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I would say I dont mind small job but in terms of what you've labeled its fairly accurate but the problem is that people dont realise the actual costs involved and wee small jobs and they sometimes see it as expensive. The way we work they jobs is that we virtually have all the stuff on the van to do the job as going away for bits is time wasting and fuckin lengthening out the job. I wanna be in, job done, customer happy and away but your right that bigger jobs have less fucking about and often are more money without headache, but another thing id say is that sometimes you have to manage the customers expectations, like the flooring howard is talking about. I think even a joiner will struggle to put it that floor down the way it is now as they floors aren't meant to be took up and put back down from experience.
I know you've said you dont really like doing the smaller jobs as you can have problems getting paid, I find usually people always have money and never question the pricing when it comes to paying. I think thats a different situation altogether and you have to be more on the "thats the price" pay up.
konastab01-
There's also the value factor.
Our boarder with a neighbour is mostly brick wall. For whatever reason the last section of a couple of meters down our alleyway isn't there and has a wooden panel. I won't bore everyone with why, but at some point it needs replacing.
We had a couple of quotes. One for ~£1k another for >£2k.
Regardless of whether that's a fair value for the amount of work the brickie is going to do, that is shit VFM for us. If we just took a number between the two that's a nice holiday for us, decent laptop, almost two month's nursery fees....
....or we could have a bit of a brick wall down the side of the house.
Frankly it's one of those classic shit jobs. Next doors paving needs lifting, a bit of a concrete slab that is cheekily on our land needs cutting back, then digging out, earth/hardcore/fence removed, reinforced section built, wall built, pointed, capped, little bit of backfilling, next doors paving relaid, tidy up, disposal.
But again, in terms of our use of the house it's still just a small section of wall down our alleyway.
hugo7
The thing about jobs like that is that any one tradesperson will probably be able to do all the work, but then which trades person do you get? You'd expect a joiner to do the best/neatest job of taking the floor up and putting it back down, but I wouldn't be too enthusiastic about them doing the plumbing - same goes for getting a plumber to do the flooring.
Even when you have a skilled tradesmen, the further you go from their speciality, the longer it takes them, and the harder the work is. The plumber will do the plumbing quickly and well, but most likely won't be anywhere near as efficient when it comes to relaying the floor (especially when they're used to working on boards that'll be covered). So they'll either work at their normal pace at the cost of the quality of finishing the floor, or they'll have to work slowly and carefully (which adds costs). Then factor in that it's a small job, which includes a trip to get parts, getting to and from the job, loading and unloading tools, tidying up and making right in an already finished house etc and it really starts to look unattractive as a job to take on. Compare that to replacing 8 rads in a house that's mid renovation: there's less cleanup, and generally more actual plumbing to do vs the amount of other stuff involved like loading and unloading, so the job will pay well and generally be a lot less of a headache, which is why jobs like yours become low priority, because the majority of your job isn't actually plumbing.
I've been having this dilemma myself with sparky work. A lot of small jobs are mostly problem solving, making right (plastering and painting), and there's a shitload of extra work to keep it all tidy while you're working - the actual electrical bit is piss easy even though that's what I'm mostly being paid for. Then you add in that smaller jobs always end up being harder to get paid for, and there's more haggling or endless "can you just x, y, z" as the job goes on - it all becomes a headache that makes me want to avoid the jobs in the first place.
Sorry, I know this doesn't help you in the slightest, and also keen to hear @konastab01 's opinion if the description of work above is true to his actual plumbing experience.