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.

 

[kirkgas]

some people seem to call a bathroom suite different work to others, talking about tiling, and some taking 3 days, we need to measure oranges with oranges here, tiling etc needs to be looked at after the initial time to fit the suite, ok if you are involved in both (or with a tiler) there is 1st fix to be sorted so that the showwer or bath is in with nothing else so that the tiler can do a good job then we go back, or there is a straight swap bathroom suite, one in one out, minimal pipework alterations, this is only 5-6 hrs work for a tradesman so what is our price for that only?

 

[BenC]

for a straight swap of a bathroom suite onto exsisting pipe work no tileing etc, and fit isolaters on everything if they are not already there im charging £250 is that to cheap, and i know my work is upto a good standard as customers seem to always give me tips, that maybe cause im a hansom young man though and the old ladys love me, lol joking

 

[Avatar]

5-6 hours for a straight swap????

And what drugs do you take to do that?

- without cracking tiles

- properly locating and isolating water

- everyting has to altered to some degree (basin fitting/hieght/feed pipes/waste/tiolet matched to soil pipe ect ect ect)

In an ideal world you can get a lot of work done in a small amount of time, but in the real world(you know that place we live in!!) plumbing ALWAYS takes longer than you think, and so I quote more to cover the expected delays . . .

..... me, I did not know things were this bad - I turn my back for 6 months and the market is flooded with........ like yourselves, offering bathroom installs in 5hours for less than £150!

I may as well go and get a job at ASDA - you ..... have ruined this trade!

 

[BenC]

avatar hope you are not reffering to me, as what im charging is basically the same as everyone else in my area. There is no point me puting in a quote of say £500 as i know i wont get the job as there are so many plumbers around my area doing it for alot less

 

[moony]

lol avatar - i can do a straight swap in and out in a day. and i charge 300 plus materials. thats bath basin and toilet....

i can also change a bath for 150, in and out in 4 hours.

this mean im devaluing the trade? no it means i charge 300 a day for labour - what i can do in that time is my prerogative

but and this is a big but i can also charge 1500 for a bathroom refit, including thermostatic mixer bar, large shower screen, bath, w.c, units and butt and scribe worktops. this only takes me a week though max and thats letting the tiler come inbetween - materials alway extra, 1500 for a weeks labour.... not bad eh, but if i do 5 bathroom swaps and i get same money.

seriously now, straight swap is easily do-able in a day, and I'm shocked you think 3 days is about right.

3 days labor would do a big bathroom with major refurb for us.
1 day first fixing and 2 days finishing off.

straight swap 8am drain system, make up new suite, then rip out bath basin and w.c, in 1 hour or 2 by 1030 i would be starting to instal new suite. id be gone for 4pm without a doubt.

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

£150??? £250 more like

 

[moony]

150 for bath mate. theyre the prices we charge on basic bath in and out - all these prices are plus materials, normally about 30 on a bath.

takes me from 8.30 to dinner time 1230. then maybe somewhere doing a few landlords, services, or fault in the afternoon.

 

[kirkgas]

thats why i wanted us to discuss just fitting the suite, 5-6hrs is tons of time to rip a suite out and alter all pipes, on council contracts 20 odd years ago we fitted like that, with a cast bath going back in, (labourers were there to help us drop the bath) chopped the 2 pipes where they came through from the kitchen 2 elbows and 2 formed bends to get the pipes down on to the deck, pipes at skirting level, new t's behind the ped and connect the tails already measured, cut and fitted before the bath went down (no flexis for the old guys) even easier when we went on to pressed steel baths, once the suite was in we would then catch a part suite, as some houses were only getting china ware as they had a new bath, every day for months at a time, even now the guys are doing a suite, kitchen sink, wash machine and rad if required, all in the one house and still away at 4ish

 

[shaunhighcock]

£150 what?! that's just crazy once you fall into that hole and those people start referring there friends to you, then you will be doing £150 installs all the time with the ones that take 3/4/or even 5 days to put right. charge a good wage and spend time getting it right that way everyone will be happy in the end.
shaun

 

[plumbster3456]

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.

you are not getting the job because people think you are going to be the guy on rogue traders.
£150 to do a bathroom will set alarm bells ringing in peoples head anyone doing this has to be doing very poor quality work or is not a plumber but a chancer
£300 to £350 is the going rate for very straight forward swaps any changes to layout is charged obviously.

 

[Dannypipe]

I hate all this lash it in mentality.

You can't have quality and speed. You can't rush a good job. I reguarly install bath fillers that cost over a grand, and I take as much care with a cheap set of taps as I do with the expensive stuff. Honestly, every bit as much care.

People who want a champagne quality job for Brown Ale money are dreaming.

I would't entertain the idea of a suite change for £150. I'm busy 6 days a week (working tomorrow) so people seem to buy into my ethos. All these lashers are just slitting each others throats.

If you're are rushing you stand more chance of scratching somthing, having a weeping joint, forgetting something, and the work generally looking a mess. Lets get back to taking some pride in what we do. We're all on this forum because we are interested in plumbing beyond our working lives. So how we can rush around thrashing in the work is beyond me.

I'm not getting on my high horse, but we have covered this issue before. I just wish we could get back to quality first, speed second.

 

[Ade1969]

As dannypipe says take your time do it once do it right , charge around £300 for straight swap. People will pay for a good tradesman.
Hope this helps Ade.

 

[kirkgas]

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

how do you get up to a £50 bill for a swap over

 

[Blackcatgas]

new pan connector, tube of silicone, new bath trap, new basin trap, bit of 22, bit of 15mm, handful of fittings because its never just a straight swap over is it, shall I go on..... like i said Minimum £50 in bits.

 

[Dannypipe]

Yeah, you'll easily spend £50 on bits. I'm always amazed at the price of plumbing fittings.