Fair Price For A Quality Job Here??

[cr0ft]

Just finished designing the CH system I spoke about before. The house is 520 square metres of floor space over 4 floors. Total heat loss is pretty much bang on 70KW from calculating it so 2x 35KW boilers. 32 radiators. Just around 500sq.m of the house will be heated so 5 heating zones and of course HW too, unvented cylinder.

Am hoping to run the two boilers on reverse return into a low loss header then run hot water flow and return plus suitably sized heating primary from low loss header. Zone valves as the heating rises to each floor. One large pump to deal with the head height of about 10m.

House is around 200 years old I believe. High ceilings on the 2 middle floors, 4 and 3.5m high respectively. All work needs to be done as sympathetically as possible to the building as it's grade 2 listed.

All I've ever priced is normal domestic houses! Happy with designing this and pricing the materials up but how long should I allow for this? The house is around 15x12m and new pipework will most likely need to be surface run in corners of rooms to rads, chasing into walls is not going to be an option here. Decorative mouldings in all rooms to do nice bends around too!!

Don't want to price myself out of the market but this is a big job and don't want to work for nothing either. Also need to run hot water pipework from the cylinder on the ground floor up two floors to the bathrooms around 15 metres run for each (next to each other).

If anyone could give me prices for labour for comparable systems they might have installed that would be great.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

about 3 weeks and 3.5-5k

 

[Geyser]

Dont be shy on this one is my advise, go in on the high side. It will be hassle and take longer than you think. 4-6k

 

[Leo21]

As above, if your going to do it make money. It's a high pressure job with possible call backs, make it worth while.

 

[Ray Stafford]

70kw?

£7,000.

Seriously, this isn't a semi detatched 3 up 3 down.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

also depends on what you doing it in eg copper, plastic, mlcp etc,

10 or 15mm drops

 

[cr0ft]

It will all be in copper folks, all in 15mm drops. My thinking is that it's basically going to be 3x the size of system found in most houses so it should be 3x the price.

It's all going to be surface run on walls where it drops down but there's lots of cornicing etc and dado rails which can't be damaged to bend the pipes around neatly. My gut instinct was to go for a significant portion of £10k for the labour with the VAT in. The job is going to be a lot of hard work and I can get £4k labour fitting a new central heating system in a normal 150sq. m house. I don't think they are short of a few bob and my quote will show I have taken the time to design and spec the system properly.

 

[cr0ft]

Cheers Ray.

You guys will be getting the order if I get the job btw.

70kw?

£7,000.

Seriously, this isn't a semi detatched 3 up 3 down.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

It will all be in copper folks. My gut instinct was to go for a significant portion of £10k for the labour with the VAT in. The job is going to be a lot of hard work and I can get £4k labour fitting a new central heating system in a normal 150sq. m house. I don't think they are short of a few bob and my quote will show I have taken the time to design and spec the system properly.

the problem comes if there having other prices as well, they will use your design and spec and save on the labor

dont send the design and full spec

 

[lame plumber]

about 3 weeks and 3.5-5k

that is what i charge for a semi!!!

10k is low for that many rads, your going to be lifting a lot of boards to hide that load of pipework as well, if your not careful you may be paying them to install their heating.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

that is what i charge for a semi!!!

can i come and work with you , its hard to get a decent days pay round here

for a stnd house (detached) the price round here is about 2-2.8k

 

[Nostrum]

Sounds like each floor is about 3-4 days work, so 16 on the circuits. 2-3 on the plant room. 1-2 on the cylinder. There's 20 days, plus 20% for snags. X it by your day rate and see if you can squeeze a bit more on if you're feeling cheeky.

I'm going to say, it'd be a nice job to add to your portfolio, so I'd see that as value in itself. Sometimes it's worth doing just for the experience providing you don't make a loss of course!

 

[cr0ft]

Me too tbh..

that is what i charge for a semi!!!

10k is low for that many rads, your going to be lifting a lot of boards to hide that load of pipework as well, if your not careful you may be paying them to install their heating.

 

[cr0ft]

Yes there is that as well. Would be a great job to get feedback from and put on our website but I don't want to undercharge it either. Gut feeling is they got hold of me off Checkatrade so as long as the price isn't too silly I should be ok. The other plumbers who have viewed it have apparently run a mile so she seems pretty pleased that I'd be happy to take it on.

Sounds like each floor is about 3-4 days work, so 16 on the circuits. 2-3 on the plant room. 1-2 on the cylinder. There's 20 days, plus 20% for snags. X it by your day rate and see if you can squeeze a bit more on if you're feeling cheeky.

I'm going to say, it'd be a nice job to add to your portfolio, so I'd see that as value in itself. Sometimes it's worth doing just for the experience providing you don't make a loss of course!

 

[cr0ft]

Just to re-iterate this is labour only prices I'm after here folks. I will price up the materials like normal, happy with that bit. A nice payday of scrap from the old central heating system too if we get this!

 

[lame plumber]

you have to ask why they ran away as well...............

 

[cr0ft]

I got the impression from her that they thought it was far too big a job. Seems like a really nice person to be fair, being a listed building some people might not see it as an easy job. Personally I think it would be a good one to have our website.

 

[Nostrum]

So you've got a rip out to do as well?

 

[cr0ft]

Yes there's an existing system to remove and making good of any holes etc to do. Sorry probably should have mentioned that one. There's already a large 70KW floor standing non-condensing ancient condemned boiler. It's in a totally different area of the house to where they want the new plant room though. It's also not zoned at all and the system water is minging.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

If you got to patch and rip out 8-10k as you could be easily a week to rip and patch up on a listed house

 

[hammers4spanner]

We done a old listed hotel in North Devon few years ago build control involved rolled into a right drag as they sucked up unforseen time

 

[Millsy 82]

I would be looking 5k labour minimum.

 

[Chalked]

These type of houses take twice as long as a normal house. So don't think just because there is 3 times the rads, so it will take three times longer.
Pipe runs are more difficult and longer. Pipe size is larger and more difficult to thread in.
I would say you would need to account for labour at your rates as below
Plant room 4 days
Strip out and making good 2 - 3 days
Heating 10 days
Allow another 10 % for unforeseen difficulties.

That's about 19 days.
Font sell yourself short. Your not a charity! It will be good for experience, but could be a nightmare if you lose a fortune.

 

[newcastle phill]

Price high.
Leave with a smile on your face.

Just wondering what size gas meter have they got ?

 

[stevetheplumber]

normal meter will not feed those 2 boilers but there was a 70kw there before so would assume is a 16

 

[stevetheplumber]

i would be looking at 8k labour minimum they will struggle to find many one man bands willing to take it on so will be looking at bigger companies who will be well over that how much work you doing after the cylinder or is someone else doing bathrooms?

 

[cr0ft]

It's a U16 meter. The gas pipe run is JUST within the limits of what us domestic engineers are allowed to install as the meter is right next to where the boilers are going.

 

[cr0ft]

i would be looking at 8k labour minimum they will struggle to find many one man bands willing to take it on so will be looking at bigger companies who will be well over that how much work you doing after the cylinder or is someone else doing bathrooms?

We have been asked to quote for a wetroom install and a bathroom too. I think they have had one man companies out already who have all left in a hurry.

TBH it's one of those jobs that I can see eating up more time than we expect and so I'm going to price it at £10K + VAT labour having reflected overnight. Materials on top with the usual markup of course. I don't think we will be competing against one man companies on this one and I think a lot of people will do a runner as it's a listed building. I'm either mad or I like a challenge.

 

[oz-plumber]

Drive yourself mad with a challenge.

Break the job down into sections and price per section.

32 rads x how long each rad will take to install.
For pricing - I would allow an hour per rad,

...and so on.

Larger jobs can get away from you if you don't have the experience in quoting them.
So take the time and go through each section of the job and price accordingly.

Don't just take a stab at what you think will be a fair and competitive price for labour - you will lose out more often than not