£5,000 for 2 small bedrooms ?

Absolutely, that's not a skim job.
I wouldn't be confident of the longevity of just pva and skim on the other walls.
@bekter I get that you look after your guys and where you operate makes it difficult to source plasterers. The way I see it your giving too much leeway. Let's put it this way your guys have already made their money before they've even left the van. Then we get to 10 hour days on day rate which is utter madness.
You also have to factor in the labourer, if he's any good he makes the plasterers job ten times easier because all you have to do is plaster. You would expect the production rate to go up, but instead you've got two guy's pissing about squeezing as mutch as they can out of day rate.
There just no incentive there because you're doing all the heavy lifting.
Chd.com/blockandtackle
 
That job needs serious prep .
a price @not day work …

@send lab to do prep (only)
@
do not need lab to hold plasterers hand—— @ best 4 gauges only
@ nay fuxin chance paying £1500 to wash 4 buckets out
 
I would of just sent the labourer down to prep everything himself, but our plasterer does not drive and the job is almost 1hr 30 mins travel time not including a ferry crossing, so everywhere he goes our labourer goes :( I guess we will just have to carry on with the day rate for this job and see about putting him on price work in future. You guys are right though these rooms are a hell of a mess so I have told the client that we can't give a definitive price it will just have to take as long as it takes. Thanks for all the replies will let yous know how long the job eventually takes and how much it finally costs :)
 
We are in the Scottish Highlands the going rate here for most trades is about £18.50 an hour, usually our guys only work 37 hrs a week which often includes 2 hrs traveling a day but we pay them 50 hrs a week. Our Labourer is a wee grafter probably deserves more than £15 an hour tbh. The Labourer will sheet the fireplace wall and does a pretty decent job prepping all the other walls. The £5000 is based on 5 days, we pay £20 an hour and £15 an hour but charge customer £40 and £30. By the time we add on travel, ferry costs, materials etc it ends up about £1000 a day. We want quality work over quantity, his work is usually good although we have had a couple of really bad jobs that had to be re-done. He is significantly slower than our father who just retired, but then he had been a plasterer for over 50 years so probably an unfair comparison. The walls are bad but the other rooms where no better and came up pretty well. The main reason I am asking on here is that my father keeps telling us to price for say 3 days while our new plasterer will say 5 days. We want to be fair to the new plasterer if 5 days is what it takes to get a decent job done then fair enough. Thanks for all your replies

It's more than I charge in the south-west and I pay my subcontractor plasterers £260 a day! and I charge them out less than you!

We are always busy maybe I'm too cheap...a local builder put a price in for a half a days work on one of my jobs the other day and it was £160 more than what I would have charged for a day.

Prices are very unpredictable at the moment
 
It's more than I charge in the south-west and I pay my subcontractor plasterers £260 a day! and I charge them out less than you!

We are always busy maybe I'm too cheap...a local builder put a price in for a half a days work on one of my jobs the other day and it was £160 more than what I would have charged for a day.

Prices are very unpredictable at the moment
You sound like quite an expert, you must be privy to many trades peoples prices given your assurity on this matter. Where do you get your information from, If that's not too bold a request, Fred.
 
You sound like quite an expert, you must be privy to many trades peoples prices given your assurity on this matter. Where do you get your information from, If that's not too bold a request, Fred.

The only reason I have insight into it is because I also develop...prices are very unpredictable I guess it depends on individual situation as well some people are over mortgaged and looking at paying double next year.
 
It's more than I charge in the south-west and I pay my subcontractor plasterers £260 a day! and I charge them out less than you!

We are always busy maybe I'm too cheap...a local builder put a price in for a half a days work on one of my jobs the other day and it was £160 more than what I would have charged for a day.

Prices are very unpredictable at the moment
Our guys are through the books at £200 a day which gives them pension, holiday pay, sick pay etc. We charge £40 an hour for tradesmen and £30 an hour for labourers', well except for our sparky who we only charge £35 an hour for because he is the slowest man alive :) We are booked out solid for the next 6 months and the only work I feel I am over pricing on is plastering, had a few jobs where people were really keen on getting it done until we gave them the price :( Priced a downstairs and upstairs hallway last week including the stairs for £2700 which was only making us a small profit and the people said it was far too expensive, yet the same people were happy to pay £6,000 for a multi fuel stove installation which was less than a days work and made us £2,300.
 
Our guys are through the books at £200 a day which gives them pension, holiday pay, sick pay etc. We charge £40 an hour for tradesmen and £30 an hour for labourers', well except for our sparky who we only charge £35 an hour for because he is the slowest man alive :) We are booked out solid for the next 6 months and the only work I feel I am over pricing on is plastering, had a few jobs where people were really keen on getting it done until we gave them the price :( Priced a downstairs and upstairs hallway last week including the stairs for £2700 which was only making us a small profit and the people said it was far too expensive, yet the same people were happy to pay £6,000 for a multi fuel stove installation which was less than a days work and made us £2,300.
That's because people feel their lives will be enriched by the installation of a stove, not so much with some plastering.
Funny thing is that once the novelty of the stove wears off many of them sit there unused.
 
That's because people feel their lives will be enriched by the installation of a stove, not so much with some plastering.
Funny thing is that once the novelty of the stove wears off many of them sit there unused.
A few years ago that was definitely the case but now the ones I put in are getting used a lot, due to the cost of gas/electric/oil.
West of London people have generally got stupidly high mortgages and are consequently really starting to feel the pinch. There's still work around and sites still working but I can see there is a slow down. The big housebuilders seem to be waiting for the election and a rise in prices/profits!
 
I think I’ve been lucky over the last few years with customers, but recently noticing that ‘the shiny stuff’ is all many people care about with regards to perceived value.
 
Invoiced the customer for £4970 at 11am and she had it paid by 11.30am and messaged me to say she was delighted with the job. Took 1 plasterer and 1 labourer 4 days to re-sheet and skim both rooms, they had started by trying to SBR the original walls and skim but it just started falling off so we just re-sheeted the whole lot. Probably should of done that in the first place. Lesson learnt. Thanks for all the advice guys.
 
Invoiced the customer for £4970 at 11am and she had it paid by 11.30am and messaged me to say she was delighted with the job. Took 1 plasterer and 1 labourer 4 days to re-sheet and skim both rooms, they had started by trying to SBR the original walls and skim but it just started falling off so we just re-sheeted the whole lot. Probably should of done that in the first place. Lesson learnt. Thanks for all the advice guys.
SBR and skim?? Seriously? WTF. Well thank you for at least admitting it and, for coming back and telling us how it went.
 
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