hours rate

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pwi

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BEEN READING A FEW OF THE RECENT DISCUSSIONS AND ABIT DEPRESSED TO BE HONEST I CHARGE £17 PER HOUR AND I NEVER SEEM TO BE GETTING ANY RICHER .NOW A DAYS WHAT SHOULD THE AVERAGE PLASTERER BE CHARGING
 
too cheap mate... think about it... 1 boardy ceiling even on domestic takes 3 hours max on site, even if you add an hour from travelling locally and picking up 2 bags of multi thats only 68 quid + 10quid materials 78 quid..
i wouldnt do that for cash...
if thats a repray job its still only 3 hours really and you want more than that mate!
hourly and day rate is really for subbies mate, just price em individually depending on customer expectations, prep work, skill involved and dont forget your overheads... tell him paul... ;)

Roofer2plasterer said:
u wanna walk in my shoes. Sub contracting for £10.00 Per hour, can't even afford a van at the moment. My 406 is covered in plaster!!!!!
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different for you roofer do 40 hours a week your guaranteed 400 quid less tax.. thought the bloke was givin you a van and deisel though? i'd defo want a van for a tenner an hour, and take it home at night and weekends..


i aint pulling that at the moment..
odd week 2 / 3 jobs yeah, but its slow for me at the moment.. ripout-refit ensuite next week, tiled 500 quid.. then i gotta do the rings on the van... never ending mate, chin up ;)
 
i hear what you are saying i do no site work at all and most of my clients deal with me on an hourly rate im lucky enough to be very busy at the moment and i always do an 8hr + shift what should i be charging per hour?????
 
that depends on so many factors ... all day then £17 is good if you have to drive for an hour first then do an hours job then £17 is to low.

only you can judge it mate
 
the thing that is really getting to me the now im juggling 10 different sized jobs and cant get a payment from one until finished but still the bills keep a coming makes me want to go back on the books somtimes
 
organise yourself a bit better if you can then, try and stay on one job all day then in the evening pop over and prep the next to keep them happy, you have to keep finishing work mate else you'll just end up with 10 p issed off customers
 
stage payments, deposits, all part of the domestic self employed contractor...
never tell em you want a say rate cos theyll expect you their from 6 till 6 doinf the work of ten men..
price em all mate..
when i said site earlier i meant 'the job' its still called 'the site' even on domestic..
or thats what i tell the customer anyway.. makes em feel important ;)
 
Chris W said:
too cheap mate... think about it... 1 boardy ceiling even on domestic takes 3 hours max on site, even if you add an hour from travelling locally and picking up 2 bags of multi thats only 68 quid + 10quid materials 78 quid..
i wouldnt do that for cash...
if thats a repray job its still only 3 hours really and you want more than that mate!
hourly and day rate is really for subbies mate, just price em individually depending on customer expectations, prep work, skill involved and dont forget your overheads... tell him paul... ;)

Roofer2plasterer said:
u wanna walk in my shoes. Sub contracting for £10.00 Per hour, can't even afford a van at the moment. My 406 is covered in plaster!!!!!
Click to expand...

different for you roofer do 40 hours a week your guaranteed 400 quid less tax.. thought the bloke was givin you a van and deisel though? i'd defo want a van for a tenner an hour, and take it home at night and weekends..


i aint pulling that at the moment..
odd week 2 / 3 jobs yeah, but its slow for me at the moment.. ripout-refit ensuite next week, tiled 500 quid.. then i gotta do the rings on the van... never ending mate, chin up ;)
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Got a van for the company but have to take it back at night!!!!! Basicaly he lied and we're allready at each others throats!!! c**t thinks he owns me like an employee. Got a load of my own work on at moment just not enough to f**k him off yet and a job interview on wednesday for a general builder for council at 22k pa I think i'll take it if it's offered. Only issue with council job is that it's temp to cover sickness.....It's such a cushy number though i think it's worth a gamble that there might be a full time job at the end. Update over ;)
 
i never charge by the hour unless i have to, i always work on a fixed price or a mix of both. what i mean by a mix is if i was working on a refurb i would charge the builder a m2 rate on all the new area's but the making good and small bits would be charged by an hour. The problem with plastering on an hourly rate is it is very easy to fall out about the hours you have worked. We would start at 8 but not stop at 10 or lunch time but would be on the way home by 3.30-4.00. this has to be charged as a full day because if there aint anything else to do that day then thats not my problem, what tends to happen is the customer dosnt understand this and you end up falling out. If you work on an hourly rate then they should also be charged oneway travel and i will not supply anything apart from hand tools, if i have to supply a mixer or machine then they will be charged a hire rate. If your on price then you supply everything apart from materials unless agreed. Today you have to charge at least £20 per hour, every other trade will charge around that rate. It all depends what you do for the money, the builders we work for know we will do as much work on a hourly rate as we would price
 
A spread Friend of mine has just taken a job with a builder £125 a day , he don't get a van but he gets picked up if he has to travel over a certain distantance ,they also have guarantee him 6 months work. He did tell that his private work was drying up and he wasnt pricing much.
 
i price by the m2 or a day rate, half day being the minimum (unless its for friends or an old biddy)
 
i charge by the set (on skimming / overskimming anyway)... confuses em enough not to give you any grief about disappearing at 3 after 2 sets and tidy up...
boarding by the 'chunk' - whatever i think is worth 100 quid really... some areas are a pain so 100 quids worth would be a lot smaller than a straight wall...
everything else is worked out at about 200 quid per man per day + materials + contingency plan

e.g. cove 1 room on a 1 room job - 1/2 a day time ive messed about... (prolly chuck the materials in for that though depending on room size, customers circumstances and attitude, probably the wrong way to go about things but i sleep at night)

same as pug really on the half day thing.. or 1 set minimum (seeing as technically 1m2 takes as long as 20m2) difference of 2 or 3 bags of dust..
* doing it like this makes my pricing tranparent (no hidden bullsh't) and its easy to price up, usually got the figure in my head before i ask the 'will it be cash?' question..
thats not to say i dont put cash through the books you understand, its just that people think theyre getting a better deal if they pay cash for some reason? dunno why though? ;D


* its not really is it, not with things like 'contingency plan' built in, but you cant tell the customer that, they'd want it back if you happened to have a good day ;)

p.s. 'contingency plan' doesnt mean 'allowing for cock ups' or 'unforeseen circumstances' (extras) it means allowing for things taking a little bit longer than the superman in my head thinks i can do a job or not getting the price im expecting down the merchants for a particular item etc...
 
so perhaps ill quote a few more which brings us back to people who undercut prices its a no win situation really but i do agree with what you say chris i think ill stick the rate up to 20 per hr a nd quote as much as pos .thanks for the advice im only 26 and dont have much of a buisiness head
 
im (nearly!) 38 and still havent got much of a business head which probably explains why i drive an astra van with added smoke screen..
i just believe in simplifying things and not giving other people the edge or the chance to nail you to the floor..
plus i keep getting bollocked off warrior for being to cheap ;D
 
richardbrown said:
that depends on so many factors ... all day then £17 is good if you have to drive for an hour first then do an hours job then £17 is to low.

only you can judge it mate
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rich brown there with the 'yoda'ism'.. ;D
 
you ll get all the work in the world if you want to do it for nothing, should be aiming to earn at least £150-£200 a day anyway,if you want a wage then work for a firm..
 
dont get me wrong hp i want to earn loads of dosh im just trying to find a happy medium i dont want to be working every hour god sends for pennys and i sure as hell dont want to be sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring cause i charge to much you get me .

i could always sell my body on the street id probs be better off?? ;D ;D ;D
 
hp71 said:
you ll get all the work in the world if you want to do it for nothing, should be aiming to earn at least £150-£200 a day anyway,if you want a wage then work for a firm..
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Maybe a year or so ago these figures may have been realistic, but not now for most. A full working year @ £150 a day = £34,800 and @ £200 it is £46,400. Everybody has good days and bad days and some are still earning very good money even in these hard times but having spoken to plenty of lads of all trades there won't be many making between £34,800 and £46,400 this year. I won't work for low money and luckily I don't need to but if you need regular money coming in then don't fall for all the hype about big money and price yourself out of work, be realistic about what you need and charge accordingly and try and stay as busy as possible.
 
being expensive doesnt really stop the phone ringing... it just means you have to work a lot harder to get the lead once the phones rung...
phones dont ring because either your advert is crap or people arent looking where your advert is for plasterers, or theres too many adverts and youre at the bottom of the list, or the work just isnt out there, or you havent built contacts or word of mouth references etc...
ive had a lot of repeat work last few months but sod all new work...
im starting to get the impression that dropping your prices to get work is only hurting the tradesman, if theres only a limited amount of work, doing it cheaper means youre doing less work for less money doesnt it?
Oasis seems to do alright but he spends a sh'tload a month on advertising...
if you could put a figure on it oasis, what sort of percentage do your advertising costs come in at to your turnover? you spend silly money dont you? im guessing you wouldnt unless you get your advertising costs back, clear your overheads and still make at least 500 quid a week wages after everything for yourself? every month...
 
yellow pages costs me 80 a month and thats all i do apart from the sign writing on the van. what people need to do is get a good mix of regular builders and private work plus good trademan who you call in on price. I have builders who still pay me £6m2 for skim because they know i can get men there an get he jobs out plus they dont get any comebacks.
 
i was talking to an old mate i haven't seen since school last night (25yrs) he was telling me he had his porch and h/s/l done last yr, had 5 quotes that ranged from £700 to £2600! in the end he said he went for the midle quote simply because the bloke took the most time running through what had to be done and seemed like a nice fella.
 
Just charge what you want to earn plus mats, if your prices are higher its up to you to sell yourself as the best, and stress why your the best.No good been just a tradesman, Anglian windows dont employ window fitters to sell windows.It seems a bit weird you almost need to be a double glazing salesman as well as a plasterer.
 
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