Trades daily rates
Discussion
Mick Dastardly said:
I thought that at first but there’s a very robust code of honour amongst window cleaners, they all know each other and don’t steal each others business, and on the very rare instances it happens I’ve heard a group of large angry men will speak to the rascal and advise him that if he persists, he won’t have fingers capable of holding a pole.
That seems to do the trick.
That seems to do the trick.
So your really the local mafia ?
Chumley.mouse said:
Mick Dastardly said:
I thought that at first but there’s a very robust code of honour amongst window cleaners, they all know each other and don’t steal each others business, and on the very rare instances it happens I’ve heard a group of large angry men will speak to the rascal and advise him that if he persists, he won’t have fingers capable of holding a pole.
That seems to do the trick.
That seems to do the trick.
So your really the local mafia ?
PositronicRay said:
I can confirm this, wanting my windows cleaned I approached a guy I spotted performing the task. When I told him my address Earnie went a bit shaky, apparently two ton Ted controls this part of the tiddington road.
??Last thing he wanted was to be taken down by a stale pork pie
Chumley.mouse said:
So your really the local mafia ?
That said, I have 2 friends who I’ve known for decades who are window cleaners, and whilst I’m a big strong chap I really wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of either of them.
Most window cleaners=shaved chimps.
PositronicRay said:
Do your lads read PH?
No, apart from my youngest neither of my other 2 have any social media profile.When they were setting up I drilled into them to always return their calls, texts and emails, and do what they said they’ll do, when they said they’ll do it, at the price they’d quoted, and by doing that they’d already be better than 2/3rds of their competitors.
We got them a liveried van and uniforms from the start, and after every clean a card is dropped in giving the time of clean, money owed and payment options. They’ve got loads of extra business just by looking and acting professionally.
Teddy Lop said:
monkfish1 said:
I dont think we ever have valued trades in this country.
But it got much worse when Tony Blair decided everone should go to university. The message being anyone that didnt was a failure.
And here we are. Lack of trades people.
Not going to get better either.
You reap what you sow.
Anyone with practical skills now is never going to be short of work.
True. Even though the skilled trades have always been talked up, working with your hands has always been looked down on by many.But it got much worse when Tony Blair decided everone should go to university. The message being anyone that didnt was a failure.
And here we are. Lack of trades people.
Not going to get better either.
You reap what you sow.
Anyone with practical skills now is never going to be short of work.
But today I'm finding there's even more divergence going on; people have absolutely no idea what it is we do, and often no comprehension of how little they know, yet still labour under a delusion that because it's dirty work undertaken by non-graduates it must be simple and lesser. The influx of cheap east European labour, who bring with them a subservience and willingness to stumble through any task no matter how many attempts it takes, hasn't helped this - the number of times I've had to ask people to a) stop calling the idiot who's work I'm fixing an "electrician", he wasn't, and b) stop trying to help and/or direct, you now have someone who knows what he's doing.
Even the industry is contaminated by this thinking, marching forwards issuing ever more stupid rules thinking they can regulate their way out of poor workmanship by those who don't know or really care. No. Accept and appreciate that every man has to be skilled at his job and enforce that as your starting base. As mentioned, painting is one of the best and simplest examples of this - the "any idiot can paint right" idea. No, any idiot can smossh paint onto a wall, a decent painter with speed, skill and care is something else entirely.
There was a moment back there when the laptop class were sent home and told to fiddle around and videochat all day where a few did look at those who do the things that keep the world going round and twigged a bit though.
Hopefully wages will increase as the skills become more scarce and the industry will recruit again. The process will only take 10 years or so……
Mick Dastardly said:
When they were setting up I drilled into them to always return their calls, texts and emails, and do what they said they’ll do, when they said they’ll do it, at the price they’d quoted, and by doing that they’d already be better than 2/3rds of their competitors.
Nonsense.They'd be better than 90% of tradespeople.
Slowboathome said:
Nonsense.
They'd be better than 90% of tradespeople.
Haha, I was trying to be somewhat diplomatic, but you’re spot on.They'd be better than 90% of tradespeople.
As the long suffering owner of a big old house and 3 small businesses, my journey to find decent, reliable trades to use has been a long and frustrating one.
Just when I thought I’d finally ticked every trades box, my marvellous heating engineer/plumber had the temerity to retire last month at the sickeningly youthful age of 75.
There’s no work in these people nowadays.
The trades in this country are faltering, a lack of decent apprenticeships put paid to that, and the usless degrees offered by universities enticed those that would have been better on the tools....
were seeing folk with uni education and a degree thats usless with debt seeing some on the tools earning 80k a year and happy....
trades are despised and looked down on....
were seeing folk with uni education and a degree thats usless with debt seeing some on the tools earning 80k a year and happy....
trades are despised and looked down on....
Mick Dastardly said:
Of course there are loads of other window cleaners you dullard.
On some estates my sons clean there can be up to a dozen other window cleaners on there, all doing their own work, although more usually it’s 3 or 4.
I’m not sure you realise just how many windows need cleaning: in my own town there are 41000 houses, so say half of those have a window cleaner that’s 20000. So say an average lone window cleaner has 250 customers, that town needs 80 window cleaners.
It’s a business no one gives a second glance to, but now I’m involved I see them everywhere.
Sounds like Dragon’s Den quality pitch. This time next year Rodney On some estates my sons clean there can be up to a dozen other window cleaners on there, all doing their own work, although more usually it’s 3 or 4.
I’m not sure you realise just how many windows need cleaning: in my own town there are 41000 houses, so say half of those have a window cleaner that’s 20000. So say an average lone window cleaner has 250 customers, that town needs 80 window cleaners.
It’s a business no one gives a second glance to, but now I’m involved I see them everywhere.
Sheepshanks said:
I didn’t know this until after it was done but the electrician working for our builder doing our extension / refurb charged each point at £65 plus VAT. For things like downlights, where they’re just looped together, that’s absolutely insane.
And how on earth did your job take a week? Rewiring a stripped back room is an absolute dream of a job - it’s hard to imagine anything easier.
I think most electricians charge per point now.And how on earth did your job take a week? Rewiring a stripped back room is an absolute dream of a job - it’s hard to imagine anything easier.
Made me rethink about how many we actually needed. I asked for an additional double socket for a TV half way up the wall, it was above a socket that was going in anyway so there was no additional chase, just knocking out space for the backbox along the chase route he was doing for the other socket.
Another £75.
I look at it now and think perhaps I didn't get enough sockets but at the time when I was spending over £4k anyway just on the kitchen electrics, I was trying to keep costs down.
He seems very meticulous and works on this own, everything seemed to take him an age.
Stupidly I didn't query the additional cost when he asked if I wanted a heat detector in the kitchen and a carbon monoxide one in the garage where the boiler is.........£128 and £144 each.
I should have just said no and continued with the battery ones I have now.
Wagonwheel555 said:
Sheepshanks said:
I didn’t know this until after it was done but the electrician working for our builder doing our extension / refurb charged each point at £65 plus VAT. For things like downlights, where they’re just looped together, that’s absolutely insane.
And how on earth did your job take a week? Rewiring a stripped back room is an absolute dream of a job - it’s hard to imagine anything easier.
I think most electricians charge per point now.And how on earth did your job take a week? Rewiring a stripped back room is an absolute dream of a job - it’s hard to imagine anything easier.
Made me rethink about how many we actually needed. I asked for an additional double socket for a TV half way up the wall, it was above a socket that was going in anyway so there was no additional chase, just knocking out space for the backbox along the chase route he was doing for the other socket.
Another £75.
I look at it now and think perhaps I didn't get enough sockets but at the time when I was spending over £4k anyway just on the kitchen electrics, I was trying to keep costs down.
He seems very meticulous and works on this own, everything seemed to take him an age.
Stupidly I didn't query the additional cost when he asked if I wanted a heat detector in the kitchen and a carbon monoxide one in the garage where the boiler is.........£128 and £144 each.
I should have just said no and continued with the battery ones I have now.
I know guys charging £300 just to wire in a cooker... into existing wires... let alone if new stuff needs put in. I just think it's went a bit wild West out there. Kind of wished I pushed to become one after I done the sect test as a teen... then I remember my knees are destroyed so couldn't crawl anywhere they do
Just had a quote to fit some parquet vinyl flooring in herringbone throughout my whole downstairs. It's the click together stuff so no gluing etc required.
I have 140sqm to cover. For fitting only I've just been quoted £5500!!!! For a weeks work! Is this normal?! I'm in Berks. Have phoned a few other people for more quotes to compare!
I have 140sqm to cover. For fitting only I've just been quoted £5500!!!! For a weeks work! Is this normal?! I'm in Berks. Have phoned a few other people for more quotes to compare!
nick s said:
Just had a quote to fit some parquet vinyl flooring in herringbone throughout my whole downstairs. It's the click together stuff so no gluing etc required.
I have 140sqm to cover. For fitting only I've just been quoted £5500!!!! For a weeks work! Is this normal?! I'm in Berks. Have phoned a few other people for more quotes to compare!
Is that including self leveling?I have 140sqm to cover. For fitting only I've just been quoted £5500!!!! For a weeks work! Is this normal?! I'm in Berks. Have phoned a few other people for more quotes to compare!
Sheepshanks said:
Wagonwheel555 said:
Just had an electrician rewire our kitchen (it was back to brick already) and install it all on a new consumer unit in the garage. Rest of the house was left on the old consumer unit for now until we rewire all of that to the new board.
Came to £4500 inc VAT.
I roughly calculated materials to around £1500 which was probably generous and it took him 5 days.
Works out to around £600 per day.
He seemed to charge per item so a socket was £75 x as many as you want
Same for downlights, it was £60 per item.
Expecting the rewire for the rest to be about £5-£6k so around £10k all in.
I didn’t know this until after it was done but the electrician working for our builder doing our extension / refurb charged each point at £65 plus VAT. For things like downlights, where they’re just looped together, that’s absolutely insane.Came to £4500 inc VAT.
I roughly calculated materials to around £1500 which was probably generous and it took him 5 days.
Works out to around £600 per day.
He seemed to charge per item so a socket was £75 x as many as you want
Same for downlights, it was £60 per item.
Expecting the rewire for the rest to be about £5-£6k so around £10k all in.
And how on earth did your job take a week? Rewiring a stripped back room is an absolute dream of a job - it’s hard to imagine anything easier.
I think trades have been undervalued, what we've seen in a rebalance of needed skillsets. Some of the soft white collar roles have been over valued, they're now coming down. Also given the lack of 'practical' play/devleopment young adults have experienced, it means they're less able than those born pre 1990(ish).
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