£150 labour for fitting a loft ladder. ok?

woodbutcher_2

I had a right laugh reading that Dora.I am a Joiner and as far as i can tell i am not more skilled than a carpenter,although if you say i am then who am i to argue.I charge £120.00 a day but live in an area where that is about top whack.I would charge a days labour to fit a loft ladder,never know what you are going to come across.When i did my own it turned into a nightmare as there was a timber brace that needed moving.I had to support the roof while i removed and re-sited the brace.Your price sounds fair to me.

Tom_Jones

Have to agree WB, if anything a Carpenter is more skilled than a joiner, most joiners have very little 'site fitting' experience but probably have better finish qualities than a Carpenter, personally I would employ both. £150 for a days work is a reasonable price.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Woodbutcher, my apologies for being a little muddled - as Tom J points out it was the better finish (dovetails and all the other dodahs) I was thinking about as I know someone who works for a very high class firm of kitchen furniture makers and installers whose clients include minor royals, and they only employ joiners. Was my lay-girly explanation correct?
As far as price is concerned, won't tradesmen charge what the market can bear, and price depends on location? eg You can't chaarge Surrey prices in parts of the north-east.

woodbutcher_2

Your post is spot on Dora.I charge the going rate for the area(N.E.Lincolnshire) and wouldn't get a look in at £150 a day.I suppose in broad terms i am a Carpenter and a Joiner.Carpenters normally work with bigger timbers as in roof work (which i do) and Joiners normally work on second fixing such as archtraves and skirtings,that sort of thing.I have also made and installed bespoke kitchens and the former would be known as bench joinery,which for some reason is not as well paid as site work.I have also done a bit of shipwrighting and caravan building so there is more to working with wood than meets the eye.The irony is that i wanted to be a cabinet maker and furniture restorer but there was no call for it when i left school and apprenticeships were non-existent.


B.T.W. your lay-girly description was very accurate in an amusing way.Thanks for that,it cheered me up.

nelly_2

Them " we will fit a ladder for £cheap" only stick to that price if there is no work involved, ie turn up 4 screws sod off, any changing of the ceiling and thats extra mate.

Alan_M_2

Fitting a ladder and boarding a bit of loft is quite different to alterning the loft hatch to suit.

£150 is quite reasonable, I'm based in Surrey and down here we don't find any trades charging less than £200 a day a more. But a fair few charging out at £250 a day, I certainly used to and in central London it's practically a blank cheque as it's so difficult to get anyone to actually work there.

woodbutcher_2

*ponders a move to central London for a while*

gardnt1

My house was quite new, so all the rafters etc are designed for maximum strength using thinner wood. If one of the joists had to have been cut, i couldnt just assume that the rafters/joist structure be able to bear the roof load just by putting a couple of noggins between the joists - i would have had to pay a structural engineer to recalculate apparently. I rang the trusrafter association, and they confirmed that in a trus rafter roof i couldnt cut the joists without consequence. All i was trying to imply was that the pro carpenter who came out to quote was quite happy to do this and another chippy i knew was dead against, so its worth checking the type of structure first if you need to enlarge the hatch. a good site with info is the trusrafter associations...dont know if its co.uk or com though!

Alan_M_2

woodbutcher wrote:

*ponders a move to central London for a while*

What sounds appealing sometimes isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

I tried to avoid central London work if at all possible. List of problems:-

You need to get there by 7am or forget it. Then you can't part till 8 when people start leaving for work.

It will cost you up to £16 an hour to park, you then have to move your vehicle to another meter every 2 hrs or you'll be towed.

Congestion charge (thanks Ken).

If you're lucky you'll be able to park within two streets of where you're working, and you can't stop to unload your tools either.

I used to quote at £400 a day for anything within the congestion charge zone, I priced at that level because I didn't want the work, yet I still used to get a handfull of quotes accepted every year at that level.

pealy

I've finally stopped worrying about whether I have a trussed rafter roof. I found the following explanation at http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green_Home_Building/1987_January_February/A_Decision_Maker_s_Guide_To_Attic_Remodeling

"Start by figuring out whether the roof supports are conventional rafters or a trussed system. It won't take more than a glance. If there's a spider web of boards forming triangles between the roof and the floor, you've got trusses. The roof and floor of a trussed system depend on each other for strength. Never move any of the webs without consulting an engineer"

My roof looks pretty conventional (as I'd expect in a 200 year old house) there's definitely no spider webs and no triangles.

BIG Thanks to everyone for all the feedback, I'm going to go ahead and order the steps/hatch and get the Joiner in. If he finishes early I'll find some more jobs to make it up to a day!