Why are quotes all over the shop?

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Robbo123 said:
So you'd board and skim that for as low as £1200 labour? Think I'd want that just to board it. I'd quote around 3k mark for that I think, although always hard to quote off a picture. Insulated board is double the hassle and double the time
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im not even a plaster or in the trade :bailando::lol::baaa:

i did say "i think".
 
Ishaaq said:
on a more serious note i think you looking around the £2 - 2.5k max mark for the job.

37.5 is around 40£ each itself - whoever said 350 in materials is clearly not a plasterer, materials probz gonna cost around 800£

@lurpak would do it for some beer tokens
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You couldn’t afford me pal. Stick to jonny
 
Robbo123 said:
So you'd board and skim that for as low as £1200 labour? Think I'd want that just to board it. I'd quote around 3k mark for that I think, although always hard to quote off a picture. Insulated board is double the hassle and double the time
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You wouldn't get 1200 quid to board round there
 
Danny said:
Its not new.... just fed up with being diplomatic and fed up with the price of plastering going down the toilet.

If the prices increased I would gladly go back on the tools but i am not killing my body for wages
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Agree that's why I evolved into a renderer, going back to plastering would be like going back riding a bike after driving my flash transit,
It's like in the early 2000s there was a massive influx of people getting on the trowel hearing there's good money to be made,
 
Djr said:
It's a morning work 2xmen
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Haha if you say so. Take an hour just to get all the board and adhesive in and that's if there's easy access. The walls are a days work for 2 men and the ceiling I'd allow 2 days for 2 men to get that right, might do it in a day but would definitely charge for 2
 
Robbo123 said:
Haha if you say so. Take an hour just to get all the board and adhesive in and that's if there's easy access. The walls are a days work for 2 men and the ceiling I'd allow 2 days for 2 men to get that right, might do it in a day but would definitely charge for 2
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I know so and that's getting the board in . Fuk me we fly them insulation boards up all day on new builds
 
B
Mos said:
Why are you folks soo crazy?

I've received quotes ranging from £1200 all the way to £4500!

Some think materials will cost around £1000 whilst others think they'll be £350.

I've had to approach 20 plasterers to get 4 to even come out and quote, despite all saying they want the work. A few even made a commitment to come and look at the job after giving a ballpark quote that seemed promising then didn't even bother to show.

I agreed on £1400 with one and he strung me along for nearly 3 weeks, and once we were a whole 10 days after he said he'd start, he'd only just ordered the materials.. And then on the day he should have started he didn't even turn up, no phone call, no messages. Gee, thanks mate.

Then another agreed to the job for the same price, waxing lyrical about how satisfied his customers are and how he can't defend any of the others I've dealt with, but he himself was a stand up guy who kept his word. An hour into the job...."Mo, this isn't gonna work, I've just got this funny feeling, and when I get a funny feeling things just don't go right, you need somebody on day rate to do this job, you want the job to too perfect, it's not possible, we discussed splaying the reveals on the veluxes (on the day I changed my mind & asked him to just use the insulated pb to close the gaps around the veluxes)- no one insulates the reveals its not a child spot, I worked for a loft conversion company and they never insulated the reveals!! You want the ceiling corners straight but I'm telling you it looks better rounded blah blah...." I says look if you want to splay them, fine, you wanna round the corners, fine, if it'll take a day longer, fine. I'll pay for the time no problem, I'm a reasonable guy.
But..."no I've already put the plasterboard back in the van mate, Its just not gonna work, when I get the wrong feeling then it won't work, the reveals are not square here / need to splayed there, i should have been done with the reveals for 4 veluxes in the 1st hour and I'm still doing them..."

Then off he put his tools Into the van, leaving me a cut piece of insulated pb as "goodwill" as if that could make up for the 2 weeks of waiting I had done for him.

Madness!


Where am I going wrong? Is there some special technique of dealing with your breed of tradesman that I need to deploy?

Is my budget of £1400 unreasonable for this job? I'm live in Bradford, which is relatively deprived city. Is it the case that quality tradesman are harder to come by in deprived areas- do they all flock to where the money is in my case posh parts of Leeds or Harrogate (even if they live in said deprived area)? Does that mean then the local customers are then only left with cowboys and amateurs who still demand a proper craftsmens wage because there is no one else offering to do the job hence you've got to pay top dollar for below-par work?

Cheers
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dam it not again
 
Danny said:
Its not new.... just fed up with being diplomatic and fed up with the price of plastering going down the toilet.

If the prices increased I would gladly go back on the tools but i am not killing my body for wages
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Agree, f**k me it's hard sometimes to be diplomatic.
 
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Danny said:
Its not new.... just fed up with being diplomatic and fed up with the price of plastering going down the toilet.

If the prices increased I would gladly go back on the tools but i am not killing my body for wages
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New attitude to dry lunches from you as far as I’m concerned mate! I like’s it lol.
 
zombie said:
Ok im straight talking so please dont be offended but your going to need to know or you wont progress.

You come across high maintenance & its a difficult job regarding access and details both which should cost you as the customer.

The quoute of 1400 is way way to cheap 1st guy relalised it and fidnt turn up, 2nd guy nailed to the mast to honour price realised it.

2nd guy did thr right thing gor his sanity and walked once he got a feel for you, he was just way way to polite to say your coming across a real pain n in the arse "this isnt going to work"

Dont talk budgets next time and let them tell you there price and if needed save up or you will just go round in circles also the work will be awful!
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Yeah, this explains it. Thank you, that was genuinely helpful.


How do I avoid coming across high maintenance!??
I'm not really, I don't expect perfection, just a decent standard- smooth skimming and straight lines. And it's only plaster for heavens sake- so long as the boarding is sound, anything wrong can easily be rectified with filler or sanding.

When tradesmen are working, I leave them to it. I don't think it's right to breathe down anyone's neck- they're a professional and if they do a shoddy job, then it is their reputation at stake. That should be motivation enough to do a good job.

I have let people tell me their price. I don't try and dictate what anyone charges. that's rude. My budget is a personal figure based on the fact that materials are £700 retail delivered to my door:

20 boards
10 adhesivee bags
12 insul pb 37.5
10 bags multifinish
screws & angle beads

So surely trade will be around £100 cheaper, therefore £800 is fair enough for what is about 3 days work for a plasterer. You guys are acting as if that is way off the mark? To give you an idea of the cost of living here:

a 3 bed semi in a good area in a good state of repair: £150k
a 2 bed terrace in an less leafy part of town: £75k
average private rent: £450 - £600 per month for a family home
housing benefit for a 3 bed home: £500 per month

Homeowners spend on their homes what they can reasonably recoup when they sell. How can it be right that you're asked to spend thousands when a builder or a home developer would pay only a fraction of that?
When you pay more than a builder, you're out of pocket because the market value of the house means you wont see that money back. If you mutiply that by every trade, then you're waayyy overspent on something like an extension.
 
MIXERMAN said:
First it's awkward hight. You should get it scaffolded out to board and scim the ceiling ect. You could get the carpenter to fix the boards. You supply the materials their expensive. This makes the job simpler .or just stop messing about and get a builder to quote to finish the job . Keep us informed.
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Thank you, ill bear this in mind. Always been happy to pay for materials as soon they arrive on premises or I pay merchant directly when they're arranged. I don't expect a tradesman to be on the hook for materials if i have title to them.

In hindsight, i wish i had got the fella who constructed the garage to to the plastering but at that stage i wasnt sure on what i was gonna use the space for, so it took a while for it all become apparent.

its gonna be used as a snooker room, with storage shelves on the walls, an entertainment unit on one wall, storage on the cross-ties etc with potential for home office & gym in the future.
 
Rigsby said:
Danny seems to have got it right.

Without sounding racist are you asian? Asians need cheap and that may explain why you have had no shows, almost always a waste of time looking.

Also if you sound or look hard work then I would avoid the job at any price and the higher quotes you have had might reflect this. I always would quote but way over the top so hopefully I would not get the job. Some customers can be soul destroying, cause depression, life is too short to put up with awkward customers.
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Yes!! I am a Muslamic, lol!

Asians don't need cheap. Asians are just the same as everyone else. Human.
Look, economic migrants to a country always start at the bottom, work the roughest jobs, move into the cheapest areas, its all they can get, all they can afford. They value that tenner much more than someone who's seen far more tenners than they have. It's true that the 1st generation- being uneducated (illiterate in most cases) and already unprivileged (otherwise why would they emigrate from their native countries?), valued low cost more than anything. That's why businesses- tradesmen included- in Asian areas compete heavily on price rather than quality.

However, as the 2nd/3rd etc.. generation are coming through, that pursuit of low-cost is transforming into determination to see good, hell not good, but VERY good value for money. Thats what the hard bargaining is about- money is no longer as tight, but that memory is still there.

If you can recognise value- or have it demonstrated- you will pay for it, it's as simple that. And a hell of lot of Asians can and do. But if plasterers are avoiding Asians, how is that even gonna get fixed?

Another point, many Asians, being the offspring of unskilled, uneducated parents will have no heritage in the building trades, no uncles or brothers that are tradesmen, so they wont have an appreciation for a tradesman's work. Just explain all that's involved- get them to see the value.
 
Robbo123 said:
So you'd board and skim that for as low as £1200 labour? Think I'd want that just to board it. I'd quote around 3k mark for that I think, although always hard to quote off a picture. Insulated board is double the hassle and double the time
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Interesting. Genuine question: would you prefer to put up 25mm insulation followed by 12.5m board to the insulated pb?
 
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