Daily rate for carpenters

newfunk

John_M_Business wrote:

Ironically (compared with Devon, at least) the P&D's in London are on a lot less than the Carpenters...

About £90-100 (ex. materials).

Of course, you MUST set them specific goals and check up on their work. They have a tendency to.. er... enjoy tea breaks. I ended up finishing my flat on my own because I was fed up with paying decorators and coming back to a virtually unchanged flat.

yeah thats sounds about right for a decorator!! Mind you there is a saying if you can P*ss you can paint!!

trisha

There are decorators and there are painters !

Tilemeister

I am a Tiler and charge £140 a day + materials here in Leicester
so £180 in London is very reasonable,
as long as he gets on with the job not 5 tea breaks a day
Steve

toffyapple

just agree a fixed price for the job - dont have people on day rates for small jobs. no wonder they take lots of tea breaks.. -i only do day rates for friends - otherwise i always give a fixed price for the job - even for kitchens.

alimul

Well i had a private 'handy-man' come along to do some work for me, i needed a bathroom and toilet done for me, this meant installing the bathub/toilet, the tileing, grouting and multi-finish to the walls. Painting well i can do that. Initially he quoted me £700, 4-5 days work max with 2 workers! Alternatively, pay him £100 a day and get the job done in about 7 days. I chose the latter option because i thought, if he works by the day, he'll get more moeny, but the finish will be better.

13 days later the bathroom floors still need to be grouted, the tiles below the border on 2 walls are off by 4mm and 2mm, managed to put the bath tub taps on the wrong way, the toilet he installed was leaking and the grouting for the whole thing was still to do... jesus, we'll theres a saying, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys in return!

TO be fair though, he was usally working non-stop, apart from that bathroom tile cookup, the rest was perfectly done etc, biggest problem was that all the walls were super bent, what where these idiotic builders doing when the built the place? I wonder, when was the spirit level invented? Sheesh!

I tell you what though, watching a builder work, you actually pipickup a lot of things from them! I did the rest of the grouting myself and will do the titling myself next time. Those that are looking or planning to tile themselves, i recommend going to your local ToppsTiles and blagging a copy of their tiling DVD. Information on it is priceless! Very easy and clever techniques that show you how to properly tile and get all the measurements right.

Blimey, that was a long post!

newfunk

I never let the client watch me work, if I do i deliberately do it the wrong way. or tell them the wrong way! I learnt my trade, and it took 6 years,and poor money,and im still learning after 20 years. so why should they pick up your tips and tricks...

doozeruk

newunk wrote:

yeah thats sounds about right for a decorator!! Mind you there is a saying if you can P*ss you can paint!!

You should come work with me for a day, we'll see if YOU can paint or p**s. (no offence)

For sure I see all types of 'decorating' but I take pride in my work, there aren't a great deal of 'traditional' decorators that care a great deal these days. All my work is private, never been on a site and this shines through on most decorators in that category. Site work quickly becomes sloppy and I have seen very good decorators turn to site work, return to private work and then wonder why they never go back to the private customer again!

I live on the Cambs/Norfolk border charge £90 a day, never advertised, can't take any work on till late November and only drink 2 cups of tea a day

Tilemeister

when i said £140 a day i didn't mean day rate.
i would look at the job if takes 2 days thats £280 + materials theres your price.
Not £140 and it will be finished when i fancy.
i was only trying to give a good benchmark to start from.
Sorry if i didn't explain myself very clearly.
Steve

newfunk

doozeruk wrote:

You should come work with me for a day, we'll see if YOU can paint or p**s. (no offence)

For sure I see all types of 'decorating' but I take pride in my work, there aren't a great deal of 'traditional' decorators that care a great deal these days. All my work is private, never been on a site and this shines through on most decorators in that category. Site work quickly becomes sloppy and I have seen very good decorators turn to site work, return to private work and then wonder why they never go back to the private customer again!

I live on the Cambs/Norfolk border charge £90 a day, never advertised, can't take any work on till late November and only drink 2 cups of tea a day

LOL I was only joking!! I agree that traditional decorators take great pride in what they do! Im a joiner by trade, and know excatly what you are saying about site work, and the sloppyness, its the same with Chippies and joiners, there work becomes rough

cattie

Why on earth have you dug and answered a post that's almost 4yrs old?:money: