5 quotes.

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Got a call to price over skim on 5 artex ceilings and the guy said he's getting 5 quotes!
f**k*d if i'd want 5 different tradesmen coming round my house,let alone 4 of us are just gonna be wasting our time.
Tempted not to bother but might as well,though I don't think i'll hold my breath till I get it!
 
Just give him the old........i wont skim over artex it leaves a bad finnish and is not best practise.
Any plasterer that skims over artex is not a Tradesman but a chancer it wont last and i cant guarantee it blah blah blah.
And tell him its £250 a ceiling to overboard and do properly upto 20m2.
You can tell him that over the phone.
 
skimmin2day said:
Just give him the old........i wont skim over artex it leaves a bad finnish and is not best practise.
Any plasterer that skims over artex is not a Tradesman but a chancer it wont last and i cant guarantee it blah blah blah.
And tell him its £250 a ceiling to overboard and do properly upto 20m2.
You can tell him that over the phone.
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Yeah that's what I'm tempted to do but I'll go and see it.
Doubtless one of the others will say he'll beat any quote and seems round here they don't give a s**t about quality just how cheap you are.
 
I am looking at a job at the mo where 3 approved installers from each of four referenced render companies have put us forward, so thats 12 subbies - as per the norm it is to be our keenest possible price as obviously cheapest wins.

gettin slashed off with the industry at the mo me, better off closing up and getting a regular job with no stress. its gonna get tight in construction this yr
 
Mate if a customer is price driven,and that is there mind set ur fcuked.
Someone will always come along and beat ur price.
You have to make the customer trust you and like you !!!!
Oasis was good at this and got work,i think im good at this too although work is quiet for me at the mo.
Busines aint just about plastering you have to give them the chatter and be FAIR with ur price and do good CLEAN work.
 
plasterjfe said:
I am looking at a job at the mo where 3 approved installers from each of four referenced render companies have put us forward, so thats 12 subbies - as per the norm it is to be our keenest possible price as obviously cheapest wins.

gettin slashed off with the industry at the mo me, better off closing up and getting a regular job with no stress. its gonna get tight in construction this yr
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Mate you gotta just ride with it !! Do your best price and pray.
This is the quitest works been for me in twenty years mate.Im doing plenty quotes,but the work aint coming my way.And i price fairly.
The phone is ringing which is good,but getting the jobs is better.
But it only takes one phone call to change things and it will come.
 
skimmin2day said:
Mate if a customer is price driven,and that is there mind set ur fcuked.
Someone will always come along and beat ur price.
You have to make the customer trust you and like you !!!!
Oasis was good at this and got work,i think im good at this too although work is quiet for me at the mo.
Busines aint just about plastering you have to give them the chatter and be FAIR with ur price and do good CLEAN work.
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Agreed,that's how I opperate,after 22 years of doing this shite I know what a good job is,I just think I'm aiming at the wrong market,which I plan to correct.
Saw the job today and the guy said he would go for the cheapest price,I told him to make sure he trusted whoever he got (whether that was me or not) not just to go for the cheapest,I think he took it on board.
It also helped that he'd had some s**t skimming in a window bay that was done by a 'friend'.
I doubt I'll get it but hopefully neither will some cheap chancer.
Oh I did suggest ceiling each,he did have a smile.
 
ive been to jobs where another spread turned up at the same time, i waited for him outside and said ,whats it like, he goes 'bag of sh't' I said, you want it? her goes, 'ill do it but..'
so i goes has a look... its one bedroom, top floor in a 3 storey back to brick, house full of junk... and he wants it... rendering..
and the blokes dressed in his pyjamas in a pair of sandals, in winter...
he nearly shat himself when I said 400 so i said ill go home and work a price out..
rang him up later and told him 600.. :RpS_sleep:
 
Chris W said:
ive been to jobs where another spread turned up at the same time, i waited for him outside and said ,whats it like, he goes 'bag of sh't' I said, you want it? her goes, 'ill do it but..'
so i goes has a look... its one bedroom, top floor in a 3 storey back to brick, house full of junk... and he wants it... rendering..
and the blokes dressed in his pyjamas in a pair of sandals, in winter...
he nearly shat himself when I said 400 so i said ill go home and work a price out..
rang him up later and told him 600.. :RpS_sleep:
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Excellent,I bet he bit your hand off!
it's actually 7 ceilings in an occupied house,only about 70m2 in all but quite a bit of prep. I reckon about 2.5-3 days,£65 materials so £515 would be fair but I don't think i'll stand a chance so gonna go in at £450.
Feels like I'm cutting my own throat,I need every penny at the moment so I've got to try.
 
skimmin2day said:
Mate you gotta just ride with it !! Do your best price and pray.
This is the quitest works been for me in twenty years mate.Im doing plenty quotes,but the work aint coming my way.And i price fairly.
The phone is ringing which is good,but getting the jobs is better.
But it only takes one phone call to change things and it will come.
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Problem is most of the firms I am in against are pricing at either break even or minus or plus 1 percent. these are the prices that get the work but I aint going in for no profit after overheads. just seen another article today about another interior firm going bust CPL interiors they only won work when they priced at a loss so eventually went bust but the developers want those prices
 
Theres a few gone around my neck of the woods like that who we used to do work for,
Lotus construction went bust a while ago did a lot of public work at break even.Yorkhouse construction went the same,these were fairly big outfits in yorkshire and northwest lancs.The thing is i think it will get worse this year i dont see an end to it in the short term,thats why weve moved away from site work, to domestic side a bit more and for smaller devlopers.
To be honest it looks fairly bleak out there,were quiet at the moment just ticking over.
been to price a float and set job up before christmas round about 2000 metres plus few other bits bit of boarding patching in existing offices etc on a new factory site for a devloper that ive worked for before, went to see director today he said we aint going with you this time weve gone with another firm from 60 mile away he said that they are nearly 20 per cent less than you can do it for, i priced it at a competative figure aswell.
The mrs says i should pack it in and do something different but its all ive ever done but im half tempted at the minute.
 
plasterjfe said:
Problem is most of the firms I am in against are pricing at either break even or minus or plus 1 percent. these are the prices that get the work but I aint going in for no profit after overheads. just seen another article today about another interior firm going bust CPL interio. tyrs they only won work when they priced at a loss so eventually went bust but the developers want those prices
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I was chatting to a former partner last nnight who's now a contracts manager for a main contractor and he says all they wanna is have the subbies over.they use different subbies on every job.they putting in prices less than 30% of the cost of the job,then still expecting to turn a profit.guess who baring the brunt of this?
 
Surely we all need to change this, otherwise it ain't looking good, site work prices are a joke.....If we all stuck with the same prices and all stuck together, they would have to pay it.

We could all earn top doller then, pisses me off , so much undercuting in the plastering game, always the directors driveing round in flash range rovers though.....
 
In regards to the site work idiots will always do it fit peanuts I know of firms paying less than 1.60 m2 for skimming and 1.10 for board and dab and that's on 3 story houses with 15 mm soundbloc boards! **** getting them T***s up two flights of stairs for them prices
 
barryed said:
In regards to the site work idiots will always do it fit peanuts I know of firms paying less than 1.60 m2 for skimming and 1.10 for board and dab and that's on 3 story houses with 15 mm soundbloc boards! **** getting them T***s up two flights of stairs for them prices
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long gone are the days of the firm's labourers loading out for you!
 
s.p.t plastering said:
Surely we all need to change this, otherwise it ain't looking good, site work prices are a joke.....If we all stuck with the same prices and all stuck together, they would have to pay it.

We could all earn top doller then, pisses me off , so much undercuting in the plastering game, always the directors driveing round in flash range rovers though.....
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I agree and have stuck to my guns but for the last 6 months I've been priced out of 90% of jobs I've gone for.
I've got loads of bills I can't pay and a family that need feeding.
What can I do if others in my area are charging **** all?
The future is grim.
 
nothing you can do,its a free market as they say, firms can charge what they want.but i know of of few big firms that are strugging that i fear will go under this year
this goverment have done piss all for construction to says its one of the major employment sectors.
like not reducing the vat on bulding work to 5% rated across the board, it would stimulate growth. also to cut some of the red tape myself as an employer has to put up with that seems to be getting worse.
 
owls said:
nothing you can do,its a free market as they say, firms can charge what they want.but i know of of few big firms that are strugging that i fear will go under this year
this goverment have done piss all for construction to says its one of the major employment sectors.
like not reducing the vat on bulding work to 5% rated across the board, it would stimulate growth. also to cut some of the red tape myself as an employer has to put up with that seems to be getting worse.
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And yet they pour billions into the banks and the car scrapage thing to prop up the car dealers.
 
Back on topic,I gave a price of £450 and asked what other quotes he had. He said only 2 others had turned up and that one said £550 which he said was to much so the guy dropped £50 saying that was his bottom line. I said to him that £550 was still a good price and he wasn't trying to rip him off.
I feel bad that I've gone in low, suppose at least I didn't undercut after the fact.
Though the remaining spread still might.
 
tell him he cannot afford to have his ceilings plastered so he should not be shopping for a tradesman - tell him to buy some paint and tidy them up himself.
tell him dont go food shopping in MARKS ans Sparks with a fiver in your pocket.

same s**t last week in manchester a woman needs two rooms fully skimmed off and added that she had had a few quotes but ALL were far too expensive so could we quote figures first so she didnt waste her time. I flt like saying the clue here is woman that all the quotes are prob not too dear its what it costs! how these people get prices in their heads is beyond me what do they fecking know i wanted to tell her the same - you cant afford a tradesman so hang some lining paper yourself. these people want the likes of scruffy plasterers to work for peanuts
 
plasterjfe said:
tell him he cannot afford to have his ceilings plastered so he should not be shopping for a tradesman - tell him to buy some paint and tidy them up himself.
tell him dont go food shopping in MARKS ans Sparks with a fiver in your pocket.

same s**t last week in manchester a woman needs two rooms fully skimmed off and added that she had had a few quotes but ALL were far too expensive so could we quote figures first so she didnt waste her time. I flt like saying the clue here is woman that all the quotes are prob not too dear its what it costs! how these people get prices in their heads is beyond me what do they fecking know i wanted to tell her the same - you cant afford a tradesman so hang some lining paper yourself. these people want the likes of scruffy plasterers to work for peanuts
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Not that she was wasting your time or all the others time.
The general public via the media perceive the building industry as a bunch scamming cowboys so I don't think no. 10 could careless.
What we need is a Union,oh no wait they are corrupt scamming f**k**s too!
 
ADS said:
Back on topic,I gave a price of £450 and asked what other quotes he had. He said only 2 others had turned up and that one said £550 which he said was to much so the guy dropped £50 saying that was his bottom line. I said to him that £550 was still a good price and he wasn't trying to rip him off.
I feel bad that I've gone in low, suppose at least I didn't undercut after the fact.
Though the remaining spread still might.
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I reckon the other spread won't give him a price - assuming that he told all 5 spreads that he was getting 5 quotes, 2 decided right away to not even bother (aa you almost did). The other spread has had a look and said "f*ck im"................The jobs yours mate, good luck, and don't let them take any liberties like leaving you to move the furniture around. ( Tell 'em you know someone who can empty each room for £60 a day - that keeps things right)
 
bubbles65 said:
I reckon the other spread won't give him a price - assuming that he told all 5 spreads that he was getting 5 quotes, 2 decided right away to not even bother (aa you almost did). The other spread has had a look and said "f*ck im"................The jobs yours mate, good luck, and don't let them take any liberties like leaving you to move the furniture around. ( Tell 'em you know someone who can empty each room for £60 a day - that keeps things right)
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You're probably right.
I've fallen for that one before but not again.
 
Very quiet round halifax area too at the moment not had many phone calls for about 6 months, only cause i had some big jobs on that i have survived. used to get 99% of quotes i bet i have been getting 50% lately.
 
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