TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a local
handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a new collar
for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

George wrote:
TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a
local handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a new
collar for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far off a
days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day just in case.

So, assuming he works 6 days a week, his total turnover is £18K a year -
less expenses. Lucky if he ends up with minimum wage.

Trust he is fully insured, pays Income Tax & NI, taxes & insures his vehicle
properly etc.

Thank heavens I sell my services for what they are worth. I charge 2.5
times what he does & am fully booked until the middle of April, with jobs
coming in every day.

The man is clearly an idiot.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
m...
George wrote:
TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a
local handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a new
collar for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far off a
days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day just in case.

So, assuming he works 6 days a week, his total turnover is £18K a year -
less expenses. Lucky if he ends up with minimum wage.

Trust he is fully insured, pays Income Tax & NI, taxes & insures his
vehicle
properly etc.

Thank heavens I sell my services for what they are worth. I charge 2.5
times what he does & am fully booked until the middle of April, with jobs
coming in every day.

The man is clearly an idiot.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257







He does work for a firm so weekends are a side line for him.
Started 9 this morning and finished 2 o'clock this afternoon,I must say I
thought £60 WAS cheap for what he did and was a bit dubious about his
workmanship but I had to take me hat off to him for a perfect clean job.

Seems he's in demand according to my neighbour.

George wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in
message m...
George wrote:
TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a
local handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a
new collar for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far
off a days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day
just in case.

So, assuming he works 6 days a week, his total turnover is £18K a
year - less expenses. Lucky if he ends up with minimum wage.

Trust he is fully insured, pays Income Tax & NI, taxes & insures his
vehicle properly etc.

Thank heavens I sell my services for what they are worth. I charge
2.5 times what he does & am fully booked until the middle of April,
with jobs coming in every day.

The man is clearly an idiot.


He does work for a firm so weekends are a side line for him.
Started 9 this morning and finished 2 o'clock this afternoon,I must
say I thought £60 WAS cheap for what he did and was a bit dubious
about his workmanship but I had to take me hat off to him for a
perfect clean job.

Seems he's in demand according to my neighbour.

He would be at those prices - £12 an hour. No PL insurance, firms van or
uninsured car (not insured for business use), not paying tax or NI.

I lose the odd job to people like this, but I aint bovvered, I'm busy enough
at my prices.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

HI All

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:45:02 GMT, "George"
wrote:


"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
om...
George wrote:
TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a
local handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a new
collar for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far off a
days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day just in case.

So, assuming he works 6 days a week, his total turnover is £18K a year -
less expenses. Lucky if he ends up with minimum wage.

Trust he is fully insured, pays Income Tax & NI, taxes & insures his
vehicle
properly etc.

Thank heavens I sell my services for what they are worth. I charge 2.5
times what he does & am fully booked until the middle of April, with jobs
coming in every day.

The man is clearly an idiot.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257







He does work for a firm so weekends are a side line for him.
Started 9 this morning and finished 2 o'clock this afternoon,I must say I
thought £60 WAS cheap for what he did and was a bit dubious about his
workmanship but I had to take me hat off to him for a perfect clean job.

Seems he's in demand according to my neighbour.



Doesn't sound like a very fair comparison to me.

The guy's clearly working for 'cash in hand' - so he's not only
fiddling the tax system, but the customer's lacking the sort of backup
that they should expect from a 'proper' tradesman. (Suppose there's an
emergency during the week - when he's doing his day job. Can he drop
everything and get round to fix it ? Doubt it..)

There's always somebody who can do something 'cheaper' -
but there must be a good reason why it's cheaper.
Cheaper doesn't always mean 'better value'

This fellow has no financial outlay (your friend provided the new
fittings), no overheads (possibly using firm's transport, tools -
maybe even materials) and not a large outlay on marketing himself (as
it seems he's working for beer money - and get paid by his employers
for his real job).

Nothing against the guy - good luck to him - but it's not really
comparing like with like, IMHO

Adrian

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:32:01 +0000, Adrian wrote:

HI All

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:45:02 GMT, "George"
wrote:


"The Medway Handyman" wrote in
message m...
George wrote:
TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a
local handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a
new collar for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far off
a days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day just in
case.

So, assuming he works 6 days a week, his total turnover is £18K a
year - less expenses. Lucky if he ends up with minimum wage.

Trust he is fully insured, pays Income Tax & NI, taxes & insures his
vehicle
properly etc.

Thank heavens I sell my services for what they are worth. I charge
2.5 times what he does & am fully booked until the middle of April,
with jobs coming in every day.

The man is clearly an idiot.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257







He does work for a firm so weekends are a side line for him. Started 9
this morning and finished 2 o'clock this afternoon,I must say I thought
£60 WAS cheap for what he did and was a bit dubious about his
workmanship but I had to take me hat off to him for a perfect clean job.

Seems he's in demand according to my neighbour.



Doesn't sound like a very fair comparison to me.

The guy's clearly working for 'cash in hand' - so he's not only
fiddling the tax system, but the customer's lacking the sort of backup
that they should expect from a 'proper' tradesman. (Suppose there's an
emergency during the week - when he's doing his day job. Can he drop
everything and get round to fix it ? Doubt it..)

There's always somebody who can do something 'cheaper' - but there must
be a good reason why it's cheaper. Cheaper doesn't always mean 'better
value'

This fellow has no financial outlay (your friend provided the new
fittings), no overheads (possibly using firm's transport, tools - maybe
even materials) and not a large outlay on marketing himself (as it seems
he's working for beer money - and get paid by his employers for his real
job).

Nothing against the guy - good luck to him - but it's not really
comparing like with like, IMHO

Adrian

==================================
The fact is that there's a thriving 'cash-in-hand' market and always has
been. It's usually a mutually satisfactory arrangement, it caters
for the lower end of the market and despite some extreme examples of bad
or dangerous workmanship there seems to be little trouble from the
arrangement.

Many of the worst examples of poor /dangerous / overpriced work come from
properly self-employed traders in expensive vans who simply decide that
life as a rogue trader is far more profitable than honest workmanship.

Cic.
--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

The Medway Handyman wrote:

He would be at those prices - £12 an hour. No PL insurance, firms van or
uninsured car (not insured for business use), not paying tax or NI.

I lose the odd job to people like this, but I aint bovvered, I'm busy enough
at my prices.


Sadly whatever your industry you'll always lose some work/sales to
someone else working on minimal margins. Generally speaking these people
don't stay around very long, but hurt the whole sector while they are
around.


--
Grunff
Radioactive Keyrings!
http://www.shinyshack.com/product.php?prid=211713

In message , Cicero
writes
On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:32:01 +0000, Adrian wrote:

HI All

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:45:02 GMT, "George"
wrote:


"The Medway Handyman" wrote in
message m...
George wrote:
TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a
local handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a
new collar for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far off
a days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day just in
case.

So, assuming he works 6 days a week, his total turnover is £18K a
year - less expenses. Lucky if he ends up with minimum wage.

Trust he is fully insured, pays Income Tax & NI, taxes & insures his
vehicle
properly etc.

Thank heavens I sell my services for what they are worth. I charge
2.5 times what he does & am fully booked until the middle of April,
with jobs coming in every day.

The man is clearly an idiot.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257







He does work for a firm so weekends are a side line for him. Started 9
this morning and finished 2 o'clock this afternoon,I must say I thought
£60 WAS cheap for what he did and was a bit dubious about his
workmanship but I had to take me hat off to him for a perfect clean job.

Seems he's in demand according to my neighbour.



Doesn't sound like a very fair comparison to me.

The guy's clearly working for 'cash in hand' - so he's not only
fiddling the tax system, but the customer's lacking the sort of backup
that they should expect from a 'proper' tradesman. (Suppose there's an
emergency during the week - when he's doing his day job. Can he drop
everything and get round to fix it ? Doubt it..)

There's always somebody who can do something 'cheaper' - but there must
be a good reason why it's cheaper. Cheaper doesn't always mean 'better
value'

This fellow has no financial outlay (your friend provided the new
fittings), no overheads (possibly using firm's transport, tools - maybe
even materials) and not a large outlay on marketing himself (as it seems
he's working for beer money - and get paid by his employers for his real
job).

Nothing against the guy - good luck to him - but it's not really
comparing like with like, IMHO

Adrian

==================================
The fact is that there's a thriving 'cash-in-hand' market and always has
been. It's usually a mutually satisfactory arrangement, it caters
for the lower end of the market and despite some extreme examples of bad
or dangerous workmanship there seems to be little trouble from the
arrangement.

Many of the worst examples of poor /dangerous / overpriced work come from
properly self-employed traders in expensive vans who simply decide that
life as a rogue trader is far more profitable than honest workmanship.

You mean income tax ?

Emergency measure brought in to pay for the Boer war I thought

.... which they omitted to repeal


Rogue governments, that's what I say

--
geoff

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:45:02 GMT, "George"
wrote:



He does work for a firm so weekends are a side line for him.
Started 9 this morning and finished 2 o'clock this afternoon,I must say I
thought £60 WAS cheap for what he did and was a bit dubious about his
workmanship but I had to take me hat off to him for a perfect clean job.


Was there any making good to do, such as tiling around and up to to
the wash basin and the WC ?

The sanitary chinaware can be fixed first and the tiles run up to it,
or the whole area tiled and the china fixed on top. Fashions change
but in my 31 year old house between the bathroom and downstairs toilet
we've had each method done twice.

The point is that completing such little attentions to detail can take
much more time than the functional part of the job.

Given half a chance tradesmen will leave you, the customer, to do the
lions share of the most difficult work yourself, such as refixing
vertical blinds and making good the plaster around the units when DG
units have been replaced.

A Granite fitter we employed would fit the new underslung sink (he had
to) but not pipe up to the new sink.

Result : Overflow on main sink "inutile", empties down back of sink
into cupboard below, and there's no room to get purpose made overflow
connector in.

Seems he's in demand according to my neighbour.


DG

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:57:48 +0000, geoff wrote:

In message , Cicero
writes
On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:32:01 +0000, Adrian wrote:

HI All

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:45:02 GMT, "George"
wrote:


"The Medway Handyman" wrote in
message m...
George wrote:
TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a
local handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a
new collar for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far off
a days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day just in
case.

So, assuming he works 6 days a week, his total turnover is £18K a
year - less expenses. Lucky if he ends up with minimum wage.

Trust he is fully insured, pays Income Tax & NI, taxes & insures his
vehicle
properly etc.

Thank heavens I sell my services for what they are worth. I charge
2.5 times what he does & am fully booked until the middle of April,
with jobs coming in every day.

The man is clearly an idiot.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257







He does work for a firm so weekends are a side line for him. Started 9
this morning and finished 2 o'clock this afternoon,I must say I thought
£60 WAS cheap for what he did and was a bit dubious about his
workmanship but I had to take me hat off to him for a perfect clean job.

Seems he's in demand according to my neighbour.



Doesn't sound like a very fair comparison to me.

The guy's clearly working for 'cash in hand' - so he's not only
fiddling the tax system, but the customer's lacking the sort of backup
that they should expect from a 'proper' tradesman. (Suppose there's an
emergency during the week - when he's doing his day job. Can he drop
everything and get round to fix it ? Doubt it..)

There's always somebody who can do something 'cheaper' - but there must
be a good reason why it's cheaper. Cheaper doesn't always mean 'better
value'

This fellow has no financial outlay (your friend provided the new
fittings), no overheads (possibly using firm's transport, tools - maybe
even materials) and not a large outlay on marketing himself (as it seems
he's working for beer money - and get paid by his employers for his real
job).

Nothing against the guy - good luck to him - but it's not really
comparing like with like, IMHO

Adrian

==================================
The fact is that there's a thriving 'cash-in-hand' market and always has
been. It's usually a mutually satisfactory arrangement, it caters
for the lower end of the market and despite some extreme examples of bad
or dangerous workmanship there seems to be little trouble from the
arrangement.

Many of the worst examples of poor /dangerous / overpriced work come from
properly self-employed traders in expensive vans who simply decide that
life as a rogue trader is far more profitable than honest workmanship.
-----------------------------------

You mean income tax ?

Emergency measure brought in to pay for the Boer war I thought

... which they omitted to repeal


Rogue governments, that's what I say
==================================
I thought that Income Tax was introduced to finance the Napoleonic wars,
but I wasn't thinking of Income Tax in any case. I was thinking of that
(hopefully) small section of traders who persistently and deliberately
demand extortionate rates for their services. They know they will always
manage to catch the unwary and uninformed. That is the kind of dishonesty
that does nobody any good.

Cic.
--
===================================
Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
===================================

"The Medway Handyman" wrote in message
news
George wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" wrote in
message m...
George wrote:
TMH :-)

Woman next door has just had a new toilet and wash basin fitted by a
local handyman.

Ripped the old toilet and washbasin out,fitted the new ones and a
new collar for the toilet to waste pipe.

All for £60,she supplied the Toilet and Washbasin plus taps.

Just inspected the work for her and its 100% good job.

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far
off a days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day
just in case.

So, assuming he works 6 days a week, his total turnover is £18K a
year - less expenses. Lucky if he ends up with minimum wage.

Trust he is fully insured, pays Income Tax & NI, taxes & insures his
vehicle properly etc.

Thank heavens I sell my services for what they are worth. I charge
2.5 times what he does & am fully booked until the middle of April,
with jobs coming in every day.

The man is clearly an idiot.


He does work for a firm so weekends are a side line for him.
Started 9 this morning and finished 2 o'clock this afternoon,I must
say I thought £60 WAS cheap for what he did and was a bit dubious
about his workmanship but I had to take me hat off to him for a
perfect clean job.

Seems he's in demand according to my neighbour.

He would be at those prices - £12 an hour. No PL insurance, firms van or
uninsured car (not insured for business use), not paying tax or NI.

I lose the odd job to people like this, but I aint bovvered, I'm busy
enough at my prices.



I do not think you lose any jobs to these people as thay would never call
you in the first place. My apprentice does this type of job at the weekends.
Usually his jobs are found by word of mouth or via relatives etc.

He probably does one job per weekend on the side at £12 per hour or
hopefully more (no doubt using some of my kit) but this does not bother me.

Adam

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Shame he doesn't have the sense to charge a decent price. Not far off a
days work, allowing for snags - you would need to book a day just in case.

Perhaps when he is better known he'll put his rates up.

Andy

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:21:27 +0000, Grunff wrote:

The Medway Handyman wrote:

He would be at those prices - £12 an hour. No PL insurance, firms van
or uninsured car (not insured for business use), not paying tax or NI.

I lose the odd job to people like this, but I aint bovvered, I'm busy
enough at my prices.


Sadly whatever your industry you'll always lose some work/sales to
someone else working on minimal margins. Generally speaking these people
don't stay around very long, but hurt the whole sector while they are
around.


Unless they are some retired guy who is topping up his income...



--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html