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A.Lee A.Lee is offline
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Default Labour Cost for Fence Works etc

ARWadworth wrote:

"A.Lee" wrote in message ...
To supply and fit, I'd charge £90 per panel (for feather edge board
panels, £10 cheaper for cheaper lapped panels), plus £70 for a gate.
£1150 all in.
For labour only, that'd be taking the old down,digging the holes, then
putting the new up, probably 2 days work, £250.


As discussed in previous threads, you are too cheap. You are also supposed
to have a mark up on your parts and materials to allow you to order and
collect them. Think bigger. It is a supply and demand world (at least the UK
is) so unless you are not in demand put your prices up. £125 a day is not a
real day. You have to have days off, go on holiday, pay for tools,
transport, advertising, tax, insurance. Your daily rate has to pay for these
things on your days off.


Well, yes, i know that, but actually getting the work is not quite as
easy as people think. I've had a reasonable past 2 months, as I'm
starting to get repeat customers, but it is difficult getting work at
all times, and if I started asking for £200 a day, then I'd get no work.

I put an ad in the local paper, and got around 25 phone calls that
weekend. It made me feel really busy. But, a week later, it dawned on me
that I had got no work whatsoever out of the ad.
1 bloke asked if I could do block paving. I told him no, as it was a bit
too specialised. He insisted that I go to have a look, so I went round,
said, OK, I'll do it, (it was a small section in a garden, around 5m x
1m with a curve at one end). It'll take 2 days (though I expected it to
take only around 10 hours), so I said £160 labour only.
The bloke thought I was joking, he said I could do it for £50 the next
day if I wanted. I declined.
I charge a fixed rate of £30 to fit a new internal door. A woman wanted
5 new doors putting on. OK, as they are all in one place, I'd do it for
£100. She again thought I was taking the ****, and tried to bargain me
down to £75.

To show what I'm up against, a Pikey came up to me when I was cutting
down some conifers (I started off doing a bit of gardening, but dont do
it any more apart from existing customers who ask).
He said he'd cut all the trees down, and take away the waste for £60.
I was charging £200, which included £100 to hire a skip.
If my customer had heard him, I'm sure I'd have got the boot, and pikey
man would have been there with his flat bed, chopping them down, then
fly tipping.
So, yes, I know I should be charging more, but getting it is more
difficult.
Alan.
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