The red flags every trade learns to spot

Every trade builds this list eventually. Usually the expensive way.

None of these mean somebody's a bad customer. They mean slow down and ask more questions before you quote.

"It's just a wee job"

It never is.

Not because people lie, but because they're describing the bit they can see. The wee job is a socket moving. What's behind it is a wall that was never wired properly in 1978.

What to do: never price a wee job over the phone. Ten minutes looking costs less than three days fixing what you didn't know about.

"My last builder let me down"

Sometimes completely true — plenty of people have been genuinely messed about, and they'll be your best customer once they trust you.

Sometimes it's the third trade in a row who "let them down".

What to do: ask what happened, and listen to how they tell it. If nothing was ever partly their responsibility, you'll be next on the list.

"Can you do it cash?"

Ask why.

If it's just how they pay for things, fine. If they're expecting a discount for it, they're asking you to take on the risk of no paper trail — and no paper trail means no protection for either of you when there's a disagreement about what was agreed.

What to do: quote and invoice properly whatever the payment method. The record is for your benefit as much as theirs.

"What's your best price?" — before you've seen it

Someone treating it as a negotiation before knowing what the job is has decided the only thing that matters is the number.

What to do: "I can't tell you until I've seen it" is a complete answer. If that ends the conversation, it was going to end later and more expensively.

"I've had three quotes and you're the dearest"

Fine — as long as they can tell you what the others included.

Usually they can't, because the cheap ones were vaguer. That's not a coincidence.

What to do: don't drop your price. Explain what's in yours. We wrote about why the cheapest quote is usually the most expensive — send it to them if it helps.

"Can you start Monday?" — for a big job

Urgency on something that clearly isn't urgent usually means somebody else has just walked off it.

What to do: ask directly who was on it before and what happened. The answer tells you nearly everything.

"My mate's a joiner, he'll do the second fix"

Splitting a job across trades who've never worked together, with nobody coordinating, and you carrying the bit everyone can see.

What to do: be clear in writing where your work stops and what you're not responsible for. This is exactly what the exclusions line in a proper quote is for.

"Don't worry about a quote, I trust you"

This sounds like a compliment. It's the setup for a disagreement about money at the end, and you'll be the one who looks bad.

What to do: quote anyway. "I'd rather we both know where we are" is not rude, and the good ones respect it.

The pattern

Almost all of them are the same thing: something being left vague that should be specific.

The job. The price. What's included. Who's responsible. When it's happening.

The trades who get burned least aren't the ones with the best instincts — they're the ones who write things down before starting. It's not distrust, it's just clarity, and it protects the customer as much as you.

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What's the one that gets you? Everybody's got a phrase.