Do you do favours for mates?

[DevonR]

Basically I have just spent the last 2 weekends busting my balls for a mate. I put down 20 sqm of slate floor in his dinning room/kitchen, read hallway and downstairs toilet.
In my opinion it looks **** hot as I spent a good while marking out and reaped the benefits of only 2 slightly difficult unavoidable cuts.
I bought all the adhesive and grout for him at trade price (he supplied tiles).
Now I asked only £250 for the job - insanity I know. The fact is thought that this guy has done me plenty of favours and saved me a fortune over the years (he's a Corgi registered plumber) so I thought I'd go some way to try and pay back some of the kindness/generocity he has offered me over the years.
I was talking to one of the guys in Topps though and he reckons theres no place for friends in business.
Do you agree?
Or like me (in certain cases) do you believe that one good deed deserves another?

 

[Dan]

Totally agree with you mate.

I had 'mates rates' for friends and family and they had to agree that I'd slot them in as and when I could. Or i'd book them in as a normal job if they neded it done quickly, say for a party or whatever they've planned late.

To a degree, he's right, there's no mates in business but there are associates. And you give him something to gain a return or you want a return in profits/cash as per a normal customer.

I think you know not to bend over backwards for this guy again though eh?

 

[CON5933]

As my mrs says.... "another brick on your house in heaven"

As a rule I never make money from mates, If I've got nothing on work wise then I'm charging them for 'my' time and that's something I won't do. On the flip side, I don't have mates who would expect me to lose money on them so it's a bit of give & take..

If I had to bump a job to fit them in then it stands to reason that they would have to fork out at least the day rate.

 

[Varley]

I have done some jobs for mates, especially very early on for very cheap rates, not anymore though, i give all mates 30% off and normally do them weekends. Don't charge a penny for family other than materials which they get at trade.

 

[h0ndatyp3r]

I have two friends, when the time comes, i will be doing work for them for free. Simple reason for this, one has repaired my computer free of charge for the last 18 years and will continue to do so and the other is my chiropracter who doesn't charge me for treatment and again will continue to give me free treatment. At the moment, i go to him once a week. He charges his other clients £25 per visit. It's a no brainer really!!!!

 

[Deleted member 15]

If its a mate, do it a good bit cheaper, especially if you do it at the weekend. But a plumber i know wanted his downstairs floor tiled. I did it for nothing considering hes supplied me with thousands of pounds worth of work.

 

[Elliott]

Exactly - Relatively. If your not sure about a mates job test them, I put a door on for a mate - he watched my every move then Grandma pulled up a chair for the show and the dog pissed on my tools. I'm not doing any tiling for him. Amazing what some 'mates' become when money and 'their castle' is involved. On the other hand i would even regrout for some mates.

 

[Varley]

Went out to quote a mate last Tuesday, just had an ensuite installed in his bedroom. Wanted the shower cubicle tiled, 6m2. Ceramic tiles onto plaster board. Said i would do it one weekend for £60 plus materials and recommended he get it tanked which i would do for no additional cost other than materials. Said he would get back to me once he had the tiles.

Here's where it gets interesting...

Cheeky b*****d messages me a couple of nights ago saying "can't believe you wanted £60 to do that, i've just done it in 3 hours, tiled and grouted, this tiling lark's a piece of p**s"!

I didn't like that comment very much so i phoned him up to ask how he got on.

He didn't prepare the plasterboard with anything (even an amatuer diy-er would have probably used pva at least), tiled straight onto the plasterboard with B&Q own make adhesive...ahem...grouted straight away with the adhesive (which was also a grout), and to top it all off it's a power shower he has had installed. Told him to ring me back in a month or so when the tiles fall on his fat f*****g head!

Really pee'd me off he did!

 

[Concept PHT]

Went out to quote a mate last Tuesday, just had an ensuite installed in his bedroom. Wanted the shower cubicle tiled, 6m2. Ceramic tiles onto plaster board. Said i would do it one weekend for £60 plus materials and recommended he get it tanked which i would do for no additional cost other than materials. Said he would get back to me once he had the tiles.

Here's where it gets interesting...

Cheeky b*****d messages me a couple of nights ago saying "can't believe you wanted £60 to do that, i've just done it in 3 hours, tiled and grouted, this tiling lark's a piece of p**s"!

I didn't like that comment very much so i phoned him up to ask how he got on.

He didn't prepare the plasterboard with anything (even an amatuer diy-er would have probably used pva at least), tiled straight onto the plasterboard with B&Q own make adhesive...ahem...grouted straight away with the adhesive (which was also a grout), and to top it all off it's a power shower he has had installed. Told him to ring me back in a month or so when the tiles fall on his fat f*****g head!

Really pee'd me off he did!

Had a neighbour do that to me the other day, except with some plumbing. Long story but some theory. Won't be helping him out when his living room ceiling caves in.

 

[wivers]

I have done lots of jobs for mates. The close mates i have done for nout or next to nout. The rest have been charged mates rates. Alomost every job i've done for a mate for nothing has turned out to be a complete disaster though. I guess thats what friends are for eh?

 

[wivers]

Had a neighbour do that to me the other day, except with some plumbing. Long story but some theory. Won't be helping him out when his living room ceiling caves in.

Lol mate. with mates like that eh!

 

[DevonR]

Well this job has bit me in the ***.
Basically the tiles were supposed to be sealed (I provided sealer), but it appears they weren't sealed well enough so now I get to remove grout marks from the floor too (I know I was lazy). Which makes the £250 an even better bargain. I've learned some lessons on this one though.

Popped into Topps tonight as well and almost landed myself a job. Some poor woman had a guy turning up tomorrow to lay ceramic floor tiles at £30 sqm. Not bad enough? Well he was laying them on to weyroc with no ply overlay. Unfortunately she had the day off tomorrow and was picking up all the gear and couldn't get no time off in a week or so. Shame it was only 5 sqm and would of been some nice pocket money. I passed on my card for repairs and any future work.