CEF are known for being extremely expensive unless you are a huge customer. Most tradesmen i speak to avoid them unless they really have no choice.
TLCs base prices are quite high but i belive they offer discounts that bring them down quite a bit. Do you really think if it was cheaper to buy stuff online than from a local supplier tradesmen wouldn't do it?
fact is tradesmen often do mark up materials quite a bit because they know people would think of them even more as rip off merchants if they put it all on the labour.
and using tradesmen (particularlly electricans and corgi plumbers) is expensive. there are a few reasons for this
1: qualifications and deeming of competance is controlled by a few organisations who have no incentive to offer basic training and certification. So the only reputable house bashers are those who are way overqualified for the job.
2: red tape and ass covering (e.g. the insane ammount of testing sparkies do on new domestic installations nowadays)
3: tax, ni, travel costs etc, which essentially means that for your own time to be worth more than the time of someone you employ you have to be earning significantly more than them.
4: slack time, whoever said time is money was a lier. The reality is that tradesmen go through periods where there time is worthless because there is no work. This has to be made up for in the time you are working.
TLCs base prices are quite high but i belive they offer discounts that bring them down quite a bit. Do you really think if it was cheaper to buy stuff online than from a local supplier tradesmen wouldn't do it?
fact is tradesmen often do mark up materials quite a bit because they know people would think of them even more as rip off merchants if they put it all on the labour.
and using tradesmen (particularlly electricans and corgi plumbers) is expensive. there are a few reasons for this
1: qualifications and deeming of competance is controlled by a few organisations who have no incentive to offer basic training and certification. So the only reputable house bashers are those who are way overqualified for the job.
2: red tape and ass covering (e.g. the insane ammount of testing sparkies do on new domestic installations nowadays)
3: tax, ni, travel costs etc, which essentially means that for your own time to be worth more than the time of someone you employ you have to be earning significantly more than them.
4: slack time, whoever said time is money was a lier. The reality is that tradesmen go through periods where there time is worthless because there is no work. This has to be made up for in the time you are working.
