State of the economy - Good or poor?

[Dave_L]

I hate loosing priced jobs like that, but as you say, lets see the end result.

[DNgroundworks]

Quite busy at the minute, theres only 3 of us so its not to bad, sub-contracting to a developer since end of Jan this will be coming to an end in two weeks then got about 1.5 months of "bits n snags" lined up then back on for the developer, definatley not earning top dollar though sub-contracting.

Ive probably been out priced on more jobs than what i have won, one job i went to look at i went twice to show him different ideas scale diagrams, photos, portfolios and then picked him up from his house and showed him one of my jobs - a fifty mile round trip, and then i still didnt get it, it was only 5.8k of work he said i was way over by £££, 45 mtrs indian sandstone, 10x 0.7 mtrs high L-shaped retaining wall with posts at each end and corner built in pitched faced walling stone, steps up to a split level garden, i thought that was a reasonable quote seen as im 25 miles away from him, what do you guys think

[lutonlagerlout]

sounds cheap to me dan
some people just try it on
if you price labour +material + small profit
then that is your price
you cant make it fit what he wants to pay
LLL

[Injured]

I had a mad spell about 3 to 4 weeks ago priced up lots but so far only turned one of those quotes into work.
People are wanting to spend but are more bothered about price than quality at the moment or think that we can all do it for a fiver. Thats how i see it.

[GB_Groundworks]

busy busy busy haha,

got 120 metres sawn flags to lay and 130 metre drive, not sure what yet resin bound was a no no, wanted £50/m just for resin and gravel. think we are going with block kerb, block edging, and block circle with asphalt. so prep that for our surfacing lads.

currently knocking down and large double garge 10mx12m inc slabs etc then footings for a house going on it. and to make things easier picked up a job turning an 4 acre field into 2 rugby pitches. first job is a road in, and its only 5 minute drive in dumper from garage so running all hardcore their nice link up.

then got a +/- 1 metre cut and fill on the 12,000 metres2 to form the pitches, 6000 tons of top soil to strip and pile. then about 10,000 tons of clay to move.

currently looking for a bulldozer, love new toys for jobs

[lutonlagerlout]

very nice giles
have to say that down here for builders its as tight as a ducks
pricing loads but the constant attempts at bartering are getting me down
when you have spent 5 hours carefully pricing a 50k job,you dont need a desk jockey asking you to lose 15%
the way its going I am going to start charging for quotes that are broken down,I did one for an asian fella the other week,went past a week later and he had russian lads doing the work,stopped to speak to him and he asked could they borrow a kango and some acrows!!!!
funny enough i said no
LLL

[msh paving]

H tony, i was talking to a guy in kings lynn yesterday telling me about lithoainains going to luton to work leave hear at 4ish am on site 7.30 ish back hear at 8ish £500 a week for the 3 off them,he is a sparky, did the electrics for em. WHAT THE flip IS GOING ON..............MSH

[mickg]

£500 a week for the 3 off them

have you got their phone number

[msh paving]

my street is full off em.............

[rab1]

works dead up here so the poles etc have all done a runner down south for better money

[ilovesettsonmondays]

down south for better money .haha .evening standard ev ery week .brickys 12 pound an hour ,kerblayers 9 pound an hour chippies 10 pound an hour .london is fecked

[rab1]

seriously thats a lot better than whats being offered up here

[lutonlagerlout]

i suppose if push came to shove i would work for 12 quid an hour
but it hasn't and I wont work for less than £20/hour as things are

i spoke to the gaffer and he is well busy,but as a world leader in what he does that is expected

this coalition parliment/greek/irish/italian/spanish/portugese tragedy,plus the oil spill in USA has made everyone didgy again

FFS i was getting £10 an hour in 1988

anyway on a brighter side england are 5-1 to win the world cup
PMSL

LLL

[rab1]

just spent the afternoon trying to start a pair (fitter & mate) and strugling. either their working or the brew are paying for tickets and dont want to miss out.

[bobbi o]

we're flat out at mo and have been for the last 10 weeks. theres a sheet load of work to be had out there right now. we could easily double the size of our operation tmrw to take advantage. the main reason i reckon for this is the people who didnt spend in the winter months, when the economy was looking grim are now opening their wallets.

however,over the grim winter months, despite cutting everyones hours,but deciding to make no redundancys, we managed to make a substantial loss in day to day operations. now back in the good times we're bashing it out trying to make back these losses .

i've decided not to substantially increase our size,mainly due to what happened last winter and the belief that winter 10/11 could be even worse. hopefully not,but its looking that way.