plastering for a living

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i'm starting to lose a few jobs aswell now, luckily i've got friends i can call on, it aint easy
 
jo public is now the main cause they recon they can get a bargain... and exploit the fact that everybody is desperate!!!
 
the main cause is plasterers danny, not the public. a, there are too many about now a days and b, if everyone stuck together then we could tell people how much we want, if everyone charged the same then there would be no undercutting. i know this isnt going to happen but its what is needed.

some kind of plasterers society that governs us. things like the nvq seem like they could work towards this but they are too slack in handing them out. we need a group of good, time served and experienced plasterers who would be willing to travel the country and determine whos good enough, again, this is never going to happen
 
yep we have often talked about this... but how do you do it.... ???

We are in a position to do something but I will be damned if I can work out a way of doing it
 
you cant mate, it would have to be a backed by the government to work, something like gas safe. the truth is people always undercut each other and we just have to try and live with it
 
how come washing machine /white goods repair people all seem to have a mimimun charge, get well paid mostly in cash and here s the clincher as soon as job is finished they expect paying,no chasing some tw at around for months. .our trade is a joke
 
To be honest I have had enough .... really lost my mojo recently and had nothing but jobs on hold/delayed and s**t weather.

Rich
 
i agree plastering is s**t at the moment thats why i stick to rendering... more money per m2 and these skimmers only cant do it....
 
There is something we can do first get a petion going at number 10 tell dave what we think ,You can do on line. It just a question of what we all wish to have a gripe about what's gone wrong in our trade . For me what are they doing about lending again we have to return to 10 % deposit to get first time buyers into the housing market again thats just one thing I can think off.
If we could come together as a group of spreads and have a website pricing works between members on this forum and pay let's say £25 or £50 a year to have this website up and running. I was going to suggest danny do it and take the membership fees as payment and those with website would have links to the site. Not sure if Danny would wish to do it anyway just thinking out aloud
 
beddy said:
the main cause is plasterers danny, not the public. a, there are too many about now a days and b, if everyone stuck together then we could tell people how much we want, if everyone charged the same then there would be no undercutting. i know this isnt going to happen but its what is needed.

some kind of plasterers society that governs us. things like the nvq seem like they could work towards this but they are too slack in handing them out. we need a group of good, time served and experienced plasterers who would be willing to travel the country and determine whos good enough, again, this is never going to happen
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I posted a major rant outlining exactly this point ages ago. was on the old site so aint sure if you will find but it is all about how we should stick to a written industry rate but how it will never happen with a free trade such as plastering. examples were how 10 spreads would quote ten prices with a range of 200% in prices for the same job aand ten plumbers will quote more or less the same price 8 out of ten times on the same job. they aint in as much sh1te as us at the mo because they stick to industry guide rates.
 
It's do-able if rates were set for each type of plastering system, the differences come when different spreads quote on a job using different methods. More on domestics than sitework i would think.
 
Render Systems said:
i agree plastering is s**t at the moment thats why i stick to rendering... more money per m2 and these skimmers only cant do it....
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depends who you pricing for systems lad mono had a golden age a few years ago 30 odd a square on big sites.
big sites now = material cost per bag per square. then £10 a square for the subbie chucking it on then a pound profit to the company per square = around £18 a square before vat. thats what i am up against

give me skimming at £3.00/M for the next 18month and i would fold JFE enterprises 2moz
 
henry said:
There is something we can do first get a petion going at number 10 tell dave what we think ,You can do on line. It just a question of what we all wish to have a gripe about what's gone wrong in our trade . For me what are they doing about lending again we have to return to 10 % deposit to get first time buyers into the housing market again thats just one thing I can think off.
If we could come together as a group of spreads and have a website pricing works between members on this forum and pay let's say £25 or £50 a year to have this website up and running. I was going to suggest danny do it and take the membership fees as payment and those with website would have links to the site. Not sure if Danny would wish to do it anyway just thinking out aloud
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you can get a house with 10% deposit henry
 
its a semi skilled trade now ,skimming is an easy part of the trade to learn anyone can pick the basics and then call there self a plastering contractor , most that are out there are crap and not treating the trade as a business, lads round my way are charging 60-80 a day and have only a couple years under there belt , dont know why but the trade is a joke .
 
I am open to any ideas... I have been thinking about this for a long time and I have been discussing with mods and other members on how we can govern it...

I am not charging members to post on the forum.... it will just go tits up :-) But I am willing to get some industry prices up..... etc! We could build a site and I could build it to target every area etc and get it in peoples faces...

However I think the general public needs educating, I asked Janes dad how much he would expext to pay to skim the kitchen ceiling... not massive but a fair sized lid he said £60 - £80 I was like haha yeah off you go then....

Maybe people need educating about how to spot a s**t plaster?

whats worst than a chancer charging less than a s**t hot plasterer is a chancer getting same work for same job just done to s**t standard..

Danny
 
danny, buy www.properplasterer.co.uk and we'll set it up. pay £50 a year to join and you get a portfoilio on the website, stickers and tradesman No for your van so people can check you up. we'd only really need 2 people in the midlands, a few more in london, few in scotland etc etc get a few people behind it then splash out on a tv ad. job done
 
it is really bad at the minute,ive had 1 weeks work out of last 4 nearly 5 now.Ive done 8 quotes and one f these is a big one(insurance) but nothing back from them as yet.
im still owed £2350 from 5 week ago from one insurance company .and after the conversation i had with them today it seems i could be waiting another 2-3 weeks.

hopefully got 2 days work from thursday.But nothing else booked.This is unprecidented for me,ive never never in 20+ years been slow work wise.
 
jason have you heard of shires magazine? they phoned me today asking if i wanted to advertise with them
 
Actually i spoke with sharon at the Leicester mercury the other day when i put my add back in the rag and she was trying to get me in the same magazine Steve.Im not interested in that mate waste of money.
.I been in the village post in the past thats shite as well.Even the paper is shite and very expensive,but u gotta keep ur name out there.
 
been saying this on here for yonks,and i wont mention a certain training you can do either or eastern europeans.
ive never know it as tough right across the field,im laying a subbie off on friday cos i dont have enough work for him.
as said previously theres too many about.i remember when youd pick yellow pages up and theyd be 15 plasterers for my area now thers twice that on yell.
a universal system would never work because everyone has different overheads etc so charge accordingly and varies across regions etc.you cant have a set pricng structure either because would i want some goverment pen pusher telling me how to charge for work, er no.
take the rough with the smooth, and maybe some chaff will clear off.i remember 5 years ago lads who go in my local earning a grand a week,and they could harly spell there name.so you cant blame lads seeing that thinking ill have a bit of that and wanting to be a plasterer hence adding to the abundance now.

i wrote a letter to a previous construction minister forget his name now [one of that many under the labour goverment] a few years ago stating my concerns regarding this, and to be fair he did send me a reply but he stated that hey wernt enough good tradesman and apprentiships available to youngsters anymore,and how they would address this.the tit.nowt to do with the open border system then with tens of thousands of euorpean plasterers,bricklayers joiners etc flooding in every year.
If its any concelation i deal with quite a few different trades,and most that i speak to are allso strugerling.
 
she reckons they only put 1 person from each trade in the mag for a whole year. and it only goes out to high end earners who specifically ask for the magazine. 42000 homes a year apparently
 
With mag advertising you need to do a min of 6 months to see any real benefit I use to advertise in a little mag and I had nothing then after 3 months I got stacks of work plus the lady that did the publication, her husband was a bathroom fitter and kept me mega busy. lol They are now like really good friends :-)

If the good spreads are struggling the s**t ones will be and soon enough the s**t ones will not be able to support their families....
 
Our local rag is full of plasterers in the back pages, i have a quarter page ad once a month in the main pages of the paper, it seems to get noticed more, it costs a £150 a shot, but earns a shed load more.
 
Dont get me started on appretiships pal........
18 month ago i tried to get aplastering apprentise,i thought id give something back to the trade whilst using the little b*****d as my skivvy.Any how this guy an assessor from leicester college comes to talk to me onsite,asking me questions .i tells him i do all trades plastering plumbing kitchens painting tiling etc etc.But 50 % or more of my work is plastering.So he gets his list and ticks the disclines in plastering that i do. At the end of interview he says im not happy that the lad wont be plastering every day day in day out so i will have to speak to my line manager....off e trots and comes back a week later saying he cannot give me a appretise cus i dont plaster day in day out everyday.
i argued he goes college once a week and in 2 years i get all his work ticked of and he'd be ready to go and go good.
he would not have it.
Any how i reports him to the chamber of commerce becuse the college had 30 lads with no placement about to join the dole que when im offering one lucky kid the chance to learn the Jewson lot.They eventually got back to me and the college were begging me to take on a kid but buy then the rules and regs changed so i fcuked them off.
There are plumbers sparly plasterers painter at college that cant get places in the work place and WILL NOT GET QUALIFIED with experience
 
I have to say I agree with you skimmin2day.... I tried so hard for an apprenticeship but no one would have me :-( I worked for free for a couple of spreads for a while.

My uncle suffers as well with the apprentice scheme... they apprentice has sooo many rights and the paperwork is nuts he told me the other day that this is the last one he is doing. And what's more he has trained more apprentices to be very good mechanics over the years and now he has a huge garage which would benefit both the company and the individual but the gov mad it too complicated.

I got my osat through leicester college
 
beddy said:
she reckons they only put 1 person from each trade in the mag for a whole year. and it only goes out to high end earners who specifically ask for the magazine. 42000 homes a year apparently
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Steve .Ive tried all the little booklets magazines on the planet within a 30 mile radius from me mate and there all crap.But i do go in them every now and then .You cant relly on any single means of advertising cus next day the add next to urs could be bigger / cheaper more appealing and ur onto a loser,s,ame with yello pages and yell.com same with websites and Danny will tell you this too one day you can top of google and the next day ur page isnt even indexed or dropped 7 places.You have to advertise all over the place.Even if u been going donkeys years u need new work so you gotta advertise in my opinion cus people move away ur get new builders or look for better prices or fancy a change then ur dropped.The big problem at the minute though is evry man and his dog is so desperate there advertising and the papers /yell pages and .com are flooded with people which makes expensive advertising to competitive and not working like it used too.
 
Plastering used to be my main source of income but I retrained to be a plumber so I could get into doing full bathroom installs and general plumbing.

I was always happy plastering but didnt want to end up doing it till I retire.

I still do it but not half as much as I did and at the prices some people are quoting im more than happy not to do it.

I quoted the other day to do a large living room and ensuite bathroom, walls only for £390. Mats were about £70.

I was a bit expensive as it was only a couple of days work . I was told someone was going to do it for £200.

Im more than happy to let someone else do it for that price.

Ill just change some taps for the same money and not get dirty!!
 
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