You find good people through word of mouth, and you stick with them. They are there to be found, though. And word of mouth can tell youi who to avoid.

They had a TV programme about this business - I think it was called "Builders from Hell" or something like that. There was a bloke who used to sing with us in a pub who was feaured in this one week - the landlord taped the programme and showed it to the regulars when he wasn't around.

Two things struck me - one was how incredibly naive the punters in the filkm were, just asking to be fleeced. The other was what an extraordarily bad workman our colleague was. Mind he was a pretty good musician and singer, pity he couldn't have stuck to that.