Tradesmen's Day Rates

Are you trying to find out what a tradesmen's day rates are? You've come to the right place.

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Advice on Finding a Tradesman

Finding local tradesmen can be tricky - there are important questions to consider:
1. Is he reliable?
2. Is he good at his trade?
3. Is he established, thus responsible for his work for longer than the time it takes for your check to clear?
4. The million dollar question - how expensive is he?
5. Is his the RIGHT price - not just the cheapest?

The purpose of this page is twofold. to give you an indication of tradesmen’s rates, and also a pointer as to the way a tradesman goes about costing his jobs.

The Grey Area
We call it "The Grey Area" as it this process has been a source of confusion for so many years. But as you will see - it's actually black and white.

However, before I go any further, let me make one thing clear - NOT ALL TRADESMEN ARE COWBOYS. True, there are many unsavoury tradesmen out there plying what they might call "a trade", but the rest of us know this is just daylight robbery. I'd rather pay a skilled, experienced bloke £250 a day than get a fly-by-night in for £160. Doing otherwise will be a false economy.

But think - for every rogue builder you hear about, there are hundreds and thousands of decent hard-working tradesmen out there, doing the hard yards (believe me it is hard work), day in, day out.

Cross-reference your area and you tradesmen, before checking out the big box below to find out about job costing.

Ultimately YOU must make YOUR choice on who you employ, using your judgement and experience.

An Explanation of How Tradesmen and Builders Cost their Jobs

It's a simple process based upon a simple theory:

Below is the "Pricing Formula" that all tradesmen, including ourselves at The Building Sheriff, use when pricing building jobs:

cost of total tradesmen man-days
+
cost of total labourer man-days
+
cost of materials
=

Price of Job!

Therefore a 2 day job for a tradesman and a labourer will cost 2 x £160.00 (or appropriate rate) + 2 x £100 (labourer on £100 per day) + £200 (example material cost) = £320+ £200+ £200 = £720 Total Job Cost

How this helps you:

1. When a tradesman comes to price a job, ask him to break down his costing into SEPARATE PRICES for labour and material costs.

2. When you receive his quotation (NEVER accept an estimate) call him and ask him how many days the job will take and how many tradesmen and labourers he will be employing during that period.

3. Expect the tradesman to add 15% to the price of materials. Not only does he have to shell out, he also uses HIS time to go and get what he needs.

4. Ask him what he charges as a day rate - (say you might want him to do the job on a day rate if he asks why). In today's economic climate, if he charges more that £160.00 per day, this definitely does not mean you should seek alternative tradesmen. If you are happy with the person and the service and as long as he/she is not charging something like £350 per day, use your judgement. Ours are just price guides. A one-man band will always be cheaper than a firm, but the firm may give you piece of mind.

5. Multiply the number of tradesmen-days by his day rate and multiply the number of labourer-days by £100 (this is generous).

6. Add the tradesman and labour totals together.

7. Compare this to the figure for labour costs in his quotation and see how accurate and fair his price is.

For all job costs click on the appropriate section below: