Owning your own home

So you’re happy to not charge an hour or two of your time? Mental IMHO

But (unless I've missed the gist of this) that time is literally accounted for in my day rate? The client hires me for the day, why on earth would I charge him extra for doing slightly different things in that day.

edit - anyway, wasn't his more about adding a percentage onto the cost of materials - it's that practice that I was unfamiliar with.

this is assuming the quote includes an hourly rate, maybe its a "labour" line item in which case charging % for admin of part procurement is slightly clearer.

The alternative is they up the hourly/day/labor rate or cost. It doesn't really matter as the quote will be the quote.

Maybe the answer is to add an admin line to the quote, and a pension contribution line, holiday and sick pay lines, insuramce, travel, vehicle upkeep, training contribution.
and also to charge for providing a quote as that is time/SKE

I dont get how your unfamiliar with it, every business does it. Tesco buys milk for X sells for Y, a tradesperson buys a piece of wood at trade for £1 and the retail is £1.50 he charges you the client £1.50.

This really isn't hard.

Because I can’t simply increase my date rate endlessly (“How much?!?”). And not all jobs have the same material needs or complexities. One job might require trips to 3 or 4 different vendors, ordering stuff in advance online, and another job might just need popping into a wholesaler on the way over. The extra on materials simplifies this a bit so I don’t have to alter my labour rate which just pisses the customer off as they wonder why it’s changed/is variable. Yes I could average it out, but that just disincentivises doing harder or more awkward jobs (which is an issue loads of customers have, where tradespeople only want to do the easier work).

I’m going round in circles, time to throw my phone (and myself) into the bin.

Everyone thinks they have an analogous situation to operating as a tradesperson, and they never do.

I’m stuck in the van driving to a job (passenger, not type ranting at the wheel lol), I just can’t stay away

tradesperson buys a piece of wood at trade for £1 and the retail is £1.50 he charges you the client £1.50

In that case I have missed something. I'm not expecting you to neccessarily pass on whatever discount you've negotiated with your suppliers to me (though it would be nice, and my builder usually does). Whatever markdown you manage to negotiate with them is at your discretion.

My understanding of this issue was that you have to go to a shop, buy a tap off the shelve and then charge x% on top of the tap's shelf price because... why? If you're simply passing on the retail price of that tap then there's no issue. In your example if you were charging £1.60 for the piece of wood that retails at £1.50 then I'd have to question that.

I presumed all this arguing was because of people marking up over RRP? Is it not? Jesus Christ.

No that was never the thing, the original poster I had the barney with was expecting trade prices as he was giving the tradesman the day rate. Stupid logic

I had the barney with was expecting trade prices as he was giving the tradesman the day rate

Aah - apologies then, I also misread. Yeah, I don't think that's right :)

Sounds like this has been resolved. Let's get back to house prices and mortgage payments pls.

house prices and mortgage payments

Too depressing. More fun to mutually trigger homeowners and trades.

😅

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No, I'm just offended that if I multiply your gross day rate by 250 it's more than my salary!

220.

Person's gotta vacay.

.220. Person's gotta vacay.

See, this is why you couldn't hack it on LinkedIn (per the other thread).

We just got a 5yr fix @ 3.34%.

Started on a 2yr tracker that we could jump off whenever 10 months ago whilst we did the house up hoping that the increase in value would give us a better rate, but looking back it would've been much better to have just fixed at the beginning. You live and learn, eh!

If you hire a bricklayer to build you a wall, you are not buying bricks. The bricklayer buys the bricks. So they're liable for materials + cost of sourcing materials. The second part of that equation is covered by a small mark-up.

Simple!

So if the price of bricks goes up 10% during the job the brickie will eat that cost?

Nah you usually have in a contract that if there is variables in material the customer will have to take it.

Right, so to say that the brickie is "liable for bricks" is a nonsense. That risk is staying with the customer.

If you purchase one pallet at £100 and another a week later at £110, then sure, pass that onto the customer, costs is costs

Aye, if the bricks are shit, the brickie will deal with it. Or on the flip side, if the customer buys the bricks and the materials fail, is it ok for the brickie to then say “you bought the bricks, your problem”.

Because as a spark, if someone provides the materials that’s precisely what I’d do if they break, lol (it’s very common when people want chintzy double sockets that are almost always garbage). I can’t provide any sort of guarantee or warranty.

Or on the flip side, if the customer buys the bricks and the materials fail, is it ok for the brickie to then say “you bought the bricks, your problem”.

Yes, obviously. Not sure what your point is?

I remember when people used to just post weird floor plans on Zoopla.

costs is costs

What we have learnt from this discussion is that costs "isn't" costs. Costs is costs plus £X or X%, which may or may not be properly disclosed to the customer.