Kitchen fitters - daily rates ?

[Talay]

Just been quoted £365 plus VAT per day for a tradesman (not sure yet if that means time served joiner or expert flat pack unpacker) and labourer come sidekick to install a kitchen.

Location is near Guildford, Surrey.

 

[twosat]

That seems a little high to me.
Ive been a kitchen fitter/ carpenter for twenty years, i charge £160 per day plus £40 per day for my labourer.

Most kitchens are fitted on price, not day rate.
Is your fitter including plasterer, electicians and plumbers in his day rate.?

 

[steve the fitter]

Im a kitchen fitter and wouldnt price a kitchen on a day rate but it can work out to be in the region you have been quoted but it isnt all profit. Does he offer a guarantee, are you paying for all the fixings for plumbing and electrics.
A small kitchen can easily cost £200 to fit not including petrol insurances and other business costs

 

[choorian]

my fitters charge per job, not per day depending on how big/small the kitchen is, on average in lancashire my fitters charge £1200.00 per kitchen and all our units are fully assembled, that included their travel expenses, labour ect.

Normal jobs usually take 4 days to complete and our fitters only put the units in, doors & worktop (laminate) nothing more.

 

[Talay]

To be honest, we talked a little about the electrics and some minor plumbing and a figure of around £2k was mentioned for fitting. I probed to find out what a day rate would be, largely because if it was a 2 day job then I think £1000 a day is excessive and conversely, if the job needed 10 days then I would think £200 a day to be on the light side.

Of course, I need to see what is included in the quote. As someone mentioned, is this really a figure for all removal, making good, plasterwork, plumbing, electric, tiling etc.

When you guys are pricing up, are you thinking about making anything on the kitchen, such as Howdens, Benchmarx etc.

 

[choorian]

We make the kitchens & doors ourselves, we send our fitters out just to fit the kitchen, we don't make any money on the fitting, my fitters are brilliant and to be honest I pay them bonuses just to keep them with us because you can't find decent fitters. My guys do spend 1 day longer than normal fitters but their finish is excellent.

You're better off buying the kitchen and getting a recommended fitter. My guys do odd jobs after 5.00pm and they tell me of the 'so called fitted kitchens' that they gone to 'complete' or set right.

People think cheap will be ok, there are people here that will fit your kitchen for £300.00 but then they pay alot more to complete/fix the job, you end up paying double.

Try and find a recommended fitter who's reasonable.

If the fitter's getting you're kitchen, they will be making a margin on the kitchen, My fitters don't charge extra if they get a kitchen from us, we give them a percentage for getting the customer.

 

[maxine]

Cor that's a bit on the steep side. If I use subbies for any kitchen work then it's around £150 per day tops on a day equivalent but usually its a job rate not a day rate.

 

[Mick.H]

Well we usually get £3.5k for labour when supplying and installing a kitchen.

We don't install kitchens provided by customers as there is very little money to be made doing that. The quote you have had is the kitchen fitter wanting his usual wage for installing what you have supplied a bit pricey i'd say, even for London.

 

[internetspaceships]

That seems a little high to me.
Ive been a kitchen fitter/ carpenter for twenty years, i charge £160 per day plus £40 per day for my labourer.

How much is minimum wage? Or do you pay cash in hand? Or is he 16? Or an apprentice?

 

[internetspaceships]

I don't think anyone can say whether it's too expensive or not. There aren't enough facts here.

It's possible that the guy is planning on working a 12 hour shift - as opposed to 7 hours and lunch breaks but we don't know.

 

[Mick.H]

Why i would deem it expensive is the majority of people charging a day rate will make the job last that little bit longer. If it takes the guy who quoted the op 8 days then that is 3 grand.

If the guy does it in 5 days as it would usually take then it isn't that bad a deal to be honest.

But i can understand why the op would post this question as we get a lot of calls from people who have bought their own kitchen and think they can get someone to fit it for £15 pound an hour They soon learn that they are unlikely to get that. Unless they choose to use an odd job man.

 

[Business Friend UK]

no idea on this. All i know is we got a quote from 2 of the big sheds. about £6000. yeh 6 grand haha. useless!

 

[Talay]

Well we usually get £3.5k for labour when supplying and installing a kitchen.

We don't install kitchens provided by customers as there is very little money to be made doing that. The quote you have had is the kitchen fitter wanting his usual wage for installing what you have supplied a bit pricey i'd say, even for London.

Surely the cost of labour when fitting a kitchen is almost exclusively relative to the size and conditions of the kitchen and prepared walls, thus dictating the time on site. I'm not sure how a fixed sum of £3.5k would work in practice.

Would you care to comment on the farce that is Howdens, Benchmarx etc. where "discounts" of 75/80% are the norm and do you consider some or all of this "discount" fair game for the fitter to retain, if they can, if they are involved with the kitchen purchase at the aforementioned suppliers and their ilk ?

 

[Mick.H]

Surely the cost of labour when fitting a kitchen is almost exclusively relative to the size and conditions of the kitchen and prepared walls, thus dictating the time on site. I'm not sure how a fixed sum of £3.5k would work in practice.

It's all pretty much the same really. We have done 4 kitchens in the last 2 months and each one has virtually been the same in time to do.

We like to make a minimum of 1k on the kitchen supply and 2k on the fit of the kitchen. Then for tiling and electrics / plumbing we like to make a further £1000. Our pricing is very middle of the road to be honest, but you seem to think that it is expensive! Try getting a quote to have a kitchen supplied and installed by wickes, you'll pay 15k

It is hard graft and time consuming work aiming for that perfect kitchen finish. You can easily go wrong with a kitchen buying it yourself and getting someone to fit it for you. We quoted a women who paid 800 for her kitchen units and got someone to fit it for her. 12 months later it was falling apart because she most likely paid someone a crap amount of money so they slapped it in.

Would you care to comment on the farce that is Howdens, Benchmarx etc. where "discounts" of 75/80% are the norm and do you consider some or all of this "discount" fair game for the fitter to retain, if they can, if they are involved with the kitchen purchase at the aforementioned suppliers and their ilk ?

Howdens are trade only supliers, not public suppliers. The reason trades get a discount on materials is because they are repeat buyers. You aren't a repeat buyer / kitchen fitter, therefore you aren't entitled to any discounts. You pay full price.

Alot of the discount stuff with howdens is blarney anyway. They try to say they are giving us a 85% discount but it is already 70% overpriced in the first place.

When we get a quote from howdens the materials always mount up to about 6k and then they bring it down for us with the "discount".

Either way, that has nothing to do with you as you aren't a fitter :redface:

 

[internetspaceships]

Would you care to comment on the farce that is Howdens, Benchmarx etc. where "discounts" of 75/80% are the norm and do you consider some or all of this "discount" fair game for the fitter to retain, if they can, if they are involved with the kitchen purchase at the aforementioned suppliers and their ilk ?

As Mick said they are a trade supplier. Also it's always weird watching someone who claims to be a businessman worrying about other people making a profit don't you think?

 

[Beachcomber]

Would you care to comment on the farce that is Howdens, Benchmarx etc. where "discounts" of 75/80% are the norm............

Farce?

They are trade suppliers and the discounts received are usually in line with how much you spend - a fitter who buys 3 or 4 kitchens a month will get a far bigger discount than oen who buys 3 or 4 a year.

The 'list' price is the equivelent of the RRP.

Not sure where the farce is?

 

[Talay]

Perhaps I like transparency too much but I think there is something inherently wrong in deliberately hiding the true cost of the kitchen from the customer and chalking up a nice little earner on the side. To me, it smacks of entitlement, which I detest.

To state that the public should keep their noses out and that it is nothing to do with them is downright condescending when they are paying the bills.

Everyone knows the whole industry is a farce as the lowest "discount" you ever see advertised is about 50%. Caveat emptor was never truer than in the world of kitchens it would seem.

 

[Mick.H]

Perhaps I like transparency too much but I think there is something inherently wrong in deliberately hiding the true cost of the kitchen from the customer and chalking up a nice little earner on the side. To me, it smacks of entitlement, which I detest.

To state that the public should keep their noses out and that it is nothing to do with them is downright condescending when they are paying the bills.

Everyone knows the whole industry is a farce as the lowest "discount" you ever see advertised is about 50%. Caveat emptor was never truer than in the world of kitchens it would seem.

You're on a different planet you are.

You are clealry like the very growing number of people who think tradesmen are too expensive.

I probably exert more energy in a day than you in a week thus i want to be paid handsomely for it.

You'll be telling us we should be cheaper because we don't need gym memberships next.

If people can't afford to have work done on their property, or are upset by how much tradesmen earn, learn how to do it yourself. Bodge the job. Get an odd job man in. No skin off my nose. There are plenty of people in this country that don't bat an eye lid at being quoted 6k for a kitchen or bathroom.

 

[choorian]

Hmm, 'up north' in lancashire your average kitchen price, supply only is normally around the £3k from a small manufacturer which is believe it not cheaper than the bigger retailers. Try getting quotes from a local manufacturer, they will supply and fit at a reasonable price because they're not selling it onto a fitter who will charge you extra, they give you a price for the kitchen and fitting as a whole, they make their money from the kitchen supply and they're not interested in making money on the fitting or adding any charges. They give you a kitchen and send their fitter out to fit it.