Our home pros can make your metal work for you

Welding used to be the domain of structural steel engineers, hidden away underneath the outer dressing of a building. But these days there are so many creative and inspiring things you can do with steel – all you need is an idea and a professional welder. Our welders are here to help if you’re looking to manufacture something entirely your own, or get custom burglar bars made.

Welding projects we handle:

How to find a welder when you need one

Welding work is not something that people need doing often. It certainly isn’t a task for which many people own the tools. It really is quite a specialist skill and one which most people know very little about.

So, on the odd occasion when you need the assistance of a welder – perhaps it’s to fix a palisade fence or maybe to create a bracket onto which to mount a satellite dish, where do you find one and how do you know what type of work they are going to deliver?

How can you make the process easier and reduce the potential risk when you contract an artisan to do welding work for you – here are some ideas to help steer you in the right direction.

Get a recommended welder

Find companies who look to vet and promote independent home pros. That is, of course the speciality of Fix Forward and we would be delighted to source the right person for your job. Our process is simple. On the back end we check out and upskill independent home pros and artisans and offer them access to a platform that aggregates jobs.

The front end, which is where you come in, asks a few simple questions designed to understand the scope and nature of the work you are looking to do. Based on your answers you will be given the contact details of recommended welders (or other artisans) in your area.

Fix Forward’s goal is not just source and vet skilled home pros for the platform. It is about skills development and training and all the home pros on the platform undergo a year-long entrepreneur development programme, where they access training, coaching and mentoring support designed to set them up for success – and in turn to create and grow a happy customer base.

Work the broader industry

If your network of contacts comes up with nothing then look to speak to people in parallel industries. Talk to builders or project managers who you might have worked with in the past. You might even want to ask if they are able to do the work. Most people who are asked to do a job that they cannot deliver on will refer you to somebody else that they have worked with in the past.

It reflects well on them and they will almost certainly introduce you to somebody they rate highly. But in a world where welders can be hard to find and have specialised skills, you do need to think laterally. It is quite okay to appear clueless if you are, it is much better to look clueless at the start of your pursuit for a welder than to hope for the best and end up with a botched job.

Ask plenty of questions

It is perfectly acceptable to talk to multiple candidates before making a final choice on who to work with. Obviously you will talk about price and availability and you will make a comparison based on these. But also probe a little more. Find out how long the home pro has worked as a welder?

Have they always been freelance or did they previously work for a company? Do they have an area of specialisation? What qualifications do they have? There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. The key thing is to have the conversation. It will help you get a feel for the person and a level of confidence – this is a great place to start.

Recognise different welding skills

To the uninitiated welding is a process that looks complicated and which fuses pieces of metal together. But there are plenty of different skill sets, variations and specialities within the world of welding. You get construction welders, manufacturing welders, boilermakers and pipeline welders.

You even get people who specialise in creating metal sculptures with their welding prowess. So if you want to make sure that your expectations are met you need to ensure that the person you hire is equipped to do the job that you need done. More than that, however, you need to make sure that the size and complexity of the job you need completing is not too big or too small for the person you are hiring.

The work needs to be worthwhile for the home pro. Don’t get a relative beginner in to perform a massively complicated job, but similarly don’t hire a master welder to do a minor job.