Salary

[lenny]

Hi,

How much would a general plumber be expected to earn (outside of London) for a 40-50 hr week?

thanks

Len

 

[Deleted member 25704]

No, its his problem as the main contractor - the contract rates will have already been priced through the Bill of quants.

But its tricky - you as the plumber do not want to earn any less, but he seems to want a better deal. The fact he has asked for this, implies that he may have another estimate, in which case he thinks there are savings to be made.

Hence, if your profit margin is too high, then you will lose the job. The motive of the main contractor may also be associated with cash flow - priced jobs are paid in stages, so he can make you wait for money. Day rate is paid weekly or monthly at most.

Its too dodgy these days to wait for any money, and I would be inclined to communicate this - say your happy with the way things are. If this is not good enough, then ask about the payments and when they will be made - if this is in stages, and you need the work - then put in a price based on your labour + 10% + retention%, and leave an apprentice on the job. The gov will pay you for the apprentice as well.

You may also be subject to retentions, so allow for this in your margin.

 

[tamz]

Your boss isn't asking you for a price to allow you to make more money. Whatever you are making atm for a completed job he would be probably be looking for a reduction on.
Say you take 2 weeks to do the job at an average of £200 a day = £2000 labour. It is unlikely for him to agree on more than that.
The only way you can make more is to speed up. Do it in 8 days and your day rate is £250.
Get a particularly awkward job that runs to 12 days and your rate drops to £166.

He is looking for a fixed price that removes any risk and extra costs from him.


Clanger is giving good advice.

 

[fuzzy]

i worked for a company that priced either day works ir by the hour or put in a price

when we had a job of swapping a rad say coz it was leaking they would ask for a price, my boss would say its cheper for us to charge you by the hour, they never trust anyone and want an upfront price. he would always cover his losses in case the job ran over, so a 5 hour job would be priced on 8, if we did it in 4 we were quids in, if we hit a problem we were not out of pocket.

had we dont it on an hourly rate although more per hour they only pay for what we did, despite advising people they still wanted a price, even customers who knew us. even clerks for council work etc would tell them to gwt job done and price after but rarely did

 

[stevetheplumber]

250 days no wonder he wants you on price i could plumb a big hotel for that

 

[ComfortHeating]

Appreciate the advice, I wanted to use one large price job as an opportunity to get out of subcontracting and into operating as a ltd company. Buying me the time essentially to build more of my own clientele. Sounds like it may be to much of a high risk strategy.