Reasonable Quote?

[Guest123]

One of the best things I've got recently is a portable credit/debit card machine, makes payment easy especially in this recession and there's no fluffing around chasing payments. I've stopped taking cheques now because I have one.

As to getting what you have paid for, someone charging £350 to fit a bathroom is not going to use top quality materials.

If you add up the materials, say £1,500 plus 20% mark up, and if you say 5 days then that's 5 days x £200 per day, then your quote would be £2,800 and I bet you'll be there longer working for nothing.

 

[Barry98]

One of the best things I've got recently is a portable credit/debit card machine, makes payment easy especially in this recession and there's no fluffing around chasing payments. I've stopped taking cheques now because I have one.
.

your not kidding made our lives so much easier.

who you with system ?

 

[Guest123]

your not kidding made our lives so much easier.

who you with system ?

I'm with CardSave mate.

 

[Barry98]

ours are with payment sense , was worried a lot weren't going to like them but now customers are asking us to take it this way so they get extra loyalty points

 

[Guest123]

Plus elderly customers don't like having a lot of cash in the house, so paying by debit card is a big plus.

 

[dean.diy]

hello system3 , I've thought of presenting one of these
at end of job. Can I ask how much per month ? Dean.

 

[petercj]

Do you take credit cards?

There are some really good interest free credit cards deals around, e.g. 16 months interest free on rolled-over lump sum amounts, which is a very good way of spreading the cost of a new bathroom, etc.

People with established customer bases and able to pick and choose how many days a week they will work are in a very good position, but there are a lot of people who need the cash-flow and they will cut prices to keeping going, which doesn't make them cowboys.

As I have said, there is a regular ad in our local rag re changing a bathroom suite for £350 - when people see such an ad week after week the figure will stick in their minds. Probably is done with speed-fit, and with additional charging for anything other than the very basics, but to a lot of people it will be a bench-mark figure.

Johnny Ball's people will supply and fit a WB for under £1800 with 10 year warranty, BG charge almost twice as much for fitting the same boiler, and give a 1 year warranty!

The catch phrase: "Do the maths" is bang on the money ... "do the maths!" v "you only get what you pay for!"

It won't put BG out of business, but I reckon it's bound to affect their market share - what the JB TV advert doesn't mention is that the company also does boiler servicing, system coverage, power flushing, etc, all much cheaper than BG, so apart from taking boiler work away from BG they are no doubt following through by getting other recurring work as well.

When I see that BG TV ad with the guys launching into space I think: "yeah, bang on: your prices are out of this world!"

 

[Destroyer2813]

There"s a add in the local to me full suite including full height wall and floor tiling with choice of tiles £1995

 

[kay-jay]

Lee and Colin how much do the card readers set you back?

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Guest123]

Dean and Kay, don't know if I'm allowed to name the company contact details here as it might be seen as advertising and don't want to fall to the wrath of Bod the Mod, so I'll PM you with Card Saves details! LOL

If mods ok, I'll post up contact details on here too.

 

[AWheating]

I find it alot harder to quote labour for bathrooms then heating systems as i know my speed and im only quoting for work as plumber/heating engineer with a cable or two. With bathrooms you have alot more other trade work involved which allthough you may be capable of doing its hard to judge it and i carry almost everything on the van to do plumbing/heating but not other jobs. Experience helps alot in these situations as with all work.

 

[Guest123]

I agree, bathroom I'm finishing this week, I fitted a new floor, new joists, tore down an replaced 4 walls, new window, skirting and facings, removed attic tanks and converted to mains, tiled floor, fitted a new door, repiped everything with copper to be hidden under floor, fitted wall and ceiling panels to full bathroom, new thermostatic shower and a quality Tavistock bathroom suite and shower screen. I counted 58 bags of rubble and old tiles in my van! Go back on Tuesday to help sparks with downlights and I've down everything myself.
Customer is delighted, I'm happy and it's taken 21/2 weeks to complete. Original quote was for 2 weeks but floor and joists were unforseen extras after the existing wetroom floor was removed. With bathrooms, a lot of work is extra because you cannot tell what is involved until you fully strip everything out.

 

[Nat]

Every bathroom is different of course and there are many variables but most jobs like this take me around 2weeks/10 days doing everything except the tiling.

The first week (4 or 5 days) I spend stripping out, taking up floor, rerunning hot and colds and heating, fitting new waste runs internally/externally, renewing floor where needed, building stud walls and boarding, fitting bath/shower tray, plying floor, bumping out and unwrapping materials, dealing with all the rubbish etc.

Then my tiler usually takes a couple of days at the beginning of the next week and I will take 2/3 days to second fix and complete everything. It might not always take that long but if i allow that time and tell the customer that is what to expect then if I finish a bit earlier the customer is pleased and I am quids in.

For these sorts of jobs I would price around 9 days of my own time plus the tiler's time and make money on the materials. Sometimes there are little extras but nothing huge.

 

[fogarty]

An asian customer said to me the other day, I need a bathroom fitting for my daughter .He wants to supply all parts .I said it would be so much per day for as long as it took. He says it will only take a day and one more day for all tiling ;4 walls and floor and he really meant it

 

[gavinwilson]

i`d tell him to crack on then, makes me laugh when they tell u how long it should take....erm well why am i stood here ?

 

[Helpfulplumber]

2m x2m ensuite is a weeks work, 1 day strip out, second day re board, third day tile forth day grout and start to refit last day fitting stuff up. There only so much work in a room that size. Bathroom are a fortnight.

 

[Titanium Trades]

Thanks for all the comments... I quoted 2 weeks/10 days, after looking at what needs to be done, 5 days if you had 2 of you or did a bodge job. Last quote they had was 2.8k just for labour, shocking I thought!

 

[mountainman]

Good oh!
Ten days sounds about right to me so you can take your time and do a nice job.

I bet the custard didn't tell you they had been quoted £2.8k labour before you put your price in though. Lol

 

[Titanium Trades]

Nah, he kept that one quiet lol. Other guy clearly saw his new BMW x6 sat on the drive of his 6 bed house and took a chance lol

 

[peteheat]

Thanks for all the comments... I quoted 2 weeks/10 days, after looking at what needs to be done, 5 days if you had 2 of you or did a bodge job. Last quote they had was 2.8k just for labour, shocking I thought!

What I find shocking is all the money you left on the table, working for a days pay and growing a business are two completely different things, hence the dirty word Profit

Profit is very necessary to grow your business, pay advertising bills, insurance, run the van etc and have a bank balance that has enough in it so you can make good any silly mistake you make ( we all made them).

Never price a job based on the car outside, it could be a company car, behind on payments, the nightmare that was once a dream to start with, you are there to price the job not assess the family income based on a few things you think you can see.

My best paying customers do not live in the "fancy" post codes or display wealth outside their door.