Daily rate for a plumber?

DGOBS

When you factor in holiday pay, insurance, tools, training, certification, small pension, etc etc, it mounts up really quickly
Very easy to be a busy fool (not calling you one), but it is, had long chats with my accountant (another yearly fee!) about it,
and you couldn't make money on that rate in this business unless there is something rotten in Denmark!

Xantia

DGOBS wrote: »

When you factor in holiday pay, insurance, tools, training, certification, small pension, etc etc, it mounts up really quickly
Very easy to be a busy fool (not calling you one), but it is, had long chats with my accountant (another yearly fee!) about it,
and you couldn't make money on that rate in this business unless there is something rotten in Denmark!

I have to agree, also at least with a genuine tradesman you can get them to call back if a problem happens.

Theres a right cowboy job here

iwillhtfu

I guess some folks make hay while the sun us shining and scrape the bottom of the barrel when it's not. We could all regale one another with the fortunes we all used to earn it's dog eat dog out there now. There's many a fool out there earning a lot of money and in equal amounts many a fool thinking of the good auld days.

Anyway we digress, OP shop around prices will vary dramatically. Yes some will be cash deals some will be above board and some will be laughable. Qualifications guarantee you nothing I generally get work off word of mouth. Get a couple of quotes and you'll get an idea of the average.

fozz10

anthonyos wrote: »

300 would be a fair price

this is not 2004!!! Im 13 years working as a tradesman and if someone tried to charge me that i know what i would tell them. I know plenty of registered good plumbers who charge in and around 150/160 a day. actually i dont even know a plumber that would have the neck to try charge that. but hey if you can find someone to pay that good luck to you. maybe thats what they charge in dublin or somewhere? cause i know a lot of tradesmen from 5years in it up to 40 years in it and they would never dream of trying to charge someone that

DGOBS

I know a lot of tradesmen too, but in good faith, I don't know a good plumber that charges that rate.

At a day rate of let's say €150, x5 days €750 pw.
Van fuel...€75 - 150 PW..depending on travel done (if your in Dublin that would usually be less)
lets say €650 on average to pay all overheads, van, van tax, van insurance,van testing, van servicing,PL insurance, RGI registration, Oftec registration, tools, calibration of equipment, daily consumables, accountants, bank charges, you don't get paid for sick leave, holiday pay, any pension, how would that add up?

then from your final figure hand over approx 40% - 50% to the revenue

You'd be lucky to have €200 PW in your hand, and that's not a time warp, it costs more to be in business now than 2004

An account said to me years back, what ever is your take home pay (in your head) double that figure at least to earn it.

Dtp1979

fozz10 wrote: »

this is not 2004!!! Im 13 years working as a tradesman and if someone tried to charge me that i know what i would tell them. I know plenty of registered good plumbers who charge in and around 150/160 a day. actually i dont even know a plumber that would have the neck to try charge that. but hey if you can find someone to pay that good luck to you. maybe thats what they charge in dublin or somewhere? cause i know a lot of tradesmen from 5years in it up to 40 years in it and they would never dream of trying to charge someone that

That's called a busy fool

Phill Ewinn

€300 a day?


For a plumber?

Nah.....

shane 007

fozz10 wrote: »

this is not 2004!!! Im 13 years working as a tradesman and if someone tried to charge me that i know what i would tell them. I know plenty of registered good plumbers who charge in and around 150/160 a day. actually i dont even know a plumber that would have the neck to try charge that. but hey if you can find someone to pay that good luck to you. maybe thats what they charge in dublin or somewhere? cause i know a lot of tradesmen from 5years in it up to 40 years in it and they would never dream of trying to charge someone that

You are of course entitled to your opinion but it is not that difficult to break it down.
You say €150 is what should be charged.
Ok, so let's see what that person earns per day. Diesel I would say to run a van each day costs about €25 per day on local work, a lot more for further work. €18 goes on VAT. €3 on USC. Van insurance €5. Van maintenance €10. Accountant €20. PL insurance & employers €20.
So already we are down to €49. Now have I forgotten anything. Oh yeah, medical, stationary, holiday pay, sick pay, pension & don't forgot our ginger leader's cut.
And I have probably forgotten a lot off that list.

(Thanks DGOBS, I forgot RGII & OFTEC fees.... Add another €500 per year)

Then you have to look at the job, price it, go & get materials.

I fitted a new boiler recently in Lucan. Water was cut off & customer rang me to say some of the rads stopped working. I drove from Kilkenny to Lucan only to find they have opened every valve in the hot press, including the balancing valve of the cylinder. Put it back & rads back to normal. Was I paid for it? Was I ....! But that's the service I choose to give.

So on the rock & roll, a family of four gets about €400 per week plus medical card plus state pension. That's €80 per day. Tops it up a few nixers of €150 per day!

MiniGolf

DGOBS wrote: »

I know a lot of tradesmen too, but in good faith, I don't know a good plumber that charges that rate.

At a day rate of let's say €150, x5 days €750 pw.
Van fuel...€75 - 150 PW..depending on travel done (if your in Dublin that would usually be less)
lets say €650 on average to pay all overheads, van, van tax, van insurance,van testing, van servicing,PL insurance, RGI registration, Oftec registration, tools, calibration of equipment, daily consumables, accountants, bank charges, you don't get paid for sick leave, holiday pay, any pension, how would that add up?

then from your final figure hand over approx 40% - 50% to the revenue

You'd be lucky to have €200 PW in your hand, and that's not a time warp, it costs more to be in business now than 2004

An account said to me years back, what ever is your take home pay (in your head) double that figure at least to earn it.

On the above, and as we are talking about 10 years ago...... I bought my van new in February 2005. At that time it cost me €65 to fill it with diesel. In March 2014 (i.e. Now!) it costs me €130 :eek:
The fuel tank hasn't gotten any bigger.
This is just one of the costings listed above, many more of them have gotten higher since then.

shane 007

Standard industry hourly rates are €35 per hour.

€35 x 8 hours = €280
€280 + vat @ 13.5% = €317.80

Dtp1979

shane 007 wrote: »

Standard industry hourly rates are €35 per hour.

€35 x 8 hours = €280
€280 + vat @ 13.5% = €317.80

Might as well round that up to 350:)

Phill Ewinn

shane 007 wrote: »

Standard industry hourly rates are €35 per hour.

€35 x 8 hours = €280
€280 + vat @ 13.5% = €317.80

More like it. Is the OP going to stand over him making sure he gets 8 hours of work though? If an industrial fitter does twice or three times that amount of work per day, how is the OP going to agree a price thats commiserate with the amount of work on offer?

shane 007

Phill Ewinn wrote: »

More like it. Is the OP going to stand over him making sure he gets 8 hours of work though? If an industrial fitter does twice or three times that amount of work per day, how is the OP going to agree a price thats commiserate with the amount of work on offer?

The OP standing over me while I am trying to work will get a sore foot! Why would an industrial fitter do 2 or 3 times more work? Superhumans?

A day also consists of getting materials, etc.
I have to laugh at how employed people think those hours shouldn't be charged for or if they 7 hours is done, well only 7 hours are charged for!

I'd like to see that happen in an employed office worker with salary, holiday pay, sick pay, medical, etc. What would they say if they were deducted for all those non-productive hours chatting or in the phone to the other half! Or they finish 30 minutes early & left short in their wage packet?

Xantia

scudo2

DGOBS wrote: »

If a plumber works for a day rate of €150, there is not way he can make money, I estimate with all overheads (won't realist them here as too many similar threads already do) it costs about €115 per day to get in my van all inclusive (I did that figure a good few years back, most likely costs me more now!) so by those figures, thats €35 quid minus the revenues share, so thats a good €20 in my back pocket for 8 hours.

€115 per day overheads. X 5 days a week. X 52 weeks = €29,900-00 + you think your overheads are higher now !!

Mine run at €16-17,000 per year.= €64pd
You eating out ?

Tombo2001

Egass13 wrote: »

Cheaper is not always better at the end of the day . @150/day you can be guaranteed that's cash so not going through the books and most probably no insurance in place for when the qualpex bursts off the cylinder

I've had a lot of work done on the house in the past year and in my experience there has been absolutely no correlation between how much a guy was charging and how happy we were with the work done.

Egass13

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I've had a lot of work done on the house in the past year and in my experience there has been absolutely no correlation between how much a guy was charging and how happy we were with the work done.

I never said there was , you will have scammers in all trades . But bottom line is you won't get the creme de le creme of plumbers on 150 a day ! There's a reason they have to charge that low . As detailed in several posts above ,it costs money to run an operation , those costs have to be recouped and a wage has to be earned . Tiz simple economics

shane 007

Also throw in a couple of employees! Then the fun begins....

Egass13

shane 007 wrote: »

Also throw in a couple of employees! Then the fun begins....

I have an employee, he's five , and I pay him in xbox games . Don't tell revenue...

scudo2

shane 007 wrote: »

Also throw in a couple of employees! Then the fun begins....

Been there........ !

Never again.

anthonyos

This is a pointless agreement about rates and to be honest id say alot of jealous non plumbers posting who could only dream of earning a few hundred a day and dread the day that they have to employ a plumber because they know and trustworthy reliable plumber will cost them a few hundred ..im an employee working for a wage thats the way I like it and I will work for ppl for as long as I can ...day rate is for friends or family if someone wanted me to do a job in there house id give them a price materialss plus 300 minimum for the day other wise get someone else ..the most iv made in a day was 800 cash as a 3rd apprentice and why because in worth it ha ha

Aidan_M_M

wow... talk about a thread taking flight!
I am confident I could do the required jobs , in my daily job I often have to do mickey mouse bits of plumbing , and I've done lots of domestic bits and bobs over the years in various houses . And I also have RGII Certification . However.......... I have a seriously busy day job , I've a solid 3 weeks of work ahead of me at all times. So when I come home , at 8-10 o'clock at night, I don't fancy plumbing my house. And the other side of it is , I'm making a solid steady wage . so if I pay someone to do it , that's decent and skilled , I have my evenings to eat and chill out , and he has a wage too .

fozz10

Egass13 wrote: »

I never said there was , you will have scammers in all trades . But bottom line is you won't get the creme de le creme of plumbers on 150 a day ! There's a reason they have to charge that low . As detailed in several posts above ,it costs money to run an operation , those costs have to be recouped and a wage has to be earned . Tiz simple economics

the more i read stuff like this the more i know that some people are living on a different planet. u do know that not all plumbers have crazy overheads? a van and pay their insurance and taxes is all alot of them have (there not all rgi u know? they dont have to be). I have many friends registered in many trades and damn good trades men too pay their taxes and insurance and go to work like anyone else without much overheads. you do know a fas 4 year certification gets u a trade and a good name is got from doing good local work and not how many vans u have on the road or how many overheads u have or how much you charge. anyways the whole idea of paying a plumber 300 a day is the best laugh ive heard in a while. the people who pay it deserve it!

fozz10

I might go back and do a plumber apprenticeship in plumbing after reading this thread! time to start a new trade!

scudo2

anthonyos wrote: »

This is a pointless agreement about rates and to be honest id say alot of jealous non plumbers posting who could only dream of earning a few hundred a day

There is a difference between what you charge per day and what you earn/take home in a year.

A lot of guys I know have packed in there self employed trade for 9 to 5 jobs in Apple and similar company's.

They are looked upon as the lucky ones.

Plenty had to hand back the keys of there homes and are now in Canada or Australia.
These are middle aged guys with family's !!!!

As you said Ant.
A pointless argument, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.





Thanks original OP/ Aidan
for first harmless question, hope things work out.

scwazrh

The company I m with employ plumbers on a regular basis , The most we ever pay for gas registered qualified plumbers is €180 for a 9 hr day.I doubt very much if there is any plumbers earning an average of €300 a day for 5 days a week .

fozz10

fozz10 wrote: »

I might go back and do a plumber apprenticeship in plumbing after reading this thread! time to start a new trade!

Do your four years, come on the tools and you'll find reality a bit of a game changer.

I'v seen thousands of boiler installs since coming to ireland and most have been brutal cheap and nasty but hey that's what the public want.

Why do you think 26,000 gas boilers were replaced last year, there is very little encouragement for time served tradesmen because most customers arn't interested in paying for them and unqualified tradesmen get to have a free run of things, that's not a view I have from a bit of chit chat but from the experience of trying to trouble shoot the absolute silliness that comes from cheaper is better which usually ends in tears.

Egass13

Check out the heat exchanger busted thread , that'll give you an indication of what Gary is talking about.

anthonyos

scwazrh wrote: »

The company I m with employ plumbers on a regular basis , The most we ever pay for gas registered qualified plumbers is €180 for a 9 hr day.I doubt very much if there is any plumbers earning an average of €300 a day for 5 days a week .

Employing plumber's on a regular basis might be why its 180 a day im not up todate with the cost of running a business but I suppse it all down to your selling technique and how your going to do the job better than the next guy and if there is any problems after we will come back were as the 150 a day dole monkey will say fcuk them I made nothing from the job im not going back ..I see it day in day out and I love it to be honest

I often wonder what a plumbers wage would be if only time served plumbers who do what they say on the tin were allowed to do plumbing work.