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daveparkinson

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The lack of work is now affecting us all,priced a five bed house they were going to tack it and DandD it so it was just skimming big old drum garage to do conservortory 4 reception rooms etc etc any how we worked it out at 3 weeks work for the 2 of us and priced it at 4800 labour only.We've been told someone has come in at 2600 and they've got an hours drive to get to it!I'm gonna have to lower my day rate to 60 a day soon to try and be competitive :'(
 
so.. at least 11 rooms, hall stairs and landing, conservatory...
calculating.. ;)
 
just over 185 a room for 2600... they wanna be f'ckin small rooms and labour only for that....
at say 500 metres that 4.90 a metre labour only...
assuming an average room size of 3m x 3m ... unlikely....
4.90 a metre aint too bad labour only, i usually go in at 6 ish... depends on the job
 
A lot more to it then you'd think all beds on suite lots of cupboards curved ceilings couldn't get near 2600 if i tried i keep running it through my head too!The guvnor said the price we gave him was pretty much what he thought,I,m not going to work for 300 a week not yet anyway ;D
 
Its happening everwhere mate ! Its desprate times out there these people are going to f##k the whole thing up.
Cant be a good job there doing though, if they can do it for that !
 
i'll skim an average 3 bed house for £2600, 5 bed, conservatory etc £4800 sounds fair. these boys'll soon get sick of working like f**k for short money. just gotta ride it out mate...
 
i'd look at it like this
1 day prepping loading out etc
5 bedrooms + ensuite - 3 days
f/bathroom+landing - 1 day
finish landing + bits of staircase 1 day
finish staircase pus cupboards -1 day
lounge - 1 day
diner utility room - 1day
3 utility rooms -1 day
kitchen + toilet 1 day
garage -1 day
conservatory - 1day
sorry mate this is without seeing the job so 13 x 200 per day cash is 2600 ......this is on a pricework mentallity with private daywork rates, if the tacking/ dot and dab is good it's achievable and good money if you can do it in the time
 
I wonder if they will end up regretting taking the lowest quote it may mean piss poor work.
 
look guys I know this is a plasterers forum but are u guys real plasterers or jobbers / ok work is tight we know but if you really want work you gotta price right for it, the quotes you guys give on this site is way out, how you ever going to get work at the prices you want, that said if you can get more sure get it but ffs get real, anyone one out there get me local work for £3 per meter skim only and you sit on your backside and i will give you for every meter I skim 50p and the finished job would be first class

a time served plasterer working on new builds should have no problem at all skimming 100m per day working 1 and 1 improver/ labourer and at at £2.50 per meter thats £150 per day for me and 100 per day for my labrorer, ffs thats £750 for the plasterer and £500 for the lab what do you want? some of you guys want to come up north and see what plasterers do in a day, and yes we know its horse work but if you do it every day its just a job but this is average price work

there are lads I know skim 130m per day 1 and 1 and good quality work

and dave parkinson the price of £2600 sounds good I would tack /dab/skim/and cove it for that price to a first class job,

Based on a house with 500m a sub contractors labor only price would be around £1250to skim/£1100 to tack and dab/£200 to fully gyprock 5inch cove
theres no work up here on new builds but if plasterers from the north start comming down there you southern,s would go broke

and pug you say £4800 is fair for labour only working 1 and1 I could skim 4 average size houses out for that price and still make £750 per week and lab £500
I am sorry to sound cocky but the prices I have quoted are normal up here and most good Plasterers earn between 600/800 per week at these prices

the job agencies up here pay £13 thats thats over £500 per week for play time, what I meen by play time is over the last 5/8 year or so agencies where crying out for plasterers and what they where used to was improvers or 6 week course men and thats all they have had till the last year or so, now time served plasterers are on the agencies books they can leave these guys for dead

sorry but these are facts and I am sure there are some house bashers or guys that are regular price workers on this site that can back me up with what i am saying

I know i am gunna get slated but this is the real world
 
Its that same old chestnut ,without seeing it its impossible to say , if the set ups right its posible . If the rooms are all s**t little awkward rooms its going to run away with you.The bigger the job the more ya price will have to reflect.
 
sigh...ill say it one more time... last time though.. im bored now...
site work, where all you gotta do is turn up with a trowel and a whisk and everything else is done for you.. fine.. 2.50 a metre if you like
domestic work where you gotta drive out there to see the job, spend at least an hour with the customer, drive back, type up quote, send it (maybe not get the job), then if you do, go get the materials, turn up, sheet the bleeding drive over, sheet the stairs etc over, dig a f'ckin hole to tip the washout in, remove sockets etc, scrape it, pva it, skim it, clean the place down, put sockets back, get the customer to view it, explain things to em...get the gear back in the van, hopefully with cash, but maybe a rubber cheque, go home, write all this down... no way on gods earth would i do that for 2.50 a metre, the 'supply' cost of materials is almost negligable, but you still gotta go get it...
as for jobcentre plus..must depend where you are... mine (peterborough) had 1 job in a 5 mile radius for a taper/jointer...
travel, yes, all good.... say someone came from preston to peterborough (im acually from preston btw) in a van. 40 quid one way in deisel.
when the domestic side picks up again ill let you knowand you can come and do all my work for 2.50 a metre, ill charge the customer 6 quid and get the work all day everyday... ill get the stuff on site for you and supply dust sheets, pva...f'ck ill even come and dig you a hole...
sorry mate, it depends where you are and the circumstances your used to i suppose...
theres not enough work for everyone, end of, and i aint killin myself for no-one, id sooner do something else....
 
btw customers read this too, i hope people dont get it in there heads that a spreads gonna come round there house and quote em 2.50 a metre round reveals/baths etc then present with an invoice they just got for the materials...o not to mention everyone is entitled to make a PROFIT or we'd all be livin in an old shoebox under t'M62 gettin up 1/2 hour before we went t'bed etc...
 
AND another thing.... search the forum people, read my posts from 3 - 5 months ago...
i said before long it would be flooded with 'site lads' all quoting 2.50 a metre and the lads that had been doin it for yonks on domestic wont get a look in...
 
I am with Segs on this one,

I wont get out of bed for £13ph, I did agency for a while but it was shite, I managed to get £18phr and was booking 10hr days while doing 6 hrs, also materials were thrown at the end of each job so I loaded the van up.

Up north things are cheaper ect so it all relative.

You will always make more on domestic. I do pretty well just on domestic jobs.

Any how, if people are happy working for £100 a day its fine by me

Off to pick the Lab up

Danny
 
i'm with segs too.

tommy, round my way a bedsit will set you back £130,000, my house, a small victorian terrace (nothing special) is worth £250,000 thats why i charge what i charge.

builders i work for are the sort who buy a plot of land and stick 2 or 3 houses on it. they'll give me £2600 to skim a 3 bed house so thats what i ask for.

you say if you want to work you've gotta price right, i say if you're a business man you ask the going rate, £150 a day for a time served trade is taking the piss, do you work for yourself or for a company?
 
another northerner tying to make up for his northerness ;D...........whats the matter mate jealous, theres something called moving house to another ...to%$er i work on 2.50 a metre and have done all my life prices havent changed ..............try working harder pal if youre doing 60 metres a day and youre trowel hands covering the rest you'd be home by 2 .........hard life ey :-*
 
look guys like the thread said or I took it to be a full new build house and I will say it again I am happy to go to work and graft a 6/7 hour day for for £750 per week on price work I have averaged 33k/35k a year for the last 10years or so not great wages, but was gtd money and well above the average wage for a job that can be learned easily by numptys, lets face it plastereing is one of lifes lowest trades, no studying no uni just a tiny bit of commen sence and plenty of brawn and at first plenty of pride but that soon wares off for most of us, or and the will to work,

look at these courses i have seen them 2 weeks course and people think they are spreads it was a 5 year appreniship so how the fook can anyone expect to be a spread after 2 weeks and get the golden trowel give me a break, 80% of people that call themselves plasterers can skim and thats about it, skimming can be learned in a few weeks easily, but there is no way you can expect to skim 100m per day that comes with experience but what most people dont realise is 100m to a plasterer will take as much effort for a dialutie to do 20m

and at the £2600 quoted would work out nearer £1600 per week for a good plasterers, and £1000 fotr the laborer, because to skim a 5 bedroom house is around 1 weeks work for a good 1and1squad, all I am saying is get real in todays world, as for doing reskims ect taking sockets off working around furniture and covering up its fookinig obvious you cannot work for £2.50 per meter , then its day work or whatever and if you dont want to work for £750 per week fair do,but you see how many spreads out there would work for £750 per5 day week

yes pug I am a subbie you say £150 a day is taking the pish well i would agree if you only got 2/3 days a week but over 5 days 48 weeks of the year, I am happy with that, I am more concerned about my yearly income

so pug are you a plasterer or white collar? and you want the going rate for a spread how much a day is the going rate? £300 per day?your having a laugh m8

and Danny you wouldnt get out of bed for £13 per hour just look at jobs available next to none,so its £13 per hour or nothing per hour thats the choice most of us have plasterers just dont get big wages anymore unless you graft or are lucky enough to get plenty of domestic work in, you run this site why are u getting more and more members , simple because most are looking for work, and at the mo I am getting £13 per hour if I was on price i could do it in 3 hours so thats not work to me, its money for old rope but like u said u still got to get out of bed for it, thats the hard bit, and yes we all do the same on the agencies we fiddle them left right and centre, a couple of monthe ago I was booking in 10 hours per day and thats 8 hours at £13 per hour and 2 hours overtime at £20per hour and fooking off at 1pm, 1 of us working the Saturday at time and a half, and booking the other in while then changing over each week, we are all the same m8

plasterers are like homeing pigeons, and in the winter we are all afraid of the dark so we go home at 2.30pm and the lightest flake of snow we are worried about the roads so we go home, we all got exma so we dont do fibreglass insulation, we all afraid of hights so we dont do high ceilings, we all got bad backs so we never lift anything, and most of us have had druggies or re***ds for apprentices over the years,
 
this isn't a subbies job tommy, would you price it at 2.50 a metre?
 
nicksey thats the going rate £2.50 labour only for local work so if I wanted it, I would yes, why does the figure £2.50 annoy people? thats a plasterers rate for average work yes I have had £4 per meter on chite work its swings and roundabouts I would rather earn £750 per week than sit in the house all day I take it the way you talk you are worth a million or 2? well i am just a normal plasterer m8 thats worked all my life,
 
just wondering tommy, bein a site bloke / house basher, what methods are u using?
by that im takin it 99.9 percent of your work is on board, now are you 2 coating everything? or just 1 coat - trowel it up?
I hear what your sayin about pride goin out the window after a little while, well i suppose thats site work for you, thats why i dont bother me arse with it, you need to throw it on in one coat, trowel it up to whatever standard you can get away with, its bloody soul destroying...
How many sets are you havin a day? or are you just rollin 1 into the next into 1 more thrown on before 2 o clock?
the 500 metre estimate btw was based on small rooms to give an idea of metrage rate, by the sound of it that jobs gonna be nearer 650 metres with a lot of awkwardness to worry about... never mind that though..
I find it really is a different world domestic / site, there really should be two sections to it..
its very similar to the window game in that respect, ive done commercial window fitting at AT LEAST 10 windows and 2 doors a day to make it pay.... swap that for private work and if you went through a payin customers house like that theyd think you were takin the piss.. more like 4 windows a day then..

put it another way, site work is drying up, we know that... but so is domestic work, now those lads that were doin the domestic work can usually turn their hands to sommat else, but the house bashers usually cant so theyre pricing domestic work at site rates and if you go storming through peoples houses like a dose of salts, forgetting theres things like boilers, pipes, skirting boards, architraves with a 1 coat standard on an overskim you aint gonna last long..

domestic lads take a bit longer, prolly 50 metres a day, but the price is double what you get on site, i know which id prefer anyday...

I once did exactly that on the window game years ago, i came off commercial, got a job for a domestic firm and rattled 10 windows in first day... the gaffer went absolutely booloo... I thought i was the bollox, but the difference WAS noticeable... and the customer didnt know what hit them, it werent no council house after all.. i didnt last long, but i learnt from that...

point is... dont be running round tellin people plastering is 2.50 a metre, site agents are one thing, they know the game, customers are a different animal entirely ;)
 
well put nicksey some of us have got to run a company so we can subby part of the work out ,have you always been a subby tommy,if so mate you better start and take some good advice if your going to have to lone it ,been there done it mate working for sombody else making them money fooking working ya b*llocks off,agree with you about these 2 week course folk,did a full apprenteship and worked with all old skool through them b*stard years,up to you mate if you want to carry on subbin which at them rates you must have to go it like fook every day,are you on site work all the while
 
well bigsegs you got it almost right m8,sitework new boards sponge work 100m per day but a good job, at the end of the day how many bad workmanship houses do you think you would need to leave before you where found out? my guess would be 1 so at a guess out of the 1000/2000 or so houses that i have plastered out without any comebacks I guess i would get a pass oh and I built my own house everything barring the electric/roofing work I did myself so I have a good all round knowledge of the building trade

and of course I would rather do domestic work who wouldnt but I aint telling your customers its £2.50 per meter i am saying thats what the going rate is on sites and sorry but thats the way it is, and i am very suprised for a plasterers forum there are hardly any price workes out there that can back this up, we all cannot be lucky enough to get domestic work
 
youre paying youre labourer 100 quid a day .........on 2.50 a day ;D
van + maintanance - 30 per week (if youre lucky)
insurance - 40 per week
tax - 4 per week
fuel 25 - 50 per week
= 99 - 124 per week
750 - 99 = 651
750 - 124= 626
it's day work money mate :-/
 
I wouldnt do price work for any less than £3.00 a metre, the only reason its 2.50 in your area tommy is because you work for it.
 
I hear what your saying tommy,I've been on both sides of the fence when you gotta a family and they rely on you to bring the money in,some money is better than f**k all.if i could do domestic all the time i would as its better money than being on site.

I have been in a position were mi and the mrs had the choice of ether feed my kids or us because of not having enough money.Believe me you will go to work for anything!!!
 
I understand what your saying Ian

I run my business like a business, my prices are high my jobs are perfect.

I have a 44 year plasterer working for me he is happy earning £150 a day I have 2 labourers who work for £40/£50 a day I buy them lunch on a friday we have a beer.

Now, I couldnt afford to do that if I priced my jobs too cheap I need to allow for problems could be anything. The other spread will tell me how long he thinks it will take I listen he is older and wiser but just happy me giving him work.

When people ask me to quote they know exactly what they are getting no hidden extras they are paying for reputation.

I dont have a reputation for being cheap (£18p m2 is about average on a ceiling) but my reputation for being gd certainly out weighs being expensive.

I dont drop my prices, I will do small jobs to prove my companies worth to get the bigger jobs and it works. I will often send the other spread on sweetener jobs worth £150 if you get ££££'s back.

last week I put the spread and 1 lab on job, materials cost £200 job was done in 3 days I made £1100 and I had not done as much as pack my tools..... so is the job worth £600 labour + £200 materials???

Business is business ;)

Danny
 
nicksey i have never needed to price work up have allways had work in the past, i didnt want to get in that way i was happy going home and switching off

flanagan there is no work around now, agencies have most work now and I am well in they find me plenty if and when I want it, and I am happy doing what i am doing, i dont need a big wage as i have another part time income from a hobby that I do,

but unlike you most plasterers dont own a company, and just do a 39 hour week and its these guys that are really going to have it rough for the next 3 years or so
 
I wouldnt do price work for any less than £3.00 a metre, the only reason its 2.50 in your area tommy is because you work for it.
Click to expand...
that little sentence has hit it bang on the nail...
now if the mass influx of immigration we've had over the past few years continues youre gonna find yourself lookin at 1.50 a metre cos the poles will work for it cos its good money to them...
it's all relative...
 
i agree mate so we wont be finishing at 2 everyday ;) ......and having a good old tug ;D ;D ;D ;D lmfao .....ive heard it all before .......yeh i do 100 meters day in day out ...... ;D.......i do 60 per day on day work
my point is matey was pricing up a house that was dot and dabbed and tacked by a customer so you probably have to allow for bonding areas, loading out, surveying the job and we get 2.50 as subbies so e get water materials laid out etc .....then you put 10% on for supply ...........they'd be lucky to get it for 2600 and a half decent job and if you want to go in at 2.50 domestic work then good luck mate
 
the poles have gone home seggs but 1.50 could be realistic ..........if so can we all have a group hug please :)
 
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