Fair Pricing for work done?

[Leezygeezer]

so I have been asked to fit an electric shower, pipe work needs chasing into wall and re routing, electrics already there (bonus) and to change a defective stopcock (it's top floor of a block of flats ) customer bought the shower.

So my question is, what would you guys charge for a job like this? I usually undercharge and end up kicking myself in the nuts!

 

[Harvest Fields]

Probably a days labour

 

[townfanjon]

I usually undercharge and end up kicking myself in the nuts!

You aint on your own lol

Chasing into the wall ? , breeze , bricks ? stud wall ? are you tileing /plastering ?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

A day if not much tiling and easy stop tap change

Or day and half if hard

 

[Leezygeezer]

No tiling necessary, pipe work is tricky due to limited access behind basin pedestal and pan/cistern assembly, I was gonna charge £150, just want to be sure I don't massively under/over charge

 

[townfanjon]

No tiling necessary, pipe work is tricky due to limited access behind basin pedestal and pan/cistern assembly, I was gonna charge £150, just want to be sure I don't massively under/over charge

Hard without seeing it , but it sounds loads to cheap , especially if you are supplying the copper and stoptap .

 

[ShaunCorbs]

No tiling necessary, pipe work is tricky due to limited access behind basin pedestal and pan/cistern assembly, I was gonna charge £150, just want to be sure I don't massively under/over charge

I would price higher but depends on your day rate ?

 

[Leezygeezer]

I do very little private work now so I find it difficult to price accurately, 2 lengths of pipe plus fittings and sundries, stopcock supplied by customer.
Thanks for the feedback guys

 

[Harvest Fields]

Where about in the world are you?

 

[king of pipes]

£200 + materials bud if your doing it to supplement your income on top of your day job then may be you could go a bit lower most sole traders charge between £20 - £30 a hour in this neck of the woods . the bigger companies I sometimes sub to can charge £45- £55 depending on what it is boiler repairs are charged higher , general plumbing a lower amount hope this helps regards kop.

 

[Leezygeezer]

Based inside m25

 

[aqua.heat]

I'd say that you were well low on the pricing but it depends on what YOU need out of the job? We all have different expenses and overheads so know what we need to turnover a day to ensure a profit.

My day rate is £250-£300 or £65 an hour and that is up in the north east in Skegvegas. Inside M25 I would be wanting half again on top of that and then materials!

Only you know what you need from your business/on the side work. Is it beer tokens or are you setting aside capital to go alone? If so then you always need to consider your tax, N.I, business expenses and profit on each and every job. Thats why you need to spend some time working out ALL of your costs (you'lll be surprised how many you actually have and never give it a thought, right down to screws, plugs and PTFE. Seems trivial but it all adds up)

Happy to help if you need any more advice.

Jon

 

[aqua.heat]

A VERY VERY rough example but it may help you out.

Yearly Expenses:

Insurances - £1200
Fuel - £3500
Van - £3350 (£10k van over 3 years)
Vehicle maintenance - £500
Road Tax - £250
Training - £500 (ACS over 5 years plus other courses)
Phone bill - £1000
Tooling and Clothing - £2000
Day 2 Day Sundries - £500
Administration - £800

Just these total: £13,600 (bare with me as these are just examples)

So you need to make £13,600 before you have even started to look at a profit.

Assuming that you work 46 weeks a year (allowing for holiday and sickness) and Monday to Friday that's 230 days per year to earn this. I allow a 4 day week though as you are never always fully booked day in day out but it averages out so... 184 days to earn this!

That's £74 a day before you even earn a crust!!

Good news is you can offset that on tax though but you still need to pay your bills and make a profit so lets say you have a mortgage and a family of 2.4 kids.

Bills will be say £1000 a month so that's another £12k a year needed so another £65 a day to earn.

Total so far £139 per day just to live and stay afloat!

Then you want to make a profit to expand the company or pay off mortgage quicker or put the kids through uni so lets say £10k profit a year. That's another £54 per day.

Total so far £193 per day.

And don't forget the tax man will want his share too!!!

Please bare in mind that these are very rough, plucked out the air figures, and I'm sure there's plenty I've missed, but should give you some idea of what you need to do to work out what your day rate needs to be to be beneficial to YOU.

Jon

 

[Leezygeezer]

Thanks for the info, fortunately my overheads are very low , I have done a fair amount of work for this guy over the years as well so I didn't want to spank him or anything, but I also don't want to devalue my work.
I think I'll stick with the £150, I wanted to make sure I didn't overcharge more than anything else.

Plus I have another job coming up for him soon, which will be drain down of sealed system and taking out 6 imperial rads and fitting 6 replacement metrics. Which means some tricky pipe connections. Might have to ask advice for a price on that one too!! All rads and valves supplied by customer so minimal sundries on my part, other than pipe, screws, solder, flux, fittings, chemicals etc.

 

[Harvest Fields]

My labour is always more expensive when the customer suppliers the materials. Make sure that you make it perfectly clear that if the stuff is wrong he will still get charged that days labour plus any extra labour needed to fit the stuff.

 

[Gasinspect]

Make sure you have insurance cover, anything goes wrong on top floor of flats would not want to think of consequences. My insurer kindly told me after 10 years with them that I could not do plumbing in buildings with more than 3 stories, including basements and loft. Asked why the changes, they said there are so many starting own plumbing business and massive payouts that they were restricting cover. Had to go elsewhere. Worth checking.