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professorplumb

Recently installed a Vaillant ecotec plus 937 (much prefer a WB) charged client £1000 labour 2 installers - started Saturday 8am finished 7.30pm and sunday 8.30am till 12.30pm. Straight forward installation aapproxrepositioned 1 meter from original place of the existing combi. Ssentinelx800 applied to system prior to changing combi. client paid for boiler, flue & materials. flue went through the single storey roof quite a tidy installation.

Just wanted to get some feedback as to what people would charge for a straight forward combi installation as new to this pricing lark and want to be inline with other installers quotes.

Job was based in Windsor.

regards

Simon
 
I bet you struggle to get a straight answer.

When we change boilers, (there are two of us). We're normally in and out in a couple of days, 3/4 if we power flush the old system.

The price is never standard, it all depends on factors like drilling the flue, perhaps uprating the pipework from the meter to satisfy the more gas hungy combi.

Sorry to be vague. I reckon you're in the right ball park though!
 
seems like a fair price, i would of been a little cheaper, 800 ish, but im a one man band and it would been a foreigner as i work for a firm ( so in effect i would of been more expensive)

dont like doing foreigners anymore, thats why i work for a firm now. less money. but i get to turn my telephone off!!

shaun
 
I bet you struggle to get a straight answer.

When we change boilers, (there are two of us). We're normally in and out in a couple of days, 3/4 if we power flush the old system.

The price is never standard, it all depends on factors like drilling the flue, perhaps uprating the pipework from the meter to satisfy the more gas hungy combi.

Sorry to be vague. I reckon you're in the right ball park though!

Thanks for your reply - i agree never a standard installation however this one was a peach of a job - a power flush was not necessary Gas pipe was sufficintly sized although told client his new kitchen installation would have to have an electric hob and not gas one or we'd have to bill him extra for the new larger gas pipe.

thanks
 
I fit them on my own and normally look to charge 800 ish above price of boiler , if no power flush im done in a day and a half . How do two of you work fitting a combi ? Handy for lifting it but a bit crowded otherwise isnt it ?
 
sounds about the right price to me however i havent got a boiler change in the last three months despite cutting prices to the bone
arrived at a job one evening a couple of weeks ago to find another van outside new sh van signwitten "all trades kitchens bathrooms heating plumbing"when i go in he is also pricing the job speaks bad english with a eastern european accent wants to borrow my tape . pencil and writes the job out on a piece of paper, not with my pencil i can assure you .
needless to say i sent a quote and heard no more
unfortunatly its a terraced house so cant tell if the boilers been fitted
Boiler six rads new gas supply approx 9 meters and about 15 foot run in plastic for the condense i priced it at £3300.00 which is £700 quid cheaper than 2 years ago and still didnt get it and this is in inner london
should add it was an empty place which is easier
 
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hello proff plumb how are u im in datchet and i always charge min a grand for any boiler change.Its some times easy some times aggro but you are charging for youre knowledge
 
I really appreciate this thread as I can see that I have been fitting boilers way to cheaply and I can now understand why another firm keeps handing them over to us.
I appologise to all in advance but myself and the loveslave have been charging £200 a day each, cash the firm has supplied all the materials and the jobs and we aim to be in and out in a day. last year we installed over 40 boilers, mainly glowworms.
We have found it easy for two people to work on the boiler by having a system where we each work seperatley but together for example, I drown down the system and do a gas test whilst the loveslave takes the old boiler flue off and starts stripping the boiler we aim to have the new boiler on the wall and ready to start pipping by 10am. the firms electrician is usually booked for 2 pm, also a couple of days before we turn up the firm sends in someone to flush the system.
Mind you thinking about it, we dont flush the system the firm does we dont do any electrics, the sparky does, we dont supply any materials, the firm does we are paid in cash, and we are averaging one a week so its not that bad and it leaves the rest of the week to earn some proper money.
Regards
Mike
 
Hoho mates. Let me see if I understand :
To do : installing a boiler (only the boiler, not anything else like radiators or ... ?)
Time : One day and a half , 2 men
Charge : 1000 . (all materials excluded).

Now, I am surprised. I must say I am not an UK based gas engineer, I am running a business in the heating area somewhere in East EU.

Let me show you some figures of how are we are working here :
1. In one day and half, with 2 men we install and set up 2 clients like : 1 boiler and 5 radiators each !
2. I even do not want to tell how much we charge for this, because probbably nobody would belive. Anyway much much lower than the sum mentioned on the thread.

Hm. I am in process to register as gas safe engineer in UK. I must to think well on the price policy we will have there.

By the way, I saw on internet that for a CP12 certificate the minimum charge is somewhere around L40 . That seems low for UK to me. Here we charge the same for a 2 years valid CP12 (VAT included).
 
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Yeap. It was a need to use such a big font ?

i think the point was another eastern european coming to uk and taking work is not exactly welcome during a recession as the ratio of people coming here to people heading in other direction is a one sided see saw:(
 
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet springs to mind,but sometimes we forget,a good solid customer base is what we all need,myself I'm thinking of leaving for Canada.I'm a white british national btw.
 
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet springs to mind,but sometimes we forget,a good solid customer base is what we all need,myself I'm thinking of leaving for Canada.I'm a white british national btw.

that was a tv show but the reality now is this government has opened a flood gate and its nationals of this country whether they be red green yellow blue or purple who will suffer with lower wages and working conditions and is not directly tradesman that will be affected the eastern europeans have come here driving prices down because they send the money back home and live on peanuts here but the poor old resident of this country that is taxed to death and has one of the highest costs of living in the world is left to try and compete when his living costs are vastly higher
getting into canada and the us and other places is a lot harder than coming to the uk and even if you cant come here legally then just come illegallly and claim asylum
in the states you have to prove an american cant do the job before someone from abroad is allowed to have a go
sorry for rant but sometimes feel this country is going to the dogs because we have become scared to say no and eneough is enough
 
:)Ok guys. For sure I didn’t expect people to be happy to hear that there are foreigners who come in UK to work. But you cannot completely close the door; I think everyone is aware of that. Simply it is impossible. But in my opinion you should not worry too much because of several reasons. For the start there is not simple at all to come to work as qualified person in UK coming from East Europe. The work permits for Romania and Bulgaria for e.g. are hard to get, especially as qualified engineer for example. I think since 2007 when there is a legal way to come in UK the number of people who entered on the UK to work are very small. Second, in heating and plumbing area, although UK is the bigger market in Europe, the competition is already very tuff, the level of services is as a result very high. So to make money in Uk based on a lower price strategy I think cannot be a goal. For example if I will ever register for gas work in UK I will not sell myself cheap at all. If I want to do that I should stay home. It is a better approach to be able to offer an as high as possible level of services for a reasonable price. If there are professionals who do not do so that I think they will be out of the market sooner or later. On the other hand I think you should worry not for low prices but for a higher competence and experienced professionals.
 
that was a tv show
Yes I know it was just a tv show but if you are old enough to remember british workers travelling to other parts of the EU,as I unfortunately am,it was seen as fair game.I'm not trying to start a flaming war but a brickie mate of mine was earning £150 cards in in 1984(and that was good cash then),went to germany and earned nearly 3 times as much,admitted he lived in squalar,but enjoyed the beer and took home twice as much money every week for the benifit of his family.Yes he was away alot but thought it was worth it.IMHO everyone welcome,you never know you may pickup even more work correcting errors made by others.Free trade is what I say,and I don't complain about part prices,copper or anything else made outside of the UK that costs me less,do you?
 
free trade in a booming economy no but regulated better than it is now
this country is in a bad way with people being thrown onto the scrapheap every day with unemployment rising fast above 2m and lets be honest if we were given an honest answer of the ratio of people with a trade going to work in eastern europe to the ratio of people coming here
for gods sake they even started to have some road signs in polish ffs
this country is an island and it just cant physically take the strain on the health service/schools/higher education/public services why do you suppose people travel through the free eu just to get here because we have become a nation of bleeding hearts
i visited an indian lady with no heat living in squalor during our cold snap who for whatever reason couldnt qualify for any help and yet we open our doors to others and give them it all
its all gone wrong here and its the labour govt thats done it
this has gone a bit off topic but unless this country wakes up in 20yrs we are going to have real problems
 
free trade in a booming economy no but regulated better than it is now
this country is in a bad way with people being thrown onto the scrapheap every day with unemployment rising fast above 2m and lets be honest if we were given an honest answer of the ratio of people with a trade going to work in eastern europe to the ratio of people coming here
for gods sake they even started to have some road signs in polish ffs
this country is an island and it just cant physically take the strain on the health service/schools/higher education/public services why do you suppose people travel through the free eu just to get here because we have become a nation of bleeding hearts
i visited an indian lady with no heat living in squalor during our cold snap who for whatever reason couldnt qualify for any help and yet we open our doors to others and give them it all
its all gone wrong here and its the labour govt thats done it
this has gone a bit off topic but unless this country wakes up in 20yrs we are going to have real problems
Back to topic then about £500 if it's a combi out combi in same location,take me about 6 hours inc "properly commisiong"flushing,gas rasting,dropping and inhibitor.Conventional,there are too many variables to list so I would need to see it.
 
QOUTE" On the other hand I think you should worry not for low prices but for a higher competence and experienced professionals.

this a dig or a crack?

used to be a labour man but now i think u.k.i.p are fav's.
no more asylum seekers, close immigration, send all illegals back to france pull out of eu.
seems the solution to me because unlike a lot of e.u. countries here in the u.k the people (eventually by elections) make the rules, not like the present bloody belgium.

i am not a politition by the way but have had enough, also not intended to offend our romanian...oops sorry east e.u member, so rant over.
 
does not matter who, or where the incompetent plumber comes from. could be my next door neighbour for all i care.
customers care about service at the end of the day. they might try the newbie plumber once. but when things go pear shaped, they be ringing us back to fix things, and very sheepishly putting there hands into their pockets, oohh so just that little bit deeper.
all forgiven, everything back to normal. client learned lesson. im richer. jobs a good un.


shaun
 
There is precious little trade training for UK people to enable all age ranges to learn and become skilled. Experienced tradesmen often fight shy of training a newbie for fear of losing custom (reasonable viewpoint but short-sighted) and insufficient income to fund a trainee. I am not talking just about the young (poor things), but all age ranges - that's why the fast track outfits have boomed! strange that someone who is not a teenager might just need to pay bills and work: whoever would have thought it! This is also a damning indictment on this (Labour??? joke) and other governments. They all cosy up to employers and encourage cheap labour from anywhere so there is no need to fund training in any meaningful numbers from the public purse - nahh just use taxpayers money to give themselves expenses allowances and gold plated pensions. Where there is a vacuum, it will always be filled somehow. Hence the 'usually' cheap foreign labour influx (not all foreign is bad -the points I make are generalisations). Now we get the knock on effect to the customer. Public want, expect and can get cheap (next time you go to the supermarket, bet most of us also look for the freebie or 2 for one deal too). This has become a conditioned mindset. So unless you have already got an established client base and or good reputation and or referral network, the reality is that you are competing with the 'I'll do it for 50 quid cash" brigade. Yes if it goes wrong the customer learns but that is usually a long way down the line. Value is not just about price. What to do about it all? not enough time or space for me to continue (thank goodness I hear some of you say).
 
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That Video was very helpful in helping us to get round problem of moving pipe work for new radiators with Flexible Tap Connectors.
 
new age plumbing
coming soon at the 2012 Olympic site london and surrounding sites .
not forgetting Peterborough,etc
 
:eek::eek::eek:

I thought i had seen it all with dodgy sparkies but that is just disgraceful!!!!!!
 
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