a go, it’ll cost you nothing and you never know, you might be surprised just how easy (and affordable) those jobs might be!
