Trades daily rates

[mattvanders]

My plaster is £200 a day with material at extra cost, this is for Essex but commutable to London. He’s a one man band and really does take his time but there’s been a few times i’m come home from work and he’s been working past 6pm working the surface to make it super smooth (have had others do work but not to the same standard).

[037]

Charging a day rate price against a job isn't a great way of making good money unless you have lots of guys working for you.
Once you have taken time to go and see a job, workout what you need in materials and tools, collect said items from suppliers, complete said job, invoice and check payment has gone in etc..
My Plumber used to say £1.50 for the part, £100 to know what to do with it.
So much work about at the moment that unless you say 'when can you start' they will just move on to the next customer.

[a311]

We're getting an extension/renovation of our house at the minute.

We've had a couple of additional requests done on a day rate basis which is basically £25/hr for unskilled labour abd £35 for skilled. They're all employed by the builder and salaried.

This is in Cumbria.

[ashleyman]

Drain hot and cold services along with heating system.
Remove existing sanitary ware in bathroom.
Lift floorboards and cap pipework below using soldered caps.
Test new caps and re fit floorboards.
Externally cap toilet, basin and bath waste pipes.
Alter existing heating pipework within floor space to suit new radiator position. Leave isolated within floor space to be
picked up when room is complete.
Once room is plastered and decorated (by others), fit new radiator and connect to previously installed pipework.
Re fill heating system and add one litre of corrosion inhibitor. Vent and test.
Remove corner basin in bathroom and replace with spare basin pedestal.
Leave all new working sound.

Labour = £750.00
Materials + £65.00
TOTAL = £815.00

Want to remove an en-suite to turn it into a dressing room. Mate (surveyor) reckons it's a days work. So this guy is charging £100+ an hour. MAD.

[LuckyThirteen]

If that's for two of them there effecting then it's fair

ETA

Just realised that two separate visits! In which case MORE than fair, even if just him

[Mr Whippy]

ashleyman said:

Drain hot and cold services along with heating system.
Remove existing sanitary ware in bathroom.
Lift floorboards and cap pipework below using soldered caps.
Test new caps and re fit floorboards.
Externally cap toilet, basin and bath waste pipes.
Alter existing heating pipework within floor space to suit new radiator position. Leave isolated within floor space to be
picked up when room is complete.
Once room is plastered and decorated (by others), fit new radiator and connect to previously installed pipework.
Re fill heating system and add one litre of corrosion inhibitor. Vent and test.
Remove corner basin in bathroom and replace with spare basin pedestal.
Leave all new working sound.

Labour = £750.00
Materials + £65.00
TOTAL = £815.00

Want to remove an en-suite to turn it into a dressing room. Mate (surveyor) reckons it's a days work. So this guy is charging £100+ an hour. MAD.

It’s two days because they have to come twice, plus their visit to quote.
Plus possibly another day because of some random variable.

Before you know it, it’s £50 an hour for actual time expended which might not be that great.



My 2p.

Learn how to drain/refill your DCW, DHW and CH system. I was doing this in my first home with no previous experience.

Soldering is actually pretty easy. I mean ‘trades’ do it so how hard can it be? Capping off is easy to test on all runs.
You’re not running a fuel line for a Saturn V engine afterall.

Modern CH systems, or old gravity, pretty much self-sort themselves, just the rads to bleed.


Do it on a Friday and have returning trades ready for Tuesday so if it all goes tits up you can get help.

[ashleyman]

Mr Whippy said:

ashleyman said:

Drain hot and cold services along with heating system.
Remove existing sanitary ware in bathroom.
Lift floorboards and cap pipework below using soldered caps.
Test new caps and re fit floorboards.
Externally cap toilet, basin and bath waste pipes.
Alter existing heating pipework within floor space to suit new radiator position. Leave isolated within floor space to be
picked up when room is complete.
Once room is plastered and decorated (by others), fit new radiator and connect to previously installed pipework.
Re fill heating system and add one litre of corrosion inhibitor. Vent and test.
Remove corner basin in bathroom and replace with spare basin pedestal.
Leave all new working sound.

Labour = £750.00
Materials + £65.00
TOTAL = £815.00

Want to remove an en-suite to turn it into a dressing room. Mate (surveyor) reckons it's a days work. So this guy is charging £100+ an hour. MAD.

It’s two days because they have to come twice, plus their visit to quote.
Plus possibly another day because of some random variable.

Before you know it, it’s £50 an hour for actual time expended which might not be that great.



My 2p.

Learn how to drain/refill your DCW, DHW and CH system. I was doing this in my first home with no previous experience.

Soldering is actually pretty easy. I mean ‘trades’ do it so how hard can it be? Capping off is easy to test on all runs.
You’re not running a fuel line for a Saturn V engine afterall.

Modern CH systems, or old gravity, pretty much self-sort themselves, just the rads to bleed.


Do it on a Friday and have returning trades ready for Tuesday so if it all goes tits up you can get help.

I am going to learn how to do it as I personally don't see how it justifies 2 whole days work. They're not removing the bathroom or doing any strip literally just capping supplies and moving a radiator.

I've drained my CH system before when I took the rads out of other rooms to have plastered. So I know how to do it and can quite easily do that part.

I don't have a problem with the quote. It's fair if it's over 2 whole days. Vans to run, insurance, tax, and the rest, I get it. But I can't help but think that the budgeting a whole day for re-attaching the radiator is a bit of a pisstake. I won't fight over half a days work. The lad would be getting the job but I didn't think it would be that much. Especially when I will need to do the actual rip out and disposal myself.

I had 2 electricians in last month for 2 days each and they were £950 including all lights and cables. Plasterer was £280 a day in January including materials.

Paying a carpenter £800 odd quid this week to install some skirting, coving replace a window and re-fit a door that's dropped. That felt very expensive but he's the only person who has actually bothered to come and quote and also follow up with said quote!

Edited by ashleyman on Monday 27th March 18:19

[MOBB]

037 said:

On the £8k quote, did the decorator suggest he would work alone for 10 days to complete the job? Any materials or scaffolding included?

Just himself, supplying just the white emulsion

When we respectfully declined, he admitted he had sent us the wrong quote and it should be £6k

[sherman]

MOBB said:

037 said:

On the £8k quote, did the decorator suggest he would work alone for 10 days to complete the job? Any materials or scaffolding included?

Just himself, supplying just the white emulsion

When we respectfully declined, he admitted he had sent us the wrong quote and it should be £6k

I hope you got 2 coats for that

[a311]

Decorating is a funny one, as it's something that most able bodied people can do themselves.

It is however time consuming. In our kitchen it's a blank canvas, fresh plaster, mist coat then white emulsion has probably taken ~5 days even with a good selection of steps and ladders-the ceiling is 5M high in one area. Add a couple more days for putting a colour on, another couple for wood work and you're up to 2 weeks quite easily.

I'd still rather do it myself though.

[markbigears]

Not according to my wife … it can all be done in a day

[anonymous-user]

a311 said:

Decorating is a funny one, as it's something that most able bodied people can do themselves.

It is however time consuming. In our kitchen it's a blank canvas, fresh plaster, mist coat then white emulsion has probably taken ~5 days even with a good selection of steps and ladders-the ceiling is 5M high in one area. Add a couple more days for putting a colour on, another couple for wood work and you're up to 2 weeks quite easily.

I'd still rather do it myself though.

You are right that most able bodied people can do decorating, but whether they can do it well is a different matter. I have seen plenty of poor DIY wallpaper and paintwork in my time.

Sometimes a DIY'er has an eye for it, and can get a nice finish, perfect cutting in lines, perfect wallpaper joins, and so on, but IMO an experienced decorator will leave the whole job looking a lot sharper and better finished than the householder.

[dingg]

Exterior painting of house, roof cleaned and sprayed with anti algae, small cracks repair in render, prime where required and two top coats, all exposed timber prepped and varnished. Portugal

Last year quote off the books cash job 5k Portuguese company , came and quoted, painted samples on wall for to pick the colour, never returned to complete the job, its Portugal and not unusual lol

This year discussed at length with Portuguese company no iva(vat) cash job etc quote arrived 11k plus iva at 23%

Bloke who does the work on the side no vat cash in hand 7k. Exactly same workscope.

He starts end of April, works out about 3k materials and 200e a day labour, thats a good day rate out here, but there's so much work about and lots of expats happy to just have the work done at any cost, it is what it is.

Canadian guy doing the work

[Square Leg]

I’m into my 38th year of decorating for a living, and currently price jobs between £180-200 per day.

I’m at that stage in life that I don’t need to work 5 days a week, so if I don’t get a job it’s no bother.

Over the years though, I’ve made good money - wallpapering can pay very well - I now charge £25 per roll to hang paper with a value of up to £50 per roll, between £50 - £100 per roll my rate goes up to £35 per roll to hang.
I can easily hang 10 rolls in a day (I work 9-4) with the new paste the wall stuff.

Anything over £100 is open to discussion on hanging costs - once had £1k per roll paper and they paid me £100 per roll to hang.
That was a nice 3 day job.

[Olivera]

Square Leg said:

Over the years though, I’ve made good money - wallpapering can pay very well

It seems that way if you own a Golf R and Giulia Quadrifoglio (amongst others) :O

[Olivera]

Isn't a big 'in the trade' perk being payed cash in hand, pocketing most of it, then declaring (if anything) a vastly reduced amount to the tax man?

[Collectingbrass]

Olivera said:

Sheepshanks said:

The decorating firm our builder used was very neat - their cutting in is spot on - but they basically just painted everything as they found it. They only really worked 5hr days too.

Yup, in my experience most decorators (and probably all trades) are finishing most days by 3-4pm, then calling it quits by early afternoon on a Friday.

Lets face it we all would if we could, but how many of us would leave home early enough to be on site and working at 7 or 8, not 9?

[Square Leg]

Olivera said:

Isn't a big 'in the trade' perk being payed cash in hand, pocketing most of it, then declaring (if anything) a vastly reduced amount to the tax man?

You’d like to think that, and days gone by it happened, but for many years it’s all been bank transfer.

To your other comment above about my cars - what people don’t see is the years I (and many other trades I know) worked 7 days a week and well into the evening to get a business up and running.
Never turned work away.

Reckon I did 10 years of that fairly consistently and it nearly finished me off.
A knackered shoulder from falling off a ladder (and 4 months unpaid), the arthritis in my knees and fingers from climbing ladders, scaffolding and shinning across roofs, the infected cuts and splinters - all part of being in a trade.
Do I regret my life choice and wished I’d been sat at a desk instead?

Nope.

(Oh, the cars (and houses) - wife has a good job…. )

Edited by Square Leg on Tuesday 28th March 13:30

[HRL]

Just had two bathrooms refitted. £175 a day for the plumber/builder here in North Devon.

Done all the painting myself.

Had an emergency call out for an electrician on Sunday as our ground floor sockets kept tripping and I couldn’t trace the fault. Took his son to laser quest with my own son and his friend, treated them to a takeaway afterwards, electrician declined to invoice me.

He’s a good guy as that was way less than the invoice would have been typically, I’m sure.

Got about 35 windows to sand, fix and repaint once it’s a bit warmer. Four of which are bay windows. Perhaps once I’ve got on top of the work at home I might start to offer small decorating services via FB myself, it seems the work is out there.

[Flooble]

Collectingbrass said:

Lets face it we all would if we could, but how many of us would leave home early enough to be on site and working at 7 or 8, not 9?

I do generally get to my desk by 0800, as do a lot of my colleagues. But yes, I know trades who leave at 0530 to be on site and ready to work by 0700. And the ones who knock off at 1500 or 1600 usually work straight through.