New plasterboard ceiling in garage - £850

evoke

I got a quote of £850 to put new plasterboard up on my garage ceiling. The old plasterboard is a bit manky so that needs to be pulled down and the ceiling drylined again, with decent insulation in the ceiling void.

The builder quoted £500 for materials (5 x 100mm Celotex sheets, 5 x Redline plasterboard sheets and some 2x4 timber to build a frame for mounting the plasterboard. His labour is £350 for a day's work and he'll have a labourer with him.

There's no skimming included and no waste disposal.

I think the quote is very high. I know Celotex 100mm sheets are around £45 each so not cheap, but £500 for materials is a bit steep, as is the labour charge for a day's work.

docmatt

Not the nicest of jobs... I'd want that if I were doing it. You could always strip the whole lot off yourself get rid of the rubbish and find out what he'd charge then?

somethingcorporate

Pretty horrible job to do but still sounds very expensive for it!

£350 for a builder and his labourer for a days work does sound very pricey! I'd get a second and third opinion.

evoke

I've been trying to get this job done for many months and have had no interest from builders. There must be a lot of work around! This guy was the only builder to give me a quote this year!

SailorSam

If it's only the garage i'd be looking for a cheap way to just clean it up.

phill99

You would be surprised ow much celotex is.

somethingcorporate

Celotex is indeed very expensive.

My dad just bought a load of seconds from here: http://www.secondsandco.co.uk/

Cosmetically they are imperfect but it won't have much of an impact on their thermal capability and cost quite a lot less than the new stuff.

evoke

I priced up the Celotex on Wickes and it would cost me just over £200 for 5 sheets. The builder said it would cost £500 for the Celotex and plasterboard.

somethingcorporate

Looks expensive for the materials then!

I suggest he is kindly adding on quite a hefty margin on for his "trouble". Still, wait for all the tradesman to jump on to defend him saying he HAS to do this and otherwise will not stay in business.

Ask him how much it would be if you bought the materials, seems like it may be a good way to save yourself a couple of hundred.

I suggest seeing if you can get some more quotes - have you tried joiners? We're having our loft boarded out and aside from a small difference in location and materials it is quite a similar job. Our joiner is about £160 a day and his standard of work is exceptional and he'll pass on his trade discount on materials rather than jacking up the cost.

Dan-Dan

I had this done , for a garage that is 3 m x 8

cost me £550 , as for you , unskimmed , it isnt a very good job to be fair , and i think i could have done it myself time permitting

I think your builder might be quoting , NOT to get the job

evoke

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Looks expensive for the materials then!

I suggest he is kindly adding on quite a hefty margin on for his "trouble". Still, wait for all the tradesman to jump on to defend him saying he HAS to do this and otherwise will not stay in business.

Ask him how much it would be if you bought the materials, seems like it may be a good way to save yourself a couple of hundred.

I suggest seeing if you can get some more quotes - have you tried joiners? We're having our loft boarded out and aside from a small difference in location and materials it is quite a similar job. Our joiner is about £160 a day and his standard of work is exceptional and he'll pass on his trade discount on materials rather than jacking up the cost.

Just spoke to him and pointed out the materials cost and he said he might had typed the wrong quantities into the Wickes site!

He's suddenly become desperate for the job and wants to do it tomorrow after telling me on Saturday that he's fully booked until late September.

He said his day rate is £180, which is fair enough. So I questioned the extra £300-£400 on his quote and where that was going and he didn't have an answer.

I've decided that i'm going to get a labourer at £50 per day to take down the existing plasterboard. I'll then put up the Celotex myself and get a handyman to screw in some plasterboard afterwards.

The main cost is the Celotex at just over £200. A labourer would cost £50. Rubbish clearance will cost me £40. New plasterboard will be £50 max and a day's labour to screw the plasterboard in will be around £150. So I think I can get the job done for under £500.