I work in the industry with lots of large multidisciplinary property companies who have lots and lots of smaller contractors on the books who they use to complete work. Some contractual work is done via Schedule of rates with agreed discounts on the rates and or agreed increases depending on market trends with regards to supply and demand. Currently there is a shortage of skilled construction workers because a large proportion of them where from eastern Europe and they all went home after the brexit vote (not all of them of course but you try and get laborers for construction jobs in London and its a lot harder that it was 12 months ago). Over the last 10 years of so there has been an industry wide lack of training in lots of the `tool` trades which means as the older generation of these workers retire there will be a shortage until we can replace them. If you are good at a trade I would charge what you feel is a good rate, don`t overcharge, do a good clean neat job and build a reputation for doing exactly that. In my experience good `tools` people who are good don`t spend a lot of time on the tools, they get recognized by the companies they work for and promoted to surveyor so they can go out and price up jobs for the apprentice that they spent 3 years training to do... If I was on the tools right now I know what I would be doing.
Rubbish Workmen in your area
- Thread starter glenimp617
- Start date
Absolutely hilarious.
Caporegime
No. The mechanic hourly rate is about £12.00. The hourly rate you pay there is for business overheads, admin, insurances and profit.
I've had numerous issues with trades, mainly them not even turning up when booked.
I tend now to research the job I need doing & as long as I feel fairly confident I will tackle it myself.
Anything I deem to difficult I now have a select list of trusted trades who have never let me down.
Only thing I won't entertain messing with is gas.
It does feel as though some people out there just don't want the work.
I tend now to research the job I need doing & as long as I feel fairly confident I will tackle it myself.
Anything I deem to difficult I now have a select list of trusted trades who have never let me down.
Only thing I won't entertain messing with is gas.
It does feel as though some people out there just don't want the work.
- Joined
- 30 Sep 2005
- Posts
- 16,550
Depends on your standards. I was speaking with my boss about this yesterday. He had his ensuite done a few years ago and paid around the £900 per day rate.
The difference is that the person doing his went above and beyond to ensure it was absolute perfection, to the point he made a custom made surround behind his vanity cabinet to hide the pipe work.
The idiot I went with has caused me stress, extra work, and after paying a total of 3k I am now left with a room I'm not happy with.....if I could go back in time I'd happily pay the extra.
And that is the whole point.
Pay low rates thinking you are saving money, and you will get more often than not, low standards of workmanship, so in way more times than should be right, you will most likely have to get some or all of the work done again, costing yet more.
Pay higher rates, get a far higher standard of work done, and the work is only done once, so in the long term you actually save time, stress, worry, and money.
But it was a blanket statement for all skilled trades work. There are plenty of things within skilled trades that do not remotely justify £100 an hour. Also £900 a day doesn't mean that they couldn't have had the same standard of work done at a lesser price. It's just an example of a high rate with a satisfactory result.
Like anything, price is usually indicative of quality. As an electrician, the work you do is usually left in place from anywhere to 6 months to 25 years. I've been to office blocks that were wired perfectly in the 80's and are still in good service today with some minor upgrades. I've also been to rewires that were completed 6 weeks ago that looked like a monkey threw it together. Who do you think gets more value for money?
When it comes to their homes, people usually do big upgrades or refurbishments every 10/15 years. Think about that when you're looking at quotes.
When it comes to their homes, people usually do big upgrades or refurbishments every 10/15 years. Think about that when you're looking at quotes.
Overheads are rather different !
A BMW dealer hourly rate is normally a lot more then that
It £75 per hour just at my local trust ford garage
Soldato
Have just read this thread and find the views on "hourly" rate quite amusing lol, so just going to throw the following into the mix.
The entire reason we as a country have very few skilled construction workers can be laid firmly at the feet of government and the major construction company's. Since the mid 1980's government washed it's hands of providing proper funding for 5 year apprenticeships and laid it at the door of the industry.
The industry being the major construction firms, think Wimpy, Persimmon, bovis ect ect. They of course being the penny pinching, make as much profit company's that they are, spend as little and do as little training wise as they can get away with. That's why what little training they do has been whittled down from 5 years to 2 years.
It's completely impossible to train to a good enough standard, chippies, sparks, plumbers, steel workers, brickies and plasterers in 2 years.....................that's why for the last 100 years apprenticeships have always been 5 years.
Move forward to today, the people that do work like the OP's en-suite would have gone through some of the worst training the industry has provided in 100 years. Other site workers are building all the new builds that we see popping up in every space there is, that's why new builds are so badly built (a testament to which can be found https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/new-homes-taylor-wimpey-sherford-plymouth.18859736/).
I'm at an age (61) where i did do a proper apprenticeship and like most my age became self employed in my mid 20's. The vast majority of time served workers are now retired or run their own company's, because of that there are very few time served workers left within the main construction company's now.
Since i became self employed i have specialized in fitting kitchens and this is where i'll move on to hourly rates.
In my case, i have never charged an hourly rate. I have set prices for every aspect of fitting a kitchen, so much per unit, so much for a sink ect ect. It would be very rare indeed for a complete kitchen to end up below the equivalent £50 an hour.
I earn a good living, do a good job that i'm proud of and have never had to go looking for work or advertise my entire working life. I also rarely have to go back to a job, other than for a leaking plastic sink trap (bain of a fitters life
).
I feel sorry for a lot of peeps that end up with bad workmanship at over inflated prices, but in the years to come this is only going to get worse when proper time served workers die off. It's a very very serious issue in the construction industry that simply is not being addressed and to be frank, i don't think it will addressed.
The entire reason we as a country have very few skilled construction workers can be laid firmly at the feet of government and the major construction company's. Since the mid 1980's government washed it's hands of providing proper funding for 5 year apprenticeships and laid it at the door of the industry.
The industry being the major construction firms, think Wimpy, Persimmon, bovis ect ect. They of course being the penny pinching, make as much profit company's that they are, spend as little and do as little training wise as they can get away with. That's why what little training they do has been whittled down from 5 years to 2 years.
It's completely impossible to train to a good enough standard, chippies, sparks, plumbers, steel workers, brickies and plasterers in 2 years.....................that's why for the last 100 years apprenticeships have always been 5 years.
Move forward to today, the people that do work like the OP's en-suite would have gone through some of the worst training the industry has provided in 100 years. Other site workers are building all the new builds that we see popping up in every space there is, that's why new builds are so badly built (a testament to which can be found https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/new-homes-taylor-wimpey-sherford-plymouth.18859736/).
I'm at an age (61) where i did do a proper apprenticeship and like most my age became self employed in my mid 20's. The vast majority of time served workers are now retired or run their own company's, because of that there are very few time served workers left within the main construction company's now.
Since i became self employed i have specialized in fitting kitchens and this is where i'll move on to hourly rates.
In my case, i have never charged an hourly rate. I have set prices for every aspect of fitting a kitchen, so much per unit, so much for a sink ect ect. It would be very rare indeed for a complete kitchen to end up below the equivalent £50 an hour.
I earn a good living, do a good job that i'm proud of and have never had to go looking for work or advertise my entire working life. I also rarely have to go back to a job, other than for a leaking plastic sink trap (bain of a fitters life
).I feel sorry for a lot of peeps that end up with bad workmanship at over inflated prices, but in the years to come this is only going to get worse when proper time served workers die off. It's a very very serious issue in the construction industry that simply is not being addressed and to be frank, i don't think it will addressed.