F wrote:
After 9pm would seem to be an obvious no-no, as would before
8am, but what times are 'acceptable'?

Nowadays I always email. It allows them to deal with it in their
own time and it doesn't interupt them in the middle of a job or
the middle of Corrie.

Well, I say "them". I'm down to just a plumber now. Lost a
roofer, a plasterer, a builder. I've used the plumber for
more than 15 years, so him & his team I can trust to stay
ok, and they're 'leccies as well so they can take over
when my knees finally give out. But I'm back to square
one looking for a builder again.

What annoys me is that I need tradesmen not because I
don't know what I'm doing, but because I no longer
have the physical strength to do the work. It doubly
annoys me when I come home from earning the money to
pay a tradesman and find they've made a cackhanded
mess of the job.

(eg: written specification: "break up concrete, redo
whole yard in tarmac". Come home. They're about to
tarmac /over/ the knackered concrete.
written specification: "straighted path edging so is
vertical". Come home. Path edging smashed up and
dumped in skip. Replaced with concrete highway kerbs.)

JGH