Grans home needs fixing - help me avoid getting ripped off

plumb1_2

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

Ok dudes just to give you an update.

This building game is a rip off and i was surprised to learn how easy it is to DIY if you have patience, time, tips and tools.

Me, my brother and his mate tore down the existing ceiling in the dining room this weeked and plaster boarded it back up - it looks absolutely superb. All it needs now is a some skimming and we're good. Found a plasterer for £50 per day!!! OH YAS!

We also ripped out all the cladding out of the kitchen, the floor tiles in the kitchen, unscrewed all the kitchen units and took them out, took out some doors and again it looks superb. I was surprised how easy it was to do with a few tips!

I think i've easily saved myself a grand on this and am about to save even more by having my 3 walls repointed at £30 per day!! - a professional pointer told us that it's not rocket science and the difference between me, brother, mate and him doing it is he would be able to do it quicker. It might take us a week or more to do but it saves paying out another £1500.00!

The materials were the costly part of the whole process but they were well worth it. I might even be able to get the tools for free too!

One major thing i have learned here is british people/builders are a f'in rip off compared to the hard grafting foreigners. The grafters are out there to make a name for themselves and are willing to put some elbow muscle in to winning you over. The ridiculously cheap rates were scary at first automatically you think - "they are going to botch it up" but if you have a little bit of the thing called "faith" and do a little digging around how long they been doing it for and/or maybe seeing an example of stuff they already done, you should be onto a winner.

Defo not going to be spending stupid money on this stuff.

I am shocked to see these racist remarks:eek: :mad:

jason_s_2

I think you should take your head out of your !!!! personally sho_me_da_money

sho_me_da_money

bookduck wrote: »

I'm glad you got things together. I'm into IT too for the last 25+ years and I'm on no where near these peoples salary either.

The big factor is spare time, specially if you work. It will take you much longer than a pro.


Jason_s, some IT people are not even on £50 a day I'm on under £70 per day. I don't begrudge paying people or how much they earn, but I (and others) have no choice but to be careful. The fool and his money are easily parted:). I do not care if the person shows up in a Bentley, providing the quote is honest, fair and he is able to do the job. I have a second property for which I've saved for decades just for a deposit, and now I rent it out and I hoping I can survive the forthcoming turbulent market.




Soon as someone tells you this ask how many days. If you are generous add on an extra day (£30) and pay him for the complete job rather than by the day. Jobs always overrun, or the weather is wrong, no water, hole in bucket etc.! It also give him an incentive to finish, rather then just be away from the clutches of his wife

Don't know the area, but could I suggest renting it out and not living in it? There are benefits. Extra income being one.

Hello chap,

Liked your response mate and i concur, i look after servers, domains, 50 staff, No IT team (just me) and get paid close to maybe £100 per day before tax.

I know i graft for the job and thats an IT role that i'm sure requires more technical skill than being a builder.

Now i wont take credit away from builders as i know there's a skill involved but sometime getting a corgi registered qualification and then charging £200 per day/job is taking the pi55 BIG time. Ive got techy qualifications too.

Last week i was almost prepared to part way with £600 to have the kitchen ripped out i.e. cladding, units and floor. But after my brother gave me a few tips, i did it! YES I DID IT and it took me 1 full day. There was hardly anything involved other than getting dirty, unscrewing a few hinges and that's really about it.

The reason why i thought it was hard because every builder who quoted me gave me the old "oooh, lot of work here, gonna have to do this and that". It's like me saying, "oooh will have to make an incremental backup of the hard drive" - sounds alot harder than it actually is. It's all word play.

The other reason why people in this trade take the mick is because they know they can! The house prices in UK are/were rocketing and people wanted to do up and sell. Bulders thought "hang about, let's double up" and people are willing to part cash. As there's no consistency in each quote for the same job, you can clearly identify whose taking the biscuit and whose not. There's 2 types of people in this trade - honest one's and those who simply charge extortion rates to follow what the others are charging.

I would be curious to know how much it cost for the odd plumbing, plastering about 20 years ago. I know there's been inflation etc but just like most of us agree the house prices are ridiculous these days, the same goes for odd jobs like this.

Spoke to my brother and his mate who have both done pointing before and my brother said pay my mate £30 per day and him £15 plus the materials and they'd be more than happy to do it. They have plenty of times on their hand and i am confident they can achieve the same results taking their time on it. It's 5 days vs 1 day (with a pro) but the cost is £250ish vs. £1500.

I know a 20 year old whose been doing odd jobs in building for about 2 years and he has £40,000 stashed away in his bank. Not jealous but i think there's something wrong here.

The job/market rates need looking at in UK or i need to pay for a plumbing course and start ripping people off like most of these builders are (and yes it is daylight robbery). In fact i challenge a builder who makes these rates to work 1 month in McDonalds on the wage they pay and tell me which is harder...Maybe then you will realise, people work extremely hard for pennies.

Charge millionaires the £200 per day rate, but treat people on a case by case basis. Is it fair to charge David Beckham £200 on a plumbing job and me in my council home the same thing? Is it F.

In fact mate, i have a wicked idea IT related, holla me if you fancy knowing.

sho_me_da_money

plumb1 wrote: »

I am shocked to see these racist remarks:eek: :mad:

Wasn't being racist although i can see how it can be misinterpreted.

If i have offended anyone, many apologies.

sho_me_da_money

jason_s wrote: »

I think you should take your head out of your !!!! personally sho_me_da_money

I think you're one of those people who take the mick out of people like me.

Plastering one room for £150??? I think you !!!! is on you're face, because your talking a load of poo? The plasterer who quoted me the same rip off price you mentioned, told me it would take max 3 hours - get stuffed!

jason_s_2

:rotfl: :rotfl: Fignkuc Idiot:rotfl: :rotfl: If i remember correctly you said and the exact words were "you had a plasterer for £50 A DAY"(that means a whole day), you never said anything about a few hrs work did you, so jog on you stupid !!!!, oh and get stuffed yourself:p

Idiophreak

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

Liked your response mate and i concur, i look after servers, domains, 50 staff, No IT team (just me) and get paid close to maybe £100 per day before tax.

First off, glad that you're making progress - a lot of this stuff, it seems, is just making the effort to learn how to do something and getting on with it.

That said, a couple of thoughts re the above:

1) Maybe you're being taken for a ride? I'm a couple of years out of uni, doing pretty straightforward dev work and making more than that. (allbeit a bit further south...) With the responsibilities you mention you'd think you'd be on a fairly decent wage.

2) Just because that's what you get paid, doesn't mean that's what your time is charged at. You may have noticed that a lot of the overheads of those in IT - computers, buildings, benefits etc are all taken care of by the employer and they need to pay for this stuff. Those costs will be passed on to a customer, as well as the labourers wage.

For instance, my last place, I was earning maybe 110 per day pre-tax...but when the clients were given the bill they were charged £250-300/day for my time. This price factors in my wages, my equipment, the building, support staff, insurance, advertising etc etc and, God forbid, a little bit of profit for the company. When you start thinking about it like that, then look at your £50 a day, you realise it ain't really gonna work for any decent business...

sho_me_da_money

Idiophreak wrote: »

First off, glad that you're making progress - a lot of this stuff, it seems, is just making the effort to learn how to do something and getting on with it.

That said, a couple of thoughts re the above:

1) Maybe you're being taken for a ride? I'm a couple of years out of uni, doing pretty straightforward dev work and making more than that. (allbeit a bit further south...) With the responsibilities you mention you'd think you'd be on a fairly decent wage.

2) Just because that's what you get paid, doesn't mean that's what your time is charged at. You may have noticed that a lot of the overheads of those in IT - computers, buildings, benefits etc are all taken care of by the employer and they need to pay for this stuff. Those costs will be passed on to a customer, as well as the labourers wage.

For instance, my last place, I was earning maybe 110 per day pre-tax...but when the clients were given the bill they were charged £250-300/day for my time. This price factors in my wages, my equipment, the building, support staff, insurance, advertising etc etc and, God forbid, a little bit of profit for the company. When you start thinking about it like that, then look at your £50 a day, you realise it ain't really gonna work for any decent business...

True true.

But the £50 per day plasterer/plumber/fitter/builder possesses the same skills and overheads as the rip off plasters aka Jason_S, which begs the question:

How can they afford to do it at that rate and still live reasonably well?

Answer: Because they are honest tradesmen.

To make an analogy - local firms (Geek Squad) charge £100 call out fee and about £150 - 200 for a full format and re installation of an OS. I would and have done the same for about £80 tops and i know that is very reasonable for the work involved - most of it's waiting anyways.

Point being - there are plenty of grafters out there willing to take the same cuts. I for one am absolutely happy that the Europeans are coming over charging these prices - it will inevitably kill off Jason_S's all over.

P.S. i think i am being taken for a ride but to be honest, the work isn't too hard and i enjoy it as a hobby. I think i'm content with what im on. Off course i'd like more but i'm not going to make a hoo ha about it. What i will make a hoo ha about is paying that wage to someone like tosspot above.

jason_s_2

So what your say then mouth almighty is that me, nelly , misgrace , phil, so on and so on who all post on here and are spot on with what they post are all rip off tradesman because thats is the going rate, boy you truely are a knob.ed

Idiophreak

I don't think it's as easy as "honest" or "dishonest" tbh.

An eastern european chav turning up on your doorstep isn't going to have the same costs a "reputable" firm has...they won't have the address you can write to, the freephone number etc. They won't be a lot of help if the wall they're building falls down a year down the line. There's an argument that a single bloke set up in business should charge a bit less than one of the bigger companies..but I think that's usually the case anyway.

So I guess, really, it's the larger companies push the price up...but can you blame people for working for them - they get a regular income, the stability to raise their family, paid holiday etc - all things that most workers take for granted and things that a european fella working on the cheap aren't gonna be too worried about. These aren't conmen, just regular people trying to make a living (admittedly, a lot of them doing a fairly good living, too )