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We telephone before eight in the morning and move it, at no charge, to the next slot you can take.

Rain stops roofing and it stops outdoor welding. We will not put a man on a wet roof and we will not be persuaded, however inconvenient the delay is. Indoor work such as tiling carries on.

Yes, across Addu and to the outer islands on Monday and Wednesday. Those two days share the crossing between whatever is aboard, so they are much cheaper than a special trip.

The boat is a separate line at what it actually costs, and you are told the figure before anybody leaves the yard. A cancelled boat day is charged for the crossing whether we sailed or not.

Eight hours on your site from when the tradesman arrives, with half an hour for prayer and half an hour for food inside those eight.

Hours past eight are charged at the rate written on the job sheet and are the only thing ever added to a day. Tell us which trade you need when you book, because the pickup is loaded the night before.

Quoted before they are bought, charged at the yard price, with the supplier's bill attached to your job sheet.

Steel, sheet and cement move here more than people expect, so a material figure older than two weeks is requoted rather than honoured, and the quotation says so on its face. For a job over ten thousand rufiyaa in materials we ask for the material figure up front. Labour is never asked for in advance.

As closely as the two builders merchants on this island allow, which on anything older than about ten years is not very close.

If you have spares from the original job, keep them and give them to us. If you do not, we will show you the nearest match before laying anything and let you decide, and we would rather do that than surprise you with a patch in a different white.

Because patching a structure that is already failing takes your money and postpones the real answer by a season.

Where we can see a rotten purlin, a post rusted through below the concrete or a wall that is moving, we photograph it, put it in the quotation and ask you to sign that you have read it. Three times in four years we have declined the work outright. All three roofs were replaced within eighteen months.