Social Housing Kitchens and Bathrooms on m2 rate

[EH TILING]

Hi, been doing some social housing work on the books for a contractor recently on a day rate but now they are introducing a meter rate price instead. the kitchens are 3 tiles high with 6 inch tiles loads of sockets, tiling down the back of the cooker space and using trims everywhere possible the average kitchen is a 4m2 but a fair bit of hassle. the m2 rate being offered is £15 m2 thats grouted and siliconed. The bathrooms are better usually tiled full height around bath with larger tiles and a border half way up for this they are offering £13 m2 and the average bathroom with splashback over basin is 5 m2. these are occupied houses so have to be left spotless at the end of the day so cleaning up well is important. does this m2 rate sound right to you lot?

 

[White Room]

I was getting £15 m2 3 years ago on new work..personally no I would like more but if you can earn a half decent day wage then better than nothing.

 

[Del W]

Low rates but if you dont do it someone else will plus working in occupied properties can be a mare if you need to get a move on.

 

[Mike]

the rates are bad through all the trades on social housing round here, i was talking to a plasterer last week who just patches/repairs on these schemes he gets 2/3 quid a patch :yikes: he must be running round from house to house to make any money

 

[redlee]

The rates sound low to me but what was the day rate? if you've worked for them you know how organised they are/not and roughly how many metres you can get done in a day. I can see why they want to go metreage as it makes most people go quicker than day rate and social housing jobs aren't about quality unfortunately. Will they stand your charges if you can't get access/no tiles on site etc etc as at those rates everything would need to be ready to go no holdups. Ultimately it comes down to how much you need the work/money and what else is on offer.

 

[johnryan]

i was doing some similar work before christmas, though it was all new build, but the same kind of thing. here's a couple of pics so you can see the kind of thing i was doing.

there was 9mtrs per flat, and it worked out i was doing roughly 3 flats in 2 days, with the price at 21 per mtr. however, it was new build so clean surfaces to tile to, and no Silicon, as they had the Silicon guy come round when everyone was finished. so what they've offered you sounds a bit low. but if everything is ready for you, and you're quick it may be worth it. very tight price though.

 

[simonb43]

In my opinion the rate for the kitchen tiling is too low to make it worth doing, even a speedy tiler giving no respect to a decent finish will struggle to complete that in less than 6hrs, giving you little time to start anything else. The bathrooms seem a better prospect, but as has been said, if you need the work than take it on. Me personally, i would find it hard to accept the prices available given the cost of fuel etc. Think hard about mate.

 

[EH TILING]

Johnryan, that is almost identical to the kitchens and bathrooms I was on about. Thanks for the replies I knew that the prices werent brilliant and as ive always worked on my own I never really knew how quick I was in comparison to other tilers and you always get some one on the job say " the last tiler was banging 3 out a day" I reckon I could do as johnryan said 3 over 2 days to a decent standard. I am having a go at it anyway even though the money is rubbish I could do with the regular work as im off to the rugby world cup in NZ in sept and should really start putting a regular amount away for my beer tokens!
Thanks for the replies though it has cleared a few things up in my mind.