Why are tradesmen so expensive

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fez

fez

fez

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We have been doing up our flat for a while now and whenever I have to get someone in to do something I can't do I am absolutely amazed at how much they can charge. You can tell me that being an electrician or plumber is a skilled job as much as you like but its a really simple job. Anyone with half a brain could learn to do it very quickly.

I assume its due to supply and demand because I can't think of that many other jobs that require no real education, limited intelligence and basic training which allow you to earn as much as plumbers, electricians, carpenters etc earn.

How much are you guys paying for these trades on a day rate basis?
 
If it's a really simple job then why don't you learn get accredited and then can sign off jobs yourself.

I would expect to pay a tradesman around £100 at least (We've got a decorator coming in and it's £700 for the week) but as it's less than I earn then it makes sense to pay it rather than take time off myself.
 
Maundie said:
If it's a really simple job then why don't you learn get accredited and then can sign off jobs yourself.

I would expect to pay a tradesman around £100 at least (We've got a decorator coming in and it's £700 for the week) but as it's less than I earn then it makes sense to pay it rather than take time off myself.
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Because I can earn more than that doing a job that I am already skilled at. I think you misunderstood as well. I'm not expecting to pay £50/day but I have just had a quote to hang 4 doors and they want £240 for a days work. A plumber came in a wanted around that as well. I don't mind paying for things but I resent paying a lot for work that is not very skilled in the grand scheme of things.

Mahonyy said:
Thats why you should learn basic plumbing and electrics. These guys will rip you off!
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Oh I do. The thought of paying someone £60 to fit a new wall socket or plug blows my mind. I have plumbed in a new sink, replaced almost all our sockets with double sockets, replaced bathroom fans etc and its all really simple. I know you don't pay someone for the difficulty of the work they are doing necessarily but the skill and speed at which they are capable of working but seriously. Plumbing and electrics are a really really limited area in the grand scheme of things. There is a reason these have been historically poorly paid jobs.
 
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fez said:
Oh I do. The thought of paying someone £60 to fit a new wall socket or plug blows my mind. I have plumbed in a new sink, replaced almost all our sockets with double sockets, replaced bathroom fans etc and its all really simple. I know you don't pay someone for the difficulty of the work they are doing necessarily but the skill and speed at which they are capable of working but seriously. Plumbing and electrics are a really really limited area in the grand scheme of things. There is a reason these have been historically poorly paid jobs.
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Sorry? Poorly paid? Good tradesmen can easily earn 35,000+ p/a. Well beyond average.

Good Plumbers and Electricians have historically earn't above the average. They may not be on the same level as a Lawyer, Doctor, IFA or highly qualified profession but they are usually a step above the service industry. If they have the drive they can easily setup a small firm and earn closer to the 100,000s more easily than other professions as there is always demand. Especially with how entire generations have been told working with your hands isn't a good career path.

Money is time and time is money. :)
 
It might not be as skilled as you think, but that's London pricing. That person would need to have a Mortgage on a £400k house to be close enough to do the work, or afford to travel in both time and cost to do the work. A single day for a small job still requires admin time, travel and time allocation. To put it simply they don't want the job as it's small, but if you still want it doing you're going to pay for a full day for them to do it. Give them weeks/months worth of work and that day rate will drop due to regular work and stability.
 
If you want someone to work for wages only then employ them directly and provide all the add ons yourself

Tools
Consumables
Fuel
Transport
Insurance
Training, cost of training and lost income from time from training
Administration
Bank charges
Employers NIC
Holiday pay
Sick pay
Overheads
Profit

If we have trades on daywork at say £25 per hour we don't make any money out of it, the guy gets £150ish a day and the rest are sucked up in the above.

Same principle as paying a garage £35 an hour when the actual mechanic gets £15-20 an hour.
 
fez said:
We have been doing up our flat for a while now and whenever I have to get someone in to do something I can't do I am absolutely amazed at how much they can charge. You can tell me that being an electrician or plumber is a skilled job as much as you like but its a really simple job. Anyone with half a brain could learn to do it very quickly.

I assume its due to supply and demand because I can't think of that many other jobs that require no real education, limited intelligence and basic training which allow you to earn as much as plumbers, electricians, carpenters etc earn.

How much are you guys paying for these trades on a day rate basis?
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This is the most condescending, insulting and irritating post I've read here in a long time. No 'real education'? Do you know what it takes to be an electrician? Do the job wrong and you could kill someone or burn their house down.

Since you've presumably got two halves of a brain imagine how quickly you could do the job... Of course you perhaps lack the training, experience and knowledge of the regulations and tickets you need.
 
I look at this post in a different way. I'd love to quit my desk job and become a plumber and electrician. I think it is a very lucrative field to be involved in, better still a full on construction company changing people's lives in the process.
 
No real education? Wow I wish I was allowed to swear on here! I'm glad I'm not your spark if you choose to look down your nose like that. What you have posted has properly boiled my **** to be honest.

Sure in reality anyone with half a brain could probably wire a house but could they do all the calcs to ensure its safe? Yes you can find a calculator online but experience is such a massive part of it. I didnt spend 4 years back and forth to college, many years on site learning and doing god knows how many exams and courses to have some ill advised person tell me I have limited intelligence with no real education. I guess they let any numpty work on it eh?

oh and day rate I get charged out at around £5-600 a day on petrochem and gas sites and around half that on other jobs but in fairness I do the 'weird and wonderful' stuff that my experience and knowledge from 20+ years on the job allows me to do.
 
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It's a fairly weak argument, trades have a relatively high over head cost due to their place of work changing constantly - so there is transport costs, insurance costs, storage costs, travel time etc etc built into an hourly rate.
Saying it's not a skilled job and requires minimal training is a bit ignorant tbh, the guys who are good and making good money are generally time served and have in depth knowledge and technical ability. I work with a lot of contractors day in day out, some most definitely aren't the sharpest intellects but their skills in construction/carpentry etc are where the value lies.
Doing tiny, bit part jobs on someones flat renovation will always be expensive as you have to cover the overheads in a tiny bit of time, it's like asking how a lawyer can charge so much for going to a meeting an hour away from their office only to talk for 5mins and then drive an hour back...
 
Mysterae_ said:
This is the most condescending, insulting and irritating post I've read here in a long time. No 'real education'? Do you know what it takes to be an electrician? Do the job wrong and you could kill someone or burn their house down.
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Sorry, what education level do you need to become an electrician? A levels, degree. Thats what people consider an education. Every job required training. There are plenty that require exams to become certified but to become a doctor you do 2 years of a-levels, 5 years of medical school, 2 years pre-reg and then you have plenty of other exams if you want to progress.

Also by your wisdom we should pay lorry and bus drivers a lot because they could potentially kill lots of people. Christ, they could kill 20 or more houses worth of people so they should be on god knows what.

Mysterae_ said:
Since you've presumably got two halves of a brain imagine how quickly you could do the job... Of course you perhaps lack the training, experience and knowledge of the regulations and tickets you need.
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I know I'm not a qualified electrician. That doesn't have anything to do with the fact that you don't have to be particularly bright to be one and you don't have to have a high level of education. I'm sure there are plenty of electricians out there who are much brighter than I am but again, thats entirely beside the point. We don't pay people based on their intelligence, we pay them based on the job they do.

Lumeycom said:
No real education? Wow I wish I was allowed to swear on here! I'm glad I'm not your spark if you choose to look down your nose like that. What you have posted has properly boiled my **** to be honest.

Sure in reality anyone with half a brain could probably wire a house but could they do all the calcs to ensure its safe? Yes you can find a calculator online but experience is such a massive part of it. I didnt spend 4 years back and forth to college, many years on site learning and doing god knows how many exams and courses to have some ill advised person tell me I have limited intelligence with no real education. I guess they let any numpty work on it eh?
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You can be back and forth to college to get a beauticians qualification for years, whats that got to do with anything. I don't know why you are taking this as a personal insult to your intelligence unless you are insecure about it. As I have said above, your job doesn't dictate your intelligence or capacity to learn. The intelligence required to do a job doesn't mean that everyone doing that job is of that intellect. Do you think that every bin man is borderline retarded because their job could be done by literally any able bodied person?

My very simple point is that a lot of trades charge a lot of money for a job that is not massively skilled. In every job there are people who are more skilled than others as well. Your local pubs chef probably isn't as good as a michelin star chef and their salaries reflect that. The simple fact is that the work that residential electricians do is not very hard from a technical standpoint. Same for plumbing etc.
 
Mark A said:
I often think the same thing when i have to hand over £200 to my accountant to do my tax return..
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Wish mine was that cheep:mad:
They charged me over £600 this year,I work for 1/2 companies subbing chippy too,not hard for them to do my returns
 
fez said:
Because I can earn more than that doing a job that I am already skilled at. I think you misunderstood as well. I'm not expecting to pay £50/day but I have just had a quote to hang 4 doors and they want £240 for a days work. A plumber came in a wanted around that as well. I don't mind paying for things but I resent paying a lot for work that is not very skilled in the grand scheme of things.
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£50 a door is about right, you're paying £40 over the odds
 
It's expensive because there aren't enough people doing it unfortunately. To me it seems daft that so much of this countries wealth is tied up in property and yet society still doesn't respect these professions as we should.
 
As an electrician, long may you continue to pay prices you hate.

Learn to do these unskilled jobs and get your hands dirty or wind your neck in.
 
Lol, so much anger at the idea that being an electrician isn't the reserve of mensa candidates. Its a discussion about the reason for these jobs being so expensive. I'm sure all the outraged electricians here don't resent paying their solicitors thousands of pounds when they are moving house etc.
 
Fez, to come across so high, mighty and belittling (that's what you're coming across like, even if unintentional), you must do a pretty fulfilling and intellectually involved job yourself.

The reasons for why you pay 'so much' are clearly explained in this thread. Some jobs are easier than others and require less thought, yes, but you don't pay less (and probably shouldn't) for that reason alone.
 
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