G
Gazzer
ok its not very often I mention pricing but I will break that rule.
While mainly I work on a price per M2 I will balance that out with a daywork rate. ie dont expect me to drive 20 miles each way to fix 2 m2 !! for a m2 rate....that wouold be daywork.
I have an amount I expect to earn and if I cant make that on a m2 rate then I need my day rate. I think thats fair !
I also believe that when work is slack its best to take any work to get some money in. As long as its worthwhile.
Recently I was offered work with another tiler and I thouoght it woould be decent work so I accepted. I never discussed rates as he came reccomended to me.
1st job was ok, plenty to go at and seeing as I am quite fast at fixing, overall the money at the end of the job was ok....not fantastic but better than sitting at home.
2nd job was a toilet in an office, about 1.8m high so no cuts top or bottom and fairly easy to do. When the money arrived , I then noticed the rate @ £10m2. With tax off I was getting £8 less travel expenses. I wasnt happy at all but as I have said before it was better than sitting at home and afterall it was easy work.
3rd job was a straight floor and it was done in 2 1/2 days , just picked my cheque up to see the rate was still £10 m2. !!! Now ok call me slow or maybe too laid back but this has peeved me. I am finding this all to be an insult now.
Ok so today, another job, which promised to be a large floor with 450mm tiles. I thought theat a large straight area could be good for the way I work and money could be made even at a low rate. I hadnt seen the job so I looked at a website for the chain of wine bars/pub for the same company. I saw nice open areas and decent tiling.
When I arrived on site, after unloading all my gear, cutters tools buckets etc. I needed to find parking. So I duly found a reasonable place for £4.10 a day. I walked back to site to see the guy I was doing the work for. He showed me the floor. So its full tile squared off the bar front, which is at 45 degrees to the rest of the room, so effect the whole room is on the diamond. There are round coloumns to cut around and there are 8 acrow`s in various places that will need a tile leaving out until they can be removed at a later date. The lighting is festoon lights and fairly dim. The floor in the main is newish screed but it meets a few areas that are old geometric tiles which over the years have been covered with various coverings. These coverings have now been removed but have left large amounts of rubbery glue.
I laid a straight edge across the surfaces to find that the new screed wasnt too bad but not flat, then I laid across the screed and old tiled areas to see that there would be a lot of making good to do. I suggested SLC but it was dismissed right away and I was told to bed up. Now I thought this was a bit excessive but I agreed to try.
Then I was told that the adhesive hadnt arrived and there was only 3 20kg bags to be getting on with. Well there was a young lad in another room that also needed adhesvive to be getting on with so he had 1/2 a bag and I used the other 2 1/2 bags. I only fixed 6m2 of tiles...this was onto the screed which every tile laid needed packing up ! God only knows how much adhesive will be needed on the really bad areas.
Anyway that was at 11am today, no adhesive had arrived so I have left the site. I have no intention of returning at all unless the rate is doubled...which I know wont happen ! So basically another wasted day for me.
At the moment the chap I was working for doesnt know I have left site. He was due to call me when the delivery of adhesive was due but hasnt so far, so I can only assume that if I had stayed on site I would be still waiting....unpaid !!!.
While mainly I work on a price per M2 I will balance that out with a daywork rate. ie dont expect me to drive 20 miles each way to fix 2 m2 !! for a m2 rate....that wouold be daywork.
I have an amount I expect to earn and if I cant make that on a m2 rate then I need my day rate. I think thats fair !
I also believe that when work is slack its best to take any work to get some money in. As long as its worthwhile.
Recently I was offered work with another tiler and I thouoght it woould be decent work so I accepted. I never discussed rates as he came reccomended to me.
1st job was ok, plenty to go at and seeing as I am quite fast at fixing, overall the money at the end of the job was ok....not fantastic but better than sitting at home.
2nd job was a toilet in an office, about 1.8m high so no cuts top or bottom and fairly easy to do. When the money arrived , I then noticed the rate @ £10m2. With tax off I was getting £8 less travel expenses. I wasnt happy at all but as I have said before it was better than sitting at home and afterall it was easy work.
3rd job was a straight floor and it was done in 2 1/2 days , just picked my cheque up to see the rate was still £10 m2. !!! Now ok call me slow or maybe too laid back but this has peeved me. I am finding this all to be an insult now.
Ok so today, another job, which promised to be a large floor with 450mm tiles. I thought theat a large straight area could be good for the way I work and money could be made even at a low rate. I hadnt seen the job so I looked at a website for the chain of wine bars/pub for the same company. I saw nice open areas and decent tiling.
When I arrived on site, after unloading all my gear, cutters tools buckets etc. I needed to find parking. So I duly found a reasonable place for £4.10 a day. I walked back to site to see the guy I was doing the work for. He showed me the floor. So its full tile squared off the bar front, which is at 45 degrees to the rest of the room, so effect the whole room is on the diamond. There are round coloumns to cut around and there are 8 acrow`s in various places that will need a tile leaving out until they can be removed at a later date. The lighting is festoon lights and fairly dim. The floor in the main is newish screed but it meets a few areas that are old geometric tiles which over the years have been covered with various coverings. These coverings have now been removed but have left large amounts of rubbery glue.
I laid a straight edge across the surfaces to find that the new screed wasnt too bad but not flat, then I laid across the screed and old tiled areas to see that there would be a lot of making good to do. I suggested SLC but it was dismissed right away and I was told to bed up. Now I thought this was a bit excessive but I agreed to try.
Then I was told that the adhesive hadnt arrived and there was only 3 20kg bags to be getting on with. Well there was a young lad in another room that also needed adhesvive to be getting on with so he had 1/2 a bag and I used the other 2 1/2 bags. I only fixed 6m2 of tiles...this was onto the screed which every tile laid needed packing up ! God only knows how much adhesive will be needed on the really bad areas.
Anyway that was at 11am today, no adhesive had arrived so I have left the site. I have no intention of returning at all unless the rate is doubled...which I know wont happen ! So basically another wasted day for me.
At the moment the chap I was working for doesnt know I have left site. He was due to call me when the delivery of adhesive was due but hasnt so far, so I can only assume that if I had stayed on site I would be still waiting....unpaid !!!.
