help with quote please

What are you struggling with on the quote exactly? straightforward job by the sounds of it so surely time + materials = cost ? same as any other quote? whether you charge hourly or daily etc is down to you and what you would normally charge. Are you quoting blind without going to look or just estimating for now?

 

£200

 

Obviously time estimation will come as you do work and see what you can achieve in a day, have a day rate worked out, that works for you in the sense you're happy with earning x amount a day and can live on it and takes into account your overheads and also that is reasonable for the area you're in. With that in place you can base your quotes around that as a starting point

 

Rates, especially daily rates, change depending on where in the country you are. If you post the question on a forum, the replies you receive could all be different.

Would you be better off getting the other half or a mate to contact a few companies in your area to find a ball park figure? Admittedly most will turn you down without seeing the job first but if you break the questions down a bit and choose what you think are one-man-bands you can glean a lot of information. Don't say "how much will you charge for a, b and c" straight out; no one can get their head in gear that quick so there's going to be a few sharp intakes and flat refusals.

Tell them you got a small job needs doing and ask them if they can obtain a bit of skirting and fit it (we all love an easy job). Tell them you've seen the Torus stuff and it matches the rest of the house. Then ask them if its a difficult job to fit, giving them room dimensions and width of the skirts. Now ask them how long it might take, and make a ludicrous suggestion like 7 or 8 days?.. Watch them start singing a bit because you've just made them the expert. Ask on average what they might pay for the skirting and what sort of sizes it has to be bought in, would it be by the metre or longer lengths? Finally, reiterate the sizes of the room and do some verbal adding up with them on the phone and mention you have loads of work that could be done, but simply don't know where to start; this is when a daily rate can be dropped into the mix.. "if I need you for a few days for various daft jobs, how much would you charge me?" Grab the info, make a note of the company (don't phone them again, by accident), put the phone down and call the next.

Once you think you're about right with your local pricing, add a good few more quid because people like to pay for perceived quality. Cheap is cheap and there's no word-of-mouth if people get you for next to nowt. There is, however, a great talking point when something cost somebody a fair amount of money and where you've done such a great job that your customers fall over themselves to recommend you.

Good luck rgman

 

You must have fitted skirting before so base it on how long it took you to do it. When your measuring up have a good look at how good the walls / corners are. Are you sticking it or using mechanical fasteners etc.
Decide what you will charge an hour, so labour time + materials + fuel + incidentals. I would vary my rate depending on the type of skirting, eg, mdf, softwood or hardwood.

 

£190 sounds reasonable enough, don't under sell yourself, you'll regret it if you get recommended and everyone starts expecting the same thing.
Bare in mind though that STRICTLY speaking, to dispose of the old skirting yourself you should be a registered waste carrier and be taking it to a suitable waste centre where you will be paying to get rid of it there, not taking it to the local dumps as it counts as trade waste, certain areas are really cracking down on this now and can get hefty fines for it. Personally I no longer take any waste away, if the customer wants it removed as part of the job, I pay a registered carrier to get rid of it and pass the cost on.

 

@Longy
Rates have nothing to do with where you live, rates are made up on what you need to earn, what your overheads are and how much profit you aim to make.

Don't go wasting other tradesman's time asking for quotes so you can quote the same or you will soon find yourself in trouble when you realise your costs are not the same as theirs

 

Or, ask them if they want the other work done at the same time. Explain that once you get there the fuel has gone, tools out of the van - so can price for both jobs with view to be done on the same day?

 

If you think they are going to generate more work for you, perhaps offer a slightly lower rate? Bit of a gamble, i know.

 

I tend to quote assuming any future work they may of mentioned won't happen, a lot of people use " there's more work afterwards" etc as a tactic to try and get a lower price. If they're regular return customers then I'll trust them and may do a bit of a discount. But providing you're quotes reasonable (which it is ) and they're not going to get it done massively cheaper then I'd stick with your full price. Whereabouts in the country are you rgman?

 

I'd think that your cost would be pretty good/average then, as much as you need to earn x amount to profit and live, I'd disagree slightly with wuddy in the sense that area does tend to play some part in what most people charge, fair enough if you find you need to earn say £200 a day to cover your overheads etc but if 90% of your competition are charging £100 you're going to get less work than them regardless of skill level, a lot of the time now more and more people focus more on cost than what the end result may be and in certain areas of the country you'll find a big difference in what the majority are charging for their time. I'd say it's more the case of having to keep costs closer to competitors when you're first starting up, once your well established, plenty of return customers and recommendations then you'll probably find those returning customers and friends etc of those more likely to specifically want you and willing to pay slightly more.
Saying all that though, there tends to be a trend at least in my area , of jack of alls starting up, charging £50 a day for doing all sorts of work, and there's no way I'd consider trying to get close to that in order to gain the sort of custom they're getting. They'll always be someone asking for more and someone asking for less, just got to find a happy medium that works for yourself.

 

If the materials are only 40 quid then £190 seems about right. Its a bit of a gamble quoting when you are just starting up but it will get easier with experience.

 

that's going to be people on the dole selling themselves at that sort of rate - that's pretty much minimum wage.