Plumbing quote ....questionable????

[Dan Robinson]

Job I priced up yesterday has £350 just in fircking pipe clips

 

[3DGuy]

Ah, what I said was I was after quotes for gas central heating (Full central heating system installed), I didn't mention anything else except electrics and windows. I know I'm not a full time/qualified etc and I know a lot better than to play with Gas and certain things

I've 100% plumbed and tiled the bathroom, and the WC myself (in final progress) and the kitchens next. When the 2 chaps came to fit the central heating they just left isolated hot and cold tails to each room that required it.

The rooms have hidden isolation panels, built in designs the works. I work as part of my job for interior designers spending 10's of millions on their houses (mad if you ask me on some of the designs I've seen). I don't have that luxury to spend that amount, I just generate the visuals and help them get to what they want with animation and 3D/2D design work.

So I did all the design work, sourcing all high end fittings (kaldewai, villeroy, geberit which the designers I work with use heavily, then I have taken the time to do the rest myself. Its a hell of a lot of work to do them, which is why I was not shooting down the original quote, I'm personally surprised its not higher for the amount of work listed.

Think we got off on a bad foot. I'm Chris, 3D/Graphic design/Animator, bought a first house with my fiancée and we are renovating it top to bottom. Get trades in when I can/need to etc Gas/Electrics or windows otherwise I like to do things myself to learn and gain skills.

Job I priced up yesterday has £350 just in fircking pipe clips

And fair play. That must be a TON of pipework going in for that! I've used about 30 clips lol

 

[srhawksy]

4 Bed house, 10/12+ keeping a couple of existing rads (cant quite remember) all copper pipework, new gas line, big combi (customer insisted on combi) kitchen plumbing 2 bathrooms installed (no tiling) new soil stack for ensuite into existing drainage

£10,500.00

I don't think I've got the job.... Good. I don't want to work for peanuts for someone trying to get the job done cheap as possible

Another one this week, conversion to combi, 10 rads, re pipe some, re jig pipework, combi in kitchen all the usual

£3,500.00

Customer say they want to give me the work as I seem the most genuine/ knowledable, BUT my quote does seem expensive to some others... I haven't budged yet. They've not been back to me




£17,000 may not be way over, but I dont deal with heat pumps. But renewable aren't cheap so be prepared to dig deep, and cheap isn't usually good. You want someone who will still answer the phone AFTER you've paid them for the install.

 

[3DGuy]

£17,000 may not be way over, but I dont deal with heat pumps. But renewable aren't cheap so be prepared to dig deep, and cheap isn't usually good. You want someone who will still answer the phone AFTER you've paid them for the install.

Nice post, hopefully puts things in to contact for some people who are not in the know etc. It didnt sound exactly cheap for the huge list of work, but again only a breakdown will give a little more info on that. I've lost track of how many times I know a friend went for the absolute cheapest.... Funnily enough, he cant get hold of ANY of the trades he used.

Yea I've not seen many renewables that are cheap initially. And yea if you go in to those areas you want something reasonably proven. Not something that will cause you more headaches than benefits.

I think one speculative quote we had was plastic pipe, combi, 28CDi, rads etc 3 bed, was around 3.5k. However we went with a slightly higher spec, full copper, combi mate and a few extras, plus re-pipe of all the main house pipework from scratch as well, so it went up a bit. Glad you hadn't budged on that, sounds like a good price.


I guess at the end of the day everything's relative. Somethigns are expensive to some, and not to others, some value higher quality parts, some put the cheapest in and hope they last (or cant afford the most expensive to begin with etc).

 

[Dan Robinson]

How dareyou charge for taking the time and effort to become more knowledgeable than most.



*edit* damn autocorrect....

 

[srhawksy]

How fate you charge for taking the time and effort to become more knowledgeable than most.

How fate???

I don't think I'm more knowledgeable (at least not a lot) but I do care about my work and I am approachable when people ask for advice etc. Spent over an hour at the smaller job going through everything, how the system would be flushed, what are the pros an cons of this and that, 'I've read on the internet that rads should be oversized? why is this?' so I explain etc. etc.
'Why do I need a new gas pipe' and such.

Apparantly the guys had cheaper quotes for a Vaillant 837 I'm assuming or 831, over a Baxi Platinum 33kw. How much after care will he get when the dirt ****s up the vaillant guts?

 

[Tibbot]

Sorry are you also suggesting that someone with probably no experience in this field carries out likely gas works on attempting to install a system themselves? to DIY a system like that most likely requiring building regs notification?

Now back to the original question and the principles of a forum offering advice. And grow up the lot of you.

I'm suggesting that those who don't want to pay for tradespeople to make profits need to be able to DIY. As for the principles of the forum, this one's about DIY. The OP is asking about money.