Been ripped off yet again!

arfurrrr

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.

It costs money to dispose of commercial waste too , and he has to have a licence

Gizmosmum_2

My OH does this sort of thing on a regular basis. It takes time to source materials and while I'm not justifying double the cost of the materials in my experience homeowners have a bit more time to track down the best price on the Internet. Every hour spent on the Internet by a tradesman is an hour he can't generate an income.

The labour costs sound reasonable for the London only slightly more than OH would charge in the North West. If he were providing the materials he would charge for ordering and delivering them and put a small mark up on to contribute to general business overheads.

Best way to avoid the situation again is to ask what materials are required. Spend your time sourcing them and have them ready for the tradesman when he/she arrives to do the job. My OH has mananged to keep out of the vat bracket as a result which means he's a bit cheaper for the customer too.

Quality of work is a different issue - don't pay until you're happy with the work.

oz0707

never nail ceiling joists, always screw. Hope your deducting for making good/repair of ceiling.

(a spread and a mate for a day plus mats if it takes him 4 days to board a loft and put hatch in)

keystone

I'm amazed that noone has commented on thsi thread that just because the OP has found what he thinks is an identical piece of kit to that supplied by the builder at a vastly reduced price on teh interwebz that it is totally off the wall to jump to the conclusion that that was the price the builder paid and therefore is ripping off the OP. Its an absurdity TBH to make that sort of assumption.

Secondly did the builder's contract include the making good of any damage to the ceiling afer the installation of the hatch. It certainly should have done and the builder should have covered it if it didn't IMO but if it didn't then theres hardly cause for complaint when it didn't happen.

Just looking at it from another angle you understand.

Cheers

Penny-Pincher!!

If that was the price agreed then you should pay up!

shane42

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

If that was the price agreed then you should pay up!

well said.if the work is good pay!!