You thought the job was worth £150 and engaged him to do it. Neither of you knew how long it would take. He did it quicker than either of you thought. If you're satisfied with his work, where's the problem?
If you had agreed to pay him by the hour, he may well have taken all morning...
If i had a plumber who turned up on time, did the job quicker than I thought and all for the agreed price, I'd make sure that his number was written on the fridge door!!
£150 an hour bet the trade love havin there number on your fridge
Oh come on. Think about what you write, please.
Firstly, do bear in mind that you are coming here asking for professionals to offer you free advice.
Next, do the *real* maths on the topic that you describe. A tradesman may go and price ten jobs. Each of these may take 30 minutes on the customer's property.
And 30 minutes travel each way, so 90 minutes all in.
And writing up the quote and dealing with follow on questions.
For these ten quotes he may get a single job so he drives to that job (you're not paying travel costs, I take it?) Maybe 30 minutes, maybe 90 minutes each way.
Some jobs. like yours, go well and he completes the work and finishes early or on time.
Other jobs don't go well - screw threads are stripped, furniture needs to be moved out of the way, there's a faulty widget and he needs to leg it to
Wickes or the local trades outlet.
Are you going to entertain him asking for another two hours of effort cos it was trickier than he first thought?
So, finally, he does what you ask him for and charges you £150. And you whip out your Excel spreadsheet and calculate the he must be earning £200,000 by ripping off his unsuspecting customers.
It doesn't work like that - a £100 per hour tradesman does not earn £200k (otherwise we'd all be doing that). If you earn £20 an hour and get paid £40,000 per year that's because your boss is happy to pay you for all your teabreaks, "thinking" time and all the time you put into trying to win the next contract.
It doesn't work that way for tradespeople - they get paid *just* for the hours that they physically work on a customer project. And if they are self-employed then they don't get paid for being sick or for taking holidays.
So, next time, figure out whether paying someone £150 for hanging a radiator is a bargain compared to you learning how to do it and buying all of the required tools. That is the only important calculation - not a flawed estimate of a tradesperson's earnings.
And I'm not an electrician, a plumber or a tradesperson. And I'm lucky enough to have an employer who pays for my thinking time, holidays and sick leave. Much like yourself, I suspect.