I’m wanting to start working for myself. I currently do Gardening but I’m thinking of purchasing a pressure washer and offering services like driveway/concrete cleaning, gutter cleaning, window cleaning, house washing.
Do you think there could be a demand for this type of work in Australia (Adelaide specifically)
TIA
I don't mean just getting your ticket and being able to do the job. More like the point where you stopped second guessing yourself and could handle a job without needing someone over your shoulder.
I reckon everyone gets there at a different pace, especially depending on the boss, the jobs you're exposed to and how much responsibility you're given early on.
Please give me advice on how to create / find builder relationships for consistent work flow ie. calls messages Instagram linkedin how are people getting the work? We are very early days
Everything other than word of mouth which is obviously best.
Looking to do a career change.
What is the work culture like in Landscaping?
How many hours on average a week?
Is it doable for the first few years to ride a motorcycle to work (with tools in a backpack)?
What will be the tools needed in the first year?
I'm picking specifically for Victoria as culture differ. The idea of having 12 hour days sounds hard. As I do want to get in a trade where I can work on things outside of work (and I usually need alot of sleep due to the medication I'm on). Happy to do a standard day or is that unrealistic for the trade.
If one wanted start on your own. How to find your first customer. Planning cleaning and rubbish removal.
Hi
Sorry if this isn't the place to ask this. I'm a 42 year old female, and I'd love to get a trade, is it completely unrealistic at my age. And how would I go about it. Everything I see is focused on school based Apprentices.
For context I guess I work trade adjacent, I'm a labourer in a business that does property maintenance. I'm very physically fit, and have experience with tools, and I can hold my own but I am a smaller woman and I know as far as some of the work I do, there are physical constraints my co workers don't have because of size ( I can't move some of our larger scaffolds etc or would be unsafe for me to ).
Sorry if this is the wrong place, and thanks in advance to anyone who replies
I have a few nieces and nephews that will be finishing school soon and they don't know what to do.
And I'm not necessarily thinking about going out to the mines.
Need advice choosing a trade
I’m 15/16 in Australia and deciding between plumbing, electrical, heavy diesel and HVAC/R.
I want good money, FIFO/mining opportunities, job security, travel and eventually my own business. I can potentially get apprenticeships in all of them.
If you work in this trade, would you recommend it? What do you earn, what’s the work/lifestyle like, and would you choose it again?
Any honest advice would be appreciated.
I'm doing some research into apprentice retention in Australia and would really like to hear from people who actually supervise, employ or work closely with apprentices.
If you've been responsible for an apprentice who was struggling, disengaging or eventually left:
I'm particularly interested in whether the people around an apprentice actually have enough information to step in early, or whether everyone tends to find out once things have already gotten pretty bad.
Not selling anything — I'm trying to understand where the gaps are in the current apprenticeship system from the employer/supervisor side.
Would genuinely love to hear your experiences, good or bad.
Hey guys,
Been doing plumbing labouring for a few months now, and I think I want to start progressing and start my apprenticeship. I have my complaints with plumbing but overall im loving it which is why I’m wanting to progress into an actual qualification.
Been hearing from a few boys on site and even on the subreddit that sprinkler fitting is what’s in high demand right now and I’m not sure if it’s worth pivoting to sprinkler fitting, my end goal is to have a business in either trade and just wanting to know what exactly a fire technician/sprinkler fitter involves day to day? And is it a good trade to start a business in or am I better off sticking to plumbing?
Bit of a winding path here, hoping for some direction from people who’ve navigated similar.
Background: I’m from the UK. Didn’t formally qualify as a carpenter there, but spent years on farms doing proper woodwork — windows, solid timber doors, the real hands-on stuff. Then had a whole separate career in advertising in London. Moved to Australia 6 years ago.
Since being here I’ve completed the double diploma in Building and Construction Management, and in that time have run three small renovations (roughly $250-300k each) in Victoria, both subcontracting work out and working in the trade myself. I’m confident — and crews I’ve worked with back this up — that the finish quality and site management are solid.
The catch: I don’t have PR yet, so I can’t get licensed. At 33, I also genuinely want time on other crews or under an experienced builder here to sharpen up the “how things are done in Australia” details before I’m running my own licensed jobs. My P&L is healthy enough that I can afford to take a wage rather than sub-contract for a while.
I’m aware the RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) route exists, but it’s not really the path I want to go down.
From what I’ve seen and heard, it doesn’t carry the same weight or respect on the ground — carpenters and others in the trade tend to view it as a shortcut rather than earned experience, and I’d rather build genuine runs on the tools/on site here first.
My father in law is a surveyor and has asked other builders and they’ve just said build a portfolio and then keep doing what I’m doing but that doesn’t tick the learning part.
Questions:
**•** What’s the realistic next step for someone in my position — do I approach builders directly, go through an agency, or something else?
**•** Who’s the right person to ask — a builder, a registered building surveyor, or someone at the BPC (Building and Plumbing Commission) directly?
**•** With BPC scrutiny increasing, what should I be careful of so I don’t do anything that could jeopardise a future licence application (e.g. being seen to “act as” a builder without holding a licence, even informally)?
Any guidance — especially from anyone who’s licensed in Victoria after coming from overseas, or builders who’ve taken someone like me onto their crew — would be genuinely appreciated.
As most skilled and experienced carpenters are aware we are highly undervalued and underpaid for what we do/ how much we carry.
Why on earth are we all to scared to up our rates or ask for more like plumbers and electricians are constantly doing? If we all grew a pair and made a stand we might actually get paid what we are worth considering the way the building industry here is headed. Just wait till all this Olympics work starts, residential builders are going to have no tradesman as they’ll all be enticed by crazy money to move over to commercial.
Anyone else thinking alike?
Every time you’re knee-deep in a trench under a house on a 35-degree day, or trying to clear a blocked sewer line that smells like absolute death, you ask yourself why you didn’t just sit in an air-conditioned room playing with wires.
On the flip side, every sparky I know complains about crawling through insulation or getting chewed out by project managers because a conduit was out by five millimetres.
To all the seasoned plumbers out there: if you could rewind the clock back to day one of your first-year apprenticeship, are you sticking with the pipes and staying a turd-herder, or are you jumping ship to the electrical side?
We have recently expanded to qld and my god the local talent is garbage. Brisbane/Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg are where my projects are located. They consistently don’t show up. Massive inflated ego because the trade pool is much smaller than the bigger city’s in NSW and VIC. No one wants to do a fixed price they just want hourly and if they do provide a fixed price they don’t itemise it. What’s the go ?
Hey, so I’m looking to become a tradie but am unsure what trade to go into. I’m not great with maths (like don’t know anything but the basic maths) what is a good one for me? Any help would be appreciated
Ps I’m 16 and currently have a job at Coles
So I'm trying to talk to folks on the jobsite, especially equipment operators to learn more about their work. I'm also trying to talk to and learn from site supervisors and COOs.
I'm planning to go out to a bunch of construction sites tomorrow and offer something like donuts/burritos for example in exchange of valuable time and learnings. I'm trying to understand what would be a good giveaway (without breaking the bank ofc lol)?
If you're a construction worker I'd love to hear your thoughts!
To all the concreters out there - how do builders generally provide heights for you to measure down from?
Im owner building an extension on my house with multiple steps in the slab. A surveyor has provided me with an RL (57m) and from there I’ve used my own laser level to calculate the existing floor level and all the slab and footing heights relative to that RL.
My concreter is starting next week. He has the floor and engineering plans already, do I just show him where the RL is on the fence, provide him with the calculated heights and he’s good to go? I ask because I studied a bit of surveying in the past and, this was a long time ago now, but we set stakes out everywhere with marks they could measure off of.
I should also note - the draftsman did provide heights on the plans, but they were all estimates and pretty wildly wrong.
For you guys that have regular contractors, how do you pay for travel time?
The current set up I pay them: first 30 minutes count as a typical commute on them, start paying their hourly rate after that and up until they finish for the day (sometimes multiple jobs per day). Same thing applies to their trip home, if over 30 minutes, they’re paid on hourly.
On top of that, pay .89c per km travelled overall that day to cover fuel and other car costs.
Is this typical or am I doing something stupid?
Prefer lace and am size 13