Your Opinions Please Guys. Grief

[Dan]

Cheers Dan.

Can I ask you guys if £20 a m2 is ok? or am I far too low there. What could/should I be charging for large format, mosaics etc.

It's not uncommon to see your standard ceramic price to increase by anything between half again (50% more) or double when fixing natural stone, large format tiles of most materials but especially stone, trav, marble, even some porcelains.

Though I'd also consider this as being a trade job as the lead is coming from the plumber and you don't have all the time quoting (and you don't get all jobs so even quoting on three jobs yourself you may only get one, could even be a days work quoting for the three on that sort of job depending on their locations etc!) and you're not spending the time with the customers selling to them etc.

Though you can't work for nothing, so this does need sorting out, I'd just work on getting the plumber to understand what he pricing and what the job is worth appear to be totally different things here!

 

[Spud]

you need to talk to him asap about your prices ,he may have priced his work on the rates you gave him,so you need to reprice and give detailed prices for all the types of work you are doing ,dont beat yourself up about speed, quality takes time no matter how experienced are and as long as you are putting in 8 hrs work and its at a good standard then no one will complain especially his customers

 

[kilty55]

hi graham im in abn alomst identical situ at the moment, i subby for a number of plumbers and bathroom cos, 2 of them however i shot myself in the ffot with from day 1 by giving them a similar meterage rate,it was fine at 1st trying to grow the business but i soon realised i was making peanuts


getting handed poorly prepped bathrooms and an acumuation of add ons soon make your money dissapear

this is how i delt with it and maybe you can too.....i went to pick up a cheque for my weekly job from them and simply asked for a chat,,sat down and voiced my point of veiw that small tricky bathrooms with lots of cuts/borders etc i cant do on a sq meterage price so we came to an agreement that on larger jobs ill do a sq meter price and any small/or nat stone or porc jobs i get day rates,if this guy values you he will listen to you. your not going to try and tell me in a house of that calibre with the stone wetrooms you have been doing that hes making little money,i dont beleive that for 1 second mate. and neither shouild you,,play your cards is my advice

 

[mikethetile]

you need to have a chat about prices with your plumber

things are hard at the moment so dont shoot yourself in the foot and lose your main work

but he needs to know your rates for each type and size of tile, how much extra for cutting etc before he prices the job

your simply not charging enough for the time and care you are putting in on this

the other thing he needs to understand is that you need to keep your other customers happy too ar you will lose them

and whats this about lumpy bonding, if hes expecting you to tile onto bonding hes clueless and you need to walk before your reputation goes down the pan

 

[doug boardley]

sorry, but absolutely no one would tell me that I'm not able to take my kids on holiday:incazzato:

 

[hillhead]

I don't get them rates but the N Ireland rates are crap anyway!
You need more out there Graham,If your doing a great job he should be willing to up the money,is he winning the work because of your rates or is he creaming off you??

 

[Dan]

Totally agree mate (I have no kids, still a sucker for a bit of skiing or a festival or two though!)

 

[mikethetile]

he sounds a bit of a bully to me

 

[Graham Bright]

Where he moves pipes he fills those gaps with bonding. I have told him that bonding is not strong enough but its only normally about half a m2 around water pipes etc.

I have also had a coupld of jobs where the client has painted walls and I have had to spend ages either removing it or scoring the walls.

 

[Scott]

I havent had time t read all the responses but heres mine.

Finish what you started and crack on with your own work. Then tel him your new rate, after all your that much more experienced now and can demand more money. He clearly hasnt got anyone else and from the sounds of it these are top dollar jobs he is doing so the price he has on these could be huge. He is obviously happy with your work if not the speed.

At the end of the day he is probably making more per metre than you are.