Is £18 per Rad the right price for pricework?

[EastLondonPlumb]

Hi i am new to this forum, I have been a plumber for around 8 years and i am getting pretty sick and tired of it to be honest. The last job i was at wanted to pay price £15 per tail rail and £18 per rad. For this you needed to get your own public liability insurance. First few i fitted i had to alter the first fix as it was supposed to be 450 center to center but was off. I looked at a few of the other rads and all the clips were not even (center to center) the pipes were no good. My supervisor said he would like it neat, i fitted two neatly when he come back and i worked out after tax it was £12 each i felt like a polish and told him i didn't want his job.

He said this was the going rate i just could not imagine fitting rads for £18 each, after tax around £14.

 

[Ermintrude]

Fast and nasty that's how rates work!

 

[REDSAW]

wouldnt fit a service valve for that!

 

[Phil]

The first guy was rushed and on peanuts so of course the pipe work was all wrong.

Its all part of the chain of bodges that make up a new build in this country.

 

[voivod]

Used to work on sites and £18 sounds about right.
Agree seems tight price but that was where money was made. You can fit 12 rads in a morning no probs ( as long as you have got the joiners to fit dwangs /pads properly)
If pipes are out....adjust floors to suit .chargeable
If your roughing them first yourself...speak to joiners about pipe distances etc. Point out to them how much easier for them it will be if they bring pipes up in right places .

 

[stratplus]

Worked sites for 9 years and only ever seen £10 per rad. Only follow my own first fixes now so pipework is spot on.

 

[stratplus]

Used to work on sites and £18 sounds about right.
Agree seems tight price but that was where money was made. You can fit 12 rads in a morning no probs ( as long as you have got the joiners to fit dwangs /pads properly)
If pipes are out....adjust floors to suit .chargeable
If your roughing them first yourself...speak to joiners about pipe distances etc. Point out to them how much easier for them it will be if they bring pipes up in right places .

I work all day, no breaks and I could never fit 12 rads in the day never mind the morning.
By the time you've got all your tools in, fetched the rads in, placed them to the drawing to the correct rad etc (always get wrong rads sent) thats a couple hours gone. It takes me half hour per rad with soldered tails, but every rad is level, fully secure and neat.

 

[stratplus]

Used to work on sites and £18 sounds about right.
Agree seems tight price but that was where money was made. You can fit 12 rads in a morning no probs ( as long as you have got the joiners to fit dwangs /pads properly)
If pipes are out....adjust floors to suit .chargeable
If your roughing them first yourself...speak to joiners about pipe distances etc. Point out to them how much easier for them it will be if they bring pipes up in right places .

Anyway only normally get 8 or 9 rads per house and then your looking at a whopping £65 for the bathroom which includes finding the wood to sit it on, getting the suite from container to bathroom, finding all materials and fittings, dressing suit and usually cut plasterboard wall so bath fits, siliconing to wall, pipeing including connecting mixer shower and tmv under bath and all wastes to connect. Thats a days work in itself for £65.

 

[djob]

£8 a radiator is what I fit them for, sounds like a crazy price but when you're piping 10mm into push fit chrome elbows you can get 15 done before 12.

 

[stratplus]

£8 a radiator is what I fit them for, sounds like a crazy price but when you're piping 10mm into push fit chrome elbows you can get 15 done before 12.

Thats 16mins per rad. Dont you have to fit boxes where 10 mm come through wall? Not gonna fit 15 rads in one house so includes taking tools to another plot. You must have someone making tails for you and tidying up or you must spend a tad longer at wet test stage

 

[stratplus]

Thats 16mins per rad. Dont you have to fit boxes where 10 mm come through wall? Not gonna fit 15 rads in one house so includes taking tools to another plot. You must have someone making tails for you and tidying up or you must spend a tad longer at wet test stage

Are all your rads 400x400 as well!!

 

[IDCHAPPY]

15? blimey, you must be a blur

 

[stratplus]

15? blimey, you must be a blur

I can spend 16mins trying to get a fixing on a dot and dab wall and getting it level!

 

[stratplus]

On a small rad with 10mm pipe it can be a nightmare not kinking the pipe.

 

[stratplus]

On a small rad with 10mm pipe it can be a nightmare not kinking the pipe.

Especially with tboe.

 

[Nostrum]

Sounds like my worst nightmare, bad enough just being on site and wearing a hard hat inside while the contractor shows potential clients around wearing flip flops.

I'd rather do a paper round

 

[stratplus]

I've known a lot of fast plumbers and now refuse to wet test their work cause I know I'll be there in one house all day putting things right. Done it sooooo many times.

 

[djob]

The house type I've been on recently does infact have 15 radiators. Tools in the plot Radiator Schedule to hand start at just gone 8 making up, hanging & piping all 15 by 12.. It's not easy but to make money on £8 per rad you have to just go for it. Obviously on the 1st fix I have put in first fix radiator triangles.

 

[djob]

Sounds like my worst nightmare, bad enough just being on site and wearing a hard hat inside while the contractor shows potential clients around wearing flip flops.

I'd rather do a paper round

Why would you wear a hard hat indoors?

 

[djob]

I've known a lot of fast plumbers and now refuse to wet test their work cause I know I'll be there in one house all day putting things right. Done it sooooo many times.

I make sure my work is to a high standard, I'm OCD when it comes to my work.. I 1st, 2nd & final every house I work on so I make sure it's done right first time..

 

[Nostrum]

The same reason roofers wear them on site I guess, have you never seen the damage a turd from a Boeing 747 at 20,000ft can do?

 

[Chris F]

All rates now are low, a contract in wolves was paying 30 quid to fit a bath including all pipework and waste. Same for bog and basin. So 90 quid to fit a bathroom.

 

[Ermintrude]

It's called construction design management regs. You leave house to go to van, you walk under scaffold brick hits your head, u left helmet on bench !

 

[stratplus]

The house type I've been on recently does infact have 15 radiators. Tools in the plot Radiator Schedule to hand start at just gone 8 making up, hanging & piping all 15 by 12.. It's not easy but to make money on £8 per rad you have to just go for it. Obviously on the 1st fix I have put in first fix radiator triangles.

We put our triangles after plaster, cant remember what theyre called. Sounds like big houses your in!!

 

[stratplus]

Why would you wear a hard hat indoors?

We have to wear hard hat and safety glasses inside and out all day. Builders policy.