Mortar holes + bees = bad combination

[Larches]

Long story short - last year, bees took up residence in my nice sunny south-facing wall, right next to my bedroom. Noisy things they were too, but just had to wait for the little blighters to go (didn't even leave me any honey to say thanks).

I need to get something done about it before they come back for another stay. I can see a few small holes in the mortar but the problem is they're about 23ft up near the eaves and there ain't no way my ladder will reach that high (not sure I fancy the idea even if it did).

Got a quote from a local tradesman and he confirmed he has ladders tall enough (so no scaffold presumably) but estimates it to be a 2 hour job, at £40/hr. I wondered if that was a bit steep (aah puns

) - what do people on here think? I'm not asking for full repointing, just filling 2 or 3 holes...

 

[Ian H]

Pay the £80 or buy a longer ladder

 

[Larches]

Hmm, considering I get a bit jittery on our 15ft ladder as it is... yeah maybe £80 doesn't seem so bad after all. And who knows, he may just manage to get it done in 1 hour... (wishful thinking - sometimes the only thing that keeps me sane ).

 

[John D v2.0]

A decent ladder will cost you more then 80 quid but you can use it again and again.
If you are worried though I'd recommend going online and ordering a commercial standard ladder. It weights a lot more but having tried my neighbours ladder first I am glad I went for the one with less deflection.
Or just pay the 80 pounds to make the problem go away!

 

[Doggit]

Alternatively, be blunt and ask him if it'll only cost you £40 if he does the job in an hour as he's quoted an hourly rate, and can you cap the job at £80 otherwise it'll be cheaper for you to buy longer ladders.

 

[^woody^]

Depends who you would rather be stung by

 

[Larches]

Thanks all, was just wondering if the hourly rate & estimate seemed reasonable as it's difficult to find example costs for a job like this (and the other companies I asked didn't get back to me). Anyway, no one has cried 'rip-off' yet so that's something...

 

[alan riv]

Sounds expensive to me £25 to a local man should be enough unless you are in the middle of nowhere

 

[Larches]

Nope, not in the middle of nowhere - maybe that's why the others didn't bother getting back to me... too many better jobs around for them!

 

[^woody^]

What's got to be done?. If its just pointing up two or three joints, then it's £10 or £20 if someone is working nearby and can just nip over for 30 minutes for a cash job.

But if someone is to travel to the job, set up and then do the work as part of their business, then yes they may well want one hour for the work, plus travelling time and materials. Which would in all fairness be two hours charge.

Certainly no more than two hours charge though - even though the work content is 30 minutes or so. But thats the way it works.

But then it comes down to hourly rate. £40 is a proper business hourly rate that includes for everything (the work, admin, fuel, insurance etc). If a business has its costs and overheads to recoup, then they wont want to work for nothing.

Despite it being a two hour job, it may not be an £80 job if that makes sense. More like £40 tops.