On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 01:11:02 +0100,
wrote:


To date I've only paid 10% (by credit card), with 20% more payable on
completion of the building work and the remaining 70% payable on
completion of the whole project, so I have enough leverage (unless
they decide to pull out altogether). To date, they haven't even
indicated that they'll want to charge me at all, but the builder seems
to suggest that the conservatory company will pursue me for what he's
going to charge them for digging a new soakaway.

OK. This is a fairly typical arrangement.

Actually the numbers give a pretty good clue.

The 20-30% is what they will need to pay the builder producing the
base, with 70% being the frame, glass and the conservatory company's
margin.

What I would do is to keep a note of the total time that the builder
takes to make the base, and also for how much time (ask him "as a
matter of interest") it will take to do the soakaway stuff.

I took photos at the end of each working day so that I had a record of
the stage reached.



Not trying to rip anyone off.......I don't mind paying if its normal
practice that these things are excluded....just trying to find out
what the conventional wisdom (if there is any) is

Armed with the above information, you can calculate roughly what
should be involved.

Let's say that the total project is £10k and that we therefore assume
that the builder is getting paid £3k for the base. Let's also say
that he would normally take 3 days (he's probably on a fixed price
from the conservatory supplier so time is critical). If he takes
half a day longer to do the drain, then this is costing the builder
£500.

As an opening gambit, I would therefore push the conservatory supplier
to take the £500 out of margin.

If not, then I would argue that £500 is a reasonable figure. I
wouldn't accept them marking it up in proportion to the project - i.e.
to an implied £1000-1500.

This is an example, but you can see the scaling.....






Brian

..andy

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