Gas fitters in la la land.

the_gardener_2

I have a very small terraced cottage in west wiltshire and looking for a small combi and a few rads.   Empty property at the moment.  
I had a few quotes.   Even the cheapest was a little over 3k.     A couple of fitters thought it would be about 3/4 days work alone .    
I did some rough calculations and could not see beyond 1200/1300 for a cheap combi maybe a baxi perhaps.   A few rads and a 2/3 bundles of pipe plus fittings valves a bit of flux/gas/solder etc .  I offered to exposed some pipe runs under flooring  etc.   
My calculations seem to indicate around 600/700 a day in labour.      There is a skilled chippy down the road that is happy if he gets  170 a day.       
Am I missing something.    Oh yes and a couple of comedians wanted nearly 2k  more.     Did I make the wrong career choice. 




       

AskAsk

You made the wrong career choice.  Is it a direct replacement of Combi for Combi?

tacpot12

Replacing a Combi like-for-like is usually about £2600; takes 2 mandays for the heating engineer and half a day for the electrician (over 1.5 days).  Add the cost of radiators and copper pipe, and the cost of fitting them and you are easily into £4K and 4 days work. I assume you want them to lift the floorboards and refit them?

maisie_cat

You are not paying them for their actual time, you are paying for qualifications, regulation compliance, CPD, experience, overheads etc etc.

the_gardener_2

Ummm  it is a new fit  replacing a fortic tank and storage rads. 
I can count the cost of parts .   What made me laugh was two gents quoted around 3100  and 2 others nearly 5k    .   One was actually surprised at the cheaper quotes.   We are actually lifting very little flooring.  The boiler goes on the back wall with the gas main between two joists to the front.  A lot of existing pipe work will be used.  The new rads will be on both sides of a dividing wall up and down and around behind the kitchen and eventually hidden by kitchen units.  No floor covering to lift. 
 The controller will be wireless and the boiler electric supply will be a spur from a nearby outlet.  A few hours work at most for a sparky.   Strange they all wanted to do the work when I was not at the property.   
I would be interested to find out what gas fitters get paid on fixed price work for developers.  
          
BTW  I had a gas fitter in Surrey who swapped a combi . The combi I bought myself for 750   and i gave him a hand taking the old boiler down and putting the new one back on the wall.  We did the job in less than a day.  Although I did the making good with tarting up the  tiles and where the flue hole was moved.  A bit over 1600 all in as I remember.   
 

the_gardener_2

maisie_cat said:

You are not paying them for their actual time, you are paying for qualifications, regulation compliance, CPD, experience, overheads etc etc.

Yes I get it and they are self employed.    Although the real big money seems to be putting in ground pumps etc   .      
As an aside.
I know a solicitor who works as a salaried employee for a local authority and specialises in planning and property matters.   Her gross salary is around 40 k.   
 

tacpot12

I would have thought the job was about £4K, but the guy quoting £3100 perhaps wants the work, and the others are not so bothered. You are aware that you are trying to arrange a job at a busy time for heating engineers. 
Are you sure the one quoting the lower price is actually Gas Safe registered? Do they have an office, or just a mobile phone? I had the boiler replaced at home, as was able to find a good firm to do the work. I was reassured by the fact that they had a physical office, and two members of staff in the office.

ic

and?        

AskAsk

"Ummm  it is a new fit  replacing a fortic tank and storage rads. "

then 3k is extraordinarily cheap.  i would actually worry they will turn out to be a bunch of cowboys if we were quoted this.  unless you are in a part of the country where labour costs are cheap.  where are you located?  in an area where wages are low or high?

fenwick458

seems cheap to me, I'd say it's you who is in la la land!

EssexExile

tacpot12 said:

I would have thought the job was about £4K, but the guy quoting £3100 perhaps wants the work, and the others are not so bothered. You are aware that you are trying to arrange a job at a busy time for heating engineers. 
Are you sure the one quoting the lower price is actually Gas Safe registered? Do they have an office, or just a mobile phone? I had the boiler replaced at home, as was able to find a good firm to do the work. I was reassured by the fact that they had a physical office, and two members of staff in the office.

I don't know many Gas Safe people with an office and staff. Most have a nice house, a big van and a wife to answer the landline.