What is a fair hourly rate for a qualified plumber/Gas Safe engineer?

[Masood]

Hiya,

First off, a big hello to you all. This is my first post on the forum, and I'm after some advice. I've been recommended to my local council to be an approved contractor, and as part of the process they want to know what my hourly rate is.

I've always priced per job, based on £200 a day, but without wanting to sound greedy, breaking it down per hour seems a little low - £25/hour for an 8-hour day.

I am City & Guilds 6129 Level 2 and NVQ Level 2 qualified, Gas Safe registered, with a few years experience in all sorts of domestic plumbing and gas. I also do bathroom and kitchen fitting/redesign so have carpentry and (basic) general building skills.

What do you think would be a fair rate? Based in the Surrey/Kent area.

Thanks in advance!
Masood

 

[TBServices]

I don't know what it's like down south, but I can't see my local council paying £25 ph, never mind more.


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[mountainman]

I think you'd be lucky getting £14 ph off a council, besides most councils etc use a Schedule of Rates now.

 

[WaterTight]

You not planning on having lunch?

 

[Pipedream]

I always charge lunch at double time, plus extra for crisps

 

[Masood]

You not planning on having lunch?

I don't generally stop for lunch mate, just snatch 10 minutes for a sarnie and snack on fruit during the day...

 

[AWheating]

for local Authority work/general contracting subby rates by me are £100-140 a day or price work which differs on each job. Some prices ive heard of are £85-100 for a bathroom, £150-250 for a boiler change/system change, £400-500 for a full heating system.

If your working on your own private work you charge what you want.

if you do a search there are plenty of posts about advertised gas engineers jobs with wages as low as £8 an hour.

 

[stevetheplumber]

to cheap id think in the south £40 per hour would be the minimum think of it this way you start working for the council it all works out fine so you take on some one to cover some of the work your lucky and get a guy who wants 12.50 an hour now you have to use the 12.50 an hour profit to pay his 6 weeks holidays a year, insure him, provide a van or fares to jobs maybe pay for his ACOPS every 5 years contribute to his pension scheme then that 12,50 looks a little thin

 

[REDSAW]

depends which part of the council,imo?.

ask them if they want to employ you=£14ph or employ your services=£25ph. ones with holiday pay and the likes and the tother aint.

i charge a dept of my local council what i like but generally around £40ph, never had a problem but i do always go the extra mile if needed for them so proberbly less than that in real terms.
so lifes a gud un.lol.

 

[Barry98]

last time our councill advertised it was £9 p/h

 

[moony]

i think the original poster needs to clarify whats he's asking on as a rate ?

theres hourly rate employed to someone
hourly rate sub contracting to someone
and theres hourly rate running your own business

all three would differ considerably imo

I would be happy on 12 pound an hour, with a pension and healthcare employed

i wouldn't work for less than 120 a day subbing regular
160 if it was one off

And as far as my business goes i don't walk away from a job with less than forty quid even if I'm there 20 mins.

So its all about what your planning on doing.....