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Reasonable time?

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pammieok

Hi,

Our plumber has just invoiced me for the following:

  • Fitting 3 radiators - 14hours
  • Fitting boiler plus flue - 15hours

I'm concerned that he is trying to rip us off because know for a fact that he did the boiler in 1 day. He started in the morning as I left for work and was done by the time I got home and it wasn't a 15 hour day! I've spoken to the Technical Department at Gas Safe and they said that 1 day to fit a boiler was normal.

Is this guy trying it on or is this a reasonable amount of time for doing this work?

Thanks

Amy
 
Did you get a quote or estimate for the works?

What hourly rate is he charging you?

On face value, the hours you stated seem over the top, but without seeing the job and the works involved, it's hard to judge.

Maybe post some pics of the work done.
 
What paperwork did you have in place before the work started?

Was there 2 people doing the work?
 
Did you have any sort of an agreement in place beforehand? Sadly asking for trouble a bit paying hourly Rate as some people will milk it. We would need more specifics though were the radiators moved, was there existing pipework, did they have to break up floors etc in terms of the boiler, was it swapped was it PowerFlushed etc
 
Depends what the hourly rate is.
£30/ hour you got it cheap
£60/hr is reasonable
£120/hr is expensive.

Everything is relative.
 
Hi,

Thanks for replying so quickly. Unfortunately wedidn’t get an agreement in place beforehand (big learning point for us). Thebuilder recommended him so we went on a trust basis, the builder has apologisedand isn’t using him anymore, but that doesn’t help us much. He is charging £150per day, so you might say that was £18.75 per hour.
The 2 radiators were in a new extension so it wasfirst and second fix and then connecting to the existing system which was easyto get to, i.e. it was in the same room and the pipes were surfaced mounted sojust needed clipping to the wall. One radiator was in the hall way, access wasfairly simple as the ceiling was already down and exposed the existing pipes, fromthere he was able to run the new pipes under the bath, through the wall to thenew radiator. It didn’t require any breaking up floors.
The boiler job was: remove the old boiler and thenconnect in the new boiler. All the pipes were in place because we had paid himfor that work separately. It didn’t need powerflushing.
It was just him working on the job, but the builderdid help him on the day he fitted the boiler (unpaid).
I’ll take a few photos tonight, not sure they helpbecause so much of the work is concealed behind plasterboard now.

Thanks,
Amy
 
Unregistered said:
He is charging £150per day, so you might say that was £18.75 per hour.
Click to expand...

See, £150/day for a Gas Safe registered engineer is dirt cheap (regional variations apply, of course.)

I don't get why he is giving you an invoice broken down into hours worked. Is he trying to claim that many hours proportionately, basing the £150 on an 8 hour day?

If not, and he's charging a fixed day rate then the number of hours is irrelevant.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Unregistered said:
Yes he is Gas Safe.
Click to expand...

Please stay logged in so we know we are conversing with the same person! :)

You can tick the "Remember Me" box on the login screen to make sure you aren't logged out when you close the screen...
 
£150 a day is very reasonable. He might have possibly added some hours for travel or time spent getting materials or pricing the boiler?
You really can't expect a gas guy to charge you just £150 for installing a gas boiler. That would barely cover a modest wage and fuel for his van. He also needs his qualifications, van, tools, insurance and some profit paid for on top.
 
so how much did he charge you for the lot (boiler and the rads) total bill
 
Unregistered said:
Hi,

Thanks for replying so quickly. Unfortunately wedidn’t get an agreement in place beforehand (big learning point for us). Thebuilder recommended him so we went on a trust basis, the builder has apologisedand isn’t using him anymore, but that doesn’t help us much. He is charging £150per day, so you might say that was £18.75 per hour.
The 2 radiators were in a new extension so it wasfirst and second fix and then connecting to the existing system which was easyto get to, i.e. it was in the same room and the pipes were surfaced mounted sojust needed clipping to the wall. One radiator was in the hall way, access wasfairly simple as the ceiling was already down and exposed the existing pipes, fromthere he was able to run the new pipes under the bath, through the wall to thenew radiator. It didn’t require any breaking up floors.
The boiler job was: remove the old boiler and thenconnect in the new boiler. All the pipes were in place because we had paid himfor that work separately. It didn’t need powerflushing.
It was just him working on the job, but the builderdid help him on the day he fitted the boiler (unpaid).
I’ll take a few photos tonight, not sure they helpbecause so much of the work is concealed behind plasterboard now.

Thanks,
Amy
Click to expand...
I bet, Amy, you had a chat with your plumber about 15 hours. What did he say?
 
He charged total £2900 for all the work done. That doesn't include the boiler, we supplied that. This price includes moving the gas pipes and heating pipes into the new extension and some first fix plumbing.

He maintains it took 15hrs but it was clearly done in a day. Not sure what to do now.
 
Come on let's talk figures how much did he charge
 
pammieok said:
He charged total £2900 for all the work done. That doesn't include the boiler, we supplied that. This price includes moving the gas pipes and heating pipes into the new extension and some first fix plumbing.

He maintains it took 15hrs but it was clearly done in a day. Not sure what to do now.
Click to expand...
Too quick for me
 
It's a difficult one. what materials did he supply
 
pammieok said:
He charged total £2900 for all the work done. That doesn't include the boiler, we supplied that. This price includes moving the gas pipes and heating pipes into the new extension and some first fix plumbing.

He maintains it took 15hrs but it was clearly done in a day. Not sure what to do now.
Click to expand...

can you post some pics up of the work and did he supply the the new rads for the extension ?
 
Going off what OP is saying and number of hours charged he is Proberly charging a total of around £300 , if that's the case then the job is ridiculously cheep & don't know how he makes a living, Myself I wouldn't install just a boiler for that amount ! and what about all the other materials ??
 
pammieok said:
He charged total £2900 for all the work done. That doesn't include the boiler, we supplied that. This price includes moving the gas pipes and heating pipes into the new extension and some first fix plumbing.

He maintains it took 15hrs but it was clearly done in a day. Not sure what to do now.
Click to expand...

OK, but still, I'd like to know - is he claiming that as it supposedly took 15 hours, you should pay him 2 days at £150/day? Or is he making a point that it took that long, but charging you a day?
 
Sorry if I've caused confusion. The charge was £300 for 2 days work to fit the boiler (excluding materials). I questioned it because it only took 1 day. But from what people are saying £300 is still cheap.
 
So was job for a fixed price ? if so then number of Hrs. it took is not important, its the price you must have agreed to, if he is charging by the Hr then that works out at £100 pr hr. But did he supply anything else ?
 
So has he done 1 day or 2 , 15hrs for boiler 14hrs for rads, and where has the 2.9K come from ??
 
Don`t forget OP said 1st & 2nd fix plus boiler fitting sounds more than 2days on site to me.
 
£300 is cheap for installing a boiler. But 14 hours seems very long for installing 3 rads with the pipework and access as you describe it. But without seeing the job nobody can be really accurate with their assessment...
 
I think we ought to know how long the plumber was there on "the 15 hour day"?
 
AlexGas said:
I think we ought to know how long the plumber was there on "the 15 hour day"?
Click to expand...

I`m thinking it was spread over time perhaps including half days and the guy hasn`t explained it all very well.
 
Yes sorry I misunderstood one of the questions and answered with £2900. Ignore that as it confuses the matter. These jobs were part of a bigger bit of work and that's where the 2.9k comes from.

It wasn't a fixed cost. Basically he has invoiced for 2 days to fit the boiler (labour only) and it only took 1 day. When I questioned him he claimed he spent 15hrs doing it! Again he claimed 2 days for fitting 3 rads and when I questioned it he said it took him 14hrs in total. His rate is £150 per day so in total the labour for both jobs is £600. He has done other work at the same time so this was all done around the same time which makes it a little hard to work out if he is telling the truth, a part from the boiler job which was clearly done in one day.

He did manage to connect the rads directly into the flow and return coming of the boiler so they heated up whenever the boiler ran, instead of when the programmer was set!

Thanks,

Amy
 
Just pay the bloke. He's entitled to be paid for thr works.

Next time agreed up front with an estimate.
 
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