Labour only installations?

[Caittom]

Hi,great forum, loads of very good information on here. I would just like to get some opinions from installers in the trade. Do you ever do installations where the customer supply's the boiler,rads etc & just charge for your labour or do you generally supply & fit the products yourself. The reason I'm asking is that we need to have an ageing Baxi wall mounted heat only boiler replaced with something more efficient. I understand that the installer needs to make money doing a job so can quite appreciate any markup on parts add to this, with the availability of boilers on the internet or from local suppliers obviously if a customer supplies there own the profit from the job may be less . Does this put installers off doing labour only installations ?

 

[Dotty]

The installer would only guarantee his work, leaving you with a major headache and pocket ache should the boiler or any other component fail.

 

[kay-jay]

Hi,great forum, loads of very good information on here. I would just like to get some opinions from installers in the trade. Do you ever do installations where the customer supply's the boiler,rads etc & just charge for your labour or do you generally supply & fit the products yourself. The reason I'm asking is that we need to have an ageing Baxi wall mounted heat only boiler replaced with something more efficient. I understand that the installer needs to make money doing a job so can quite appreciate any markup on parts add to this, with the availability of boilers on the internet or from local suppliers obviously if a customer supplies there own the profit from the job may be less . Does this put installers off doing labour only installations ?

Most installers like to supply simply because if the customer supplies it the engineer doesnt know if its fell off the back of a lorry and registering a stolen boiler could result in problems.

Mark up is a standard thing on supplied goods and it protects the customer grom furthrr expense if the goods turn out to be faulty. If customer supplies then problems arising from faulty components are a chargeable extra

Notable exceptions are when a fitter is trying to avoid the vat threshold

 

[Chalked]

Wouldn't bother me if you supplied all the gear.

But!!

i will be putting £500 on top of my labour charge, as I have to guarantee it as you can't.
you will need me, to tell you everything that is needed material wise.

next time you go out for a nice meal, take a potato, carrot and a bit of meat. Just tell them to cook it!

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

As above if the customer supplies it and either it's wrong or it's faulty then it's down to them to organise a replacement and if there's nothing else on the job to get on with it's usually an extra charge.

 

[hammers4spanner]

Im quite happy these days for custs to supply , however i charge if the custs order turns out wrong and I'm sat around.

Besides custs supplying keeps me away from vat

 

[lame plumber]

I love it if a customer supplies as I charge for my time whether or not all the required parts are there as needed. Normally I make more on a customer supplied install than when I supply everything and the bonus is I do not have to warranty any of it.

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

It's a pain in the arris, I don't want to be sitting around I want to be finishing the job with a happy customer so I can move on and start the next job.

 

[plumben]

The majority of fittings I need are in the back of the van so if its a customer supply job instead of the two minutes to the van its a trip to the shop for you whilst I'm being paid to drink tea and read the paper

 

[Ermintrude]

I hate it with a passion. Had one bloke wanted to supply and hang 20 odd rads . Wanted to fit poofix cack. I simply explained if he drove his car into car wash and got out his own wax and polish the 25 Turkish migrants would stone him to death. Plus we wouldn't be liable for any failures or delays. Two lads on site doing jack..... £100 p/h soon loose a few rads

 

[lame plumber]

A while back a customer supplied their own bathroom, "Victoria Plumb", so in my best running away mode I dropped the name of a lad desperate for work, seems he had problems, mainly with the tap units for the bath- all posh and standing on their own, it all went wrong and I got the blame for giving them his name!!!

So I was more than ****ed off last week when I finished a boiler install to be asked to install a bathroom, that we've just ordered from victoria plumb!!, I might just finish a couple of rad moves I promised to do as well, then become ill or busy!

 

[SimonG]

I will charge more for labour only as I have to do more work to ensure what the customer orders is correct. Any problems, it's extra. Any problems after with the mats it's extra.

 

[IDCHAPPY]

You have had some wonderful and honest answers from the guys, we don't mean to come across badly it's just years of experience telling us that it can lead to problems

 

[Chalked]

Sorry to the op if my reply seemed rude or harsh.

 

[stevetheplumber]

it doesnt bother me if the customer suppliies it means the guarantee work is at his expence i would price the job and take of the cost of materials but not the mark up

 

[SimonG]

Sorry to the op if my reply seemed rude or harsh.

Post of the month. Nothing wrong with being honest.

 

[kris]

I wouldn't do it if it was a brand with bad ratings as not worth the bother but a boiler guarantee comes from manufacturer so if it's a decent make then I can't see the problem. Obviously all my work is guaranteed n if they supply boiler then it's made clear what's what.

 

[Caittom]

Thanks to all of you for your opinions on this subject, as you are all too aware with the advent of the internet most things are available to buy online at reasonable prices , and as I would be able to buy the same boiler & 3 rads that I was quoted for about £1350 I was quite unhappy at the other £2200 labour charge to fit them . I mentioned in the original post I was looking to have an ageing wall mounted Baxi replaced with something more efficient but after getting a couple of quotes in ' that in my opinion were quite overpriced for what was being carried out I wanted to ask about labour only installations. I do believe that labour charges should reflect the skill set & training that you guys have to go through to get qualified & registered with gas safe so that you can make a decent living. Perhaps the quote I got was from someone who didn't want this job & priced it accordingly......I just don't know.......so onwards & upwards.........thank you all for your input...

 

[Masood]

Thanks to all of you for your opinions on this subject, as you are all too aware with the advent of the internet most things are available to buy online at reasonable prices , and as I would be able to buy the same boiler & 3 rads that I was quoted for about £1350 I was quite unhappy at the other £2200 labour charge to fit them . I mentioned in the original post I was looking to have an ageing wall mounted Baxi replaced with something more efficient but after getting a couple of quotes in ' that in my opinion were quite overpriced for what was being carried out I wanted to ask about labour only installations. I do believe that labour charges should reflect the skill set & training that you guys have to go through to get qualified & registered with gas safe so that you can make a decent living. Perhaps the quote I got was from someone who didn't want this job & priced it accordingly......I just don't know.......so onwards & upwards.........thank you all for your input...

Well, why not post your location and requirements in this section of the forum:

[DLMURL="http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/im-looking-plumber-gas-engineer/"]I'm looking for a Plumber or Gas Engineer[/DLMURL]

And one of our lovely members will be able to help you with quality work at a decent price.

 

[kris]

This seems to be happening more and more nowadys customers thinking there being ripped off because they can buy the ware same price roughly as us,,
we cant buy car parts at trade unless were init and its a pitty our trade wasnt the same,

 

[kris]

Sorry thats no reflection to the OP , but in general,

 

[AWheating]

Thanks to all of you for your opinions on this subject, as you are all too aware with the advent of the internet most things are available to buy online at reasonable prices , and as I would be able to buy the same boiler & 3 rads that I was quoted for about £1350 I was quite unhappy at the other £2200 labour charge to fit them . I mentioned in the original post I was looking to have an ageing wall mounted Baxi replaced with something more efficient but after getting a couple of quotes in ' that in my opinion were quite overpriced for what was being carried out I wanted to ask about labour only installations. I do believe that labour charges should reflect the skill set & training that you guys have to go through to get qualified & registered with gas safe so that you can make a decent living. Perhaps the quote I got was from someone who didn't want this job & priced it accordingly......I just don't know.......so onwards & upwards.........thank you all for your input...

Without any knowledge about your required work its hard to comment on any quote you may have had. Have you had a number of quotes at around the same price? is it a straight swap like for like boiler or is it a change in system and position of the appliance?

In the prices you added up did this include the other materials normally required? for example......boiler flue, heating controls, radiator valves, copper pipe for new work/rads and upgraded gas carcus, pipe fittings, chemicals, magnetic filter, automatic bypass valve, scale reducer, Condense pump, consumables etc.......

not wanting to go into any details and break forum rules of price discussion but as an example i have priced recently a boiler change/ system upgrade which came to just over the 4 grand mark, the labour cost for this job is approx just over 1/4 of the price.

if i was asked to do it labour only i would prob increase my labour price by 40-50% to cover the issues that arise from such work and the person supplying the materials not understanding what is required.

 

[happyflyer]

This is what I would do if I was still doing installations, you buy all the kit and I mean all, any fitting you were short you would be back to B&Q you would design the system and tell me what pipe size to use, you would size the rads, you would hang all the rads and the boiler, I used to hate doing that, you would drill the core hole for the flue, you would lift all the floor boards and cut all the notches, lift all the carpet and move all the furniture, basically you would do all the donkey work and I would come along and do all the nice easy bits, I would tell you how deep to saw the notches and when I ask you to jump you would say Tony how high. Now when we fire up the boiler I would ask you to email Croppie and get is Dummies Guide to system balancing and just hope you got your pipe sizing right.

Have you got the hang of how it works, BTW I don't know of any rich plumbers that run around in fancy cars, these guys on this forum are hard working down to earth lads who give you advice FOC, my advice would be, drop the idea you first had and get some one in to make a pigs ear of it..

 

[SimonG]

Thanks to all of you for your opinions on this subject, as you are all too aware with the advent of the internet most things are available to buy online at reasonable prices , and as I would be able to buy the same boiler & 3 rads that I was quoted for about £1350 I was quite unhappy at the other £2200 labour charge to fit them . I mentioned in the original post I was looking to have an ageing wall mounted Baxi replaced with something more efficient but after getting a couple of quotes in ' that in my opinion were quite overpriced for what was being carried out I wanted to ask about labour only installations. I do believe that labour charges should reflect the skill set & training that you guys have to go through to get qualified & registered with gas safe so that you can make a decent living. Perhaps the quote I got was from someone who didn't want this job & priced it accordingly......I just don't know.......so onwards & upwards.........thank you all for your input...

Overpriced? Based on what? Would it be your comprehensive knowledge of plumbing and heating, or your experience of running your own business and the costs involved in that.

Yes the internet is good, but its not good enough to fit your boiler.

I know that i price work high for this type of customer. Maybe thats why your estimate was so high.

Well im off to work.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Yes the internet is good, but its not good enough to fit your boiler.

PMSL. Can we post that as a banner?

 

[Caittom]

"Yes the internet is good, but its not good enough to fit your boiler." try youtube, its all on there...

well what a hornets nest I have opened unintentionally, I never meant to cause any offence, it was a genuine question, like a lot of the general public im findng times hard at the minute & was just trying to find a bit of cost savings, in reality I would of only supplied the boiler & rads, It would be pretty unrealistic to think I would provide every washer,pipe nut , bolt etc,for an installation, it just wouldn't happen.

so I`ll end it there , thanks for the opinions,,, I may be back for some more advice after getting further quotes if I pluck up the courage.................

 

[Ermintrude]

We are just being honest with u as u are with us. Nothing wrong with doing it but you will probably pay the same in long run. Good luck

 

[lame plumber]

Post of the month. Nothing wrong with being honest.

I'm not sorry.

 

[happyflyer]

We are just being honest with u as u are with us. Nothing wrong with doing it but you will probably pay the same in long run. Good luck

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