Carpet fitting quote

GTXLR

Evening all,

Please can you tell me if the following quote for carpet fitting is accurate/fair. It's the labor side that concerns me. Since we've sourced the carpet and know the costs it's confusing why they are saying it's more than we calculated (I know it may be a tad more to allow for wastage) I'm concerned they are charging more for labour than should be and hiding it in the materials costs.

It's a 4 bed house that's completely empty (new build) so no old carpets or furniture in the way. It has the following rooms/dimensions(in meters) that need carpet:

Bed1: 3.63x3.49 ~12.7m2
Bed2: 3.63x3.24~11.8m2
Bed3: 3.99x2.93~11.7m2
Bed4: 3.55x2.31~8.2m2
Lounge: 4.84x3.57~17.3m2
Study: 3.9x2.95~11.5m2
Landing: 6.69m2 in a "U" shape
Stairs: 4.58m2 (straight stairs, no corners)

Quote:
Carpet: £2300
Upstairs underlay: £600(bedrooms, landing, stairs)
Downstairs UFH underlay: £250(study/lounge)
Sticky for gripper: £40
Door trims £110
Labour (2 days, 2 men): £1390
Total: £4700


We had already sourced the carpets and underlay at the following prices: 
Carpet: £19.2 per M2
Stairs/upstairs underlay: £6.5 per M2
Study/lounge underlay: £126.99 per 15m2

By my calculations that makes total cost of carpet+underlay £2366.16 not allowing for wastage. So £2333 is closer to the real labour cost?

All help is appreciated 

singhini

Looking at your calculations i would agree with you. 

I noticed that they quoted Labour as 2 men 2 days (they always do this). My experiences have been it only takes them 1 day but they always charge for 2

Generally speaking the labour cost even at £1,390 seems alot. I quick search of the high street shop TAPI would suggest they charge from £5.50 m2 https://www.tapi.co.uk/carpet/seahawk


My fag pack analysis (using TAPI as an example):
Carpet (lets say to spent) £19.00 m2 
Underlay £10.00 m2   (Miracle Medium) https://www.tapi.co.uk/underlay?dynNav=Usage::Medium; 
Fitting £8.00 m2  (it says "from" £5.50 so ive used £8.00)
Coverage 88 m2 (i made your calculations = 84 so i've put 88)

So that's: £19.00 + £10.00 + £8.00 = £37.00 m2 x 88m = £3,250 + £150 (grippers/door trims) = £3,400ish


If we go with your figure of £2,366 and add £1,000 for fitting ( a generous £250 per day per man) thats still inline with my fag pack analysis.  

Now i admit my calculations are "fag pack" but trying to charge £4,700 seems alot. 

Albermarle

Obvious question is are you and the fitter looking at exactly the same carpets and underlay?
Presumably the bedroom and stairs carpet are not the same?

Also you have to take into account carpet fitters/suppliers will be wanting to make a profit, over and above the labour cost.

diveunderthebonnet

Get a price from another carpet fitting company and see if any different.

daveyjp

For a full house job get a quote for supply and fit.  Let the fitters have the headache if the carpet has a problem. 

GTXLR

Hi all, thanks for the replys.

To clear up some questions;

Albermarle said:

Obvious question is are you and the fitter looking at exactly the same carpets and underlay?
Presumably the bedroom and stairs carpet are not the same?

I hope we are, I told them exactly what carpet/underlay I wanted including brand and even sent a couple of links to websites where I found it at the best price.

All carpet is the same, underlay is different.

Get a price from another carpet fitting company and see if any different.

Exactly what I've done. Asked another local business today by sending them room measurements got a quote for "4854.62 + vat" .....

For reference we are in the northwest of Suffolk.

So I'm guessing carpet fitters are just expensive round these parts?

MysteryMe

I've recently had 3 bedrooms, stairs and hall carpeted. New grippers, door bars, underlay & carpet. I'm in north Essex.

The bedrooms were done on three different days, the stairs and landing same day, but each bedroom was done 60 to 90 mins. Total labour charged by the fitter arranged through Tapi was £410 including the Tapi arrangement fee of £60. One man job each time, same fitter as it happens. Your fitting quote seems high. Two people should easily be able to fit all that in a day.