Is my quote a good price?

jason_s_2

Well miss_ensington in answer to your post,yes i do earn more then £120 day alot more,and yes i did leave school with Gcse's and yes i have been to college and yes i have done an apprenticeship.If you think plastering is easy i'd love for you to come along with me and help me plaster 2 rooms+ceiling on ya jacx in 1 day.You dont need a brain,oh really so why is there a shortage then,everyone must be really brainy now then.Makes me laugh 2 day course and bang your a prof plasterer.So covings and cornices and rendering and pebble dashing never come into it then?

Alan_M_2

missk_ensington wrote:

You earn more than that I assume? £120 a day equates to £31,200 a year gross, assuming you dont work weekends. I think this is more than a reasonable salary for somene who *probably* left school at 16 without any GCSE's who hasn't gone through A levels and university.

And for a plasterer I'd pay even less as I don't personally think it is as skilled as gas/electrics since you don't actually need a brain to do it. I learnt to plaster last week and have since plastered my chimney breast and bathroom walls where the tiles were taken off the wall and I only had 2 hours tuition! Someone came and checked it who was a prof plasterer and said it was absolutely fine. Don't think it warrants £30,000 a year, bloody consultants and high flyers in London sometimes don't get as much as that!

You make the same assumptions as all the moron journalists in the tabloids.

Firstly don't confuse turnover with salary, two different things. To generate an income of £30,000 a self employed buisness will need to be turning over in excess of £100,000 per year (this is what HMCE would think reasonable), you do the maths.

Secondly, you assume there is work 5 days a week 52 weeks a year, which is also nonsence.

Thirdly, there's no holiday pay, sick pay, or any benefits you might expect being and employee.

As a couple of other posters have inferred, the going rate for an established business is far more than £120 a day, back when I was fitting I wouldn't entertain any work on which I'd clear less than £2000 a week, it just wasn't financially viable when operating costs were taken into consideration.

I've now started a different business which is growing steadily, I actually earn far more doing what I do now than being a self employed fitter, yet strangely my income is never questionsed by my customers mainly because it isn't apparent as I don't have to tell them what I'm earning on each sale.

Alan_M_2

Also what is the obsession with Corgi registered fitters for general plumbing work?

Why do you need a gas fitter to move a radiator? It's like asking a structural engineer to come and remove a stud partition wall.

Tom_Jones

God there are some serious idiots on this board, do you honestly think £120 a day is a fair wage MissK, how much does a Corgi course cost ?, how much does it cost to run a van ?, how much is the congestion charge in London ? how much do accountants cost ? how much are the overheads for premisis ? and that's before you pay our freindly taxman and possibly VAT man.

So our expensive plumber would be on about £50 a day after all his expenses. Is this a fair wage for someone who's trained for a number of years in his trade MissK

jason_s_2

Alan and tom,I totally agree with you 110%:T :T .

missk_ensington

1) Work vehicle- more than likely on HP and therefore tax deductable. 2) Premises? Why would a plasterer/joiner/painter need premises? 3) Of course someone who has paid for membership to an association/training courses will have to recover those costs but many tradesman have not been on such courses they were taught as an apprentice after leaving school.

No I can't plaster and render 2 rooms on my own, but then I have only had a couple of hours tuition. I can plaster a chimney breast, part of a wall probably up to 2-3 square metres. However I'm sure with a few days training I could do a lot more.

There is also the tax issue- I would said at LEAST 50% of all tradesman will entertain "foreigners" for cash, and put that cash in their back pocket without paying tax on it. I think £500 gross a week is a very reasonable salary for one's labour. A graduate only starts on £15,000 a year on average after 2 years of A levels and 3 years at uni (and will also have to repay around £8,000 of student loans from their salary).

Tradesman are getting greedy, an honest days work should be around £100 (not including materials, as I always provide these myself). I am also not taking into account Congestion Charges as I live up North and cannot comment on what these costs, but aren't London prices are already notoriously higher than Northern prices so doesn't that already incorporate the higher cost of living?

Alan_M_2

We're discussing legitimate businesses, if you want to use Mr Zobolofsky from the pub to come and work on your property, that's your free choice and you take the rsiks along with the saving and the tax fraud (oh did you realise that you were equally liable for the tax fraud as the person taking the money - no I didn't think so).

Other than that, you haven't even got a basic grasp of how a business operates so making broad generalisations on what you consider reasonable is not only an utter waste of time it's actually bordering on ignorance.

jason_s_2

I think....no,i know if you offered a spreader £100 a day to work for you,that he would laugh at you and tell you not to take the p***.And also for you infomation,i never get someone else to do my work.All the work i do is carried out by myself.And another thing my van is not on HP,its bought and paid for.It maybe a bit old,but its reliable.So please missk_ensington,do me a favour and take your head from out of your backside and stop talking !!!!!!.

Skiduck

I think they should make a program called "Rouge Householders." maybe MissK would like to play a part.
Sometimes tradesmen need some help to steer clear of some customers.

oldandhappy

The quote does seem on the high side but maybe because of the extra plumbing behind the cooker etc. Mr Old is an all rounder in DIY and excells in carpentry he believes his plastering is pretty good but I know differently. He is fair with plumbing and it is only the leaks that make him fair but he will stick at a job until all up and running(pun meant) to a good standard luckily. Plumbing itself seems fairly straightforward now after years of buying and trying to fit the wrong fittings etc etc. but I am still amazed how easy it is to have leaks afterwards. Even to go and buy the right type/size radiator can be confusing the first time let alone all the pipework and fittings...
Maybe locally you could find a recomended plumber or two to get some more estimates for comparing the cost of this job. I would not attempt this job without any knowledge myself. Mrs H