Is my quote a good price?

Alan_M_2

It is in most parts of the country, and would still be considered high in some areas, but you'll be hard pushed to find legitimate businesses charging less than £200 per day in the south east

Certain posters consider £80 a day reasonable.....It was 15-20 years ago.

missk_ensington

Alan_M wrote:

If you're paying cash in an attempt to avoid VAT you are implicit in tax fraud, that's law and is regualrly prosecuted as such, maybe you should get your head out of your backside and check your facts.

I've never paid cash to avoid VAT, as I've never had (so far) a VAT registered tradesman.

missk_ensington

Alan_M wrote:

It is in most parts of the country, and would still be considered high in some areas, but you'll be hard pushed to find legitimate businesses charging less than £200 per day in the south east

Certain posters consider £80 a day reasonable.....It was 15-20 years ago.

I am not talking about the South East, I'm talking about Lancashire, the business probably isn't legitimate (what they do with their cash I don't know, perhaps they don't declare it) I would happily pay up to £120 a day for labour. £80 a day would be for someone with less experience/less skilled.

tomstickland

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....QUOTE]

A self employed builder has to cover the costs of transport, transport time, time spent quoting on jobs, tools, things going wrong and the fact that it's physically hard and dirty work. Then there's tax.

I do all of my own DIY work including concrete footings, brickwork, wiring, plumbing but not plastering. Hence I have a reasonable idea of what's involved.

I think that because White goods are so cheap nowadays we fail to understand fair labour costs.

Debt_Free_Chick

tomstickland wrote:

A self employed builder has to cover the costs of transport, transport time, time spent quoting on jobs, tools, things going wrong and the fact that it's physically hard and dirty work. Then there's tax.

Indeed - and probably at least half a day a week to do their bookeeping, unless they pay someone else to do it.

And they don't get paid holidays or paid sick leave. Even with only four weeks holiday a day rate of £120 is only £28k a year. That's not a lot for a skilled craftsman. And let's face it, if you have to get someone in then you are paying for skill. If there were no skill involved, you'd do it yourself

LizEstelle

Anyway, to return to the OP's question -

- yes, from the information supplied, there is probably only half a day's work here, if that. The materials are likely to be £100 or less.

The quote seems to be based on a daily gross take-home requirement of at least £500.

This was another example of the Great British Tradesmen's rip-off syndrome and illustrates why we need even more Polish plumbers over here - and taking Corgi qualification!

Skiduck

LizEstelle wrote:

Anyway, to return to the OP's question -

- yes, from the information supplied, there is probably only half a day's work here, if that. The materials are likely to be £100 or less.

The quote seems to be based on a daily gross take-home requirement of at least £500.

This was another example of the Great British Tradesmen's rip-off syndrome and illustrates why we need even more Polish plumbers over here - and taking Corgi qualification!

yep, let's out-source all the work so the British public can get everything for the cheapest possible price and rates, then in 10 years time when 80% of the great British public are unemployed and have no money to buy any good and services, we will be OK.

Banks have already found out that international call centres are a false economy.

kenshaz

missk_ensington wrote:

Okay 1) You phone a couple fo CORGI workmen and arrange a time for them to come for a free quote
2)Obtain quote for labour only.
3) If quote is reasonable arrange a start date.
4) Before man leaves ask for a list of items he will need to do the job (the names of pipes etc)
5) Go to B&Q/Wickes and buy them prior to the arrival of your workman.

Why do they have to be corgi ,that means a gas fitter,we are dealing with water and pipes

silvercar

You need to go to a legit outfit so that, if there is a problem after the job is done, they will come back out and sort the problem out.

I recently had a rad moved from one wall to another. The guy (+ a labourer) had to drain the system and there was an airlock and/ or blocked valve when he refilled. He came back the next day and sorted it.

It is OK getting a list of parts and sourcing them yourself, but you may find the cost has risen since the guy was factoring in the profit on the parts.

Incidentally I paid £400 for the rad moving and a new TRV.

missk_ensington

My ex was a ceramic tiler so I know what tradesmen earn! He barely paid any tax (his gross annual income must have been close to £70,000 a year) but his tax returns showed he was earning £9,800 a year.

His van was on HP and the payments were tax deductable (even though he was barely paying tax in the first place) often the customer supplied tiles, but if he supplied them he made even more money cos he got a cut out of it. He also made £650 a week out of his apprentices before he even got out of bed (they were paid a basic wage of £250 a week or something like that, but they each brought in around £600 a week of money for him off jobs.

Because his wage was so "low" he claimed £140 a week working tax credits for my son. (Before anyone comes shouting at me, it wasn't my signature on the forms, I wasn't working he was, he filled in the vforms that I gave to him, signed them and posted them and any fraud would have come back on him)

Kenshaz- I think I said that in relation to someone wanting gas central heating did I? If not, then my mistake but it was an example in general and the actual wording in just semantics really.