Good tradesmen
Author
Discussion

ozzerr

Original Poster:

348 posts

228 months

Friday 24th October 2008
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Another credit crunch one i am afraid,a few good blokes i have worked along side are struggling to find work all the main contractors they normally work for no longer want/need sub-contractors they are laying off their own men and private work at this time of year is always bad.They are good guys and is showing bigtime already how stty things are getting already.They are thinking of working overseas again as they did this years ago during the last recession.So anyone need some good carpenters have tools will travel.

Stamp

3,609 posts

266 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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Will travel from where?

ALawson

8,054 posts

281 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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True, I know someone paid 7k per bathroom labour for a refit. There were two of them and they spent 5 days per bathroom.

His wife was telling me that it was good value! £700 per day per man.


cardigankid

8,879 posts

242 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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Look, I wish you guys the best of luck, but I think Tonker has a good point. I was trying to get the control unit on the office central heating changed last week, phoned about five people, finally got one to come in as he was passing and he said 'Job too small, waste of my time'. To which I said 'Well I need it done, how much do you want?' his reply being, 'Not interested, I have already wasted half an hour coming out to look at it'.

There isn't really a crisis among tradesmen yet, apart from maybe guys without a source of work who have been laid off from the housing industry. Plumbers, as always, the worst.

ed. Subsequently got it sorted via a contact, but less easy than I expected.

Edited by cardigankid on Saturday 25th October 09:18

Ferg

15,242 posts

287 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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cardigankid said:
Plumbers, as always, the worst.
Important to differentiate, though, between Plumbers and those wkers who were convinced by the bks the tabloids told them about plumbers earning fortunes and took a 6 week couse to 'train' to be 'plumbers'.
These s have given the trade a bad name since, in my opinion, I wouldn't send a boy out on his own and call him a Plumber until he'd done 5 years.

Wheelrepairit

3,046 posts

234 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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Just been quoted £3800 to fit an ensuite.

Take off materials and you end up at £560 a day labour

Im in the wrong job

spikeyhead

20,479 posts

227 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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Wheelrepairit said:
Just been quoted £3800 to fit an ensuite.

Take off materials and you end up at £560 a day labour

Im in the wrong job
Either wait six months or DIY

Reidy10_0

1,123 posts

234 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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All the guys I know in the building game are running around in Range rover sports and the like with big houses all built during the boom of the last 5 years.

Gone are the days when if you were thick at school you were given a brickies trowel, a slap on the back and sent in to the real world.

Dont even get me started about plumbers!


Greeny

1,423 posts

289 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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Tonker, I might be interested in quoting you for the doors, where in London?

dirkgently

2,160 posts

261 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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So if you work in the city or as a barrister or a banker sitting behind a desk and surfing PH all day Its OK to earn £200ph
If you are a tradesman, you have to turn up at the tradesman's entrance on your trade-bike, doff your cap to the squire,do the job and charge no more than 2/6d and be thankful the dogs were not sett on you for impertinence.

gtr-gaz

5,281 posts

276 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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ozzerr, a bit more info in your profile like a name for instance, might give people more confidence in your services!



Edited by gtr-gaz on Saturday 25th October 10:39

ss64ii

304 posts

248 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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Well guys, I normally charge £200 MAX a day cash in hand for whatever I look at,brickie myself with 25 yrs experience, have a great chippy on hand to hang doors etc,we do small works, kitchens,extensions, PM me if your interested in any work that needs doing.No job too small!!!!!
These guys quoting big money for works have overheads I know but to charge those sort of rates is unbelievable!

dirkgently

2,160 posts

261 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
quotequote all
ss64ii said:
Well guys, I normally charge £200 MAX a day cash in hand for whatever I look at,brickie myself with 25 yrs experience, have a great chippy on hand to hang doors etc,we do small works, kitchens,extensions, PM me if your interested in any work that needs doing.No job too small!!!!!
These guys quoting big money for works have overheads I know but to charge those sort of rates is unbelievable!
So you are you saying that you charge £250 per day.

speedy_thrills

7,956 posts

273 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
I'm not so sure sometimes.

Anyway they charge whatever they can get away with, good on them thumbup. Greed is good smile.

elster

17,517 posts

240 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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I get paid £35 an hour. Thats a fair rate, and I'm possibly cheapest around.

If anyone doesn't like it, well don't get the work done. But everyone I do work for is more than happy, infact so much so I am now turning down quite a lot.

As for a banker needing to know than all tradesmen, well as I am an Electrical Engineer I am constantly doing calculations, when working on PLC's have to be conversant with basic programming. The experience and knowledge needed is a lot greater than swinging a hammer.

elster

17,517 posts

240 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Yes you're right, mainly for domestic stuff. Which is just st work, but any one can do it.

Industrial is not quite the case. Anyway for almost all jobs you can pick it up, if you can't learn what to do in a few years it is the individuals intelligence. Not the job. Investment banking can't be too hard my sisters other half has been doing it for enough years. And he is thick as fk.

elster

17,517 posts

240 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Are you saying some of your fellow workers are lacking in the real world department. biglaugh

speedy_thrills

7,956 posts

273 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Or just lucky? wink

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
Ignoring what they said for a timescale. 20 doors at 2 hours per door is 40 hours work. Thats a week, plus surrounds say another 20 hours.

60 hours work for two blokes to get it done in 4 days.

I'd say £2000 odd was reasonable.

£33ph hour or so, for a skill, whats your chargeable rate? wink

wizzbilly

955 posts

223 months

Saturday 25th October 2008
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a lot of the big companys have decent size overheads , this reflects on the price as it does with any buissnus , commen sense realy .

i am a joiner and plumber by trade and just finished doing all my nvqs at college in plastering .

price variys from one person to the next , your best of just looking for some local chaps that work from home meaning they have quite small over heads , which in turns means not needing to charge the earth just to survive .

am sure most pepole would rather pay a little extra and get a qaulity job done than pay some forign imigrant to do a shody job for half the price , there is diffrent markets out there imo, some pepole want a good job for a resnoable price and some wont everything and want to pay penuats .

most customers feel safe with big high street shops that look the part but simple facts are , the customer is paying for them to look the part .

i work from home so my overheads are quite small, just tool and van expenses , the only pepole that will suffer from the credit crunch etc are the ones that have got greedy over the years in my opinion .

when ever i have pepole on site doing work i pay them £150 a day and there happy with that , no hassle they just turn up do there job , no organisng or having the hassle of customers etc , when they get home no worries just chill out and do sme next day not sat worrying .

some trades pepole just see it as a licence to print money and those are the ones that will not last in my opinion , i just offer a sensible rate for a good 12hrs a day work, i would rather have a steady income of few hunderd a week than nothing at all .

sorry about poor spelling .

thanks