Charges and Fees, How Much?

[JohnnyTooSharp]

Hiya, just starting out self-employed so I'm a little unsure what to charge...

What do you all charge for call outs, time, specific jobs? If you wouldn't mind also saying what area you work in too!?

Your responses are much appreciated

 

[Deleted member 120897]

Is this just purely plumbing, heating, gas, unvented cylinders? Repairs basis only, installing, fault finding or a mixed bag?

 

[Murdoch]

How about you say where you are ?

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Tbh work out what it costs you each day to work plus 20% then divide that by how many hours you typically work that’s your charge per hour

 

[Deleted member 120897]

How about you say where you are ?

Cambridge? Used OP’s Postcode

 

[Murdoch]

Tbh work out what it costs you each day to work plus 20% then divide that by how many hours you typically work that’s your charge per hour

I would do it slightly differently

Take your target income per year, divide by 200 which gives you a minimum day rate.

Then add up all your expected over heads, divide that by 200 and add to the first number.

Then look to see how much that works out per day

The reason I use 200 allows me to assume the bank holidays and days off are “covered”

Also consider how much other plumbers in your area charge too

 

[JohnnyTooSharp]

How about you say where you are ?

Cambridge

 

[JohnnyTooSharp]

......Also consider how much other plumbers in your area charge too

Ideally I would, but I feel it would be cheeky to ring up local plumbers I'll be in competition against!?!?

 

[Murdoch]

Ideally I would, but I feel it would be cheeky to ring up local plumbers I'll be in competition against!?!?

look at their websites ?

 

[JohnnyTooSharp]

look at their websites ?

I don't know any that advertise rates on their websites, do you know any?

 

[Timmy D]

Just putting this out there, not trying to be a knob but if you don’t already know this info, you sure you’re ready to go by yourself?

 

[Chuck]

I don't know any that advertise rates on their websites, do you know any?

According to your profile you're in CB1, i.e. Cambridge. So some info here:

Plumber rates in Cambridge from £20 per hour

See how much Cambridge Plumbers charge per hour & day instantly online (no need to phone around). Get quotes for your jobs and save money.

www.hamuch.com

 

[Murdoch]

Wonder if the OP has tried to work out their fixed and variable overheads yet ?

 

[Ben-gee]

According to your profile you're in CB1, i.e. Cambridge. So some info here:

Plumber rates in Cambridge from £20 per hour

See how much Cambridge Plumbers charge per hour & day instantly online (no need to phone around). Get quotes for your jobs and save money.

www.hamuch.com

A quick look down the suggested prices for various jobs shows that this has been put together by somebody with no clue whatsoever and as such is a pretty worthless resource.

 

[Chuck]

A quick look down the suggested prices for various jobs shows that this has been put together by somebody with no clue whatsoever and as such is a pretty worthless resource.

I agree the list of typical charges for jobs is so useful because it lacks context. I drew attention to the link because it does list a sample of day and hour rates. The site claims that these figures are provided by the traders who sign up to their lead-finding service. Before posting, I looked the list for my area and recognised enough of the people listed to believe the list is genuine. For the people I know reasonably well, the quoted rates seem about right. Now, according to the site the median hourly / daily rates are £44 / £260 for its members in Cambridge. For my own area in the southwest, which is definitely cheaper than Cambridge, they are £32 / £247.

The main issue I have with these sort of lists is the 'selection effect', i.e. the traders who sign up may not be representative of the whole market. Established traders who are fully-booked into the foreseeable future with repeat customers and personal recommendations aren't going to sign up. However, I'd expect it to take a couple of years of hard graft before the OP is competing with them for custom.

 

[Ric2013]

I always find those sites are years out of date too. And things like 'cost of resealing a bath' are miles out. Easy job if you installed it and did the tiling. Hard job if you're following an installer who grouted before siliconing - takes hours and hours to clean out the joint. £57... well, if you are happy to do a bit of less skilled work at a labourer's rate, then I suppose it's about right.

Word of experience here. You will always underestimate how long things take because customers have messy houses, the last person to do plumbing in the house was slapdash, there's a lack of access to what you need to get to, and you're running a pipe past 3 electrical fittings that aren't one above the other so you're doing multiple offsets to clear them. This is okay (sort of) if all you are underestimating is the labour time and you haven't other jobs to be doing as you are 'wasting' time and 'gaining' experience. So if you want to fix prices for customers then by all means do that, but eventually you'll find yourself pricing them higher than you might if you were to work on a time basis.

I'm not the best person to ask as plumbing is a bit of a second job at present (not really out of choice... personal circumstances, you know), but, prior to all that, I had worked out what it costs me to live and based what I need to earn a working week on that. I find a working week may not be 40 hours as I spend time getting parts, doing accounts, and all the other stuff I can't actually bill people for. I charge half an hour for getting to a (local) site, then a minimum of 1 hour for labour and then in half an hour increments. Getting parts is not chargeable unless they are a specific part I cannot possibly be expected to hold in stock. Sometimes I tell people a high maximum purely as an estimate, but depends on the customer and how I know him/her. It did seem to be roughly working for me.

Bear in mind I always attribute mileage for the job against invoices and put the money in tin (literally) as I get paid. This keeps tabs on the cost of the van. Seeing this year has been low mileage and high fuel costs, the old yardstick of 45p/mile may not be enough and I may need to adjust callout costs accordingly.

 

[Knappers]

I charge 70 for first hour and 50 per hour after that, 300/350 day rate (no vat).
When I was just starting out self employed (with 10years experience) I charged 50,40,250.
Altho if your a new entrant you may not really be worth that, I wouldn't recommend going much cheaper as you won't attract the right kind of work.
What I would recommend is when your experience fails you then be fair to the customer and adjust your bill accordingly.

 

[Knappers]

Anything over 4/5h work is a day on quote.
If you think it will take 2 days - quote 3.
If you think it will take 5 days - quote 7.