What do they want????

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broonster

broonster

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Well guys went and priced a bedroom(walls only at £220including £40 mats) Day and a halfs Work by the time you get the gear in and sheet up PVA, fix beads etc etc.Thought she was gonna pass out..... how mutch she said,so i knocked off £30 quid that brought it to £190 including mats.Said she would get back to me,just found out somebody did it for £150 including mats,worked out £110 quid for a day and a half.And she lived in a massive detached house....Am i being to expensive!!!
 
I just wanna cry!
I used assure myself that while it's a s**t way to earn a living at least you could. I may as well get a job pushing trolley in Tesco,at least there's holidays,pensions,staff discount and no overheads.
Oh and no you are far from expensive!
 
Totally sympathise with you Broonster. I used to get 250 for a bedroom. Not anymore!!! As soon as you go north of 200 now you're onto a loser! Chancers, polish, etc have fuked the trade up with low prices!
 
Why do people always say they might aswell get a job pushing trolleys in tesco's? Theres a lot more to it than just pushing take a look www.pushingtrolleys.com Your price was cheap to start and then dropping over ten percent so quick makes people feel that you were having their pants down in the first place, should of stuck to your price it wouldnt of got you the job but you were never gonna get it and you would of felt a bit better. You say it was done for £150 how did you find out? And the quality might of been s**t but some people dont know or give a ****. I usually get around 90% of what i price im not over expensive but not cheap, i think i give really good advise when i look at the job and point out all the pitfalls and notice things which they might not notice, I always advise them the best way to go, knowing if the next plasterer doesnt know his s**t when he comes to look he is gonna look stupid. A lot of people might still go with the cheapest but not once ive spoke to them and terrified the living daylights out of them about what can go wrong lol
 
Flynnyman she works at the same place as me wife. so she asked if she was still interested on having the job done.
 
im sure you cud of done it easily in a day but even with that things have gone pear shaped .i know my job i know how to sell i know how to bull shi t with the best of them but i cannot get any work at the min
 
Some people will always say they got it done cheaper coz it makes them look like they got a bargain and makes you look like a robbin **** its life and people. It would make a massive difference if you could see the job coz it wont be up to much i bet and it would answer the biggest question being asked on this forum of late "how can they do it so cheap" and the simple answer is they cant coz its a s**t job and hasnt been done properly.
 
rockhardsolidplastering said:
im sure you cud of done it easily in a day but even with that things have gone pear shaped .i know my job i know how to sell i know how to bull shi t with the best of them but i cannot get any work at the min
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36 years in the trade mate but still get shocks like that..Sort of Knocks your confidence a bit..
 
pricing aside...
ive lost count of the amount of single rooms with artex ceilings 4x3ish that ive skimmed in a day 1 up...
so a day and a half to skim 4 walls? 2 sets of skim? even with pva, sheets and humping the grand old weight of 100kg up a flight of stairs?

today, no sheets rqd, boarded the ceiling and skimmed the room bar one wall (and only cos i wasnt gonna kill myself, started at 9.30, finished at 4.30)...
pva overskim on the walls 2 coats AND taught a noob how to use a trowel...

im not surprised people are baulking at prices when some people take 2 days to do a 1 day job, and trust me, theres f'ck all up with my work...

people come on here and say 'how much for x job'?

then they get told, 'day rate x job length + materials..'

then go and price 2 artex ceilings at 400 quid...

and wonder why they dont get em...

wonder how many times ive said 'the moneys going to go out of the game', same way it did with other trades, because its now easier and quicker than it used to be

people are getting more than one quote, understandably so, so if you want the work, remember you might be pricing against me...

that said, 4 walls 200 quid, fair enough price i reckon....

150 less materials is a bit cheap for a private job, i'd wanna be gone for 2 o'clock..
 
The other day not far from me i was told someone quoted £180 for a h/s/l to reskim the walls.:RpS_confused: Fcuk that!!
 
couple of months ago a girl came into where I worked and we got talking about a house she had just bought right next to where I work, we got talking and long story short she asked me would I price up a small job for her. I went around there. It was two walls in one bedroom and two in another. The other walls were fine. Walls to be plastered were roughly 2.4m high by 3 / 3.5m wide. 2 of the walls needed bit of bonding here and there but nothing serious and there was no beading. So I thought to myself I could bang this job out in a day so I told her 190 quid and i'll pay for the 4 bags of finish / 1 bonding (staff discount). She said "HOW MUCH?", What I didnt know was there was a guy before me and he already quoted it for her (or so she said), She said a bulgarian guy said he would do it all for 100 quid. Straight away I said to her, good luck and I left. She came into where I worked the following week and said the bulgarian guy down a great job and done it for 90 quid ,she also said to me "and he didnt have to use any bonding", lol

so basically he filled all the holes, and there was a few chunks out of the wall that definately needed bonding, he has filled them with multi finish..

When she told me I just laughed and said to her when it starts to crack up and she comes back to me I'll fix it for 350 !!
 
next time you see her present her with a petition - 'support british tradesmen' :)
dead innocent like.. :RpS_laugh:
 
I was having 2 new tyres fitted on my van, just before christmas and the tyre fitter asked what i did for a living and i said plasterer but the work was slow. He then says he had 2 poles in plastering his 3 bedrooms the week previous. They did a great job and were very cheap! Had i known, i would have got my tyres elsewhere! Fuk em!
 
Keep pluging away Broonster , its just todays market and how some peeps are not all but some , after 36 yrs in the trade a lot of your work must be reconmendation and repeat custom so just stick with it , things are not like they were in other recsesions work was still there but this time around there a lot more trade around to compete with some are just chancers that wont be around forever they are just spoiling our trade . So for now just keep things tight and try to ride it out , and hope things get better all trades are suffering its just ours that has lately taken a to many backwards steps cause the skill has been taken out living mostly skimming work and guys that just learn it can go out there and blag there way through our trade .
 
it will come good again im sure of that,not sure when tho.as said just got to ride it out.
as long as the uk has an obsession with buying there own homes and house prices there will always be work,needs market to pick up first and devlopers to start building instead of sat on land banks.
the difference in previous reccessions is that this time we have are eastern european friends to deal with.
 
Sorry to be negative but after the last recession it took about 5 years for rates to start going up again in the commercial sector.
 
Like said above ^ its just certain customers that are like that dude! they will ALWAYS want a jobfor nothing.

I get 70% of what I price and as an example to what I get for the jobs..

monday - rip down roughly two square metres of artex ceiling, re-board it and skim it - £280
Tuesday - Rip down a small kitchen ceiling and re-board and skim - £295
Monday week - re-board a 3mx4m ceiling and skim - £380

I know people who charge a LOT more than me and get the jobs consistantly, people who want good work doing will pay agood but fair price! and at the end of the day who wants to do a job for someone who wants to pay peanuts, people like that are just out for them selves and would probably not even offer to make you tea! eventually (fingers crossed) I will have done enough jobs for GOOD customers that pay well that all my recommendations will be for equally good customers!

This is Surrey/London prices btw..
 
I got a phone call 3-4 hrs ago .Guy wanted 1 wall skimming.He said he moved into house and wall where fireplace was is in really bad condition,hes wants it skimming so he can put a fancy wall paper on it.I asked questions and gave him a price over phone of £100 told him id do it tommorow morning first thing.
What? he replies to skim 1 wall £100 ?
yes £100 1 wall 3 hrs work i replies.
No sorry mate thats to much.
I asks him u had any other quotes,no he replies ur the first i called.
I told him look i got to get the plaster pva drive to you 15-20 mile round trip.
do the work which takes me around 3-4 hrs then pay my tax and insurance of that little profit whch will be less than £80 after fuel and materials.
Nofar to expensive he replies and phone goes down.
Now 3- 4 year ago hed be lucky if i could get there in 2 months and then id want £200 cash,if i could be bothered with it!!!
Its hard at the minute.Luckily i have many skills in the building trade and im good at my work becuse i dont think i could live off just plastering work in this climate not with the financial commitments i have with 3 kids wife 1 wage etc etc.
In the past years plastering has always been the best paid work and more importantly the most regular (needed) of the trades i posses,but not so much nowdays.
I think the only reason im surviving is cus people want a guy that can come into a job and do the lot the plastering painting tiling fit the bathroom do the plumbing electrics etc tec .I get very few full house reskims now days it all complete room refurbishments usually kitchen or bathrooms for me.

Negative as it may seem the trade as we once new it is dying and personally i dont think the rates will ever get to a good level again,esp on sitework.
 
agree with you there mate, so far on this job im on ive done studwork and door liners (some of it was already done but BY GOD what a f'ckin mess), boarding (same again), skimming, coving, 1st fix plumbing (whole house) and this morning in the p'ssing rain i was fixing a roof leak that had supposedly been fixed moons ago...
1 man band needs every single string he can play, with one trade you either work for a firm, run a firm or work for the council....
no good just being a plasterer on the domestic side and nothing else...
never make it pay...
 
Agree with rockhard there that you should try and box them rooms without lids in a day, its just the way it is now.

in my experience no one has ever wanted to pay good money for a good job in this country that mentality died off with the war generation snotty attitudes mean they expect people who get dirty for a living work for peasants wages (true at the moment) but honestly no one has ever wanted to pay the right price I once agreed a job for 600 guy was well happy with price, it took me three days and he wanted some money back because he said it shouldv been a weeks work for that price? ? ? he never thought for a min that i run a van or tools etc he simply did not want to pay me that price and was gutted afterwards!
we have become sad a nation that invest more into video games than something such as trade.

its a funny old world, I am both proud to be english and yet at the same time sorry how fookin wet we have become as a nation and race.
I often think about saying fook it you can keep it Im off - and then emigrating but then I cant help thinking NO I will stay and fight on - this is england and we need people to be english here. I fear that I will look back and say "Damn I knew i shouldv fooked off back then" easier said than done tho
 
I had a guy ring just before christmas chris asks me...i got a student house 5 bedrooms i need 9 firedoors and frames hinges handles etc fitting,also needs staiwell plasterboarding with firecheck to create a corridor and under stairs on both cases firboarded+ 5 linked smoke alarms and emernecy lighting on all escape corridors.
Now this house is victorian so ripping old frames out and putting new fireframe and door in and replastering up aint a 5 minute jobs ur talking a day a door+mats to do a GOOD job (no painting). so i gave him a price of £3250 CHEAP!!!
He rings me up yesterday saying he got someone else in to do it for £2500 and building control wont pass the doors or the plasterboarded corridor(our polish cousins).
he cant get them to sort it out and wants to know how much to put it right .I laughed and put phone down.
 
job im on is all fire doors..
and i had the pr'ck from the council last year, givin it all the 'should hold a credit card' bollox..
it should be 2-3mm, doesnt actually need fire beads and should close on its own, fully, overcoming whatever latch its on...
that aint easy with the smoke brushes, you need a proper lead on the door, its got to be bang on, seriously well fixed or you get problems 2 weeks later...
f'ckin credit card my arse...

and thats landlords for you mate, you wont change em...
get em on a day rate...
 
plasterjfe said:
Its just we all think the grass is greener but we dont really know do we
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I just dont like this country anymore, run by a bunch of spineless tossers who think nothing of treading small businesses into the floor, they think it should be a caste system... cnuts..
theyre punishing the working class for the mistakes of the bankers...
guy fawkes was a f'ckin hero...
 
Apperantly Chris and i didnt know this.
He bought the fd30's as a kit complete with door frame intumisent hinges etc etc.
Now building control said that the brushes are no longer required as they dont let the smoke get out of the room so not allow the fire alarm to go off.As a result the firedoor will hold the fire unknown untill the floor falls in on fire.But once the brushes are removed ( as now requied) the door will be comprimised becuase of the gap where intumisent was.
Crazy i know but this is what i could understand over the phone with a angry asian landlord.
Obviously the regs have changed? so im glad i dint do it now!!!! cus i doubt id of rang them to check.
 
that sounds like the biggest load of bollox ive ever heard mate to be honest...
there should be a smoke alarm in every single habitable (and the kitchen) room so its gonna go off as soon as the fire starts...
the smoke brushes are there to facilitate escape...
ill check the regs if i get lumbered with the mop up on these doors but ill bet you a quid smoke brushes are a requirement..
 
jesus hanging fire doors on yer todd,did a load of them in a hotel in bradford years ago with my old man whose a chippy,the weight of those doors my backs only just recovered after luging them up 3 flghts of stairs
and we had to use router on every one for the fire resiliant strips.
 
refurb fire doors... nightmare innit, you cant get a lead on the frame, so theyre a bitch to get to close right if you gotta rout the door out...and yeh, theyre like a sheet of 19mm board! heavy!... luckily i spent a good few years in the window game and its all about technique.. let the door roll towards you and balance it etc...

howdens are doing what they call 'developer doors' now, they look just like the old eggbox 4 or 6 panel, but theyre fd 30's... cheap enough too...
and just use a fire liner, comes with the strips, ready routed...
just dont forget which way the f'ckin door opens when you fit the liner... :rolleyes)
 
It sounded odd to me about the strips.But thsats what the guy said to me although his english wasnt great and i watching footieas he was waffling on.
But im sure he was saying the strips were not required.So the doors is comprimsed.I dont think he has smoke alrams in every rooms from what i can remeber from quote it was the corridoors kitchen landings and cummunal areas (1 lounge) it was a student house.
Im sure i heard it right.Maybe he got it wrong ?god knows.
 
he's f'cked up big time mate, and now he wants you to come and sort his life out for him...
dont even go there with this bloke mate, he's a nob...
 
Chris W said:
refurb fire doors... nightmare innit, you cant get a lead on the frame, so theyre a bitch to get to close right if you gotta rout the door out...and yeh, theyre like a sheet of 19mm board! heavy!... luckily i spent a good few years in the window game and its all about technique.. let the door roll towards you and balance it etc...

howdens are doing what they call 'developer doors' now, they look just like the old eggbox 4 or 6 panel, but theyre fd 30's... cheap enough too...
and just use a fire liner, comes with the strips, ready routed...
just dont forget which way the f'ckin door opens when you fit the liner... :rolleyes)
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I did a job in the summer and used those exact doors.In certain houses under certain circumstances you can use a solid wood door (no fire door required) but it has to be solid.
We put them in and building control came out and would not pass at first,they said the lip around the moulding reduced the size of the door so they were solid but not the full 38mm thick at the moulding.I said im not happy with that i want second opinion eventually they allwoed it.
 
anyway, if all he's gotta do is remove the strips, why does he need you to do it? he could pay a freshy 2 quid...
 
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