Peter Cox / Damp Works - how much can I negotiate and is the price fair?

[Deleted User]

Hi

I recently received a quote from Peter Cox for some damp works.

I won't type up the full list, but the gist of work to be done is:

- Replace 6 wooden lintels with concrete
- Rip up all floor boards
- Viqueen/Concrete solum
- Lay new floor boards (cheap ones - chip board?)
- Spray timbers around house and in loft
- Remove dry rot and wet rot growth from a few walls
- Replace a few door frames
- Inject window frames and new back door frame
- Plaster two entire walls (about 15ft by 10ft in total)
- Some ceiling plaster repairs

The cost for all this is £25,000 EX VAT which seems expensive to me.

They also quoted for a chemical damp proof course but put that separately at £950 EX VAT.

The house is about 100 year old semi, 3 bed.

I was just wondering if anyone has experience in this as once VAT goes on at 20pc, we're looking at about £31k.

Do Peter Cox inflate the price so that discounts are possible?

I was already offered 10% off if I confirm within 2 working weeks, but as I'm doing this by bank loan, I can only get my hands on £25k - so I really need a 20% discount from Peter Cox.

Will they go to 20% off if it means getting the gig in January?

Should I ask for more?

Thank you

[Deleted User]

I should also mention that Timberwise have failed to provide a quote. Every time I chase them up, they say they will contact the surveyor for me. It's been 2 months waiting now so I emailed them asking for a reason and they never replied. Based on that, I wouldn't want them to do the job, but Id quite like to see the price.

So the only other quote I had was from a smaller company that specializes in general insurance repairs, and they came in at £15,500 EX VAT which I thought sounded reasonable.

Any help or advice with regards to the price and potential for negation would be really helpful and appreciated - thanks.

dampdaveski

Mc100,
£25k sounds like an awful lot of meny for a 3 bed semi!
It's unfair of me to pass comment on the price without knowing sizes / areas etc, but I would suggest trying an independant preservation contractor who is a member of the Property care association
www.property-care.org

Just remember that the nationals have a lot of mouths to feed out of your £25k
good luck

[Deleted User]

dampdaveski wrote: »

Mc100,
£25k sounds like an awful lot of meny for a 3 bed semi!
It's unfair of me to pass comment on the price without knowing sizes / areas etc, but I would suggest trying an independant preservation contractor who is a member of the Property care association

Just remember that the nationals have a lot of mouths to feed out of your £25k
good luck

Thanks for your reply.

I did go on the website you linked to - I contacted Wise, Peter Cox, and 2 non-nationals. One of them was a one man band but he just wanted to spray stuff instead of doing the other stuff like DPC, concrete the solum etc so he didn't fill me with confidence.

I would be happy to give the job to Peter Cox, but I was just wondering if the anyone has haggled with them successfully?

Are they one of those companies that go in high because they expect you to negotiate?

I don't want to insult them, but I need a bigger discount so just want to know if anyone has done something similar with another national company.

I knew a national would be more expensive, but I wasn't expecting it to be by so much more. Is it worth paying out the extra (£7k ish) for peace of mind and a guarantee from a reputable company?

Thanks

nickj_2

what was wrong with the smaller company , if they are offering to do the same work for £10k then if you are happy that they can do a good job - check them out first then i would either go with them or get other quotes

[Deleted User]

nickj wrote: »

what was wrong with the smaller company , if they are offering to do the same work for £10k then if you are happy that they can do a good job - check them out first then i would either go with them or get other quotes

Thanks for your reply.

The smaller company was £15,500 - so we are talking a difference of £9.5k. My question is whether this amount of extra money is worth spending, bearing in mind I will be having the work done by a market leading company, backed up with a 20 year guarantee (useful if I sell up). So the preference for this particular job would be to go with a big company.

The reason I posted the price was so you all have a price benchmark, as obviously it's tricky when you don't know the full job spec/scale.

My primary question though is whether or not these big national contractors will negotiate on price, and if so, how many percent can I expect to haggle down.

As I said, I don't want to insult their rep, but I do want to get a better price if I can, as I would rather they did the work but I simply cannot afford it unless they can knock of 20%. So I'm really asking if someone has done this in the past, and if so, what sort of deal was struck.

I'm quite young and haven't had any previous experience in house renovations, so I'm just hoping to get some advice and insight into a realistic negotiation expectations.

Thanks

nickj_2

Deleted_User wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.

The smaller company was £15,500 - so we are talking a difference of £9.5k. My question is whether this amount of extra money is worth spending, bearing in mind I will be having the work done by a market leading company, backed up with a 20 year guarantee (useful if I sell up). So the preference for this particular job would be to go with a big company.

The reason I posted the price was so you all have a price benchmark, as obviously it's tricky when you don't know the full job spec/scale.

My primary question though is whether or not these big national contractors will negotiate on price, and if so, how many percent can I expect to haggle down.

As I said, I don't want to insult their rep, but I do want to get a better price if I can, as I would rather they did the work but I simply cannot afford it unless they can knock of 20%. So I'm really asking if someone has done this in the past, and if so, what sort of deal was struck.

I'm quite young and haven't had any previous experience in house renovations, so I'm just hoping to get some advice and insight into a realistic negotiation expectations.

Thanks

i would contact them and say that you've got a quote that's 9k less what can they do , they may say they can knock a bit off , or that may just be their price , however i personally would never deal with anyone who can knock £thousands off the price like the big glazing xo's do

searchlight123

hi
i am in sales (not damp proofing) and a customer who doesn't want to 'insult' the rep is a sellers dream.
the way to negotiate is this:
you have already seen he will knock 10% off straight away. i guarantee you that is not his bottom price. that is his opening offer.
work out what you want to spend (you suggested a 20% discount) so that's around £20,000.
i would suggest you say to the salesman that despite receiving substantially lower quotes from other firms you were really impressed by him and his company. you really would like his company to carry out the work but your budget limit to also include the DPC is £20k total. on agreement of this price you will contract the job to them there and then.
i would be very surprised if you didn't achieve this price or a least get very close to it.

[Deleted User]

tonygold wrote: »

hi
i am in sales (not damp proofing) and a customer who doesn't want to 'insult' the rep is a sellers dream.
the way to negotiate is this:
you have already seen he will knock 10% off straight away. i guarantee you that is not his bottom price. that is his opening offer.
work out what you want to spend (you suggested a 20% discount) so that's around £20,000.
i would suggest you say to the salesman that despite receiving substantially lower quotes from other firms you were really impressed by him and his company. you really would like his company to carry out the work but your budget limit to also include the DPC is £20k total. on agreement of this price you will contract the job to them there and then.
i would be very surprised if you didn't achieve this price or a least get very close to it.

Thanks for your reply - that's pretty much how I was thinking I will approach it.

Do you mind me asking if you work for a national company?

Also, if he knocked 10% off from go, how much more do you think I could reasonably expect him to go down to? Is there a rule of thumb or anything that sales reps will go to?

Thanks

[Deleted User]

nickj wrote: »

i would contact them and say that you've got a quote that's 9k less what can they do , they may say they can knock a bit off , or that may just be their price , however i personally would never deal with anyone who can knock £thousands off the price like the big glazing xo's do

Thanks for your reply.

I already showed their sales rep the cheaper quote - he had a look at it but he said that as they're a national company, the will always be more expensive. To which I agreed with him but said I wasn't expecting the price difference to be so vast.

I've just never dealt with a national company like this before, so I just wonder if they decide on their price, then add 20% or whatever before they present it to the potential customer (aka me).

julianashcroft

Have a look for a local Sovereign approved contractor who will be able to do the work you require, possibly at lower cost than Peter Cox.