F
Fekin
Just thought I'd post this for the newer tilers on here who are worried about giving customers prices and getting into bartering situations.
I went round to do an estimate the other day, elderly couple wanted the full bathroom tiling, only had one and a bit walls already tiled "DIY job" that never got finished.
They wanted me to first complete the job thay had started 5 years ago, lol, and they had the old tiles out to show me what was left, which wasn't enough to do the rest of the room, and obviously no chance of getting anymore.
With a big sigh they said right, price up the whole bathroom with the cheapest most basic tiles going "alarm bells ring straight away when customers say that" cos you just know they want it doing for next to nothing.
I went home, worked out all the materials "addy, grout Silicon but not tiles, as I had told them they would need to choose a tile after I quoted them for doing the job, and then stuck on my sqm rate and came up with the price.
Phoned them back and give them the price of £510 for the job, and was told that's way too expensive for us "like I thought would happen", and after a little time they said they could only go to £475.
So I quickly worked out I could do it for that price, loosing anything I would of made on mats near enough, but still getting my sqm rate, so I said fine £475, so all you'll need to do is choose the tile you want and add that to the cost, or you get them yourselves.
They nearly hit the floor, "what, that dosent include the tiles too" they said with horror, "not at that price it dosen't" I said.
Once they had recovered and stuck to their guns that it had to include tiles I said I would look into wether I could supply the tiles too for £475 and rang off, knowing you can get very cheap tiles if you shop around.
Anyway, after working out how much it would cost me to supply everything, out of the £475 they were willing to pay "at first" it worked out my sqm rate was £13.
No chance, I have a minimum sqm rate that I will charge, and anymore than that is an added bonus for me, and that's the way I keep to.
I left them to sweat it out for a couple of days and got back to them today, printed out what it would cost them to buy everything, and what I'd be charging them, big difference with the trade dissy.
Showed them this, and thought if they don't accept that then Im walking away, and after ummin and arrhing, I came away with my sqm rate + making on mats too, job went from £475 which was their final price that they said they could only afford, to just over £600 cos they decided to have a thin mosaic border added.
Moral of this long winded story is, have a minimum realistic sqm rate that your happy with, and stick to it even with a hard bartering customer, because once you start dropping below it you might never stop, and end up working for peanuts, and they only recommendations you get is "phone this tilers, he's well cheap".
I went round to do an estimate the other day, elderly couple wanted the full bathroom tiling, only had one and a bit walls already tiled "DIY job" that never got finished.
They wanted me to first complete the job thay had started 5 years ago, lol, and they had the old tiles out to show me what was left, which wasn't enough to do the rest of the room, and obviously no chance of getting anymore.
With a big sigh they said right, price up the whole bathroom with the cheapest most basic tiles going "alarm bells ring straight away when customers say that" cos you just know they want it doing for next to nothing.
I went home, worked out all the materials "addy, grout Silicon but not tiles, as I had told them they would need to choose a tile after I quoted them for doing the job, and then stuck on my sqm rate and came up with the price.
Phoned them back and give them the price of £510 for the job, and was told that's way too expensive for us "like I thought would happen", and after a little time they said they could only go to £475.
So I quickly worked out I could do it for that price, loosing anything I would of made on mats near enough, but still getting my sqm rate, so I said fine £475, so all you'll need to do is choose the tile you want and add that to the cost, or you get them yourselves.
They nearly hit the floor, "what, that dosent include the tiles too" they said with horror, "not at that price it dosen't" I said.
Once they had recovered and stuck to their guns that it had to include tiles I said I would look into wether I could supply the tiles too for £475 and rang off, knowing you can get very cheap tiles if you shop around.
Anyway, after working out how much it would cost me to supply everything, out of the £475 they were willing to pay "at first" it worked out my sqm rate was £13.
No chance, I have a minimum sqm rate that I will charge, and anymore than that is an added bonus for me, and that's the way I keep to.
I left them to sweat it out for a couple of days and got back to them today, printed out what it would cost them to buy everything, and what I'd be charging them, big difference with the trade dissy.
Showed them this, and thought if they don't accept that then Im walking away, and after ummin and arrhing, I came away with my sqm rate + making on mats too, job went from £475 which was their final price that they said they could only afford, to just over £600 cos they decided to have a thin mosaic border added.
Moral of this long winded story is, have a minimum realistic sqm rate that your happy with, and stick to it even with a hard bartering customer, because once you start dropping below it you might never stop, and end up working for peanuts, and they only recommendations you get is "phone this tilers, he's well cheap".
Last edited by a moderator:
