Travelers offering driveway cleaning

AmberGold

In our small estate in County Dublin we’ve been inundated over the last few weeks with travelers offering driveway cleaning services. They generally call during the day mid week. Has anyone any experience of using lads like these ?

tomwaterford

Them boys are at nothing....sure get in the back to clean the windows aswel

Collie D

Perhaps I'm a slob with very low standards but I have never looked at a driveway and thought "Jesus, that's filthy. Could do with a scrub"

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Hire them. There's nothing that can possibly go wrong.

Gerrup Outta Dat!

They called up to me one evening before and did a fantastic job. I also had an old cylinder and a few radiators (soiled with paint) and they were happy to relieve me of what I considered rubbish. Gave them tea and sangiches when they were working. Lovely gents. They're not all bad before the venom starts spouting here.

whoopsadoodles

Power wash my front driveway every year. Do a great job for a decent price. Very pleasant too.

That's not what most people in AH want to hear though!

punisher5112

I wouldn't let them clean a sewer never mind me drive.

Barry Badrinath

Ginger lad with man tits in a black Toyota Avensis and pulling a trailor?

punisher5112

Dodgy as fook.

NIMAN

I had this service offered to me about 10 years ago, my driveway was maybe 30 ft x 10ft.

Guy said he could do a good price of €700.

Needless to say I chased him.

I got to thinking that maybe they were just knocking to see if anyone in the house? Or am I prejudging them?

punisher5112

Are they insured, is the company registered and have they got a safe pass, do they have set up to pay tax.....

All the above is eh...... Nope

Jim Bob Scratcher

NIMAN wrote: »

I had this service offered to me about 10 years ago, my driveway was maybe 30 ft x 10ft.

Guy said he could do a good price of €700.

Needless to say I chased him.

I got to thinking that maybe they were just knocking to see if anyone in the house? Or am I prejudging them?

This most likely

EPAndlee

Got this along offering to paint sheds,tarmac etc but I'd rather do the power washing myself because I find it so satisfying

buried

The rain handles all my driveway cleaning needs.
Some day a real rain will come and wash all the scum off me driveway.
Hopefully anyways. My driveway is in a bad f**king state

Nodster

Mother-in-law had a bad experience with our nomadic friends, they cleaned the tarmac alright and 'refreshed' it with old engine oil.....was expecting them to return a few days later with a special offer on carpets as it took a day or so to notice the existing carpets were ruined

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Nodster wrote: »

Mother-in-law had a bad experience with our nomadic friends, they cleaned the tarmac alright and 'refreshed' it with old engine oil.....was expecting them to return a few days later with a special offer on carpets as it took a day or so to notice the existing carpets were ruined

Sorry pal.. but that's fcuking hilarious!!!

degsie

Don't bother.

retro:electro

I don't know anything about the driveway cleaning but there's a young traveller lad who calls around to my mam every so often and cuts the lawn for her. He does a fine job and she does be damn glad of it so she does.

Gerrup Outta Dat!

anna080 wrote: »

I don't know anything about the driveway cleaning but there's a young traveller lad who calls around to my mam every so often and cuts the lawn for her. He does a fine job and she does be damn glad of it so she does.

They're honestly hard honest workers.

Tigger

Gerrup Outta Dat! wrote: »

They're honestly hard honest workers.

you cant define a group by the behaviour of one lad

Stonedpilot

AmberGold wrote: »

In our small estate in County Dublin we’ve been inundated over the last few weeks with travelers offering driveway cleaning services. They generally call during the day mid week. Has anyone any experience of using lads like these ?

Invite them in and ask them to mind the house when you are away. Making friends is easy!.

bazz26

The tarmac technicians are a great bunch of lads, salt of the earth.

anna080

anna080 wrote: »

I don't know anything about the driveway cleaning but there's a young traveller lad who calls around to my mam every so often and cuts the lawn for her. He does a fine job and she does be damn glad of it so she does.

Is this what is called euphemism?

boardsuser1

After their relatives in Cork were hammered in a raid recently and had loads of 'toys' taken from them they need money to buy more bless them.

punisher5112

anna080 wrote: »

I don't know anything about the driveway cleaning but there's a young traveller lad who calls around to my mam every so often and cuts the lawn for her. He does a fine job and she does be damn glad of it so she does.

Is he insured?
Does he pay tax on his earnings?
Does he tell the welfare about his earnings?

I would be wary of letting anyone into do any work as they could take you to the cleaners.

Your Face

I wouldn't let just anyone work on my property.

KungPao

scoping out your house and its occupants. Seeing if you have a few bob and if you'd put up much resistance during a burglary. Most likely.

Or just the ol dodgy job at way over the odds and no tax paid.

Or maybe a combination, boss.

Canis Lupus

KungPao wrote: »

scoping out your house and its occupants. Seeing if you have a few bob and if you'd put up much resistance during a burglary. Most likely.

Or just the ol dodgy job at way over the odds and no tax paid.

Or maybe a combination, boss.

Just about to say, I'm sure they don't make note of who is and isn't answering the door....

freshpopcorn

I always feel sorry for the travellers who are doing these services and doing there best. We get the odd few around here offering tarmac, gutter cleaning, painting barn roofs,etc. Lots of people are afraid to trust them because of past experience. We get the odd community alert text saying to be careful when they are in the area.

Tigger

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I always feel sorry for the travellers who are doing these services and doing there best. We get the odd few around here offering tarmac, gutter cleaning, painting barn roofs,etc. Lots of people are afraid to trust them because of past experience. We get the odd community alert text saying to be careful when they are in the area.

some travellers robbed my sick father pretending to becleaning his gutters
i had to do a combination f calling the gaurds and talking to them myself to make sure they went away
they gaurds were very not surprised which says a lot

Minderbinder

IME if you say 'yes' to them once you may as well adopt them.

That's not to say they do a bad job, but I don't want a fixed arrangement for something I can do myself. If you say 'yes' once and say 'no' the next time that's worse than consistently saying 'no'. They'll likely be miffed.

There was a fairly nice traveller man who used to put his horse in the field out the back of our house. We agreed as it was good for cutting the grass. I'd give it fruit and carrots. He was responsible and there were no problems.

I don't think I'd want anyone under the age of 18 on my property to do odd jobs, whether they're travellers or otherwise, unless I knew their parents personally.

Pinch Flat

punisher5112 wrote: »

I would be wary of letting anyone into do any work as they could take you to the cleaners.

That'd be handy. Maybe they could laundwr and iron my shirts as well? Clean driveway and clean shirts. Win win all around :pac:

Sam Quentin

I cannot for the life of me figure out,, who is... And who isn't taking the fúcking píss on these posts!? But it's fooookin hilarious lmao

blueser

Collie D wrote: »

Perhaps I'm a slob with very low standards but I have never looked at a driveway and thought "Jesus, that's filthy. Could do with a scrub"

Surely a slob wouldn't care if a drive was dirty?

suicide_circus

What cleaning are they doing that any citizen couldn't take care of with a power washer in ten minutes?

MintyMagnum

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I always feel sorry for the travellers who are doing these services and doing there best. We get the odd few around here offering tarmac, gutter cleaning, painting barn roofs,etc. Lots of people are afraid to trust them because of past experience. We get the odd community alert text saying to be careful when they are in the area.

They charged my elderly mother €1,000 for gutter repair recently. She never expected it to be that much, & didn't have cash, so wrote a cheque only to have them come back, twice, miffed because they couldn't cash it - she had crossed it, so only the person named on the cheque could. Clearly they had used a false name. So not only extortion but also harassment. And the gutters still leaked. Luckily for my folks myself & the Bruv happened to be near. The six footer encouraged the harasser out. Managed to get a photo of the car reg, which was parked out of sight up the road. Guards ran the plate & lo & behold registered in Newcastle West to a relation of a prime example of humanity who robbed a local pensioner in broad daylight of his & his wife's pensions after he collected it from the post office. Said man is 95 & is still caring for his 90yr old wife at home after a stroke 5yrs ago. This crowd are also believed to be behind a number of burglaries in the area. Easy targets, pensioners with cash.

These people are scum & not to be trusted. So much for their showy religiosity. They have no conscience.

seamus

At the end of the day most of these guys are just looking to make a quick buck. They're not looking for your return business, aside from a rare few they're not looking to case the house and come back to rob you. They want to get in there, do a quick job and walk away with cash in their pockets.

The problem is that for the most part they're not at all qualified to do what they're doing, they don't have the right equipment for the job, and they don't care about the quality of their work.

Cleaning your driveway with a pressure washer is grand if it's a bog standard driveway. If it's sealed, cobbled, brickwork, etc, etc, then they will still use a pressure washer and they will make a fncking mess of it.

Same as cleaning the roof tiles, - use a pressure washer, ruin the roof, take your cash, DGAF.

For grunt work that needs no qualifications - digging holes, removing shrubbery and small trees, chopping up wood, cleaning windows - great, let them fire away.

But for work that requires you to have the slightest clue what you are doing - such as laying a new driveway, repairing gutters, building walls, and so on - then you are a mug if you hire them. You may as well ask the teenagers down the road to do it. If you ask them whether they can do it, they'll say they can and give it a go. Once they have the money from you they don't care whether the end product is any good.

By all means, if you have a recommendation or the same guy(s) coming back every year then fire away. But a random knock on the door? Eh, no thanks.

Back in 2007 a traveler power hosed the roof of the house I grew up in. Myself, my father and my brother nearly killed my mother for leaving such a person near the place for various reasons. He did such a good job that the results are still visible from Google earth images. The roof on the house is its original colour compared to the neighbours.

AmberGold

Thanks for all the replies, I have my own views on these guys.

With our estate having suffered many breakins in the last two years I do question their intentions, never mind the fact I’m getting hammered on tax, insurance, USC and everything else.

With the dark evenings coming in and Christmas on the way this type of activity seems to always kick off around late Sept, Oct.

Was just interested in hearing others views and I have to say a few posts here gave me a right laugh.

For the record I wouldn’t trust them to tell me the time.

BrianD3

One factor in this is that many "proper" builders, tradesmen, landscapers etc. are useless idiots who won't turn up when they say they will and are also tax evading pricks who do shoddy work. This drives people towards the chancers who call to the door and offer to do work on the spot in a seemingly efficient manner.

IME this is particularly true for elderly people whose cognitive abilities may be in decline and who get anxious about not being able to get builders etc. to turn up. As a result, they welcome the travellers with open arms and then get royally screwed.

Once you welcome them once, they'll keep coming back and will push it as much as they can. Eg for hedge cutting - Year 1 they do a pretty good job in June. Year 2 they're back in March taking a tiny amount off the hedge. Then they're back two months later when there is some actual growth, Then again in September. Between that and driveway cleaning and gutters, someone with a modest house and garden could easily spend thousands per year on this sort of work

I'd agree with the comment that most of these travellers are not there to actually rob the place. Targetting the elderly by offering hedge cutting and driveway washing services for huge money is much more lucrative and less risky than burglary.

degsie

Just make sure to ask for a VAT receipt when the 'work' is done.

dd972

There's Travellers in Ireland? I thought they were all in England, only place I've pretty much seen any.

punisher5112

Snotaul Goodman wrote: »

Back in 2007 a traveler power hosed the roof of the house I grew up in. Myself, my father and my brother nearly killed my mother for leaving such a person near the place for various reasons. He did such a good job that the results are still visible from Google earth images. The roof on the house is its original colour compared to the neighbours.

So what you mean is your now tileless roof stands out more then anyone else's.

How much to get them back???

Are Am Eye

MintyMagnum wrote: »

They have no conscience.

Or Tax Clearance Cert.

crossmolinalad

Do it yourselves , I always do
Saves a lot of money

punisher5112

crossmolinalad wrote: »

Do it yourselves , I always do
Saves a lot of money

Or get someone genuine.

Don't ever get a cold caller to do work.

BillyBobBS

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I always feel sorry for the travellers who are doing these services and doing there best. We get the odd few around here offering tarmac, gutter cleaning, painting barn roofs,etc. Lots of people are afraid to trust them because of past experience. We get the odd community alert text saying to be careful when they are in the area.

Ah will you ever stop. They aren't tax compliant (yes any of them) and they all claim welfare. If they want to "do their best" get a PAYE job and contribute towards society. There are honest tax paying businesses that go under because they do everything on the books and these ethnic group hero's undercut them and revenue has never seen a cent from them.

If they offer you a service at the door tell them you'll need a receipt and watch them run.

_Dara_

Not worth the risk of taking them up on an offer in any way.

elperello

I've nothing against travelers as an ethnic minority.
If they don't bother me I won't bother them.

Please take note of this thread and only engage people who come recommended to do work around your property.
Anything else and you are playing with fire and risk getting burnt.

There is usually a local handyman in most areas who will want to be asked back, he is your man.

Conall Cernach

punisher5112 wrote: »

Or get someone genuine.

Don't ever get a cold caller to do work.

^^This

You wouldn't commit to buying a product if someone rang you up out of the blue and it should be the same with door to door stuff. I always think that genuine people will put a card or a leaflet through the door and if someone wants their service then they'll make the call themselves.

Dr Brown

These lads always claim to be "fully insured".

But they can never produce any evidence when you ask them for their insurance number.