too much???

[beattsmjk]

Hi All

I am in the middle of a kitchen tiling job (4.8m2 floor and 5m2 splashback over 4 walls with one window reveal and 7 (yes seven sockets / switches).

The floor tiles are standard ceramics 330mm x 330mm and I have tiled on top of chipboard.

However!

The kitchen was tiled previously so upon removing the floor tiles, the chipboard floor was revealed (previously we thought it was concrete). The floor was very secure by the way.

Because the guy couldnt get all of the previous adhesive up, I applied a latex self leveller (arditex). (self levelling my ar_se). After flattening out the self leveller with a rubbing stone etc (2 hours) and then priming (primed before SLC too, with the Arditex stuff). I stuck the tiles down using fastflex

TIP: wear gloves with this stuff unless you want to rub your skin off with a scouring pad when you get in!!!!!

All in this took 2 x 3 hr spells on the saturday and 1 full day tiling on the sunday.

I have to go back today to grout, Silicon the edges and plane the door down. (another 3 -4 hrs I guess)

What should i have charged for this job. (I am doing the splash backs the weekend after next)


Floor

2 x Fastflex £35 trade ea
1 x Arditex SLC £26
1 x bottle arditex £16 (only used maybe 200ml for priming)
1 x bottle Bal bond £10
1 x Bal flexy grout £20
2 x Silicon (grey) £16

Material cost (to me) = £158

Labour £25 / m2 = £118 approx

I was thinking £20 per hr for the other jobs, what do you think?

SLC application and flattening £80 ish
Door plane £20 ish


total for this one little floor, and where I am starting to feel guilty

£376 !!!

does this seem overly expensive? when you think a massive chunk of this is materials (I was going to pass on the discount to the customer)






Wall tiling £17.50 / m2 but not started yet.

 

[McP77]

It depends on how you worded your quotation/estimate. If you have left it open that the figure may change depending on preparation then I think you're entitled to charge for all the extra work. Doing materials at cost is a nice gesture. Make sure you itemise labour and materials separately as they propably won't be aware it's cost you that much in materials. (Your flexi grout sounds expensive though). Only other thing I'd maybe question is £20 to plane door. Other than that sounds fine.

As a p.s. your wall tiling sounds incredibly cheap. I'll happily contract out all of my wall tiling and pay you £20 m2

 

[beattsmjk]

Thanks mcp77!

Yeah, I did stipulate on the estimate that the price did not reflect any problems encountered and that additional costs may be incurred. I just thought I was maybe going in pricey.

The grout is expensive, cos I bought a 10Kg bag, far more than I actually need, so I will reduce this cost.

you think £17.50 is cheap? , I suppose it is tbh, I will look at hiking the prices up a bit more as my confidence grows.

the original estimate is probably going to work out considerably more than first planned but I suppose thats the way it goes sometimes.

 

[devonmark]

Hi, just a quick word on the estimate/quote front, be very careful if you use the word quote when you give a price because it is legally binding..so if you quote £300 for a job and you then find after removing tiles you have to strip all the walls of plaster and re-board and skim, you cannot legally charge anymore for the job as you have QUOTED a price..always use ESTIMATE as you can alter as you go along should you need to.

Not many customers will be aware of the fact but there will always be one who will know and hold you to it.

 

[Home Tiler]

I got tought never to seperate your prices because once a customer realises how much the labour is they tend to start thinking they could do it them selves....and not only that .....some customers usually know that you should be getting your materials at trade price too...

when i price my jobs up i always put materials /labour = .......
thing is when they agree on your price they are usually happy with that..but if your writing everything down and they can see what costs there are and might start thinking your labour is dear or your materials are ....
i agree with esitmate sheets and not quotes
be as honest as you can with them... and always tell them there could be a problem with "this" or "that" just cover yourself at all times..

and i know where your coming from when pricing jobs up..it's a night mare in it...lol

good luck
steve

 

[DHTiling]

arditex smoothing/leveller needs to be floated to acheive best finish because the latex makes it a thicker leveller than a water mixed one......... so pour out small amounts and float as you go.................dave.....

 

[McP77]

I got tought never to seperate your prices because once a customer realises how much the labour is they tend to start thinking they could do it them selves....

I agree with that to some extent but when you are using materials such as fastflex I don't think customers realise quite what the job costs. When labour and materials is combined they may guess what is the labour/materials split and get it completely wrong. For example you may bill them £700 and they may think labour is £600 when in fact it could be nearer £450.

To each their own though.

 

[beattsmjk]

Thanks chaps

(like your logo by the way - hometiler + is that a Blackburn top you have as your avatar?)

I did stipulate 'Estimate' on the note when I put the price in, so there can be no argument there, and to be honest he hasn't really questioned anything as yet, but when I finish off tomor I will give him the final bill and see how he reacts.:wink_smile:

Beatts


p.s anybody here used Topps 2 part flexy as opposed to Bal Fastflex?? its a fair bit cheaper I noticed.

 

[McP77]

Cheaper alternative to Fastflex is dunlop tile on wood rapid. Made in same factory I believe

 

[IvegotsTILE]

Tell us how the bloke reacts at the final bill,I'm always interested to see peoples reaction,the amount of times I've thought they were going to keel over when I give them a quote and they actually seemed very happy with the price astounds me.

 

[DHTiling]

Tell us how the bloke reacts at the final bill,I'm always interested to see peoples reaction,the amount of times I've thought they were going to keel over when I give them a quote and they actually seemed very happy with the price astounds me.

Expecialy when they say " is that all....thought is was goin to more than that "...........bloody hell!!!! you think...lol....

 

[IvegotsTILE]

Maybe not this time Dave lol.

 

[guy1976]

Thanks chaps

(like your logo by the way - hometiler + is that a Blackburn top you have as your avatar?)



Beatts


p.s anybody here used Topps 2 part flexy as opposed to Bal Fastflex?? its a fair bit cheaper I noticed.

iv been using it today and got more to do tomorrow its the same as fast flex a 2 part but at £19 a go much cheaper but wear gloves

 

[beattsmjk]

Might be a good alternative, and cheap too!
----
hi

just a quick note to let those who were interested know that I got paid for this job today £330 for a 4.75m2 floor (see top post). I did feel quite guilty because I wasnt entirely happy with the job.!:icon9:

firstly the kitchen I was doing back straight onto the conservatory and the temprature gauge stated just short of 100 degrees so it was damn hot, as a consequence I really panicked on getting the tiles down before the adhesive skinned over. As a result two of the tiles where a slightly different level to the others (slightly higher (1-2mm) noticeable in my opinion.

secondly i was so concerned about tiling onto a floating floor that I left a bigger gap round the edges than was necessary, so siliconing it today was a nightmare.

i'm not sure if the customer noticed, I cant see how he could not have but he didnt say anything, I just felt a bit of a fraud taking his money being the consumate professional etc haha

anyway I learnt very important lessons on this job.

1. take your time, its better to do a professional job over three days than an amateur one over two

2. dont cut corners, it will bite you in the arse. I 'may' have got away with those one but I probably wont next time.

thanks

 

[IvegotsTILE]

Were always to self critical mate don't worry about it.