How much would you charge for a combi

[Simonbeasley1]

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

 

[kevindgas]

if you can get a grand then good luck to you
round here be lucky to get the job with a £450 labour charge!!

 

[Simonbeasley1]

Kevindgas - What would you have charged pre Credit Crunch?

 

[bengasman]

I can not remember the last install that was straight forward.
If nothing else, the gaspipe is undersized and the system so full of crud that a simple bottle of cleaner will not do the job.
Last job I did, all but one valve leaked after the powerflush.

Why are you doing full days over the weekend? Are you so busy it can't be done during the week?
If it was purely because the customer could not arrange for access at normal times, I would add a significant surcharge.

 

[kevindgas]

simon

pre credit crunch around £750
Pre 2000 - £1,000

now it seems like every tom, dick and harry is a plumber in southampton and several advertise £450 fitting charge

 

[Simonbeasley1]

Been installing boilers etc for a firm where we get paid day rate and don't see the real money. But since becoming registered this is the only time we have to do these installations. Until we get really busy we'l keep the firm sweet and keep advertising in papers/web etc until we can go out on our own full time.

Simon

 

[Simonbeasley1]

Kevindgas - your more than a plumber remember that!

 

[Corgigrouch]

simon

pre credit crunch around £750
Pre 2000 - £1,000

now it seems like every tom, dick and harry is a plumber in southampton and several advertise £450 fitting charge

The £450 fitting charge is rarely what the customer ends up paying once extra stuff is added to the bill.... TRVs, Room Stats... The stuff that just isn't included in the very basic price... "Flushing? Ahh thats extra guv"... etc etc

 

[kevindgas]

Kevindgas - your more than a plumber remember that!

I try very hard to, but with a big fat zero income over several weeks i'm begining to lose faith in the human race.

I have always struggled to keep really busy, but now its ridiculous. I advertise in local paper, yell.com, touch local. have free ads on nearly every website in the area. yet still the phone hardly rings now.
everything I have always found to work doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

had 1 call this week " how much to disconnect a fire and make safe" told her £57 inclusive "i'll ring you back" she says and hangs up - needless to say she didn't come back

 

[Simonbeasley1]

I can give you a telephone number for a listed building cat II * wanting a new boiler and better volume of hotwater. possibly a megaflow to do away with pipework and storage tanks.

went round to view but i think client picked up on the lack of installations we had done and called to say thanks bit no thanks before i had even quoted - all i said was will sort out quite a few boiler unrelated problems out and look at how the gravity boiler pipework run to give them a spot on quote dont think they liked the £450 price tag that went with it.

you are welcome to that phone number to try your luck based in Maidenhead berkshire.

Si

 

[bengasman]

Would it have something to do with the thousands of illegal workers who can charge little as they have no overheads?

For at least 5 out of the last 10 years when half the country's population decided to become a property developer and get rich by tarting up homes with crappy bathrooms, kitchens and cheapo boilers, corners have been cut.
There must be a hundred thousand boilers out there that are about to keel over as they were poor quality and badly installed.

Yet, when somebody posted on here and suggested to take action by writing to mp's, there was no take up.

 

[kevindgas]

bit of a drive from here, and by the time fuel is taken into consideration it would probably be uneconomic to do it

i usually limit the travel to Poole - Basingstoke - Portsmouth area and everything in between
but thanks anyway

 

[Mark Br]

Hi Simon

£1000 is not unreasonable here in Maidenhead/Windsor, etc.

However we are finding that we are increasingly having to reduce this slightly to get the job nowadays.

The phone has definately got quieter, but isn't as desparate as it sounds like it is in the Southampton area.

 

[tonybhoy]

I've increased my advertising costs by about a £100 a week and my calls are down about 80% from last year.

Definitely quieter where I am where every third van is a plumber's van.

My local supplier is dead these days,whenever I go in,which isn't often now,I spend about a tenner and half an hour chewing the fat however I had a word with one of the directors last week and said he should go down the el-cheapo parts road (B&Q were selling a mono mixer for £35 last week) and try to compete with the likes of B&Q & etc he replied that they would never go down that road.

Something's got to give. Suppliers and manufacturers are still keeping their prices high yet we,installers,are expected to cut our prices to the bone to sell thier products. Don't think so,I just tell customers to buy thier own and I'll fit it for my price which remains the same whether it is a £30 tap or a £300 one.

Priced a cloakroom suite yesterday from this supplier of mine for an older(90) customer,pretty good stuff I'll grant you but the total was nearly £400 just for the cloakroom suite and taps etc.

Needless to say the customer decided against this which means that both me and the supplier lose the work.

Tony.

Tony.