Not a quote as such, but requesting advice

Iain_L

Hopefully some of the professionals on here will reply to this plea for advise on how to deal with a situation.

We recently had some work done in the house (remove existing coving to main bedroom and dining room and replace with new moulded cornice, tape new cupboard and repairs to ceiling hatch and wall behind stove, carry out varnishing and repainting work on completion), and the estimate we received for it was that it would take forty hours.

When the invoice arrived, we found that we were billed for 51 1/2 hours, plus 34 1/2 of an apprentices' time. We just found this charge for 86 man hours too much compared to the original estimate so are disputing it with the company. I have offered to pay for a total of 60 man hours, which is still 50% extra, over and above the quote.

Am I being unreasonable here, or does an estimate allow free reign with the hours?

diywhynot

Advice is available here.

phill99

Unfortunately, an estimate is exactly that. If they have estimated 40 hours for one guy but it comes in at 51 hours, you may have to swallow that. However, if they are then lumping on an apprentices time and hadnt made you aware of the fact that there would be a secnd bod on site, I would be very reluctant to pay it.