crazy not do do some of your basic carpentry?

[blair]

I'm not a woodworker, but there are so many rubbish workmen and rip-off merchants around you'd be crazy not do do some of your basic carpentry at least. For example, I was quoted around £1000 to install a deck in my garden. I built it myself for £150 in under two days. Where does the other £850 come from? I get a lot of satisfaction from avoiding extravagant charges. It makes me feel like I'm cheating the system, or am I just a tightwad? Hmmmm....!

 

[Scrit]

I built it myself for £150 in under two days. Where does the other £850 come from?

Can't say if the job warrants the £1000 or not, but least £350 to £400 of it is labour/overheads - or do you expect trained joiners to work for £50/day?

Scrit

 

[wizer]

I did my own deck last year and to be honest what I made on labour costs I probably lost in small mistakes and time.

I did feel mighty proud when it was finish tho!

 

[blair]

"do you expect trained joiners to work for £50/day"

Scrit, I reckon a trained joiner could have done it in about one day. If you were talking about £400, or there abouts, I wouldn't find that unreasonable, but then we'd be talking about paying a "trained joiner" £250 a day, not £50, and that would be for doing an easy job too. £250 is over one thousand pounds a week! We're talking about a trained joiner not a trained brain surgeon Scrit

 

[Anonymous]

Mod note

Hi all this was moved here from the 'why do you do it' thread to allow discussion of something quite important and relevant

 

[nickson71]

I guess the question is why the quoted price was £1000


Firstly did you get more than one quote ....... I've known a builder who went to look at a job saw that it would be very hard to fit it into his schedual so verbally quoted a high price to avoid the job

also another consideration is what overheads does the joiner have ....... workshop, busness rate council tax, insurance, electric, tool costs, advertising, cost of transport etc .......... the price has to cover all this plus the profit.

 

[Mcluma]

It makes me feel like I'm cheating the system, or am I just a tightwad? Hmmmm....!

Well you do life in scotland :lol: :lol: :lol:

sorry couldn't resist

 

[Kane]

Firstly did you get more than one quote ....... I've known a builder who went to look at a job saw that it would be very hard to fit it into his schedual so verbally quoted a high price to avoid the job

Why don't they just say they can't fit it in, how many people would get multiple quotes ranging from the cowboy prices to the lie to avoid getting the job prices and still don't know what a reasonable price for the job is? It's hardly surprising that so many people regard builders/plumbers/joiners etc in the same light as second hand car dealers and estate agents.

 

[nickson71]

I guess some people don't like saying no ........... I'm a bit like that ........ I work full time as a scientist........ but spend most of my free time doing DIY for my sister, making stage scenary for my boss...... fitting doors for friends .......... now I've made my own coffee table I've got a few of jobs for family and friends as well as my own stuff to make ........


looking at that I MUST learn how to say no

 

[Kane]

Fair comment but these people are supposed to be pros

 

[Anonymous]

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[jaymar]

my next door neighbour is having a deck fitted 9I don't know the size but he told me the timber(Treated) was £500. I bought some deal for a couple of planters and the cost for that was £50 + so you must have some very good timber merchants in Scotland

 

[Anonymous]

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[Alf]

I do wish we had a better appreciation of the manually-skilled in this country - why do we have this strange idea that someone who has to break out in a sweat to do their job is somehow so much less worthy than a person sitting at a keyboard all day? It's very sad.

Cheers, Alf

 

[nickson71]

I'd agree with Alf ................. but I sit in front of a PC and work in Lab I've got a degree in Biochem, a masters in biochem and a doctorate in Chemistry .......... and all the plumbers (3), joiners (1) builders (5) I know have bigger houses better cars than I do ..............

I not got anything against that and if I don't want to or can't do a job on the house I'll happily pay anyone of them to do it for me (after getting a few quotes)


Ian

PS It's just as well I love my job ....

 

[tim]

Firstly, It would be useful to have a bit more info about the deck before commenting. How big is it, what were the materials, was it supply and fit or fit only.

Secondly, why is it that people always think that the figure paid = take home pay? For heaven's sake :roll:

I agree with a lot of what Jacob says about options. I hear it all the time esp from husbands : "I could do it but I haven't got the time". As someone taught me long ago, always Ignore everything in front of the word 'but'.

Cheers

Tim

 

[Kane]

I've known a builder who went to look at a job saw that it would be very hard to fit it into his schedual so verbally quoted a high price.

This is normal practice and it's just re-acting to market forces. If you are in demand and getting offered more work than you can handle then you put your prices up. Utterly stupid not to. We've got to make a living just like teachers, doctors, estate agents etc. all of whom tend to be better paid than us and with massive benefit back up in their wage deal such as redundancy pay amongst many things!!!
One of the depressing things about being self employed is having to justify ones charges to smug twerps who get much more money and security. Sometimes they discover reality when the gravy train drops them, or they rashly venture into self employment - usually undercutting those already there, with unsustainable low rates.

cheers

Jacob

PS Putting your prices etc is the way fair market prices are established - they aren't written down in a big book somewhere! There isn't another method.
If you don't like it you have 3 choices; don't have the work done, do it yourself, or see if you can get someone else to do it. If none of these is viable then the price was right in the first place.

Nothing to do with market forces at all - it's a lie designed to avoid taking on the job - so much simpler to just say you can't take the job on and don't mislead the customer into thinking his 500 quid job is going to cost 1,000 quid.

 

[Kane]

I do wish we had a better appreciation of the manually-skilled in this country - why do we have this strange idea that someone who has to break out in a sweat to do their job is somehow so much less worthy than a person sitting at a keyboard all day? It's very sad.

Cheers, Alf

Let them get a job in front of a keyboard then - always seems odd to me that people who sit in front of a PC all day are considered less worthy than someone with a real job

 

[andrewm]

Nothing to do with market forces at all - it's a lie designed to avoid taking on the job - so much simpler to just say you can't take the job on and don't mislead the customer into thinking his 500 quid job is going to cost 1,000 quid.

On the contrary. It's not that he doesn't want the job. In asking for a quote you are saying to the guy 'tell me how much I would have to pay you for you to do this job.' At the end of the day there will (almost) always be some figure for which he will do it. But the busier he is the more it will be. If you had asked him to do it on the day of the World Cup final when he had tickets to the match it would have been a whole lot higher but unless he was a diehard England fan and England were playing in the final then £1m would probably do it :lol:. Of course there is a point above which he would just decline to quote because the figure be would too obviously outrageous.

I used to work for a Sales Manager who had the principle of what he called the 'water off hairlylegs' quote. If we were too busy to take the job then he would triple the price and quote that. If the customer really wanted it then the premium they were paying made it worthwhile getting in the extra resources to get it done.

Andrew

 

[Kane]

Read the quote - he artificially inflated the price to avoid taking the job on, if you want to avoid taking the job on say no thanks and the customer will go somewhere else, if you just want to overcharge that's a different thing.