I’m a furniture maker.

I thoguht you were a content provider?

I’ve seen your Insta page.

A mate in his 50s became a handyman after a long IT career. He’d done loads in his own house and garden, was taking some time off between contracts and someone in the village needed a few easy bits doing so he filled a couple of days doing that. Snowballed from there, he doesn’t have to travel far or advertise but is booked up for months. Loads of older folks around with money to spend getting things sorted out in their homes and gardens.

.

Look at apprenticeships.

All in, you are looking at roughly £1500-2000 per window for a total restoration.

Shit the bed. How much for uPVC double glazing?

He’ll basically do anything that doesn’t require certification, so no electrics or plumbing, but shelving, joinery, putting together flatpack, putting up pictures, all that kind of stuff that (especially older) folks don’t want to or can’t do themselves.

Guess that’s my retirement sorted then. If someone will pay me to build adult Lego, I’ll be all over that.

I’ve been a sparky since I qualified at 21 and I’m now 53 and own a company that installs EV chargers for the commercial world.
So to start from scratch It’s possible and you may find plenty of work in the domestic market where tbh the electrics aren’t too complicated and you can prob get by with a short course. You will also have to work for the public which on the whole is crap. The public moan about tradesman but the majority get the tradesman they deserve, from the I can buy the stuff from BandQ cheaper to how much for cash ? etc etc. If you want to be a proper electrician on the commercial and industrial side it’ll take a bit longer and it can be quite physical once you start dealing with SWA cables, trunking, tray, panels etc etc. Getting into the commercial industrial side is harder without a proper apprenticeship too as companies won’t look at those with a short course behind them.

If you think you can handle working for the public and I don’t know why you would it can be a nice living driving round in your van.

I love working for the public. Can’t think of one person I’ve not enjoyed working for. To be honest, it’s easier to weed out the dross during the initial contact. I’ve found that in general, nothing good comes from anyone who rings and rings and rings and never leaves a message. That includes everything from marketing companies looking to waste your time, to customers wanting you to start a job tomorrow at the cheapest price. So the phone is always on silent and I never answer unknown numbers. Decent people will leave a message or send a message. After a while you can afford to cherry-pick jobs and just work off recommendations.

Plumber friend of mine just took on an apprentice in his late 30s. I think he likes the fact that he can work out simple things like centering a radiator on a wall and pipe diameters for himself without having to have it explained every time! Plus existing driving license / insurance history / etc unlike someone straight out of college.

Might be worth ringing around local plumbers and just asking if they take on apprentices. If you can start doing chargeable work from early on then you’ll be an asset not a liability.

I love working for the public. Can’t think of one person I’ve not enjoyed working for. To be honest, it’s easier to weed out the dross during the initial contact.

But trickier if you work for a business.

I think the best one was a client reporting me for turning up drunk to try and get a discount I assume. Could have cost me my job if I was on thin ice already. I had a cold, not sure where she got drunk from.
Took some will power not to return and explain my displeasure.

Yeah, turning up drunk can be frowned upon. I usually give it until lunch before opening a bottle.

🤣 definitely wasn’t drunk, was pissed off though. Was over 20 years ago and I still hope really unfortunate things happen to that vile woman.

I lived in Aldeburgh for a while. It’s an extremely wealthy area, lots of retirees & second homes. Got to know a local handyman. He worked his own hours, turned his hand to whatever was needed. Had a fixed hourly or job rate and was booked up for months. Looked after gardens, houses, even some boats.

Families would book him up for a week in advance.

Seemed utterly idyllic and stress free, outside in summer, inside in winter.

If you live in the right place this could be a wonderful way to make a living.

I went from an office based job to full time builder when I was 40. Started as a labourer with a small company then picked up various skills and tickets as I went along, now i’m self employed. As a potential employee, there is a lot to put off taking on a trainee, not least the fact that it can be bloody hard work training someone up to be a useful and trustworthy colleague.

It gets harder as you get older, there’s no doubt about that. I am a fit guy, building work has made me much stronger but things like riding after work are history for me. After most days it feels like i’ve been up a hill, and the motivation for going out, even on the weekend, is not always there. The plus side is a fair bit of time off in the winter to get out and about in the hills though.

OP doesn’t say whether you plan on being self employed, but if you are it is something to have a good think about. All the headline prices you see for trades include all the admin, overheads, equipment, holiday pay, pensions, vans insurance you name it. There are plenty self employed out there who in reality are earning minimum wage or less at times. Oh and you are the admin, accountant, estimator, tax department, switchboard and complaints department as well. You will be working evenings and weekends for sure.

We’ve talked about skills on here before in threads about being a bike mechanic,  and the important thing to remember is it’s all about identifying the problem, deciding what needs done and then doing it right first time, quickly and professionally. Then moving on to the next job. DIY isn’t really like that, there isn’t the time/money pressure and an expectation that everything will be fine and perfect and last forever.

I won’t be able to do it for ever so I am thinking about the handyman route too. There is an endless supply of people out there who need all those little jobs doing around the house, and they are pretty happy to pay for them. All you need to succeed is competence, a friendly demeanor and the often illusive ability turn up when you say you will

🤣 definitely wasn’t drunk, was pissed though.

Six of one/half a dozen of the other… relax old chap, nobody’s judging. Moral of the story: work for yourself, then you can go to work as drunk as you like.

😉

adult Lego

😳

Regarding the sash windows

Sounds like a right bodge job.

I was possibly over-stating the speed at 1 day there. Also to be clear they were done in batches. So that’s an average time to get the window out, refurbed and back in. Not the time elapsed for 1 window.

So, for example to do the two largest sash windows in the house (in the kitchen).

Day 1 was spent removing them (completely painted shut in most cases), stripping them, using a heat gun and some chemical thing (can’t remember what) to remove most of the old paint.
Sanding down and then primer coat.

Day 2 was re-fitting with purchased new, er, beading bits (can’t remember the technical term. new ropes, pulleys, existing weights.

That was 2 very long days. Probably 7am-7pm or longer with not much stopping. Me working full time on it and my wife also doing bits around other house jobs (e.g. she’s way better at sanding/priming/painting than I am – much more patient).

Painting was work ontop of the above and done in situ.

We were pretty lucky that aside from a couple of bits the wood was all in good condition, so not much chopping out rot/letting in new.

Smashed one pan of glass, which was annoying as it was lovely old float glass.

Finished the last one maybe 5 years ago. Still all mostly fine. A few bits could do with a re-paint.

Just done a count and there are 12 sash windows in our house in total so we’d have been quite a few quid down (very nice ebike at hte very least) if we got the specialists in.

Well worth DIYing.