Kitchen fitter cut part of kitchen base unit

[koontz]

Why is it so expensive to have kitchen fitted, it took him 4 days, and they were not full days.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Why is it so expensive to have kitchen fitted, it took him 4 days, and they were not full days.

Not a full answer, but whenever I fitted kitchens in the past I always seemed to go through generous quantities of screws, plugs, brackets, sealants, waste pipework, plumbing components, MFC, edge banding, router cutters, jigsaw blades, circular saw blades, etc, etc. Contrary to normal practice, you can't run router cutters for more than a few cuts, jigsaw blades need to be fresh and sharp, likewise circular saw blades - all of which cost money that comes out pf your day's rate. I used to reckon that my daily outgoings on that alone would be maybe £25 to £30 a day - and that was 15 years ago.

Full service kitchen fitters (i.e the guys who can do plumbing, can core walls, do hob extraction, can move electrical sockets, maybe do a bit of tiling, fit granite/solid surface/laminate/glass/solid wood worktops, etc) should be very skilled individuals who out of necessity carry a massive tool kit, all of which needs to be paid for and maintained. That doesn't come cheap, either. Unfortunately, there are a lot of chancers out there who talk the talk, but can't walk the walk. Frankly, had your man been the real McCoy, £850 for 4 days work would have been cheap

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

£850! Jeez you pay peanuts ....

 

[Koolpc]

£850! Jeez you pay peanuts ....

Agreed

 

[koontz]

That price didn't include disposal of old kitchen or me putting the flat pack units together or plumbing just a dry fit, and you deem this cheap , £850.00 for around 20 hours work seems expensive to me, even if he had £100.00 worth of expenses.

 

[johnny2007]

That price didn't include disposal of old kitchen or me putting the flat pack units together or plumbing just a dry fit, and you deem this cheap , £850.00 for around 20 hours work seems expensive to me, even if he had £100.00 worth of expenses.

So he basically banged the cabinets on the walls, cut and fit the worktops, job done, correct?
And it took him 20 hours?!?!?!

 

[Deleted member 174758]

You said 4 days, so I worked on that basis. TBH I always seemed to get those jobs which started with a rip-out, followed by a whole load of putting right the plumbing, plasterwork, etc before even getting going. So £100 for outgoings seems a bit on the low side in my experience - you are normally looking at least a couple of flexibles waters (for the taps), maybe 2 or 3 service isolators, a trap for the sink and some solvent weld. That alone runs to £50 off quid, so maybe somewhat more than £100.

But if he's managed to do a rip out and instal in effect in 20 hours (2-1/2 man days) it means that it has to be a really small, simple kitchen. But either way it should have been done right - kitchen fitting is (or should be) all about detail.

Just to hack you off, though, agencies have been typically paying £23 or more for qualified chippies over the summer. So 2-1/2 days (actually 3 days, because you charge by the day, and doubtless he'd have needed to go to the merchants a couple of times) at £200 a day plus his materials (so I'd suspect nearer to £200 than £100) is getting fairly close to the price he charged. BUT, he should have done the job right. BTW, if you think he's expensive, get a sparkie in...