Need Help Pricing Job

[Ari87]

I'v have been lurking around this site for a while, getting little bits of info as I need it.

Quick intro:
Fully qualified plumber upto nvq level 3
Unvented hot water systems
Gas safe registered
Working for 6 years in plumbing and been at the same company for the last 5.

Started to do my own private jobs a while ago, but they have been small odd jobs here and there. And many of them to family and friends so prices I have charged have been very cheap or none at all.

Just been offered a job by someone who has seen my work elsewhere and really wants me to do his house for him. Since I dont ever see any of the quotes or the final invoices of any of the work I usualy do through the company, I am completely lost in the pricing up of jobs. I'm not sure on what is a fair price for jobs.

I have gone to see the job and its just a bare house with most floor boards up, walls ready for a bit of plaster.
Job is in London. The client will be digging up the front garden for me to re run a new poly main, and also will be digging out back for a gulley to be put in for his kitchen waste. He will be doing any building work that I need so I dont get held behind in any way. He is in the building trade so his help is there when needed. He will be paying for all the materials I need, I will have to go and pick them up, so the price I need to give him is for labour only.

Job needed to be done is as follows:
Average sized terraced house, ground and 1st floor needing work.
New 25mm poly main to be run to water meter out in the road
New gas pipe run from front of house to the back of the house to the boiler. (possible gas hob intalled on a kitchen island)
Re-fit existing Worcester combi boiler using plume kit, magna clean and scale reducer
Plumb in kitchen
Run kitchen waste to gulley
7 rads in total which I will be doing heat loss calculations for each room (pipes to come out from the wall)

Bathroom consisting of
1 Towel rail
Bath with mixer tap and also shower valve in studed wall with outlet coming out from ceiling
Toilet
Basin
Run stack from 1st floor level and terminate correctly

He will be looking to install a toilet and basin under the stairs once he gets the permission but he wants a seperate price for that. He has run a 4" watse under to floor ready to connect.

Could someone give me an indication of a fair price for labour only for the above?

 

[SimonJohns]

Well you'll need £500 for first GSR registration
£800+ for liability insurance

Then you'll need to charge customer for your time

 

[Chrisgy]

£100-£150 a day

 

[stevetheplumber]

150 a day in london minimum where abouts are you ? might be able to help

 

[Gray0689]

Well you'll need £500 for first GSR registration
£800+ for liability insurance

Then you'll need to charge customer for your time

This is payed over a year
One customer don't pay it all lol
Unless you get a job that lasts you a year of course lmao

 

[bert large]

£150 a day ??? in London, blimey, times must be 'ard ! I thought it was twice that years ago.

 

[mikimac]

That's just it Bert Large.....twice that years ago. Markets flooded (pardon the pun) & souls are cheap.

 

[REDSAW]

3 illegal things you are doing there, nice post though but sadly i decline to offer my advice.

 

[Ari87]

Thanks all for your input.
Well I was thinking of about £150 a day.

I was looking at this job taking about 16 days to complete, thats without the downstairs cloakroom. Does that sound about right?
So labour only charge of £2400?

 

[tamz]

16 days. What are you going to be doing after the first 3 or 4?

 

[Gray0689]

16 days that's totally taking the Michael lol

 

[Ari87]

16 days that's totally taking the Michael lol

Really...How long would you say it would take?

 

[PlumbBobBob]

as tamz said about 3-4 days really

 

[mfgs]

16 days haha

 

[stubob3000]

Excuse my ignorance , but as long as he is fully qualified, insured etc, what 3 illegal things are there Redsaw? (Just out of interest)

 

[wigz]

if you guys could do that in 3 or 4 days then you deserve a medal. running a new stack in the house will take a day on its own. would love to see a break down of 4 days work for all this

 

[Ari87]

My 16 days may seem a little over the top but thats allowing for going back and snagging, also just incase something takes longer than I may have thought in the first place.

 

[Gray0689]

No way 16 days that's vvvvvveeeeerrrrryyyyy slow
Even with hiccups no more than 6 days

 

[bob the plumber]

there seems to be a few plumbers/engineers on here that think this would take 3-4 days?? how is this possible?? its like that urban myth about installing a combi and 8 rads in a day lol, i suppose you could but it would no doubt look like a dogs dinner???? impossible!! id say the 16 day time frame is here or there about right, theres a fair bit of work involved there.

 

[bob the plumber]

i take that comment back......5 days

 

[Howsie]

Two weeks and £2k

 

[dontknowitall]

2wks/2k is what I was thinking too

 

[tamz]

Job needed to be done is as follows:
Average sized terraced house, ground and 1st floor needing work.
New 25mm poly main to be run to water meter out in the road 2hrs connected
New gas pipe run from front of house to the back of the house to the boiler. (possible gas hob intalled on a kitchen island) 2 hrs max
Re-fit existing Worcester combi boiler using plume kit, magna clean and scale reducer 6hrs max to hang and pipe main runs and hot and cold
Plumb in kitchen 1hr
Run kitchen waste to gulley 1hr
7 rads in total which I will be doing heat loss calculations for each room (pipes to come out from the wall) 30 mins per rad hung and piped

Bathroom consisting of
1 Towel rail
Bath with mixer tap and also shower valve in studed wall with outlet coming out from ceiling
Toilet
Basin 6 hrs but can be done quicker
Run stack from 1st floor level and terminate correctly 4hrs max

He will be looking to install a toilet and basin under the stairs once he gets the permission but he wants a seperate price for that. He has run a 4" watse under to floor ready to connect. 2 hrs max to rough it out

Could someone give me an indication of a fair price for labour only for the above?

3 days + allow another day for test and commission and flushing.
Since the place is empty and being renovated and boards etc are up the above timescales are highly realistic for doing in copper by anyone with half a clue. Plastic will be quicker.
Just because it can be done in 4 days doesn't mean you price it on that. The job won't be an in and out as you will get held up.
Price it on at least 10 days at whatever rate you charge.

 

[dontknowitall]

Great post Tamz - we're both agreed on 10 days but for very different reasons! No time for coffee with your timescale though!!

BUT - and I'm not trying to be patronising - purely stating a fact - HONEST!!! ...

It shows the difference between the knowledgeable, experienced plumber and the likes of me who, ultimately will do a neat job that's within regulations but will spend much more time trying to work out how to drill through a wall, sort out a wire that's in the way and so on.

 

[tamz]

You don't think about what you are doing when you are doing it. You have already thought about it an hour previous while you were doing something else.

I actually like cold coffee. I've been drinking it for 35 years :lol: