Which trade costs the most?

[Handyman]

I seem to get asked to do all sorts of things, and I'm thinking of charging different rates for different trades/skills, rather than an hourly or daily rate overall.

So, which trade is worth what? Assuming a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest earner), where on this scale do the following tradesmen fit:
Electricians
Plumbers (CORGI, of course)
Tilers (floors & walls, not roofing)
Carpenters and kitchen fitters
Carpet layers & flooring fitters
Gardeners
Roofers & slaters
Bricklayers/builders
Labourers/skivvies
Pond builders & installers

 

[masona]

This is my guess,
10, Electricians
10, Plumbers (CORGI, of course)
7, Tilers (floors & walls, not roofing)
9, Carpenters and kitchen fitters
5, Carpet layers & flooring fitters
2, Gardeners
8, Roofers & slaters
9, Bricklayers/builders
2, Labourers/skivvies
? Pond builders & installers (not sure about this one)
Years ago the plasterer used to be the top earner,I should imagine the plumber are now the current highest earner (?) as we are now short of plumbers.

 

[Handyman]

Ah yes. Forgot plasterers (probably 'cos I can't plaster - and their difficult to find. Well, good ones are, anyway) so better add them to the list.

 

[breezer]

each to their own, it depends on how skilled each is.

for argumemt sake, you could have a heating engineer, who has qualified as an electrician, where does he go in the list?

 

[Handyman]

each to their own, it depends on how skilled each is.

for argumemt sake, you could have a heating engineer, who has qualified as an electrician, where does he go in the list?

That's my point. Does he charge electricians' rates, or plumbers' rates? If the rates are the same, then fair enough. But supposing you have a plumber who rebuilds an airing cupboard (not many plumbers would do this, I suspect) but if they did, would they charge the whole job at plumbers' rates or carpenters' rates, or split the charge depending on the skill level required for each part? And then what happens if he's asked to repair some tiling whilst the bathroom radiator is off the wall?

 

[masona]

Might be easier to have one rates fit for all trades ?????

When I was in the building trade,I have 3 city & guilds in each trade and the guv'ner used to pay me a good rates of pay as it was cheaper than getting each trademen for difference job.

 

[amandaeb]

In my experience of "having men in"

carpenters around £120 a day
gardeners from £40 a day -£80 depending on skill level of work required
electricians about £150 a day each but seem to only come in twos!
plumbers £20-40 per hour for small jobs.

Amanda

 

[AdamW]

I read that good plumbers can earn in excess of £90K a year and my parents' previous plumber now drives a top of the range Jag and turned down pretty much every job he was asked to quote on because he doesn't fancy working on toilets, for example, and refused any requirements for a bidet when doing a whole bathroom.

Could you imagine a plasterer saying "nah, don't fancy doing ceilings today" or a bricky saying "don't do red bricks, only yellow".

The plumber situation will change soon enough though, the number of university graduates currently retraining as plumbers is going to saturate the market and competition will force costs down.

 

[masona]

The plumber situation will change soon enough though, the number of university graduates currently retraining as plumbers is going to saturate the market and competition will force costs down.

It will take years as we're approx over 9,000 plumber's short in Essex alone and this government is to blamed for not encouraging people to go into the building trades.They have shut the building technology college in my town and replaced it with University student.I give up.
Prescott is now keen to encourage people to come over in this country to do the building trades for cheap labour as we now need 300,000 property which is needed in Essex alone according to the recent survey.

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

Hi Hanyman,

bit of a tricky one isn't it!

Like yourself, I offer a wide variety of services, but for domestic and marine. I have been trading for a year now, and am considering charging more per hour for the marine work to cover the expenses of marine insurance and contractor/parking fees (£1,500 pa) Cos why should my domestic customers pay for that!

Speaking from my own experience, I am not a qualified electrician, plumber, joiner, plasterer, decorator etc. so I do not charge as much per hour. But saying that, I am probably slower than a qualified tradesman!

At the end of the day, a customer is paying you, for your time and if you do a good job it doesn't matter what discipline this covers.

Only you know your own worth. Even if I am only cleaning a boat or fitting £5k worth of navigation equipment, it is still my time they are buying.

I think I made sense!

Goodluck

 

[Handyman]

Good answer, Janitor. Much appreciated.

 

[AdamW]

we now need 300,000 property which is needed in Essex alone according to the recent survey.

I live in Hertfordshire so we are going through similar proposals at the moment too. My town (Stevenage, or St. Evenage to some ) is going to have an extra 10,000 homes built despite the fact that the infrastructure here is already overstretched.

They have shut the building technology college in my town and replaced it with University student.

Yet another example of the stupidity of politicians. They probably claim they are improving the quality of education and life in the area. They went to University so assume everyone else must need to go too. What use is it for 50% of people to spend 3-4 years getting a degree if only 20% of people want to work in an area where it will help them?

What use would my physics degree be to someone who wants to be a builder? About as much use as a building apprenticeship would be to me as a physicist. It's only a matter of time before they set a target of 50% of the population to go into politics. Then when they want to build a new House of Commons to seat 30 million people we won't have the trades to do it!

 

[masona]

What use is it for 50% of people to spend 3-4 years getting a degree if only 20% of people want to work in an area where it will help them?

Too true,we've got them at work and most of them are the laziest people I ever come across,they are too laid back and think the world owe them a living.

 

[Handyman]

OK, then. Add Physicists and Politicians to my list of tradesmen. Probably both about level 8, I should think. Just below plumbers and electricians.

 

[AdamW]

Too true,we've got them at work and most of them are the laziest people I ever come across,they are too laid back and think the world owe them a living.

Thankfully not all students are like that, but the type you mention give all students a bad name. They almost certainly sit on buses/trains talking loudly about how much they drank the previous Friday night too (ever noticed how it always seems to involve drinking a whole bottle of vodka?)