How do the professionals do it?

[GB]

For the professionals here: How do you get your quotes right?

Yesterday, I decided to put some shelves in the under-stairs cupboard and generally reorganise it. I reckoned an hour and a half to knock some shelves together from some old bits and bobs I had lying around. That was pretty accurate.

Where I went wrong is that I decided to paint the cupboard first. I thought maybe an hour to do that job. It took the best part of five hours to do two coats. It's all little crannies and awkward spaces. You can't get a roller in, so I used a paint pad and a brush. And today I'm aching all over from all the crouching down and using muscles I don't normally use a lot.

So, David TMH, how much would you try to charge for a little job like that? And what do you do when the householder complains? Even if you manage to charge your hourly rate for the job, you can't really charge for being knackered the next day can you?

[harry]

There are books (updated every year) with tables and prices for doing various works.

Small builders etc just go on their experience.

The problem is the unknowables. Like what you find when you start digging a hole. All computerised nowadays of course.

[Adrian Caspersz]

The room is small enough, I'd go for a stick of suitable explosive in a paint pot. What can go wrong?

Super powers, me thinks ... :)

[michael adams]

If you were doing this all the time, then after a bit you wouldn't be knackered the next day would you ?

Supposing instead, you swapped places with your postman for a day. Unless you were used to walking long distances then after just that one day you'd probably be so stiff you'd need the next few days in an armchair. And yet your postie does it every day, come rain or come shine.

So that's what the customer is paying for basically. Not just the time you're going to spend on the job, but the hours they're going to save by not being knackered the next day.

michael adams

...

[GB]

I can easily walk 15 miles. Maybe not carrying 30Kgs of post, though. But, apart from that, I don't think I'd be as knackered after doing Postie's job as David's. :)

Is David really so fit that he wouldn't notice 5 hours bent double in a cupboard?

[michael adams]

Sorry, maybe I misunderstood your question. Which is possibly based on the assumption that TMH may be expected to take on all sorts of jobs which may require him to use muscles he doesn't normally use on a regular basis. However if he spends much time under sinks, in confined loftspaces etc. that may have familiarised him with working in fairly confined spaces. In addition any painting skills he may have picked up along the way may enable him to complete the job a lot quicker than you did. Plus a habit of taking regular teabreaks may help.

michael adams

...

[newshound]

I'd have said it is mainly experience. Spotting quicker ways to do things. Getting the order right. Having the right tools to get you out of holes.

Just had a carpet and vinyl man in, he has a simple price per square metre of material supplied (varies according to material), this covers whatever is required in the way of gripper strip or doorway trims.

When I started having to estimate (lab work and report writing), I used to work on the basis that jobs would take three times as long as I expected. I was amused to subsequently discover that one of our senior managers (who had been a very good scientist in his day) worked on a factor of Pi.

These days, my estimates are normally within plus or minus 20%.

[ARW]

All I am saying is that when I met him at a cafe for breakfast he was stood ouside the cafe having a cig when I drove past. The apprentice also saw him and said "Look at that fat bastard"

[John Rumm]

In many cases by providing estimates with caveats rather than fixed quotes!

[Tim Watts]

When I have subbed certain things out, I am actually happiest with an hourly (or similar) rate.

I either have a good idea how long, or the chap will give a general indication - and if the job is snagged or I want to tweak things along the way, I get to pay. It's fair, he's happy and I'm happy he's not trying to do a runner as it's gone overtime.

[F Murtz]

Does not work well. Mythbusters have done it.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They all have trolleys round here.

[ARW]

That is sometimes the only option.