Self-employed fencing contractors potential earnings?

[nzt48]

Anybody know what a self-employed fencing contractor could realistically earn/charge a day in the South East?

 

[ryzo]

I had a mate working for £60 a day, while his work-mate/boss was on £85. Not sure what the top man was earning, will find out!

 

[nzt48]

I had a mate working for £60 a day, while his work-mate/boss was on £85. Not sure what the top man was earning, will find out!

Thanks for the response. Anyone else got any idea?

 

[roydmoorian]

Have a look on here : -

http://farmingforum.co.uk/forums/search.php?searchid=997210

you may get some tips

 

[Fenland]

Most self employed fencers will be on a piece rate, not a day rate.

They will be earning £x/m installed with £x being highly variable depending on the type of work etc.

Most fencing teams are two man gangs i.e an installer or lead installer plus a labourer.

Typical wage would be £100-£120 per day (+VAT) for installer. Agricultural fencing wages would generally be less with high spec security fencing commanding more.



[We run a fencing business by the way]

 

[swiftpete]

Hard work for not much reward then.

 

[S-Marketing]

Hard work for not much reward then.

120 quid a day is about 30 grand a year. I don't think that's bad money for unskilled labour.

 

[roydmoorian]

120 quid a day is about 30 grand a year. I don't think that's bad money for unskilled labour.

Have you ever seen a fence erected by unskilled labour

http://raleighfencecontractors.com/article29-bad-fences.html

 

[love154]

120 quid a day is about 30 grand a year. I don't think that's bad money for unskilled labour.

unskilled labour? done properly i dont think so

 

[S-Marketing]

unskilled labour? done properly i dont think so

Done properly its still unskilled labour. I could teach anyone with an average amount of common sense how to erect a decent panel, closeboard or chainlink fence in about a day. To me that would indicate that it is unskilled labour.
I'm not having a go at fencing contracts. It is hard graft, but its not skilled.

 

[roydmoorian]

Aaah, you mean that you could teach the skills required to erect a proper fence to BS standards - Then he would have the skills and therefore be skilled

 

[S-Marketing]

Aaah, you mean that you could teach the skills required to erect a proper fence to BS standards - Then he would have the skills and therefore be skilled

Now you are being daft. If I taught a child to tie his shoelaces does that mean that this can be thought of as a skilled trade?

Maybe we just disagree on the definition of a skilled trade. I see engineers, decent joiners and experienced builders as skilled tradesmen. I don't see fencing as a skilled trade.

 

[roydmoorian]

OK then, have a look at this and see if you would like to compete ?

They are all professionals but only one team can come 1st

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN_cZfShTWk

Incredibly dry ground conditions proved to be a real test for the two-man teams, who were challenged to erect approximately 60 metres of Tornado high tensile stock netting in just three hours, with only hand-held equipment. In fact, only seven out of the 13 teams present managed to complete the task within the allotted timeframe.

 

[roydmoorian]

Now you are being daft. If I taught a child to tie his shoelaces does that mean that this can be thought of as a skilled trade?

Maybe we just disagree on the definition of a skilled trade. I see engineers, decent joiners and experienced builders as skilled tradesmen. I don't see fencing as a skilled trade.

I personally would see tying shoelaces on a skill level with wiping my ar**

 

[S-Marketing]

OK then, have a look at this and see if you would like to compete ?

They are all professionals but only one team can come 1st

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN_cZfShTWk

That more demonstrates my point. Hard graft with little skill.

Also a good demonstration of why fencers shouldn't use chainsaws.

Anyway, my point was that the figures quoted didn't seem like bad money for what I would class as unskilled labour.

The best thing a fencer could do if he wanted to earn more money, would be to pay me to teach them how.

 

[securityfencer]

think i posted on the wrong post originally. I used to work for one of the largest manufacturers of timber/steel security fencing in england for about 11 years & dealt with all the pricing etc, and i would say that £120 a day is the average but you can also work on priced jobs where you can potentially earn a lot more (depends on your work ethic), i know of some one/two man bands earning upto £40k a year, also remember that you would get a trade discount on materials & make some profit on this, anything upto 35% - 40% depending on quantity & type of material required, its always worth haggling the material discounts to make a bit extra.