How do you price a boiler repair job?

[DTBoilerDude]

Can anyone give handy advice for pricing repair jobs, please? Do I add a % on parts? What about a PRV that's hard to get to? Do you take the difficulty into consideration?

Appreciate any advice

 

[Last Plumber]

We don't price them generally. The customer is informed of our hourly charges/rates if they ask.

 

[DTBoilerDude]

Fair enough, I just want to be fair and up front. I think I overcharged for a job and don't want to overcharge again. I never charged an hourly rate. Just fixed prices. Curious how others worked it out

 

[Last Plumber]

Fair enough, I just want to be fair and up front. I think I overcharged for a job and don't want to overcharge again. I never charged an hourly rate. Just fixed prices. Curious how others worked it out

If you know how long it will take then you can work an estimate out. The difficulty with repairs is that you don't usually know how long it will take as you often do not know the issue and by the time you have diagnosed it, you can be well into the time it will take to finish it.

Sometimes I have diagnosed a fault but need a part so I can estimate the cost of continuing. I would work it out at our rates x the time I think it might take, add 25% gross onto parts as a minimum and be clear that it is an estimate and will not cover other issues that could arise, particularly on older appliances.

Hope that helps.

If you are feeling guilty about over pricing something, don't. It could have gone the other way. That is the reason we don't tend to give prices for repairs, it is difficult without knowing what needs doing.

 

[DTBoilerDude]

If you know how long it will take then you can work an estimate out. The difficulty with repairs is that you don't usually know how long it will take as you often do not know the issue and by the time you have diagnosed it, you can be well into the time it will take to finish it.

Sometimes I have diagnosed a fault but need a part so I can estimate the cost of continuing. I would work it out at our rates x the time I think it might take, add 25% gross onto parts as a minimum and be clear that it is an estimate and will not cover other issues that could arise, particularly on older appliances.

Hope that helps.

If you are feeling guilty about over pricing something, don't. It could have gone the other way. That is the reason we don't tend to give prices for repairs, it is difficult without knowing what needs doing.

Aye, I feel bad. Was even considering going back and giving him a few quid back

I just estimated it incorrectly. I'll have to figure out a rock-solid way to estimate things.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

repair work always hourly

What did you price wrong ?

 

[DTBoilerDude]

repair work always hourly

What did you price wrong ?

Worcester greenstar PRV, £37 for it + £10 for getting it, then I added £120 for fitting it because my last experience with that one turned into a nightmare but this didn't. I'd already quoted him. Still took a bit of work and about 1hr 20mins

 

[ShaunCorbs]

That’s not over the top 2 hours labour

 

[Last Plumber]

For that I think you charged correctly, if anything we would have been another £60 over that so don't beat yourself up.

 

[Knappers]

I find it helpfull to think of the time I need to block off in the diary to be confident I'll get to the next job in time, as that's often longer.
Repairs are always an hourly rate tho so if I get it done an hour quicker, I reflect that in the price.
Customer will always appreciate £50 off more than a £50 cheaper quote and it shows integrity (even if its a bit engineerd).