Average Hourly Handyman Charges in South East

southcoastrgi

put it this way, i'd drive from southampton to brighton to do your work for £35ph & before anyone reports me for spam i'm not touting for work, just trying to show how expensive that price is for a local "handyman"

tigeress289

Personally, I think a fair day rate for a good all round tradesman is, £120/£150 a day. The hourly rate is just a marketing con. As most tradesmen on here know the fee is divided by the contractor and the sub. So the real rate is £17.50, which is about right for one off jobs. I agree with advice on here, that you should really be looking for a quote, as you will know more, where you stand. Please do not fall into the hourly trap. If it were an emergency, then I could understand the rate more. For me its a big "no".

nickj_2

if you're paying £35 per hour , that's over £1200 per 36hr week and over £60k for a 48 week year ...... for a handyman?????

Vibrant

I feel that handymen are getting a bit of an unfair pounding in this thread, we are not all inept at the job. Although my main job is gardening, I do some handyman type work, mainly for gardening customers. I always stress that my work is of a DIY level rather than a professional level and I only tackle jobs I'm confident that I can do well, otherwise I recommend using a tradesman (I have the numbers of some that I know are good).

I think that handyman provide a useful service, for simple jobs, like shelving, building flat packs, changing broken light switches, etc. Simple repairs that it can be hard to get a tradesman to do.

And not all tradesmen are good, in fact some work I have seen (particularly by council workers) is so poor I wonder if they are really qualified. Some so called professional decorators are very poor, far worse than me and I don't consider myself very good at decorating, partly because I don't like doing it.

Price wise, I would love £35 per hour, but sadly £10-£12 is more reasonable for a handyman. £35 is high for a good tradesman.

nickj_2

i can understand if for instance you would charge someone £35 to change a washer , as you not only have your time , but you have fuel costs and travelling time to take into account as well ,so in the course of a day you may only have time to do 3-4 jobs , however to pay an "handyman|" £35p/h for a days work is taking the pee ,

Russe11

leveller2911 wrote: »

Like I said I have a fully equipped Joinery workshop,insurance for that, Public liability insurance for in and out of workshop,Van,van insurance etc etc etc and I don't charge that so I wouldn't expect someone who has a little knowledge/experience/qualifications (most of them bodge work) to be charging £35 hr in Brighton, its a joke.

I'm sure many qualified tradesmen have the same problem and take months of each year to stay under the VAT threshold..:rotfl:

Seriously considering changing my job title to "Handyman" upping my rate and taking 3 months off work and travelling round Austrailia... That said I'm not sure I could sleep at night charging £35hr for putting up washing line posts...

I don't think you can claim handymem are all unqualifed, unexperienced and lack knowledge in what they are doing.

If you just work on your own you can maybe work out you rate at less than £35 a hour, but maybe this handyman has a employee as well?

Just because you do somthing cheaper does not mean others will.

I know a machining timer only yard and thier hourly rate is £80 a hour, a joinery workshop near here also priced 6 replacement box window sashes at near £2k! they get the business so I say good luck to them. On the other hand I know a joinery workshop that prices work at £25-30 a hour and they get a different sort of customer. Joinery is not a a lucrative business, the risk/reward ratio is not that great... unless you look at purely kitchen sales.

I know people that used to work in maintance jobs for hotels/hospitals etc, they realised that maintenance/handyman business where the way to go... some of them now get great rates and regular customers/contracts, having to be tied down to a 20k a year job or turning over six figures for the same sort of work its a no brainer.

Some customers like the cheaper options, others like to go for more expensive options, i'd expect in brighton they can get away with charging near london rates, just because they can.

Russe11

Vibrant wrote: »

I feel that handymen are getting a bit of an unfair pounding in this thread, we are not all inept at the job. Although my main job is gardening, I do some handyman type work, mainly for gardening customers. I always stress that my work is of a DIY level rather than a professional level and I only tackle jobs I'm confident that I can do well, otherwise I recommend using a tradesman (I have the numbers of some that I know are good).

I think that handyman provide a useful service, for simple jobs, like shelving, building flat packs, changing broken light switches, etc. Simple repairs that it can be hard to get a tradesman to do.

And not all tradesmen are good, in fact some work I have seen (particularly by council workers) is so poor I wonder if they are really qualified. Some so called professional decorators are very poor, far worse than me and I don't consider myself very good at decorating, partly because I don't like doing it.

Price wise, I would love £35 per hour, but sadly £10-£12 is more reasonable for a handyman. £35 is high for a good tradesman.

well said with regards to slating handymen, but if you only pricing yourself at £10-£12 a hour you can't be ending up with much better than the min wage as PAYE! taking into account all the right you would have as an employee.

fluffpot

nickj - charging £35 per hour doesn't mean you get paid £60K a year! It doesn't work like that if you're self employed. You cannot do paid work 7 hours a day as you have to travel between jobs. do quotes, get materials etc etc - you do't get paid for doing this. Plus of course you don't get paid any sick days or holiday. Then you have all the costs - van, insurance advertising, tools...
I charge £50 per hour - but I ain't rolling it it, I can tell you!

Vibrant

Russe11 wrote: »

well said with regards to slating handymen, but if you only pricing yourself at £10-£12 a hour you can't be ending up with much better than the min wage as PAYE! taking into account all the right you would have as an employee.

I will admit that I don't earn much more than min wage, but I don't have much use for money and I enjoy the handyman jobs which are a bit of fun, making a change from gardening.
I used to earn a reasonable wage, managing a factory of about 30 people, but it was quite stressful and I never spent much of my wages. When a colleague died at 61, I thought "do I want to spend another 15 years doing this job" and the answer was no. So I gave notice and became a gardener.

My outgoings are only about £100 per week, so I still bank the healthy surplus.
The rates for gardening are quite low in this area, the highest rate I know of is £16 per hour. Although the landscaping firms charge far more.

nickj_2

fluffpot wrote: »

nickj - charging £35 per hour doesn't mean you get paid £60K a year! It doesn't work like that if you're self employed. You cannot do paid work 7 hours a day as you have to travel between jobs. do quotes, get materials etc etc - you do't get paid for doing this. Plus of course you don't get paid any sick days or holiday. Then you have all the costs - van, insurance advertising, tools...
I charge £50 per hour - but I ain't rolling it it, I can tell you!

i am self employed, thanks , so i do know the costs involved

however there's a big difference with someone doing a job that will take an hour for £35 to someone spending the whole day/week on a job . i would not pay any tradesman £1200 per week