Am I over charging?

[dave1]

Bases in Essex and North London areas.
I've quoted a few jobs and not got them, a combi swap with new timer and room stat to be fitted, logic plus 30kw around £2000

A cloakroom install, customer supplying sanitary ware and tiles, 16m2 tiles, plastering and pipework to be buried in floor and walls, floor made good and tiled. Around £1700

 

[hammers4spanner]

Im in devon and charging for straight swap combi 35 kw ideal logic plus £1500 so i would say your rate is ok , £1700 also sounds ok as most of that would be labour and 300 in materials for maybe weeks worth of work?

Maybe bit cheap for your area?

 

[hammers4spanner]

I was also losing loads of jobs i was quoting for as well , decided to bin my terms just to see what would happen.

Coincidentally i practically got every job i quoted for then !!!

I put my terms online out the way now (hidden but their)

 

[dave1]

Thanks mate, had a message this morning saying they were getting the boiler fitted for £1600 all in. Obviously I don't know what they are fitting.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Thats cheap for your way i guess ,

You never know what your against tho , i always tell them i don't fit rubbish now . You will always get undercut tho i know a handyman who always moans about never having any money but his rates are so low its stupid , basically he has no idea how to price a job .

 

[dave1]

Exactly, I'm not in this not to make money. The fact the customer has found someone to fit it the following day at that price probably tells me all I need to know.
With the cloakroom, when I gave them the estimate she said oh we were expecting to pay half that! I almost spat my coffee out ha ha

 

[hammers4spanner]

A lot of people are clueless ,

A friend of mine works for BT and earns good money but seems to think trades should be on a pita .Thats how a lot of people think unfortunately .

 

[Millsy 82]

I'm in Cornwall and just priced a 24kw platinum with nest and magnaclean and I've priced that at just shy of £1800 and she was more than happy. Another an LPG duotec 28 4 rads easy full install done in 2.5 days (now I've gone and done it!!!) £3200 and she bit my hand off.

How do you do your estimates? Do you write what you are fitting down ie fitting logic plus 30kw, fitting magnaclean, carry out chemical flush of central heating.

I don't give a price breakdown but I try to make it easy to see what they are getting so if joe rough bum goes in a couple of hundred cheaper they see what they are getting with me so hopefully they will go with me.

 

[Millsy 82]

A lot of people are clueless ,

A friend of mine works for BT and earns good money but seems to think trades should be on a pita .Thats how a lot of people think unfortunately .

I agree a lot are clueless.

I went out to a bathroom that the husband had tried to fit and there was bits here and there needed to be done and other bits rectified I said a days labour and parts came out about £280.00. She looked at me as though I'd taken a dump on her carpet. Needless to say I didn't get the job but not really that worried about losing jobs like that.

 

[dave1]

I'm in Cornwall and just priced a 24kw platinum with nest and magnaclean and I've priced that at just shy of £1800 and she was more than happy. Another an LPG duotec 28 4 rads easy full install done in 2.5 days (now I've gone and done it!!!) £3200 and she bit my hand off.

How do you do your estimates? Do you write what you are fitting down ie fitting logic plus 30kw, fitting magnaclean, carry out chemical flush of central heating.

I don't give a price breakdown but I try to make it easy to see what they are getting so if joe rough bum goes in a couple of hundred cheaper they see what they are getting with me so hopefully they will go with me.

I do it similar to you, try not to go into too much detail on a quote but enough to show what they are getting.

 

[stevetheplumber]

No point working for yourself if you dont earn decent money im in east /north london and think your prices seem about right trouble is there are so many gas people round here i think there are eight within 1/4 mile of me and some are happy to only earn wages

 

[dave1]

No point working for yourself if you dont earn decent money im in east /north london and think your prices seem about right trouble is there are so many gas people round here i think there are eight within 1/4 mile of me and some are happy to only earn wages

Absolutely agree with you.

 

[dave1]

I'm glad I seem to be pricing about right, may have just been unlucky with a few jobs.

 

[Phil]

I agree a lot are clueless.

I went out to a bathroom that the husband had tried to fit and there was bits here and there needed to be done and other bits rectified I said a days labour and parts came out about £280.00. She looked at me as though I'd taken a dump on her carpet. Needless to say I didn't get the job but not really that worried about losing jobs like that.

This is exactly why I text and email prices, its so awkward.

 

[REDSAW]

take a look at ebay covering the area.
they live outside dive in and out never to be seen again!

 

[AlexGas]

 

[plumben]

Your never charging too much, theres fellas round my way that have got between 15-40 years experience in the trade and are charging between 80-120 a day, there all driving round in tatty old cars or vans with no money old tools that they can't afford to replace and none of them have a smart looking uniform or signwriting on there van,

And yes there getting work in but there either doing terrible installs or shoddy work due to the money there earning using the worst materials possible,

If your loosing/not winning jobs, don't ever think about lowering your prices to get the work thisnks how can I present myself better or impress the customer more to gain the work, and if there not happy with the price then you don't want to work for them

 

[kris]

I just won a boiler change priced at £3200. Its a back boiler in forefront coming out from sitting room and new ideal Vogue combi going in kitchen. Remove cylinder in tanks and run new everything to kitchen where new boiler will sit. I am north of Scotland and my price isn't cheap. Obviously magnaclean, wireless controls etc. This will be my 5 th one on the same street.

 

[Deleted member 7121]

I don't do cheap , they pay for the brains not the hands ! If you do not make good wages why do it we all have overheads.

Don't be a busy fool as I was told years ago, your prices look bang on to me

 

[lame plumber]

the best thread this year imho, there are others out there trying to make reasonable money at last

 

[stevetheplumber]

the best thread this year imho, there are others out there trying to make reasonable money at last

only amongst those that can read

 

[solutions]

Its our job to continue to drive the education of so many clueless customers that our skills and knowledge are exceedingly valuable and our time so precious that if we grace your home with our presence then the red velvet dust sheets should be rolled out and the pallet of gold bullion be ready to be rolled in to the van. Tired of the desk bound super earners thinking I will bother to work for them for what they think they should pay. Do a good job get your work by reputation and word of mouth and increase your prices ahead of inflation. Remind any potential customers that knowledge and skill cost money and there is nothing more important than a warm dry home with clean hot water on tap.

 

[plumben]

I find telling the customer that it'll cost between X and Y and that it'll take between x and y days or weeks works well with bigger jobs like bathrooms as the unforeseen always bites you and also you can sort out any other issues whilst there in your price and time frame, i'd like to think and I'm probably right that the customer is reassured that your going to do the best job possible and correct this way

 

[TFGplumbing]

I priced a full heating install, All copper, 9 rads & a 30kw logic + (LPG conversion) for 3600 couple of days ago which I thought was competitive.. starting to think I'am going in to expensive ah I dunno

 

[SimonG]

Happy money, otherwise whats the point. Might as well stack shelves in Morrisons.

 

[dave1]

the best thread this year imho, there are others out there trying to make reasonable money at last

Do I get an award for starting this?

 

[TFGplumbing]

Happy money, otherwise whats the point. Might as well stack shelves in Morrisons.

I know exactly what you mean by happy money!

 

[dave1]

I priced a full heating install, All copper, 9 rads & a 30kw logic + (LPG conversion) for 3600 couple of days ago which I thought was competitive.. starting to think I'am going in to expensive ah I dunno

I would have gone higher then that I think.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Its our job to continue to drive the education of so many clueless customers that our skills and knowledge are exceedingly valuable and our time so precious that if we grace your home with our presence then the red velvet dust sheets should be rolled out and the pallet of gold bullion be ready to be rolled in to the van. Tired of the desk bound super earners thinking I will bother to work for them for what they think they should pay. Do a good job get your work by reputation and word of mouth and increase your prices ahead of inflation. Remind any potential customers that knowledge and skill cost money and there is nothing more important than a warm dry home with clean hot water on tap.

You have been waiting to write this for days lol

 

[ShaunCorbs]

put it this way im not the cheapest

very old house,full system all new pipe heating and hot and cold

rip out old cylinder eco 7
worcester 28cdi compact
stnd flue
22mm to boiler (cold) 22mm hot
mag filter pro 2
22mm main runs
15mm drops to rads
12 rads decent ones (ultra heat)
danfoss ras c2 valves
l/s drain offs
Honeywell controls
mostly bends not elbows

just shy of £6k
about a week and a half to two

 

[TFGplumbing]

^^ that sounds like a nice install Shaun

 

[ShaunCorbs]

^^ that sounds like a nice install Shaun

yep was recommend, so nearly had a blank chq within reason, and dont have to cram it into a week just to get the price down

and there will be pics on the 28 compact because a few people didnt know how to work on them little helpful tips

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

Do I get an award for starting this?

You get to ring the bell!

 

[leek]

I lost a job the other day, the woman wanted top spec of everything, got me on Pinterest to show me exactly how she expected to look, decided she would supply the sanitaryware herself as she was so particular, so I quoted for labour only for a cloakroom and bathroom, included everything but sanitaryware, so tiling, tanking, plastering, electrics etc, she wanted to come with me as she thought the 'standard of my work looked so high', think all In including skip it was coming in at about £10k for the two rooms, but her handyman mate was doing it for £3k less. Good luck to him.

I went over what I had priced and there just wasn't much in it profit wise, enough that I was happy with it but by no means anywhere near the £3k she was shaving off. Just a bit irritated spent to long with her trying to sort everything out for her.

The last boiler install I did was a w/b 32cdi last week and changed 2 rads at the same time which the client supplied and I charged £2650, did power flush it through as well, but took 3 days with a mate helping me on one, so although it looks like a lot of money when you break it down it's really not.

 

[Millsy 82]

This is why I now give people a rough idea when they phone up.

If they say they want a combi swap I give them a rough idea of a basic swap so if they have had another price and they are just looking for the cheapest they then say oh so and so said they can do it for x amount. Saves time and hassle.

With bathrooms its a lot trickier as there are so many more variables so I still price up roughlythen if they like that I will go further into it.