2K to lay small room of Thermacell? Expensive?

lifeonwater

My floor in newly purchased apartment needed isolating as neighbour was very unhappy. Builder told me of Thermacell but that is was very expensive. Didn't want any neighbour problems so we decided to go for it. Builder quoted 2000 to purchase and lay it. I thought it must be a very expensive material but have just found out that it cost only 500 for the lot. A 1500 laying charge seems really expensive so when I questioned it, he said it would take 14 hours to lay, 4 hours to purchase and transport, 2 hours to take door off, plane and re-hang etc. But he laid a 3r of it in 3 hours and it didn't seem particularly complicated. It's one room and 28 sq. metres (300 square feet?). I would appreciate your feedback about this as I don't want to be unfair but I'm to go into a serious process of with-holding payment until I've figured out what is a fair cost. but maybe I'm wrong? Help!

Plasterer

lifeonwater wrote: »

My floor in newly purchased apartment needed isolating as neighbour was very unhappy. Builder told me of Thermacell but that is was very expensive. Didn't want any neighbour problems so we decided to go for it. Builder quoted 2000 to purchase and lay it. I thought it must be a very expensive material but have just found out that it cost only 500 for the lot. A 1500 laying charge seems really expensive so when I questioned it, he said it would take 14 hours to lay, 4 hours to purchase and transport, 2 hours to take door off, plane and re-hang etc. But he laid a 3r of it in 3 hours and it didn't seem particularly complicated. It's one room and 28 sq. metres (300 square feet?). I would appreciate your feedback about this as I don't want to be unfair but I'm to go into a serious process of with-holding payment until I've figured out what is a fair cost. but maybe I'm wrong? Help!

So 20 hours total? £75/hour average day 10 hours work £750/Day 5 day week £3750/week 50 weeks x £3750 = £187500 per annum.............................. Sound cheap to me :rotfl: :eek: Quater it and slap him.

lifeonwater

So what's reasonable. I have to figure out what to pay him?

Plasterer

lifeonwater wrote: »

So what's reasonable. I have to figure out what to pay him?

Tell him your findings (£500 for mats) then ask him - in his words (20 hours) how he can justify £75/hour I would suggest £20/hour is closer to the mark. However it sounds like hes already started the job, which for me means there is a formal contract in play (offer and acceptance taken place) if this is the case, you may have to bite the bullet.....

Just a thought though, is the 20 total hours just for one man ie man hours or is there several of them?

Tom_Jones

Sorry but you've agreed the price, so you have to pay the amount quoted as you now have a formal contract in place. You should have queried the amount before any work started, and the guy is overcharging you, two hours, at £75 an hour, to plane the bottom of the door is just a pee take :eek::eek:

lifeonwater

hi plasterer.. thanks for your input.
It's two men at total of 60 an hour, which were I live is a normal hourly rate. It's a British building team, though we live in Europe. There's not much difference to how things run over here except the hourly rate is lower, at 30 euros per man per hour. And yes he has started the job, against my verbal instruction. As the insultion was not in the original quote but came up once we'd begun, he quoted on the phone, I accepted and just before he started the job I phoned him and asked him to stop work at the end of the day and leave the floor, as I was starting to get warning bells ringing. I told him on the phone at that point that he could go off and get started on the job he was itching to go off and do and we would speak later. When i turned up 3 hours later, he had finished plasterboarding the walls and started on the floor and said he had decided to get started on it. I don't feel like biting any bullets on this is the right thing to do. Where does the verbal acceptance of the offer without any paperwork, the further verbal request not to start the floor and so on leave me? thanks again!

P.S ..........

Tell him your findings (£500 for mats) then ask him - in his words (20 hours) how he can justify £75/hour I would suggest £20/hour is closer to the mark.

Do you mean by this that hourly price reduces on volume of hours? Confused!

Tom_Jones

A verbal contract is as good as any paper contract, well in this country anyway.

Plasterer

QUOTE: he quoted on the phone, I accepted

This part is your leagally binding contract. Im assuming your in Ireland? Not sure how offer and acceptance works within law over there but over here thiss would deffinately be a contract.

Plasterer

lifeonwater wrote: »

hi plasterer.. thanks for your input.
It's two men at total of 60 an hour, which were I live is a normal hourly rate. It's a British building team, though we live in Europe. There's not much difference to how things run over here except the hourly rate is lower, at 30 euros per man per hour. And yes he has started the job, against my verbal instruction. As the insultion was not in the original quote but came up once we'd begun, he quoted on the phone, I accepted and just before he started the job I phoned him and asked him to stop work at the end of the day and leave the floor, as I was starting to get warning bells ringing. I told him on the phone at that point that he could go off and get started on the job he was itching to go off and do and we would speak later. When i turned up 3 hours later, he had finished plasterboarding the walls and started on the floor and said he had decided to get started on it. I don't feel like biting any bullets on this is the right thing to do. Where does the verbal acceptance of the offer without any paperwork, the further verbal request not to start the floor and so on leave me? thanks again!

P.S ..........

Tell him your findings (£500 for mats) then ask him - in his words (20 hours) how he can justify £75/hour I would suggest £20/hour is closer to the mark.

Do you mean by this that hourly price reduces on volume of hours? Confused!

If it takes 1 man 20 hours to do the job then the man hours is 20 if it takes 2 men 20 hours to do the job then it is 40 hours 3 men 20 hours = 60 man hours etc etc

lifeonwater

Thanks Tom Jones.
How painful.
Damn.
So what I should have done with each and every small job within the quote is question how much is materials and how much is labour? I was very naive. I didn't realise I should request detail and extensive details at that.
My original quote, which was revised a few times simply stated, bathroom, including blah blah blah at 4000, kitchen including blah blah blah 3500 etc. You are absolutely right, I should have questioned it, but now that jobs done do not represent the original quote because only blah was carried out not blah blah and blah, does that not stand in my favour? He didn't break down the original quote and we agreed along the way that he would do a minimised version of the original. At this point, I realised that his team haven't a clue how to plaster a wall, because at 500 quid for a really bad bodge job and other things looked dodgy so I pulled the plug. Where does that leave me? I agreed on an original plan and quote that changed. We revised the quote but it changed again. We agreed on the changes but never got round to revising the quote again and then I stopped the work due to serious quality concerns. This is a much bigger issue than the Thermacell. I'm just breaking it down in my research so I can deal with this fairly to him and well as myself. What to do?

Plasterer

lifeonwater wrote: »

Thanks Tom Jones.
How painful.
Damn.
So what I should have done with each and every small job within the quote is question how much is materials and how much is labour? I was very naive. I didn't realise I should request detail and extensive details at that.
My original quote, which was revised a few times simply stated, bathroom, including blah blah blah at 4000, kitchen including blah blah blah 3500 etc. You are absolutely right, I should have questioned it, but now that jobs done do not represent the original quote because only blah was carried out not blah blah and blah, does that not stand in my favour? He didn't break down the original quote and we agreed along the way that he would do a minimised version of the original. At this point, I realised that his team haven't a clue how to plaster a wall, because at 500 quid for a really bad bodge job and other things looked dodgy so I pulled the plug. Where does that leave me? I agreed on an original plan and quote that changed. We revised the quote but it changed again. We agreed on the changes but never got round to revising the quote again and then I stopped the work due to serious quality concerns. This is a much bigger issue than the Thermacell. I'm just breaking it down in my research so I can deal with this fairly to him and well as myself. What to do?

Completely different ball game now.............. If your not happy with the work then you can negotiate, however you have to give him the opportunity to correct it to the state that is expected. This does not "quash" the contract but the "warranties" (bits not right) need to be corrected (Sorry studied CIMA at uni a long time ago and my head is now hurting - im sure some solicitiors on here will put me right if i am wrong)