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Discuss Sent over a quote for bedroom/bathroom swap. Too expensive obviously in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net

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armyash

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Hi guys sent over a quote to a customer for a job that I went to look at a few weeks ago.

She wants her bathroom ripped out and made good to become a bedroom and the bedroom next door converted to a bathroom.

This will include tiling, painting and everything else to complete the bathroom. skirting, tiled bath panel, laying the floor. I think she also wants the bedroom decorated.

Also remove the cast iron stack and run wastes to new location.

This is a lot of work, there will be two of us. It's a decent sized semi detached house the rooms are fairly big.

She is supplying bathroom suite and tiles. Everything else is down to us. I really wanted the job as it would be a good job to get my teeth into.

She also wants all the rads replacing throughout the house but I have not quoted for this yet, it's two separate jobs.

I sent the quote over last night and got a reply today asking if that includes the rads. Doesn't look like i'll be getting it.

At the end of the day it does look a bit pricey but there's some things that we haven't accounted for. What state will the walls be in when stuff is ripped out?? How much unforseen work will be there?

I've basically covered mine and my mates butts, we have a decent wage if the job is straight forward at the price quoted. If we come across things we don't expect and it's our mistake we have to sort this and extra materials will come out of our wages. We expect this so have accounted for it, that way we still get paid a reasonable amount and she gets a job well done and fully completed.


She admits she doesn't have a clue about things so that's fair enough. I don't want to rip anyone off but I am not working for free either. I have replied and said If she wants done what i think she wants done then that's the price without rads. If she decides she wants less work done by us then she needs to give full details and i will amend the price accordingly.

After speaking through email I have offered numerous times to visit her at home again to have another look (for free) to gather more information or discuss in more detail what she wants. She has not decided to take me up on this offer.

Before I initially visited the emails sent put more emphasis on central heating work so that's what we were concentrating on when we got there. She had to leave by a certain time. She did then mention how the bathroom was priority so we had a look a bit of a measure up but limited to what we could check due to time and the fact the bedroom was in use.

Not expecting to get it, just thought I'd share this :D
 
Earl days yet. I just put a price in for a shower room refurb. Just short of 4k. The bloke been back on saying that he is still waiting for a second qote to come back. But I had dropped my grant westfield samples round and details of tray 1500 x 800 and screen and although he wants to see the other price he's said he likes the way I operate and the effort that went into the quote.

End of the day I will get it or lose it, but I wont sweat it either way.
 
being detailed, expensive and upfront and helpful often cops the work, more so than a bit of paper with a total on it!
 
The only time you should worry is when you go a whole 3 months without anyone saying you are too expensive.

Mentally subdivide the population into tenths. Say the top 10th are prepared to pay £75 per hour for a plumber. The bottom 10th expect to pay £7.50.

You probably want to avoid working for the bottom 10th. Possibly also the next 10th and maybe even the 3rd from bottom.

From your point of view, the work is no different - soldering a joint in a top decile house takes the same time as in a bottom decile property.

Unless you see yourself as a social service, you need to do more of the better paying jobs and less of the poorer paying.
 
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stop giving the secrets away Ray, they'll all be wanting to work for you now :)
 
I'll be honest, it probably is over priced but not so much that it's mind blowing and as already said no doubt there will be materials to buy that I have not accounted for. This will even things out for everyone involved.

I actually had another price in mind (a fair bit lower) that I sent over to my mate to see if he agreed, he thought I was too cheap but didn't really want to say too much as i'm dealing with the customer.

I'm expecting her to say no thanks but then if she gets quotes from another company or various tradesmen to complete different aspects. I will be amazed if it's cheaper than us.

When I say I have over priced, that's is with my experience. Possibly under priced for all I know.

I saw quote on my boss desk the other day for a quote to change some bath taps £380++!! Now they might be fancy taps but when I see that I'm not fretting about this job.
 
being detailed, expensive and upfront and helpful often cops the work, more so than a bit of paper with a total on it!

That's exactly what I have been.

Numerous emails back and forth helping her decide on what to pick.

Detailed quote with almost step by step what will be done

Offer to speak on the phone when ever convenient to deal with any concerns.
 
When I started on my own I was told that on average you would win 1 in 3 jobs that you estimate. I also used to take not getting a job personally, now its water of a ducks back.

As long as you are happy with the price the I wouldnt worry.
 
Earl days yet. I just put a price in for a shower room refurb. Just short of 4k. The bloke been back on saying that he is still waiting for a second qote to come back. But I had dropped my grant westfield samples round and details of tray 1500 x 800 and screen and although he wants to see the other price he's said he likes the way I operate and the effort that went into the quote.

End of the day I will get it or lose it, but I wont sweat it either way.


Put it this way. My quote is cheaper than yours. If she don't want it, i'll live.
 
time to sit back and wait, no point in fretting, last quote i did was last week nothing heard and another this week is going to be stupidly expensive as I know its going to be a pain, so lose it or make it worthwhile to put up with an amateur property developer!!!
 
This one is a 5 foot square room. Pull out existing shower etc, pull down ceiling, board, plaster, clad and new lights. Grant westfield panels all round room, low level tray, new mira shower, glass screen and new extractor fan.

Ive upped my rates, time I was working smarter than harder.
 
Again just be careful and dont let them push your price down with other quotes. youve got a price and standard to do the job..if she wants a proper job then pay..
 
from what you specced your way too cheap which can put them off as well

I agree with you.

I believe that is true about quoting too cheap and I can see why. Maybe if the quote is too cheap they wont expect a good job to be done. The fact she has asked if the rads are included makes me think she believes I am too expensive.

10 rads, some fairly large and pipework to be adapted. chemical flush included. Definitely not included in the quote already provided.
 
When I started on my own I was told that on average you would win 1 in 3 jobs that you estimate. I also used to take not getting a job personally, now its water of a ducks back.

As long as you are happy with the price the I wouldnt worry.

Im just going through this at the min! Just starting to get my head round not taking it personally. Im coming across alot of people that want you to work for nothing at the min.
 
Just because she was surprised at the price doesn't mean you were to expensive, probably she is naive in thinking its a £500 job.

If you won't get anyone to do it cheaper then she either wants it done or she doesn't.
 
I had 1 customer tell me last week that he hopes to get his bathroom all done for under £500 then said hopefully a lot less, i said oh right is that for the materials? To which he replied no everything! I was there to quote the heating upgrade then was asked to look at the bathroom, sent the quote over but haven't heard anything back surprisingly!

Also got 1 tomorrow i JUST want my bathroom putting upstairs.
 
There are a lot of people who honestly have no idea about how much things like this cost. Then you get the odd muppet that thinks you should be only paid what the young lass behind the bar gets.
 
Too right they're the people who i seem to be getting at the min!
 
Some handy man / awful muppet will get job and make a hash and charge 5times what u quoted by adding extras in. You loose jobs for a good reason she sounds too busy to remember what she asked for........ In short move on and avoid. DO NOT DO JOB NOW! IF asked to fix it you charge £35p/h per person and it's for an hour or part there of!
 
Maybe she is naive to costs etc which i can accept but doesn't mean I will do the job for peanuts. The more I think about it the more I think we might be better off walking away. I would be booking a week off from work to do it (which is allowed) and I would look to start on the sat/sun and work through until it's done. I'd expect it to take 6/7 days allowing for unexpected work, i'd be happy to work long days too to get it done.

She didn't come across as fussy and was happy to listen to suggestions. She might reply and say just fit the appliances and do the tiling which would make it easy for us and we would do for a lot less.

Maybe we have over estimated the work to be done but I can live with that. I'd rather that than start the job then when all the plaster falls away she expects us to repair the walls as part of the price. What if there's moisture in the walls of the old bathroom and it needs drying out/replastering?? That will delay the job and won't be cheap.

Will hopefully receive a reply today and will update this thread but to be honest i think I know what she will say and I'm not too bothered now.
 
When I started on my own I was told that on average you would win 1 in 3 jobs that you estimate. I also used to take not getting a job personally, now its water of a ducks back.

As long as you are happy with the price the I wouldnt worry.

This is an excellent post :)
 
I think it will end up taking more than 6-7 days. A new bathroom from scratch with plastering, tiling, painting, flooring etc is normally about a 2 week turnaround.
 
It's possible that it doesn't need plastering but it may do so I have advised.

There is a lot of work and I think she will be best off going else where for quotes. I have told her there's a lot of work involved and that's what we have quoted for.
 
If I won 1 in 3 quotes id be a rich man!!

Seriously though, half of people that ask for.a quote don't even get the work done.
Some do but don't contact you for 2/3 years. Some are just dreamers. Alot already have a plumber but need a second quote. Some won't like you for whatever reason. Then you get ones that are expecting it for nothing and have no idea of the work involved
 
Very good point Tom about half the people don't end up having it done.
 
am i the only one who feels secretly relieved when you don't get a quote accepted because you basically just can't be arsed to get out of bed. feeding yourself and paying the bills remain a pressing concern but don't seem to get in the way of that brief moment on being turned down when i find myself going 'oh thank **** for that...'
 
I've done a quote today for a BT engineer. I'm sure most people on here would of worked for one before. He advised me the gas pipe was fine 'because it was 15mm' before even seeing the boiler location, a part of me died inside at these no it all telecom monkeys. It seemed to me like he basically wanted to pick my brain about to go about converting a system to a combi under the guise of wanting a quote.
I may be wrong but suffice to say I won't be spending too much time quoting. My formula for these carp jobs? Think of a reasonable price and double it. All bases covered. It's natural to take it personally at the beginning but sure enough you will soon be able to spot the wheat from the chaff.
 
I find if you're very specific when quoting, you can put a reasonable quote in and get away with any extras that may crop up i.e. "Remove old suite and tiles and replace (any plastering/patching will be charged as an extra), replace standard radiator with towel rad.....etc.
As said before, most customers haven't a clue the amount of work that is involved that isn't immediately obvious - pipework alterations under floor etc.
On a new build I did recently, I made as much on the extras as on the original quote by being very specific as to what was being quoted for
 
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