The Brew Cabin

hi i am a landscaper in the isle of man and i am amazed at the price you charge for laying a patio i priced one up for £2500 the other day it was 30 metre square and a 5 slab random, how can u be over half as cheap, you must work for no profit and be on about 8 pound a hour. and dig the base out for nowt

great website also the calculators are very handy and the are spot on for the materials for jobs

ok keep up the good work

Yer Maun in the isle of man

Tony

These are not prices I charge - I am no longer contracting due to a spinal injury, but are averages calculated from the prices reported to me via the Contactor's Price Survey I conduct each year.

If you're charging 83 quid plus per square metre for patio work, then there must be hell of a demand in IoM, as that is dearer than the prices I'm seeing from London and the South-East!

hi again well the materials over here are a lot dearer due to shipping as we live on a island so everything is more expensive, i worked it out i would get £600 profit from that job do u think i charge too much ? i see every job i do, i expect profit i am very bizness minded and i work everything out to the finest detail, also i do a quality job and i give a quality service to my customer i guess i run my bizness as a bizness and not a charity whats your thoughts ? i would find it helpfull if you gave me your angle on it

ok many thanks

Tony

How you run your business is, to coin a phrase, your business, and everyione has to make a profit, otherwise there's no point in getting out of bed in the morning.

I run this site for free, as a sort of charity, because I'm disabled, no longer allowed to work in the trade I love and I'm bored sh*tless, but, if I was still trading, I would expect to make a profit on my work. No-one expects to work for nowt, and no client in their right mind expects you to work at a loss.

My 'angle' is that profit is necessary to develop a business, any business, but that profit needs to be invested in the long-term development of the business, in training, in customer support, in promotional work, and, if you're inclined the same way as I was when trading, a certain percentage to my favourite charities each year. Profit that ends up exclusively in your own pocket or in the alehouse is a waste.

Tony - You're a man after my own heart. I think it must be age which makes you realise that it is time to give something back to society. 10 years ago I would have only made the odd "small" donation to a charity.

By the way didn't you find it hard to make a profit out of residential jobs as I think most people will take the cheapest quote 9 times out of 10. Obviously commercial work is a lot different and cowboys are soon driven out via word of mouth.

Charity was something I was brought up with. There's always some poor sod worse off than yourself, and, if you can help someone on the path through life, then it would be inhuman not to do so. I've always had a soft spot for kids who didn't get the love and cuddles I got from my parents and passed on to my own sprogs, so I always tried to help the NSPCC.

The residential driveway market became ridiculously competitive in the late 90s, so much so that we were working for 2 quid per square metre less than than we were paid for the pedestrianisation of Preston in the late 80s. Accordingly, I switched gangs away from that sector and back to the commercial schemes, where it might take 3 months to get paid, and you might have to have a slanging match with the site engineer, but at least you got paid a living wage.

There is a sizable majority of householders who would always base their choice of contractor on cost alone, but, to be honest, I wan't interested in working for them, as they are usually the sort of client that gives you most grief. As I always said, they wanted a Rolls Royce but only wanted to pay for a Lada.

I was very lucky in that I could choose to bid for only those jobs that I thought would be inspirational or provide me with a challenge, and we developed a certain reputation that meant I came across most iof the work via recommendation, rather than advertising.

But, at the end of the day, I always enjoyed site works more than driveways and patios. Give me a road and sewers scheme, or a town centre to pedestrianise, and I'm in my element. If the knackered back and ticker faery was to appear tonight and offer to fix me up and send me back out to work, I'd definitely choose to go back into streetworks. There's far too many amateurs and cowboys in the driveways market for my liking, and I'm still arguing with anyone who'll listen that we need a proper paving qualification in this country.

There may be something in the pipeline - watch this space for news later this year....hopefully. :)

cheer m8 for that, yeah i am intrested in putting all my money into my company and as you said making a donation to a local charity is a good thing to do, i never see the point in wasting money down the boozer like most in the trade do, i am just interested in building a good reputation and providing a good service and if i make a few quid on the was i will be happy, i am always intrested in other peoples advice so i don't make the same mistakes, great site m8 keep up the good work its a great site a credit to u a lot of hard work gone into this i am going to get a website this year i will send you the link when its up and running

thanks again

Tony from the isle of man

You should fill in the Contractor List form, and the Price Survey, if you'd be so kind, so that I can add you to my list of contractors.

It's the silly season just now and I'm getting 4 or 5 emails and at least a couple of calls each day asking for contractor recommendations. You'd be the first to make it onto the list from IoM. :)

ok m8 will do i am at the minute trying to get on the govenment list over here and i want to join BALI in the next couple of months i think people like the security of somebody who is in a ruling body, peace of mind i guess

well manx man signing out all the best from the isle of man