arguement with a builder over money

[LM Ceramics]

got on the Phone this morning to the building firm i do work for asked for my cheque he went bilistic and said they would offer more work caus of the amount i put on my invoice and refused to speak to me further, now to get my money i have to speak the main man. he spoke to me like i was a piece of sh*t not a good start to the day. i have done lots of work for them this year at £18m2 labour only but these have been big jobs so i can stick on more meters anyway i wrote on my invoice

5 m2 bathroom and kitchen 5m2 £250 which is quite cheap this job was a private house in liverpool not on site.

know im looking at it as i move on to better things and better work i have regular work from a kitchen fitting firm and my own private jobs coming in im booked up for another month at least and they pay me what i ask and they have no problems about it.

i think this building firm are only interested in a rushed job and pay as little as possible im now trying to stay away from site work

anyone else had problems with builders

 

[Spud]

was £18 including materials or labour only? most builders are pretty realistic when it comes to prices ,they will have a good price in for the tiling so i cant understand why your builder has looped out on you for charging what seems a very reasonable rate

 

[kilty55]

hi LM, my 1st couple of jobs were with a local building company,,all were rushed..all had add ons halfway through and the minute i said id have to raise my price on the job he gave me the 3rd time as it was nothing like what was said initially he said hed do it his effin self!! say no more mate

 

[Fred]

Their trying it on mate. Don't know exactly how its done, but use the small claim court...............

 

[kilty55]

did you have a price agreed before the work was carried out with this builder mate? or did he just assume you were going to charge 18 per sq metre as same as the site work?

 

[Alberta Stone]

Sometimes builders go over on other areas and so are losing money on that end so they try to squeeze it from their subtrades.
Some are just tight fisted and figure you should be grateful that you have their job even if there is more work than money in it.
And then there are reasonable builders, but they are getting scarce.

 

[Alberta Stone]

Got a new house on monday and getting $6/sq foot for diagonal 13" tiles.
that's about 30 pounds/M2
I supply thinset, they supply grout.
I try to avoid the bulk builders and commercial work as it is more sweat than money.

 

[MICK the Tiler]

They are TRADING INSOLVENT and are about to go BROKE!! BEWARE LM :yes:

 

[LM Ceramics]

was £18 including materials or labour only? most builders are pretty realistic when it comes to prices ,they will have a good price in for the tiling so i cant understand why your builder has looped out on you for charging what seems a very reasonable rate

labour only mate ?

 

[LM Ceramics]

did you have a price agreed before the work was carried out with this builder mate? or did he just assume you were going to charge 18 per sq metre as same as the site work?

i think he assumed i was going to charge £18

 

[kilty55]

you might be best just charging him 18 quid per metre squared then on this occasion at least you will get money surely .then cut ties with him,well thats what id be inclined to do mate to save any uneccessary hassle hope this helps

 

[enduro]

Not being funny but i wouldn't tile for £18 sqm, try and get work from builders who respect your trade. I'm doing a job for one of my builders at the moment he pays me £30 sqm and he supplies everything, he knows i do a good job and he is prepared to pay for it. If you charge £18sqm you will never be able to put your prices up with them. And i would never do site work. I know your going to say you would never get £30 sqm in your area, well that's what i thought when i started, but it is out there. I know a few tilers in my area who charge around £18 sqm and have no work...Im booked up for three months, plus a guy where where i was working today came to service the swimming pool looked at my tiling and was impressed and asked if i wanted to tile swimming pools for him, he has 8 to build this year..Good luck i hope you get paid

 

[LM Ceramics]

thanks enuduro and kilty i wanted 20 to begin with nd i agreed on 18 caus there was loads of metres sometimes it is best to charge a bit lower to get the work but this job was private so i wanted a bit more i only charged 18 m2 for the care home refurbs because in total there were over 200 metres so i could stick more m2 on and i earned nearly £200 a day

with the kitchen fitter im currently getting work off he pays me £150 a day labour only which im happy and £25 m2 on floors labour only which suits me i earn nearly £800 a week for a 20 yr old thats really good.

thanks lads for your comments