Top tip

[seanandruby]

Plumber wanted £125 plus parts and vat for fixing stop cock. Found out all i had to do was undo gland nut ( no need to turn water off ) wrap ptft aroun shaft and do it up again. Saved me a right few bob on a Saturday night :;):

[Carberry]

Im in the wrong trade.

[Pablo]

I can never get my head around what those guys charge for simple tasks that take no time at all and they're doing several a day. They have you over a barrell so you've no choice but to pay because they're all at it. Even for the money I wouldn't want to be a plumber though I prefer to get my teeth into decent jobs and not be here there and everywhere every week.

[lutonlagerlout]

saturday night?
would you like to go an fix someones stop cock on a saturday night?
time he gets in his van ,loads tools in the van,drives over to yours unloads tools ,does 10 minute job,then repeats process in reverse
he has probably spent 3 hours running around
I disagree totally here, I did double glazing call out years ago with a mate
we got about 70 quid each per call out,but you would get a call at 3 AM,someone has kicked dixons window in in hemel,stevenage,watford whatever
no fun at all

LLL

[local patios and driveway]

all you boys are in the trades, dont you have plumber mates? plastering mates? electrician mates?... cmon surely?

[Carberry]

all you boys are in the trades, dont you have plumber mates? plastering mates? electrician mates?... cmon surely?

I'll happily do most work myself, the only thing I don't know much about is electricity. I can do the basics, changing plugs, moving sockets about etc not a clue about anything else though. Unfortunately I don't know any decent sparkies

[flowjoe]

Doesn't matter who you call in the service industry, plumber, locksmith, mechanic or the guy who pokes about in the back of your washing machine before the inevitable sharp in take of breath, they are at least £45 per hour in normal hours and that's up here in the grim north.

You can at the very least double that for a Saturday night call

[lutonlagerlout]

all you boys are in the trades, dont you have plumber mates? plastering mates? electrician mates?... cmon surely?

I havent got any "mates" that like working for free IYKWIM

I used to get involved in all that BS but dont bother now
plumber fixed my boiler in 20 minutes but i had to lay and point his patio in return = 2 days work

In fact I would rather not use mates,as if they feck it up you have lost a mate
mates that I have made through work is a different matter as obviously they have proved their worth as a trade before we got matey

i had a RL mate offer to plumb in my bathroom suite 15 years ago
he came down looking befuddled and explained he had burned a hole through the plastic bath with his blowtorch
no bath and no mate
LLL :;):

[seanandruby]

c'mon lll you know how they work. They send out some lad, apprentice to turn the water off then next day the ''expeeienced'' guy comes in and hammers you for more unneccesary work. I do all my own plumbing, it was the wife who panicked and calle the emergency team. My fault was quite a common one so why not diagnose, and offer a remedy over the phone? I expect my end bill would of been a couple of long 'uns easy. Cost me nil to do myself.

[michaelthegardener]

Maybe he didnt want to come out so he put the price right up :p you wouldnt wanna go out to work on a night time would you ? since working for myself ive viewed what other people charge differently I had someone put the phone down on me earlyer when i told them my minimum charge is £15 some people expect ya to work for free dont they ....

[seanandruby]

......ok then why advertise 24/7 if you don't want to work :p i'm not into spoiling anyones saturday night but at prices like that i'd hardly call it spoilt. Also i wasn't complaining about paying, i was just offering you guys a tip on how to avoid those costs in the first place and also avoid damage to fixtures and fittings. I thought the craic was designed for that sort of thing. Hope it helped someonem

[lutonlagerlout]

if you can DIY thats great Sean
but too many times i get requests for piddling little jobs miles away at unsocial hours,and they say and i quote
"it will only take you 20 minutes"
to go to the lock up,get the ladders and ridge ladder on,go to the merchants ,buy a bag of sand,a ridge tile and a bag of dust,drive 15 miles to their house,knock up some compo ,set up ladders,hack off the old mortar,replace ridge ,clean up and pack away,drive 15 miles home
not really worth £20 is it?

I had 1 bloke badger me to take off a radiator,his plumber never showed up and the plasterer was coming in the morning

so against my better judgement i did it
it was a cold night and his TRV valve opened and flooded his downstairs
"you have flooded my house " he whined
"no ,i did what you asked me " i replied
if you are half handy its worth doing it yourself, but if I am not 100% sure i get the pros in
cheers LLL

[seanandruby]

put me in my place......again ???

[rab1]

margins are tight on this type of work, the fix may cost pennies but the time hassle is enormous.

[Carberry]

Supply and demand. I frequently have this argument with people over what to charge. If people don't like what I charge they won't use my services and I will either have to stop trading or drop my prices.

Had a similar conversation with somebody who took their dog to the vet and was charged something like a £40 consultation fee for 2 minutes work, she wasn't paying for the 2 minutes she was paying for the 6 years of vet school etc

What gets me is that people happily pay plumbers silly amounts but think any idiot can do landscaping and gardening and only want to pay £5 an hour cash for it.