Off The Job: A Tradesman Podcast

Send us Fan Mail Should you be allowed to finish early if you've completed all your work, or should your boss find you something else to do? Keiran Yates and Pete Withers are back for another episode of Off The Job Overtime, tackling the everyday frustrations, rising costs and workplace debates affecting UK tradespeople. Inspired by a clip featuring Liam the Tool Sparky, the lads get into the...

Send us Fan Mail If you're self-employed and your body suddenly stops you working… how long could you actually afford to be off the tools?   Pete and Keiran are back for another Off The Job Overtime , and this week Pete’s back injury sparks a conversation that every self-employed tradesperson should probably think about.   After struggling with severe sciatic pain, Pete was told to rest for u...

Send us Fan Mail Big changes are coming to new homes in 2027, but what could they actually mean for tradespeople? Have your say at 074 5740 8259 Pete and Keiran are back for another Off The Job Overtime , and this week they get into the upcoming Future Homes and Buildings Standards and what they could mean for gas engineers, plumbers, electricians, heating engineers, renewable installers, builders...

Send us Fan Mail Is there really a skills shortage in the UK trades, or is there simply not enough work to go around?   Pete and Keiran are back for another Off The Job Overtime , and this week they get into a question a lot of tradespeople are starting to ask.   We constantly hear that the UK needs more builders, plumbers, electricians and skilled tradespeople , but at the same time apprentices a...

Send us Fan Mail Makita, Milwaukee or DeWalt, which power tool brand actually comes out on top when you’re the person repairing them?   Billy Jobson from Jobson Tools joins Pete and Keiran to give a completely different perspective on the power tools tradespeople use every day, what breaks, what’s worth repairing and which brands make life much harder when something eventually goes wrong.   Having...

Send us Fan Mail After 27 years in plumbing, what would Pete actually do differently if he had to start all over again?   Pete and Keiran are back for another Off The Job Overtime, getting into the reality of working in the trades, running your own business and whether the path most tradespeople are encouraged to follow is actually the right one.   Pete looks back at his career in plumbing and hea...

Send us Fan Mail How does a simple flooring idea turn into 400 emails overnight, sell out in minutes and end up stocked by flooring suppliers around the world?   Sam Prosser, the floor layer behind MyScribe , joins Pete and Keiran to talk about his journey through the flooring trade, building a following on social media and turning a simple idea he created on the tools into a real product business...

Send us Fan Mail What does it actually take to leave a secure job at British Gas and build your own heating business?   James Davis from JWD Heating joins Pete and Keiran to talk about spending 17 years at British Gas , why he finally decided to leave, and what the reality of going self-employed as a gas engineer was actually like.   James opens up about starting out in plumbing straight from scho...

Send us Fan Mail What do people outside the trades actually think the job is like, and how close is that to reality?   In this episode of Off The Job: Overtime , Pete and Keiran get into some of the biggest misconceptions around working in the trades, from how much tradespeople really earn to the physical toll of doing the job year after year.   They also discuss the latest progress around tool th...

Send us Fan Mail How do you go from being a one-man-band electrician to building a specialist trade business turning over around £1.5 million?   Richard Pearson, founder of London Basement Pumps , joins Pete and Keiran to break down how he went from electrical work and subcontracting to finding a niche, building a team and creating a trade business with more than 2,500 recurring service customers...

Send us Fan Mail From sleeping on a kitchen floor to becoming the UK's first National Plumber of the Year, Louchavan Lemard's journey is unlike any other.   Pete and Keiran sit down with Louchavan Lenard , founder of PH247, Master Plumber and the first-ever National Plumber of the Year, to discuss the challenges that shaped his career and why he believes the trade industry deserves far m...

Send us Fan Mail What happens if you were the last gas engineer to work at a property before something goes seriously wrong?   Pete and Keiran are back for another Off The Job Overtime , getting into one of the more serious conversations they’ve had recently after discussing a suspected gas explosion that destroyed a bungalow and sadly resulted in a fatality.   It leads into a proper conversation...

Send us Fan Mail Tool theft is changing… and for the first time in years, there's some positive news.   Pete and Keiran are joined by Dave from the Metropolitan Police and Shoaib, better known as The Gas Expert , to discuss the latest developments in the fight against tool theft across the UK. With reported tool theft down by 26% , the conversation explores what's driving that change, ho...

Send us Fan Mail If you've ever wondered what life is really like as a self-employed electrician, this episode is for you.   Pete and Keiran are joined by Liam, better known online as Tall Sparky , for an honest conversation about the realities of working in the electrical industry. From apprenticeships and landlord work to social media, running your own business and the banter between differ...

Send us Fan Mail What actually makes a trade business valuable?   This week, Pete and Keiran dive into the conversations every self-employed tradesperson ends up having—from building a loyal customer base and winning repeat work to quoting jobs, marking up materials and planning for the future of your business. If you're a plumber, gas engineer, electrician, builder, carpenter or any other tr...

Send us Fan Mail Most people know Kevin Brown as The Prestige Painter , but decorating wasn't where his career started.   After leaving professional football and building a successful career with the Volkswagen Group, Kevin made the decision to start again and retrain as a painter & decorator at 30 years old. What followed wasn't just another decorating business, it was a completely...

Send us Fan Mail Nobody teaches you how to run a trade business… until now. This week on Off The Job, Pete and Keiran are joined by Gio, who shares the business lessons every self-employed tradesperson should know. From pricing jobs and understanding your numbers to finding more work, building repeat business and creating systems that actually help your business grow, this episode is packed with p...

Send us Fan Mail From old boilers and rising costs to air conditioning, heatwaves and the future of the trade industry... this week's Off The Job Overtime covers it all.   Pete and Keiran are back for another honest conversation about what's really happening across the UK trades. From debating whether it's worth repairing old boilers anymore, to discussing why so many self-employed...

Send us Fan Mail How do you turn £20,000 into a £30 million builders' merchant business?   This week on Off The Job, Pete and Keiran sit down with Shane Watts, who shares the journey of building one of the UK's leading independent builders' merchants. From the early risks and business decisions to the challenges of growing a company in the construction industry, this episode is pack...

Send us Fan Mail Is £450 to change a basin waste a fair price… or has the trade gone too far?   This week on Off The Job Overtime, Pete and Keiran dive into one of the biggest debates affecting the trade industry right now: call-out charges, pricing jobs and where you draw the line between charging your worth and looking after your customers. After hearing about a homeowner being charged £450 for...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Off The Job Overtime, Pete and Keiran are back discussing one of the biggest talking points in the gas industry right now – the latest IGEM update and why it's dividing gas engineers across the UK. If you're a domestic or commercial gas engineer, this is one conversation you won't want to miss.   The lads also look back at InstallerSHOW 2026, share thei...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Off The Job Overtime , the lads catch up on everything from busy weeks on the tools and growing social media opportunities to AI-powered call handling for tradespeople, personal bests in running, and the realities of self-employment. They also share hilarious AI phone call recordings, discuss leaving rugby, balancing work and content creation, social media, boxi...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Off The Job Overtime, Pete and Keiran tackle a question that seems to be coming up more and more across the trades... Why is work so quiet right now?   The lads discuss the current state of the plumbing, heating, electrical and construction industries, whether self-employed tradespeople are feeling the pinch, and the challenges that come with running a trade business...

Send us Fan Mail This week on Off The Job, Pete and Keiran are joined by Wilson Milton – carpet fitter, comedian, content creator, and one of the fastest-growing personalities in the trades.   In less than a year, Wilson went from posting videos from his van to building an audience of over 140,000 followers across social media. But as he explains in this episode, going viral isn't quite as gl...

Send us Fan Mail Pete is back from Sweden and shares his experience of Swedish plumbing systems, wood pellet boilers, air source heat pumps, and how life in Scandinavia compares to the UK. The lads also discuss paintball injuries, quitting vaping, singing lessons, the upcoming Installer Show, Trade Wars, and what it's like speaking to the next generation of apprentices. In this episode:  Plum...