Cost to change bath tub and a few bits - Expensive quote??
Discussion
kingston12 said:
At least he is being honest that he is charging £300 a day labour. It does seem a bit high, but if the market is anything like in London it seems difficult to get anything done at any price.
The daily labour rate is often well hidden, and can look too high when broken out.
A friend recently had a £3k quote for supply and fit of a new boiler. When he added up the (retail) price of all of the parts, accessories mentioned on the quote, the total was less than £2k. The plumber confirmed that the job would be completed in less than a day...
Was that £2500+vat? If so then it's a decent rate but not ludicrous for him to charge £500. The daily labour rate is often well hidden, and can look too high when broken out.
A friend recently had a £3k quote for supply and fit of a new boiler. When he added up the (retail) price of all of the parts, accessories mentioned on the quote, the total was less than £2k. The plumber confirmed that the job would be completed in less than a day...
I'm not sure where this obsession with trades earning £150 a day comes from. Actually I will tell you, £150 a day is what a tradesman costs to the employ.
I.e it's £150 a day day rate for joe Bloggs to work for Mr boss man every day with constant work. He turns up at 8 or whatever and leaves at 5 or whatever. He might have a few hand tools and a y reg mondeo full of McDonald's breakfast wrappers. He wouldn't know how to make out an invoice, how to sort his tax out, how to do a vat return and won't know what being a sole trader means.
For a self employed tradesman with his own van, tools, liability, advertising (because if your a lot of trades even with lots of recommendations you still need more leads), all that and the endless time driving about quoting jobs, writing quotes up, funding people's home improvements until they are complete then £150 a day is ridiculous.
£300 a day is on the other end though and that's pretty damn steep, I would be surprised for many people to actually agree to that as a day rate.
3,4,500 a day and more is do able if you have people who work for you, years of experience meaning relentless leads etc etc, but then that's no longer a trade, that's really a business and hopefully a business which will be there for any after care etc.
People who run a business for £150 a day do exist, but only for a short time, until they realise that it doesn't physically work to operate like that. It's very difficult.
There's also a big difference between a plasterer (no dig at them here, just using as an example) who has a van, hand tools, some drills, steps etc to someone like myself who has diggers, Breakers, wackers , mixers, cutters all being tools which get an extremely hard time and as such won't last for 20 years.
I.e it's £150 a day day rate for joe Bloggs to work for Mr boss man every day with constant work. He turns up at 8 or whatever and leaves at 5 or whatever. He might have a few hand tools and a y reg mondeo full of McDonald's breakfast wrappers. He wouldn't know how to make out an invoice, how to sort his tax out, how to do a vat return and won't know what being a sole trader means.
For a self employed tradesman with his own van, tools, liability, advertising (because if your a lot of trades even with lots of recommendations you still need more leads), all that and the endless time driving about quoting jobs, writing quotes up, funding people's home improvements until they are complete then £150 a day is ridiculous.
£300 a day is on the other end though and that's pretty damn steep, I would be surprised for many people to actually agree to that as a day rate.
3,4,500 a day and more is do able if you have people who work for you, years of experience meaning relentless leads etc etc, but then that's no longer a trade, that's really a business and hopefully a business which will be there for any after care etc.
People who run a business for £150 a day do exist, but only for a short time, until they realise that it doesn't physically work to operate like that. It's very difficult.
There's also a big difference between a plasterer (no dig at them here, just using as an example) who has a van, hand tools, some drills, steps etc to someone like myself who has diggers, Breakers, wackers , mixers, cutters all being tools which get an extremely hard time and as such won't last for 20 years.
IanCormac said:
Was that £2500+vat? If so then it's a decent rate but not ludicrous for him to charge £500.
It was £2,500+vat, but equally the £2k of parts costs that were included also included vat, so the labour rate was more than £500. Also, as has been pointed out, these guys are sourcing the boilers much cheaper than we could buy them at retail, so I'd not be surprised if there would have been more like £1k 'labour' in that job.
I think that is far too high, and he didn't get the job because of it. On the other side, as m3jappa says above, I don't think that people can expect really low day rates because the cost of running a van, the business admin and the fact that the tradesman won't be working every day make it unaffordable.
Edited by kingston12 on Thursday 26th January 08:44
LookAtMyCat said:
I serviced a one-year old Main Eco Combi 24 the other week. A £400 boiler. The customer paid £1550 all in and they thought that was good as the other 2 quotes were ~1700-1800. He was done by 3pm.
Your mate tell you about the guys earning 1k by 3pm?
That's nuts! These days, there is so much money about (in certain sections of the economy) that people probably don't even think about it anymore.Your mate tell you about the guys earning 1k by 3pm?
On the downside, I suppose it may make people outside of that bubble less likely to get their boiler serviced. I suppose they stick with the British Gas £20/month maintenance scheme which includes a service.
LookAtMyCat said:
I serviced a one-year old Main Eco Combi 24 the other week. A £400 boiler. The customer paid £1550 all in and they thought that was good as the other 2 quotes were ~1700-1800. He was done by 3pm.
Your mate tell you about the guys earning 1k by 3pm?
I know exactly what he makes, so yes. He also knows its a bubble thats going to pop. He's not stupid. Its easy work...Your mate tell you about the guys earning 1k by 3pm?
Earning and getting paid are not the same thing.
Edited by jason61c on Thursday 26th January 12:58
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