Estimate for tiling 90m2 with travertine

[simonb43]

Hi All,

Have recently put a quote in for 90m2 of travertine tiles, 600x400, brickbond pattern on walls and floors. What would your estimate be for fitting only. All materials on site. Be honest !! :happy:

 

[DHTiling]

sounds a nice job simon mate..hope you get it ...post us some before / during and after pics if you do............dave....

 

[GazTech]

Lovely big yardage to get stuck into...enjoy the job and photo it....Gaz

 

[tiler burden]

i'll get shot for this but if your asking for ideas then you are either inexperienced or been out the trade for a while so either way i would be competetive till you build up a reputation. charge 20 per meter, that way you'll get the job , get the money and then you can build up your prices when you have proven your worth

regards
ed

 

[sc24]

average price £26.50m2+vat, although if the majority is on the walls charge more

 

[Fekin]

charge 20 per meter, that way you'll get the job , get the money and then you can build up your prices when you have proven your worth.

At 90 sqm that still works out at £1800 so it all depends on how long you think it'll take you really.
But at £20 psqm for travertine, anyone knocking you back on that price would be mad.

You said site, is it a new build for builders or private customer ?

Good luck.

 

[simonb43]

My estimate for the job is actually higher than what you lot have quoted. there is a lot of work involved using travertine and to charge £20 per m2 is the same price as estimating for ceramics !!

I think to under estimate the work, just to get it is not the way forward. There are too many tilers under cutting the average prices, forcing everyone else to price lower. I said be honest !!

Most of the work is on walls and a small amount on floor work. As i said its a brickbond pattern, so extra work involved there, plus sealing twice and grouting. More estimates please, i'll let you know if i get the job.:icon8:
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Hi Ed,

Not new to the game, just asking for honest estimates for the job. £20 per m2 way to cheap, no where near the average.

 

[tiler burden]

i have met 2 tilers last week. i asked how much they would charge for tiling a conservatory in 30cm x 30cm marble 16m2 over ufh that was to be screeded by me. one guy said £400 ound, i told him to go and have sexual relations with himself. the other guy said 180 if i sealed them the day before to save some time.

i asked him why he was so cheap, he said i am not, its just that the market is flooded with 4 week course merchants who think that installing stone is an art. he said its easy and as long as you have the right cutting equioment and you understand about sealers then theres nothing to it.

he came, did the job, immaculate and was gone by 2-30 where he was off to to a kitchen slash back for 120, so he made 300 by 6-30pm. he had 25 years exp, time served, worked for tysons in liverpool and was shiiit hot, so dont tell me about working cheao and lowering the market. this gut was fast, he made 300 in aq longish day and he has never even heard of a forum because he's too busy working 6 days a week......

the moral of the story is, if you are good and then 20 pound a meter can still be worth a lot..if natural stone is so difficult, how come i learned nearly everything you need to know in 1 day on nett's course. its just heavier, needs sealing and needs heavier cutting equipment.

 

[simonb43]

this guy done 16m2 of marble for £180. Works out at 11.25 per m2. and done it all in 6hours. must be one hell of a tiler. I assume darren at the nett would have told you the going prices for natural stone. it certainly wouldn't be 11.25 per m2.

 

[tiler burden]

why are you surprised at that ???? thats what good time served experienced tilers can do. if you want to come and work with ian, drop me a pm and you can come and work with him for a few days. hes a proper tiler. he can float and screed floors in sand and cement, granolithic work, terrazo the lot. worked all the middle east and california.

i said 20 to you because i assumed you were starting off by the inexperience of your question. if you dont know the going rate for your own trade then god help the customer

 

[simonb43]

what do you mean, the inexperience of my question. i know the average extimate for doing travertine, but was just asking for estimates from other tilers, to see if my price was competetive. i will not drop my prices just to get work, but i will assess my prices to remain competetive. As i said 20 per m2 is ceramic prices, not natural stone.

 

[tiler burden]

think about what you are saying while you are doing you maths aswell si,

i am pretty sure that a half decent tiler can do 3m's of tiling in an hour, even at the lowly rate of 11-25per m2 , thats 33-75p per hour!!!! pound a day for a 9 hour day 8am till 5pm 303 a day, days a week = £ 1515 a week or £75k a year.. ian drives around in a 60grand bmw x5, his wife has an 330ci convert and hes never short of money and hes always working according to his accountant who recommended me. he never divulged his income to me but you could tell he had a few bob. so dont knock someone for working for less than the average. thats why theres a gulf between people like ian and darren from nett because they can provide the speed to go with the quality..i'd rather stay in work all the time and make that kind of dough, rather than sitting around demanding 30 per meter because of my newly aquired in house certificate that cost me the price of a course says i should charge...

 

[Fekin]

I understand what your saying tiler burden, but theres often quite a few factors to be taken into account on what people charge per sqm.

If your a fast tiler and can retain good quality and can get enough work in and your happy working 6 days a week then fine.
Pleanty of people on the other hand can't or don't wish to work all hours, so if they also charged £11 per sqm they wouldn't be earning way enough to live.

I know of quite a few trademen who are good at what they do, have gone for quite some time charging very little compared to the going rates and it simply has not worked out for them, they simply can't get enough work to warrent charging so little, so they ended up upping their prices by quite a bit, still got the same amount of work in and got paid nearly double for doing the same work as before.

Some people are just lucky that they get the right contacts to get work in, other can't, so they need to charge more.

 

[sc24]

every job you price on its own merits, you cant give a realistic price just by saying 90m2 limestone, like i said if the majority is walls then i'd stick with 26.50 on the floor and up it to about 30 for the walls, but what sort of areas? small, big, medium? I know what your saying about people being to cheap and agree with you to some degree, £20m2 I think their underselling themselves, but you have to be competitive

 

[brummie tiler]

I am in between on this fiesty debate. Where i live you could never get £30 - £35 m2 for natural stone so i charge about £20, tiler burden is right in that you dont have to charge top whack to make money in this game, but you should charge what your worth. Its possible to do 20m2 of floor in a day for an experianced guy, but you have got to think whats the point you would be working your ******** off! You have got to get the right balance, and thats different for different people, so tiler burdens opinion is not right , its just his opinion.

 

[DHTiling]

At the end of the day if you are happy at what you are charging and its earning you a living then thats the way to go..prices vary up and down the country so no two tilers work the same.....happy tiling lads and lasses..........dave..

 

[simonb43]

I have listened to all your comments and opinions. Everyone has a different idea. The job entails 35m2 for an en-suite, mainly walls, 45m2 for a bathroom, again mainly walls and a 10m2 entrance hall, obviously floors. The walls are 3metres high, the trav is 600 x 400. A lot of work for any tiler, experienced or not. As i'm not 3metres high i would need help to do the 2 rooms, for which i would have to pay. I have worked with trav before, not very often, but i do know what is involved. I do want want to remain competetive, but i feel that putting in low prices will compromise my work.

All i have been asking for are honest estimates for what you would charge, not for what you think i should charge, experienced or not.

Any way Ed, i have taken into account what everyone has said and have lowered my estimate to be more competetive, but as i said before i won't compromise my quality. Maybe i should this one on day rate ?Quality for me takes longer than some others, so i charge accordingly. PS I might take you up on that offer, early next year when my work slows down. Probably won't do me no harm.

Can all of you give me some ideas on how long you think it would take you to do the job. From my point of view it assume 15 days to do everything from start to finish. Too long maybe for some, but you all know the job now.

Good to see lots of response, and my apologies to anyone who may have been offended by my wording. Look forward to more replies.

 

[wayne]

make sure the tiles are solidly fixed if they are that size and 3 metres high. if walls are flat job should take roughly 10 days. 9 sqm a day is easily acheivable with tiles that size. probably be able to do more but work off that rate. use an angle grinder to cut with a cecent diamond blade. its quicker than a wet cutter. pricewise i would be looking at £2500-£2700 roughly £25-£27 pound sqm thats in leeds area

 

[Paul M]

for something that size there is a fair amount of work involved I would tend to be between £2500- £2800 but again its a personnal thing

 

[Grace'sDad]

After reading this thread - I'd hate to meet Tiler Burden at "fight club" 😡

I take his point though that Elite tilers can work that fast. Something to aspire to for sure, but when people like that learnt their trade maybe 20-30 years ago life was a lot cheaper. Sure we've got £20 dvd players and crap like that, but the stuff we need to feed, house and clothe our families has gone sky high! That's why "newbies" like me need to charge as much as we can - whenever we can.

(I'd price it on the cheap side personally, for the experience and the kudos of such a nice job)

 

[Andy Tiler]

im in the manchester area i would charge £35 PER MTRE for floor £40PER MTRE
WALLS labour only get as much as u can mate
hope this helps:wink_smile: