Combi Boiler fitting costs

[Agile]

At £600 gross profit for this job he could do 5 a week and make £144k for a 48 week year. I could scrape by on that.

When I worked for the BBC we had 5 weeks annual leave plus about 7 public holiday days. I dont want to take less holiday fitting boilers!

Then there is sick leave! Being healthy I only had the odd few days off with flue but some of my colleagues were not so healthy and took weeks of sick leave!

We dont earn anything during holidays or time off sick!

Then there are jobs that go wrong! The cavity wall turns out to be asbestos lined! The pipework under the floor is steel! The leaking rad had been turned off and the leak neatly painted over to hide it!

Then there are the days off work at court dealing with those who thought they did not have to pay!

Tony

Tony

 

[GeoffNT]

sooner they ban the sale of gas related goods to members of public the better. the sooner we adopt a US style attituide towards plumbing/heating the better AKA its a professionals job, we pay professionals for their skills! and no 1 can purchase related goods without I.D card.
rant over!

Erm, I though this BB was called DIYnot? You're obviously on the Not part!!! Also what has this got to do with buying gas-related goods? I am not buying any gas related goods. All I have done is (perfectly legally) prepare all of the non-gas pipework myself, because I can, and I thought it would save me money on the install. If that is wrong then I can't see why.

I never realised you Corgis were so sensitive! Let's set the record straight, all I am saying is that I was surprised that the labour costs were so high for such a relatively easy job. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the work extortionate, I didn't mean it in a literal sense, simply in the colloquial meaning of very high.

 

[simond]

It isn't £600 a job gross profit, get real.

How many quotes did you get? When were they written up and in who's time?

When you start your £144K a year job where is your work coming from?

You are going to get 100% busy every day without doing any free quotes, but winning one job a day nevertheless, and all this without any advertising.

If you think you can cut it in this industry, you'll find the competition is leaner and fitter than you thought. You'll also find that some customers can have a completely unreal attitude as to what a job costs and what it entails.

And the ones to really avoid are the ones that tell you how easy the job will be, how much of it they will do for you, and how much they can find the boiler on the internet for*.

*You could train a monkey for this bit, I have one in the office.

 

[GeoffNT]

Lol. OK Tony have 8 weeks holiday/sick and drop it down to £132K !!!

BTW I am self-employed myself so know all of the problems therein. I still think £600 for a days work is pretty damn good.

 

[GeoffNT]

Jeez. I give up. I apologise for daring to question a quote. Obviously I should be grateful to anyone prepared to do the work for me, and simply hand over any amount they see fit.

Nor should I be concerned that the boiler they have just charged me £900 for is available elsewhere for £650, that is just a little bonus tip for them.

 

[ChrisR]

BTW I am self-employed myself so know all of the problems therein.

You don't know "all the problems", you haven't a clue.

The only people fitting boilers day after day arw eorking for a large comany wit an infrastructure round tem which isn't charged out.
You'd have to advertise likee crazy to do TWO a week. That's 1200 a week, say 40 weeks a year, less costs, something very well below £40kpa . You can earn that and more putting gas meters in, with van, work, sickness benefit and all the rest.

If you think it's easy, you try it.

 

[simond]

I'm sorry, my response was written before I saw your last posting.

I don't know what line of business you work in GeoffNT, but if someone suggested you were 'extortionate' you would probably feel a bit restless!

We have to make a margin on materials and customers expect 'service'; this has to be paid for, whether you are using a large national or a small independent. We have all learnt what that costs over the years from experience.

If someone finds a cheaper more efficient way of doing boiler installations we will all be out of business.

But it remains a tedious process and usually at least two tradesman have wasted their time and money before the job even starts.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

Geof people like you are always aggro and want the job done for nothing. Penny pinchers are always a pain in the arse!

 

[Corgigrouch]

Ha!!!! Last time I let a customer supply and pipe his own rads and pipework, and provide me with a boiler.. The boiler was a hideous Ravenheat, the flue hole that he knocked out (With a hammer) faced his neighbours wall... space of about 24 inches(Not where I said that I would put it but he decided to redesign his kitchen and the boiler was just in the way), just about every joint leaked so that when I filled it, we had an all over house shower (Fortunately the house was back to bare brick).. They were young and dumb, on a budget and she was expecting.... I just couldn't leave them with a boiler that provided a sprinkler system. But my lesson was learned..

Always assume that the customer is not capable of doing what he says he will do, that his bit will not be done by the time that I start the job and that you will have to put right what he has ballsed up...Which technically makes the job more expensive than just letting a professional get on with the job.

Just as an aside to folk on PAYE, how much does YOUR boss have to charge your time out at to cover all the overheads that he must pay to employ you AND pay your wages... Some folk know the price of everything but the cost of nothing... Feel free to work for yourself if you have the guts... you will learn

 

[tonybhoy]

Costs me about £160 before I put the key in the van on a Monday morning.

Honestly we get some rep,some of it deserved granted it,but most of it is completely OTT. I don't know of one tradesman on my patch that could be termed as a cowboy. Most of the guys-plumbers,sparks,plasters and so on even painters,LOL-are just trying to earn a decent crust and for that we get crucified for daring to make a profit.

The Banks or BT or Shell and the like make a fortune every single minute of every single day but tradesmen,particularly plumbers,are the bad guys yet everyone and their granny wants to be one.

Consultant doctors are on a basic of about £130K a year which can be easily doubled by doing private clinics and the like but no one bats an eyelid nor do they bat an eyelid when a solicitor charges £120 an hour or an accountant charges £900 to sign off a set of accounts for a sole trader but God forbid that a plumber dares to charges ,nae quotes,£600 for a boiler install.

And,we are supposed to sell goods,that we have bought ourselves with our own money and terms we have taken years to get,for nothing other than the cost of those goods.

Try going into Tesco and asking for a loaf at cost. Feet,ground and won't touch along with men and white coats is the first few things that springs to mind that and the laughs from staff such a request like that would provoke

 

[Deleted member 105431]

Costs me about £160 before I put the key in the van on a Monday morning.

Honestly we get some rep,some of it deserved granted it,but most of it is completely OTT. I don't know of one tradesman on my patch that could be termed as a cowboy. Most of the guys-plumbers,sparks,plasters and so on even painters,LOL-are just trying to earn a decent crust and for that we get crucified for daring to make a profit.

The Banks or BT or Shell and the like make a fortune every single minute of every single day but tradesmen,particularly plumbers,are the bad guys yet everyone and their granny wants to be one.

Consultant doctors or on a basic of about £130K a year which can be easily doubled by doing private clinics and the like but no one bats an eyelid nor do they bat an eyelid when a solicitor charges £120 an hour or an accountant charges £900 to sign off a set of accounts for a sole trader but God forbid that a plumber dares to charges ,nae quotes,£600 for a boiler install.

And,we are supposed to sell goods,that we have bought ourselves with our own money and terms we have taken years to get,for nothing other than the cost of those goods.

Try going into Tesco and asking for a loaf at cost. Feet,ground and won't touch along with men and white coats is the first few things that springs to mind that and the laughs from staff such a request like that would provoke

Well said!

 

[GeoffNT]

And,we are supposed to sell goods,that we have bought ourselves with our own money and terms we have taken years to get,for nothing other than the cost of those goods.

Try going into Tesco and asking for a loaf at cost. Feet,ground and won't touch along with men and white coats is the first few things that springs to mind that and the laughs from staff such a request like that would provoke

That is a very poor analogy. Tesco only sell the bread, they do not charge to do anything with it (unless you buy toast in the cafe!). They have to make their profit purely on the sale. If they sold at cost they would go bust.

You are installing the boiler and charge labour to do that. You do not need to put a markup on the boiler to make a profit.

Anyway, I've obviously stirred up a hornet's nest which was honestly not my intention, I just wanted to see if the charge I was being quoted was typical. I thank you all for your comments and will leave it at that.

 

[tonybhoy]

That is a very poor analogy. Tesco only sell the bread, they do not charge to do anything with it (unless you buy toast in the cafe!). They have to make their profit purely on the sale. If they sold at cost they would go bust.

You are installing the boiler and charge labour to do that. You do not need to put a markup on the boiler to make a profit.

You have totally contradicted yourself there. My analogy was sound in the sense that I am selling something I have bought and I am *also*providing a service for something you/a customer has bought.

Two completely different sales albeit linked in the one job.

And,how do I not need to make a profit on the boiler sale?

Does the boiler magically appear in your kitchen? Who pays for the boiler that magically appears in your kitchen? And,how is the cost of this magic boiler arrived at before it magically appears in your kitchen?


I get 'free' delivery of my materials from one supplier however another supplier who is often 'cheaper' than the other supplier charges me £20 for delivery.

You pay your money and all that.

 

[Agile]

Consultant doctors or on a basic of about £130K a year which can be easily doubled by doing private clinics and the like but no one bats an eyelid nor do they bat an eyelid when a solicitor charges £120 an hour or an accountant charges £900 to sign off a set of accounts for a sole trader but God forbid that a plumber dares to charges ,nae quotes,£600 for a boiler install.

You are a bit out of touch with pay rates! Hospital doctors get about £35k, consultants about £45k-£65k but its GPs who do well , about £100k and they no longer have to do call outs.

Most high street solicitors are now charging about £130 + vat plus little bits extra like £10 for stamps, £10 for photocopying, plus £10 for coffee! London solicitors charge about £330 UPWARDS for every hour they at at work in their office! Thats over £2500 per day ( + vat ) ! They are the ones who are extortionate. To cap it off they charge YOU for insurance in case THEY make a mistake!

Accountants are lower down the scale, many still only charging about £65 per hour ( for their clerk ) to write your accounts. The senior ones are about £145 an hour and the partners about £300 an hour!

Tony

 

[tonybhoy]

Not getting into semantics here but a junior doctor in his or her first year is on about £26K for the first year rising to about £90K at age 34 when they (some of them) then go onto to be consultants at a current wage which I mentioned earlier.

Anyway it's not about what other people earn it's about the perception of the public that certain members of society are not supposed to earn a decent living. I'm not for a minute suggesting that plumbers etc are the same as doctors in a professional sense that would be absurd however this notion that all plumbers are rip-off merchants is ridiculous.

The vast majority of plumbers and heating engineers work for companies and are PAYE. The current JIB rate for a plumber in Scotland is about £12 an hour ,hardly the pay of the mythical £100K a year plumber that everyone bangs on about at every opportunity.