How Much Does It Cost To Hang Something Heavy?



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Cost to Hang Something Heavy





job
Description
labour
1Cost to hang one “thing” (two men, + one housewife). Half a day.
£140
2Cost to hang a few “things” in the same half day. So let’s say 3 things plus the wall fixings.
£145
3If they are still there in the afternoon, they will charge for the whole day plus fixings so expect to pay.
£280
4 If you want it in the stairwell, considering today’s Health & Safety regs. they may hire a stair scaffold and charge a day’s labour.
£350

“Labour” at £175 a day (tradesman) £100 (labourer), includes incidental fixings etc. and tipping charges. “Materials” if mentioned, are larger things (a boiler) and stuff only you can choose (tiles etc).  Also VAT must be added all round.

Information Sheet on Hanging a Mirror or Heavy Picture


Getting a Good Fixing

The fixings are all important. There’s the one on the wall and the one on the thing you’re hanging. We’re talking heavy here so you really need a solid wall i.e. not a plasterboard stud. There are plenty of fixings available but they come in two basic types. “Hammer fix” which is a screw and wall plug combined or a screw and wall plug.

If there is something supplied with the “thing”, chuck it away. I don’t know what planet most “fixing providers” live on but it’s a very small pathetically inadequate one judging by the useless plastic shiny bits of gimcrack they usually supply. The plug needs to be nylon (not plastic) and 7mm diameter, the screw needs to be 50mm x size 8 minimum.

We must assume the fixings on the back of the “thing” are adequate as it’s been manufactured. However if it’s an old painting in a heavy frame, check the “cup” or “eye hole” screws are meaty enough and screwed into the frame enough. Use brass wire, not string, between them, again adequately secured at each end.

If the only wall you can possibly hang the thing on is a plasterboard or lath and plaster stud, do not attempt to use any type of “plasterboard fixing”. They are great for securing feathers to the wall, (possibly only three or four lightish ones though).

Do You Feel Lucky?

Maybe you will get lucky and find a timber stud right where you want the centre of the “thing” to be. If not (and sod’s law will of course dictate that there isn’t), an area of the wall’s surface will have to be removed to expose at least two studs. These will have to be notched, and a timber cross batten, at least 25mm thick fixed to them. This is then plastered over and the “thing” fixed to the batten through the new plaster. If your builder is careful (and that’s a mutually exclusive phrase), and the “thing” is big enough, you may not need to redecorate the wall.

All this of course supposes the all-important first phase has been completed. This requires the lady of the house and two builders. Their job is to lift the “thing” up onto the wall and wait there with the veins in their necks bursting while she stands with her chin in her hands at a sort of a rakish angle telling them to move it a bit to the left and down a bit…


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