Daily Rate. Neighbours Son weed clearing

[Roger645]

My front drive is gravel and needs weeding, it's 20m long by 7m wide and will probably take a good day to clear well. Neighbours son is 17 and said he would clear it, not sure on what to pay him, any ideas what a fair day rate would be?

thanks.

[Frog Dog]

£20.

[ROB_GTR]

£1,000,000 or he will don his hoody and smash all your windows

[VeeFour]

A lex said:

If it really is a whole day and he works hard id say 40quid - thats only a fiver an hr for what is a fairly laborious job.

And he's 17, so it's perfectly legal to pay him less than the national minimum wage

[m8rky]

I would say £35-45 would be fair depending on how good a job he does.

[zaphod42]

Offer him £35 for the job to be done. If he does a good job, give him £45. Either way you have a bargain, and he might learn a lesson that a good job done well gets additional reward.

[mrmr96]

zaphod42 said:

Offer him £35 for the job to be done. If he does a good job, give him £45. Either way you have a bargain, and he might learn a lesson that a good job done well gets additional reward.

Agreed.

Would it be best to pay for the job to be done right, or by the hour? I'm thinking paying him for the job to be done right, else you could find it 'takes all day' and still isn't done right, depending on his work ethic.

I reckon set a minimum standard then pay when it's done. That way if he works faster he gets time off, which I think is fair and doesn't encourage slacking.

[russ_a]

Can you send him round to mine as I need someone to insulate the floor.

[Simon Brooks]

Agree a price for the whole job

[Du1point8]

Is it just me that thinks you should agree the price first just in case you only think its worth £35 and he has been doing it all day (8hrs) and he thinks you then have ripped him off and then your neighbour aint so friendly anymore.

[al bebak]

ask him to give you a price for the finished job.
you then know what he expects.
i tried to get my 9yr old to do our side of the house in between the block paving 7 x 4 mts for a fiver lol she only lasted about an hour and didnt get far.
its one poxy job and most of the side is only moss in the joint

[pokethepope]

Could you not spend the £40 on one of those flame thrower weeders and DIY while having some fun?

[blueg33]

My 15 year old gets paid £30 per day doing labouring type work for neighbours. He wouldn't work for less apparently

[deeen]

I think minimum wage at 17 is 3.68 per hour?

[Rude-boy]

I'm in the agree a price for the job.

Personally I would be looking at agreeing something like £35 and then if i think that they have done a good job giving them another £10-15 bonus for doing a good job. Just don't tell him about the bonus first otherwise you might have the issue of arguing over what a 'good job' is...

[spike ST500]

Rude-boy said:

I'm in the agree a price for the job.

Personally I would be looking at agreeing something like £35 and then if i think that they have done a good job giving them another £10-15 bonus for doing a good job. Just don't tell him about the bonus first otherwise you might have the issue of arguing over what a 'good job' is...

+1

[dickymint]

Are you sure the Boy didn't offer to sell you some weed?

[Shaolin]

I'd go for the reasonable but not that high price for the whole job plus a bonus for doing it well - don't make it as simple as "£10 if it's done well" as he'll expect to get the £10 and be pissed off if he doesn't, maybe suggest a fiver but make it a discretionary tenner.

I've paid my son's friends in the past to feed our fish, water containers etc. while we've been on holiday, basic price + £2 for every container still alive worked very well, they had an incentive to do it properly and we could both see it was done right.