Fixed price plumbing

[wiggers]

Hello chaps, just after your opinions on fixed prices for plumbing works.
i work for a housing assoc in week and have weekend work for myself. I have been having issues with pricing as custards
saying too I was too expensive, but I have usually worked on a daily rate basis £150 - £200 per day I don't believe that to be excessive, I have been charging roughly £150 for each item in bathroom including all fixings pan connectors etc. I'm still learning about what to charge but I have been shelling out a lot more than I bargained for on jobs
so I checked online to see if there are any plumbers out there and there are a few using fixed pricing so just wondering if any of you guys use this method as I would like to give clarity to my customers regarding charges.
Thanks

 

[turnpin]

Difficult to make fixed prices as most jobs can vary so much i.e isolate to change hot tap gate valve doe's not hold up so bung tank change gate valve but if holding thirty minute job...charge by the hour rather than price for fixed price just my opinion .....regards Turnpin:smile5:

 

[kris]

Alright there wiggers , i think 150 - 200 is damm reasonable, dont let custards put u off, as far as prices i dont charge per item fitted but more a price for the whole bathroom , kind off a take it or leave it price agreed at the start of a job so you and custard know where you stand,
Pricing is hard to find a balance but it comes with time and experience and it gets easier,

 

[wiggers]

Thanks lads I got a bathroom start on Sunday agreed price with custard and she's now haggling with price of pop up waste and wants me to deduct from agreed price.
I hate it when custards go to showroom dazzled by price of ceramic and I come along and blow it out of the water as suite comes with nothing traps wastes or taps.
that's why I had this idea of a price list on laminated a4 paper show custard and a like it or lump it
attitude!!

 

[Best]

Remember to tell those customers who are genuinely clueless about real cost, that you have to take out of what you charge for your extensive van costs including fuel, tool costs, training costs, holiday costs & all other losses, etc, before you take out a tiny wage. Make the wage part as small as you can in proportion to what you think the customer earns. Bring tears to their eyes. :smile:
Tell them when they order a meal from a restaurant that they are not only paying for the chef.

I would guess you will pocket about half of what your daily rate is of £150. That would mean approx earnings of £20k per year on a 5 day week basis. Not dear.

 

[REDSAW]

do you turn up in a works 'uniform' and a company sign written van?
thats why they think you may be expensive!!

my guide for sink or toilet is £90 plus parts, but i need to look first. yours is £150 each! does it take all day for you to fit a new loo?.
fixed price is a way to disaster imo.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Customers have no idea of cost to be fair , and to a point we are the same when it comes to buying cars , electronic goods etc etc we moan and argue cost and look for deductions .

I was chatting to a dust yesterday and told them me outgoings before i make money they were horrified what it costs .

£150 dont seem excessive to me get that a day on site not doing a lot , been there many a time on a job and lost hours to what you think seemed an easy job initially

 

[townfanjon]

Personally pal, the easiest and fairest ( for both you and the customer ) IMO workout what hourly rate you are happy worth, and whatever the job is charge by the hour , you don't loose if you under quote they don't loose if you over quote.
Most , if not nearly all my customers prefer it that way.
just take a few minutes explaining why you do it that way

As I said , my opinion, some guys just leave them a price, but ours is a very very hard job to price

 

[cr0ft]

As we have got busier and busier fixed pricing works very well for us to be honest. We do lose on some jobs but we make on others. With experience you can work out an average cost for what a job is going to be. The advantage of doing it this way is I don't have to go and quote for smaller jobs, I can turn up knowing they are happy with the price and we can just crack on.

I also don't have anyone watching over my shoulder checking the clock, a feeling I was very familiar with when I charged by the hour. The whole atmosphere is much more friendly.

We don't price up anything less than a day's worth of work now. There just isn't the margin in it to cover the cost of an additional visit to quote. When you explain that the customer is paying more for a quote appointment than if we give a fixed price over the phone, the penny drops and they like the idea.

I had one idiot today who asked me for our price to fit a new kitchen sink and tap. I told him £150 plus VAT. He asked me (no word of a lie) if that included the sink and tap.. I was going to send back a really sarcastic reply but sent back a polite 'no' instead.

Just my two pence.

 

[Millsy 82]

I don't do fixed prices as such but what I do is give a rough idea over the phone for smaller jobs so straight swap toilet £70+ parts then if they are happy with that I go out to do the job, before I start I check to see if I can do it for the price I gave them if not I give them a new price, if they don't like that I'm out of the door.

For things like breakdowns I give them my hourly rate and then say before I fit any parts a price will be given.

I think £150 a day is cheap unless it is cash jobs over the weekend but then a lot of people expect cash jobs to be dirt cheap.

 

[wiggers]

Thanks for all the replies lads. My price of £150 per item was based on what seems to be the norm around where I live my work mates are charging more!
I got a bathroom installed 11 years ago in my house and paid £475 then so prices don't seem to have increased a great deal in all that time. There are a number of poor tradesman in my area and because I always remain professional and the quality of my workmanship is of a high standard i do seem to get a fair bit of work.

 

[kris]

Just you stick to your guns wiggers. As long as your happy and the rest of your customers are happy , carry on.

 

[leelister6]

£450-£500 labour/usual misc fittings for a straight in and out bathroom is about what I charge, doesn't work out at £150 per item though. Building and fitting a basin is about an hours job, as is the w/c. The bath can take 2-3 hours or more depending on the bath (once took me 5 hours just to build up this ridiculous Italian bath!) I can usually rip out and refit in a day (No tiling/making good etc) so I'm happy with that and the customers usually are too

 

[brum]

I always charge fixed rate on bathrooms £300 for straight swap after materials deducted £250ish
which works out better than my £25 per hour rate ..brum