£8 Per Metre

[Peter]

Went to look at a job yesterday. Fella on the phone said that he had tilers there doing a bit of work downstairs but he wasn't happy with it, so could I finish that and then start a 30m bathroom and a 25m bathroom upstairs. He also said "The other tilers were £8 per metre, could you match that". Certainly not, but I'll have a look at it for you. Not seen such bad fixing in a while, even by Northern Ireland standards.

Kitchen floor - 600x600 polished porcelain, straight onto floorboards, using a single part flexi, with a bed about an inch thick. There was about 14m of the 18m floor done and it took the two 'tilers' four days. Told him I wasn't going to stick a tile down anywhere near it but would have a look at for him in a few months when it all needs redone.

Downstairs WC - 600x300 porcelain onto bonding, about 15m took the two of them three days. Floor and bottom course wasn't done, so wanted me to finish that too.

Subsequently no floors were overboarded upstairs and all the walls just had a bonding coat as specified by the previous tilers. Read him the riot act and gave him a 'not worth the hassle' price but I have a feeling that someone's going to come in and tile it anyway. :mad2:

Shame, would have been about 80-90m of good tiling in it otherwise, but don't think even I could have competed with his £8pm expectations. :lol:

Goes to show you that whenever you're undercut that much by another tiler then it's obvious there are some serious corners being cut. Just sorry I didn't take a few pictures of it to show future potential customers the dangers of 'cheap quotes'.

 

[DHTiling]

He's not happy with this cowboys yet he wants you to match their cowboy rates..oh FFS.. tell him to do one.

 

[dave l and l]

i have dealt with the same recently. two tilers travelling about 30mile a day and fixing for 8 per m2. when asked how much i wanted i was to no chance, i wouldnt budge on price, the two tilers were tiling straight onto chipboard, went back recently to have a look and all the floors were failing, however builder died so i am guessing he doesnt care too much

 

[swanman]

So many cowboys

 

[Andy Allen]

when will these people learn to chose a trademan on there ability reather than price..:incazzato:

 

[radim]

he gets what he pays for. will need retiling soon.it means new tiles,proper substrate prepair, and pro to do it right.probably rich enough to get cheap "tilers"

 

[Tony73]

newer heard of £8 PER SQ.M :yikes: Lowest ever done was £25 (years ago):incazzato:

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

I got the offer of a commercial job today £11.00 per m2, no bloody thanks, I was earning £12.50 per m2 twenty years ago. What is wrong with this industry?:mad2: I would rather sit at home.

 

[Tony73]

Got same offer 5years ago £12.50. I think 99,9% of commertials is that rate, am I wrong? :incazzato:. Ohye i did Bloomberg office toilets, in east London 5-6 years ago, but much better rate.

 

[Peter]

You only get £12-£15 over here but you can still make it pay if you work efficiently. Must have cost the other boys money, 30m at 8pm split two ways over six days work.

 

[radim]

had offer for commercial job £11 per metre.and question :can u start tommorow? 11 quid before tax, where is diesel, tools, digs etc...shocking.....:mad2:

 

[Tony73]

You only get £12-£15 over here but you can still make it pay if you work efficiently. Must have cost the other boys money, 30m at 8pm split two ways over six days work.

Sorry Wingn, didn't realy think when red your post. but then £12-£15 is realy low and people still expect even lower rates :mad2:. So soon tilers will have to pay to the client for letting tile they bathrooms? :incazzato:

 

[Peter]

You wouldn't think £15 was realy low over here. In fact, if you price a job at £15pm, unless you've been personally recommended or doing something rather fancy then you'll be undercut by up to a fiver a metre.

But as long as you can do 10m or more a day you can cover yourself and still get a decent wage at the end of the week after tax.

 

[Brian the Tile]

I think the problem here is that there is to many jack of all trades master of none cowboys about doing everybodys job,i see vans were i live and its a case of what they dont do sign wrighting on them ,i am a time served tiler been doing the job now for forty years and have never known things to be so bad,i to would not and will not work for that kind of money folks know things are bad at the moment and a few are trying to take advantage,ive had the calls where a mess has been made then its can you come and make things right for us ,no thanks get the right people in in the first place people who know there job and should get paid accordingly

 

[Andy Allen]

your spot on there brian....

 

[widler]

i got a phone call the other year,when things were not to bad,something like 10 houses to tile,new build,bigish tiles,i got the old "if you give me a good price,ive got another 50 odd houses to build and you can do them:smilewinkgrin:" so i went in at £20m2,he just laughed and said he just turned down £12m2 including addy.
i didnt get the job,honestly,some people:lol:

 

[Stef]

I thought this thread at £8.00m2 was bad then i spoke on the phone to Dave Henderson at Diatech this morning.

He was telling me somewhere in Glasgow that were trying for £6.00m2. :yikes:

This is getting beyond a joke.

 

[Ian]

I thought this thread at £8.00m2 was bad then i spoke on the phone to Dave Henderson at Diatech this morning.

He was telling me somewhere in Glasgow that were trying for £6.00m2. :yikes:

This is getting beyond a joke.

That is mental, 6 quid a metre??????? So for a 20 m2 bathroom, thats £120!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't tile a bathroom in a day if I wanted to!

 

[mz30]

On commercial work £11-15 is about the goin rate and has been for the past few years,but if you can get 80-100m2 a week in, its a decent wage.
The way things are at the moment am happy being on daywork and doing max 10m2 a day.

But £8m2 and doing only a few m2 a day between 2 men is absolutely scandalous but people will chance there hand,and there is always customers who think that tiling comes cheap for example last week a woman wanted 2m2 of extra tiling in her bathroom(an extension to what the lads have tiled in a council property) and took a turn in both eyes when she was quoted £100 and she said my nephew could do that for £20 i told that she wouldnt even be able to buy 1m2 of the tiles for £20(porcelanosa oxon marfil)she was genuinely shocked at how much the tiles in her bathroom actually cost.

And thats the problem people (punters)dont realise how much materials cost,why i tell them to price it were there getting tiles from and then i can beat the quote by miles and still make a profit.

 

[dave l and l]

its a common thing nowadays for vans to be saying all trades covered ,property maintenance,i have being seeing adverts for decorators advertising tiling and i have been noticing joiners and plumbers pushing at wet wall rather than tiling.
all of these things push the price of tiling down especially the handymen who dont know how to price a job or the guy who is doing it as a homer. which annoys me greatly, only a chancer would work for anything like a tenner a metre. the guy in glasgow doing it for 6 a m2 is obviously demented and should be locked up.

 

[Pebbs]

Got same offer 5years ago £12.50. I think 99,9% of commertials is that rate, am I wrong? :incazzato:. Ohye i did Bloomberg office toilets, in east London 5-6 years ago, but much better rate.

Well Tony either your right or I am paying way over the odds, all my work is commercial or high end residential through main contractors. I spoke to one of my lads yesterday hes doing a hotel fit out in central London 600x300 porcelain walls and floors and getting £30.00m2. Someone somewhere is trying it on with these cheapo crap rates, and its not me.

Lynn

 

[Peter]

£30 a metre would be heaven. Wouldn't be hard to make 8k+ a month.

Would be a millionaire by now if I got those sort of prices. :drool5: :lol:

 

[Tony73]

Well Tony either your right or I am paying way over the odds, all my work is commercial or high end residential through main contractors. I spoke to one of my lads yesterday hes doing a hotel fit out in central London 600x300 porcelain walls and floors and getting £30.00m2. Someone somewhere is trying it on with these cheapo crap rates, and its not me.

Lynn

600x300 i get £35.00-£40.00 per sq.m (tiling floor) and around £45.00-£60.00 for walls (depends on number of mitred corners). and biggest is £120.00 for bisazza mosaic tiles . Was talking to my main contractor aboutg higher rates, but i think i'll just wait as it's hard times at the moment :incazzato:

 

[Peter]

Are those prices including materials or just for sticking the tiles up? Impressive if it's the latter.

 

[Tony73]

it's only sticking tiles.

 

[dave l and l]

can i borrow your private jet for my next holiday. thats great prices .

 

[Tony73]

i only got private push bike :lol:. But prices are true. It's expensive living in London :mad2: so have to keap prices high. Plus client expects top quality, so rates can't be low. But there is exeptions, tiling main contractors bathroom at the moment, so will do for only £20.00 per sq.m. (was even thinking to do it for free)

 

[dave l and l]

ah well maybe get the private jet one day,
yeah living in london is very expensive so prices have got to reflect that especially if you are good at your job.i do the odd thing for free, but if its a bathroom you need to charge, even if its only a couple of hundred,
right i am going to glasgow to find this idiot that works for 6 per m2 and start subcontracting him out to people i dont like

 

[garybadger]

Some of the prices getting quoted nowadays is a scandal.
I know off a company in Glasgow, that's went round every commercial job(contractor) and said that whatever price they are given for tiling, they guarantee to beat it. Crazy.
£6m2 without being discriminating, they would have to be Polish. Couple of Polish labourers going round sites in Edinburgh, saying they will work for £20 a shift...
Seriously, how you meant to live on they prices?
Totally agree with the sign writing on vans as well. Van yesterday in Edinburgh, was all brick work, paving, fencing, turf work, Kitchens, Plastering decorating, full bathroom re-fits, wet floors and tiling???
Now surely even that is stretching it for a handyman?

 

[Dan]

That sort of signwriting does my tree in.

I can see a bathroom fitter having "Bathroom Fitting, Tiling, Kitchen Fitting" and related things like that. But when you see "Paving, Roofing, Tiling, Gardening" and bigger lists of mixed trades, especially on one van and not a team, then you know he's going to be a bit of a jack of all trades master of non.

 

[Tony73]

hard times now, so some tradesman push rates down.