What are you charging for a suite install

[joe brown]

hello, I was just wondering what rates you feel are right for a bathroom suite install , This is a like for like swapover - Just a basic install, Iv been quoting £150 lately and still losing quotes because i am being undercut.

 

[dean4drains]

a saying from an old friend of mine is "no point of being a busy fool" i would like to see the workmanship of someone under cutting you. you can do jobs very cheep if you dont pay tax, use knock off tools, have no insurance etc

wouldnt recommend it though.

 

[Blackcatgas]

hello, I was just wondering what rates you feel are right for a bathroom suite install , This is a like for like swapover - Just a basic install, Iv been quoting £150 lately and still losing quotes because i am being undercut.

Is this a joke? even a straight swap over uses min £50 of bits to do, and your still being undercut?.

 

[johnmcginty]

hello, I was just wondering what rates you feel are right for a bathroom suite install , This is a like for like swapover - Just a basic install, Iv been quoting £150 lately and still losing quotes because i am being undercut.

Oh my good God, I really hope all these people who come on the forum asking about retraining and how much your earning potential is see this thread.
£150 really, The customers who are going for lower than that are just plain silly, I hope it leaks. I have done bathrooms for low prices before but I didn't know it was this bad, maybe if it took a day and I could fit them in when I wanted, All the suite was allready there and no add ons old suite allready stripped out, tiling etc ....honestly I am shocked. Explain to the customers that you are a proffessional tradesman with many overheads and anyone willing to do it even for £150 is not going to be able to dedicate the correct amount of time and attention to do a decent job. Sometimes I get a strange look when I quote a Real price and the customer just can't get their heads around why my qoute is £20 more than the last guy, like there is some kind of exact price all plumbers should do the refit for. Pffffft.

 

[dean4drains]

the wife asked me to look for a second hand cross trainer for her (stay with me here) i googled and came across gumtree, which has a services listing page, had a look around different citys. if you want to see some guys working for next to nothing check it out. Out door taps supplied and fitted for £35 was one that stood out to me.

its like me jetting, if i charged pennys for it, then the seals om my pump pack in, there aint gonna be any money in reserve there to fix it.

 

[kirkgas]

less than £150, mental, most guys about here would charge £200-250 for a cash in hand homer. (£20-25 for bits & bobs) which they probably nick out of their works van, how can people charge under £150 for a job through a firm, suppose they could be cash in hand as well, but any way up it is cheap

 

[REDSAW]

at that price it is not even a day rate let alone £20-50 in parts. we all have our own short cuts to prohibit going back the next day on an install to edge tile etc, but if it dont work to plan you have to allow a couple of hours next morning to finish, even just to empty water out of bath and clean down.

i think the quality of customers is your problem. if they expect the job for £80 then they will keep going till they find 'anyone' who will do it for the price, even bill down the pub.
i have one answer to these custards and that is f.y.
let them do it while i find a real customer and do a good job for them.
after all, a job is not a quote,.

 

[moony]

300 quid any less im walking away before the custard does!

get your joe bloggs from the local in to do the sub standard install- keep your wobbgly bath, taps wrong way around, and dont bother calling me for any problems unless you want me to answer the phone laughing....

regards q-plumb northwest

hello, I was just wondering what rates you feel are right for a bathroom suite install , This is a like for like swapover - Just a basic install, Iv been quoting £150 lately and still losing quotes because i am being undercut.

are you sure your being undercut or the fact the customer thinks your too cheap hence just telling you 'oh we got it cheaper?' save going through the motions of telling you your too cheap?

 

[WHPES]

As my grandad used to say, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

I've seen these £150 installs - pipes roughly bent and kinked, Waste outlets higher than the pan outlet causing water to pool in the pan, basins coming off walls, rough tiling without using primer, basins not level, WC and basin siliconed to wall and floor as opposed to screwed, loose tiles, leaks and drips, second hand copper pipe and fittings etc.

I've charged more to put right these than the people originally paid for the swapover.

 

[hiretools]

I have to agree I think £150.00 is way too cheap even for a novice,you have got to charge at the very least £250.00 to £350.00 minimum that way you pay for what you get a decent job for decent money. These diy'ers make me laugh watching you tube vids then telling us what we are going to charge pffff do it your-self then call me to put it all right for you at double the cost..Keep Smiling,Regards. Hiretools.

 

[helpsy]

I came across a site and someone was doing a swap over in a bathroom for £118!!!! and he was 53 miles from the job!!!!!
Another listing was for changing taps £20 included vat was all the customer was prepared to pay(it said she'd had the taps 6 months and couldn't get a plumber to fit them...wonder why!).Then you have to pay the site for the job out of that as well!

 

[moore]

well youve been bowled over with replies here mate, but i have to agree with q-plumb, i think youve gone for the cheap market! - solution- Treble youre price, and convince your customer it will be a trouble free installation, give them peace of mind, and confidence in you.....it seriously works, even if you take your qualifications and insurance certificates with you,and a portfolio of work completed/ photographs with you, when you initially visit the job, and offer a guaruntee of workmanship/and callback service, in the unlikely event of any problem......what more can you do, than offer the full packge?...people dont mind paying for quality but are wary of plumbers and other trades, and dont want to be had - over, once youve given them confidence in you, theyll refer you to mates and use you all the time.....dont plumb for cheap mate, its hard work - good luck, let us know how you get on - cheers moore

 

[Winston]

I wouldnt waste my time with it, let them take the cheap price and go back for the leaks. Some of the jobs I have seen have horrified me. One recently had even left the cable from the old electric shower dangling over the bath still live

She had paid £200 labour, and had leaks from her bath basin and wc, my quote to rip it out and start again was £2000, I havent had a reply but to be honest I dont want my workmanship tarnished.

 

[Avatar]

Oh my God you lot are such a bunch of donuts (winston seems to have his head screwed on ok though).

£150 . . .
£250 . . .

I would only come on call out to use your toilet for that much, Jesus!

It is guys like you lot which are devaluing the trade. I am fast track trained, and properly established mind. I charge £45 per hour (and I dont fit bathrooms in 3 either!)

Bathroom installs used to be £500+ at the bottom end. Now I can see who has been stealing all the jobs from me, with prices like you are saying.

I would charge about £5-600 to do the job properly most likely its nearer 3 days labour if you dont rush (and do the job properly, which none of you lot do obviously!)

If you are new to the trade, please please please research the market before offering your services too cheap - a bit too bloody late now isn't it?

Damn, it might be time to start thinking about ANOTHER career change . . . .

 

[WHPES]

I was far outbid on a bathroom last year, and some months later came to service a boiler at the house next door. The people commented that the neighbours were disappointed with the bathroom - the bath leaked, the shower was pathetic, the shower screen had a gap between it and the bath, and a load of other things wrong, plus visible pipework all over the place. Anway they asked if I could have a look at it and I did, and what a shambles. The only thing to do was to rip it out and start again - patching up was a waste of time.

They didn't want to do that so I said their only option was to get back the original installer (who was a local handyman not a plumber) to put it right. Never heard anything back but I guess he will have just squeezed more silicone over everything.

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.