Been ripped off yet again!

spursfan323

We are in N London and house is a smaller semi-detached 4 bed.

My contractor charged me £1,150 to clear loft of rubble and mess,
lay down chipboard and install a hatch.

Breakdown:
Ladder & hatch 260.00
handle & rod 47.70
Chipboards 380.00
Nails 18.90
Labour 2 workers 2 days 460

I checked online - the ladder & hatch and handle & rod that he bought all come together in one pack. The cost is £112 incl Vat (and he probably bought it trade)!!
I don't know about the chipboard but imagine similarly overpriced.

Am I naive or is it DOWNRIGHT WRONG to charge 3 times over for the materials?

His figures put labour at 115 a day. For that price I got a mutilated hall ceiling around the hatch and a whole load of old planks left behind!

I'm sure I've been ripped off.

Canucklehead

spursfan323 wrote: »

We are in N London and house is a smaller semi-detached 4 bed.

My contractor charged me £1,150 to clear loft of rubble and mess,
lay down chipboard and install a hatch.

Breakdown:
Ladder & hatch 260.00
handle & rod 47.70
Chipboards 380.00
Nails 18.90
Labour 2 workers 2 days 460

I checked online - the ladder & hatch and handle & rod that he bought all come together in one pack. The cost is £112 incl Vat (and he probably bought it trade)!!
I don't know about the chipboard but imagine similarly overpriced.

Am I naive or is it DOWNRIGHT WRONG to charge 3 times over for the materials?

His figures put labour at 115 a day. For that price I got a mutilated hall ceiling around the hatch and a whole load of old planks left behind!

I'm sure I've been ripped off.

Good afternoon: did you not have a written quotation agreed to by you before the works commenced ?

Canucklehead

McKneff

I can only echo canucklehead, you should alwasy get 3 quotes and personal recommendations.

If you werent happy about the job, why did you pay him.

spursfan323

McKneff wrote: »

I can only echo canucklehead, you should alwasy get 3 quotes and personal recommendations.

If you werent happy about the job, why did you pay him.

Haven't paid yet.

macman

So how on earth was this job commissioned?
Contractor said 'I'll do the job and then tell you how much it'll cost'?
And you agreed?

McKneff

So query the bill,try and negotiate a discount, tell him your not happy about the mutilated ceiling and get him to take the planks away.

serverdog

That does seem a bit steep. I have just done my loft myself, and my timber for my loft cost me £300 which included raising the joists 200mm before boarding plus £15 for screws (I thought nails in the loft were a no-no). My loft is only 24 square metres. I bought a ladder online for £160 (concertina as we were limited for space) and installed it all by myself over 3 days.

I still have 7 loft boards and 1 joist, and about 200 screws left over though.

spursfan323

McKneff wrote: »

So query the bill,try and negotiate a discount, tell him your not happy about the mutilated ceiling and get him to take the planks away.

Exactly what i have now done. However, the purpose of my OP was to discover if indeed the price he quoted is excessive or not. Theoretically, if the price he charged me was a bargain price, maybe i would feel less impelled to query the poor finish.

macman

Sadly, if you don't agree a price beforehand, very few traders are likely to come in at a bargain price. They'll assume that you have money to burn, and bill accordingly. Some will add 10%, and some will double it, as he appears to have done.

dave82_2

Almost every bussiness in the land will mark up materials! Heck where I work we even mark up postage stamps!!

I am not saying it is right but it is very common practice. The only way to avoid overpaying is get the quote broken down into materials and labour beforehand and do your research then hagel them down!

It can be very difficult as I have recently found getting them to break the quote down!! Most tradesmen are not interested in doing paperwork!

Radsteral

McKneff wrote: »

So query the bill,try and negotiate a discount, tell him your not happy about the mutilated ceiling and get him to take the planks away.

query the bill? why when the job is finished?
maybe query the quality, as for the bill , if i was the builder i wouldnt stand for that !
thing is not right ask him to redo it
The guys says ''he s been ripped of yet again'' which mean he s been overcharged before.
That, i would say the guy likes to neglect , and only wakes up when he has to pay!
i wonder why the builder has completed the work and not a single penny collected anyway