plumbers - n/g | Vital Football

plumbers - n/g

wxgill

wxgill

Vital 1st Team Regular
I overheard a conversation on Friday between a plumber and another man.

The plumber said he charges £200 a day but if he's "doing a new boiler" he charges £450 a day.

The man said "how come the extra charge?". The plumber said "people only have new boilers once every 10 years or so and it's normally a 2 day job".

Have i missed something here or is the plumber taking the absolute piss? Do plumbers earn around 100k a year?
 
wxgill said:
I overheard a conversation on Friday between a plumber and another man.

The plumber said he charges £200 a day but if he's "doing a new boiler" he charges £450 a day.

The man said "how come the extra charge?". The plumber said "people only have new boilers once every 10 years or so and it's normally a 2 day job".

Have i missed something here or is the plumber taking the absolute piss? Do plumbers earn around 100k a year?
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200 a day sounds about right.
5 days a week x 52 is 52k a year
I'm not sure where you get 100k a year from
 
A new boiler requires a much higher level of skill and training than say, plumbing in a new bathroom (they have to be Gas safe qualified which requires time and money to obtain). I'm guessing the £450 for a boiler takes that into account. Bathrooms and kitchens etc are their bread and butter whereas, as Rob says, new boilers are less frequent.
 
Just to add that a gas safe course to enable a plumber to work on boilers costs roughly 5k from the off. Whilst training they are also not earning. The course apparently can take up to a month. They also require periodic refresher trading, also costing money and time that they can’t work again.

If self employed they also need insurance, vehicle, tools etc.

One final thing, I have worked hands on in engineering for nearly 30 years. I have also undertaken various plumbing projects at home and can honestly say that paying for a good, reliable plumber is worth every penny.
 
Rob_b100 said:
Just to add that a gas safe course to enable a plumber to work on boilers costs roughly 5k from the off. Whilst training they are also not earning. The course apparently can take up to a month. They also require periodic refresher trading, also costing money and time that they can’t work again.

If self employed they also need insurance, vehicle, tools etc.

One final thing, I have worked hands on in engineering for nearly 30 years. I have also undertaken various plumbing projects at home and can honestly say that paying for a good, reliable plumber is worth every penny.
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Ah, posted the same time as you with similar reasoning 😉
 
Nobby_66 said:
A new boiler requires a much higher level of skill and training than say, plumbing in a new bathroom (they have to be Gas safe qualified which requires time and money to obtain). I'm guessing the £450 for a boiler takes that into account. Bathrooms and kitchens etc are their bread and butter whereas, as Rob says, new boilers are less frequent.
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Correct Nobs. As I said above, I have done some plumbing stuff at home as I’m sure most have. This is just water. A boiler consists of water, Gas and electricity all in one box. Whatever could go wrong?!?!
 
If you're having an old copper boiler replaced don't think the plumber is doing you a favour when he offers to, " get rid of it for you".

The copper is valuable and it's well worth your while taking it down the scrapyard and weighing it in yourself...
 
Before we left the UK mid 2000's plumbers in London were charging £100+ per hour with one guy saying he didnt want to be greedy and only charging £70.
Plumbing companies were desperately bringing in Polish plumbers because they worked hard and were cheap.
 
Also, some plumbers refer to their "bonus" - which is code for rip-off parts prices.

They offer an apparently reasonable hourly rate - but charge Recommended Selling Price for all parts.
You know who they are when they try to stop you buying the parts yourself.

Fortunately there are reasonable plumbers who will install parts at prices nearer to Toolstation / Screwfix / wholesaler etc.
 
Agree with Rob and Nobby. Both my son and I have had new boilers in the last couple of years. Fortunately we know an excellent and reliable bloke. He charged around £450 for the day's work. Worth every penny. Services them each year (at half the price British Gas charge).
 
I would not be surprised at skilled tradesmen earning 6 figure sums a year.

A while ago I needed a kitchen tap installing in my UK house ( nowhere near London) and the 20 minute job cost £96.

Ten years ago the son of a then neighbour took an apprenticeship as a carpenter. His first year after completing his apprenticeship he earned £75,000.

Highly skilled brickies are in short supply and command very high earnings.

Taking a degree, accumulating a big debt is no longer the be all and end all these days!
 
A plumber I know will sometimes do 3 or 4 smaller jobs in a day earning well over 400 quid for those jobs. When installing a boiler he only has the earning potential of that one job for the duration, usually a couple of days. That may well be a reason why he charges more for a boiler install.
 
It's important to distinguish the difference between a plumber and a gas engineer. As mentioned above , a Gas Safe registration is required for an engineer.
Plumbing is a trade , where as Gas Engineer is a grade up from that.
I'm confident in saying that neither trade is poorly paid.
 
valenciagill said:
It's important to distinguish the difference between a plumber and a gas engineer. As mentioned above , a Gas Safe registration is required for an engineer.
Plumbing is a trade , where as Gas Engineer is a grade up from that.
I'm confident in saying that neither trade is poorly paid.
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I understand there's a difference but the £200 rate he quotes was also for Corgi / Gas Safe type work.

This looks like profiteering.

The plumber i use did my boiler maintenance on Monday for £80. He was here 2 hours.

He said he charges £220 a day regardless of the job and a new boiler should only ever be a 3-4 hours job plus a powerflush (if needed).
 
We had a extension built and I project managed a lot of it. I was amazed at the range of prices different trades charged. Kitchen fitter was a grand for 1.5 days. He worked every day and was booked up for months.
 
markinkent said:
We had a extension built and I project managed a lot of it. I was amazed at the range of prices different trades charged. Kitchen fitter was a grand for 1.5 days. He worked every day and was booked up for months.
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That's the thing isn't it? It's all about current demand. If he had very little work on, he'd have to charge less just to get some work but he knows that if you turn him down, someone else will book him.
I'm just about to move home and we phoned six removal companies. Four of them are fully booked every day in June and the other two have quoted ridiculous prices all because loads of people are moving in June to avoid paying stamp duty. Bet their prices will drop come July 🙄
 
That Stamp Duty thing was another f### up. Just pushed up prices plus Government lost money it badly needs.
 
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