How much should I pay for a handyman/ diy person?

Trishr8

New to this and hope I'm asking in the right place.
I need various smallish jobs doing in my house - replacing recessed lights, repairs to guttering, putting up a shelf, installing a new electrical socket and one or two other bits and pieces.
What would be a typically hourly or daily rate for these jobs - I'm in County Mayo, near Westport?
Thanks in advance

Sleeper12

For most electrical work I just wouldn't get a handyman to do. Technically they might be allowed to do it but I've seen so many death traps left by them.
Anyway your question is how much. Around 200 per day if they genuinely know what they are doing. Remember that a real plumber or electrician get paid 25/35 per hour when working for a company. These would be fully insured. Don't pay a jack of no trades a tradesmans wages

Trishr8

Thanks very much - exactly the advice I was looking for as I really hadn't a clue re wage rates for the various trades here. Much appreciated.

the_pen_turner

there are handymen out there that are electrical trained ect and they are advertised as such. they would have the relevant insurance etc.
I do a lot of work with an electrician and can do small stuff like that but I have a rule that I never touch electrical or plumbing. too easy for something to go wrong or get the blame for something already wrong.
occasionally I will take electrical stuff off the wall if its in the way but always tell them to get someone official to put it back .

basically any proper tradesman running an official business with all the proper insurances in place will not be charging less than 130 a day minium. even that is really low . most charge between 150-180 a day .

also remember that just because you want basic stuff done doesn't mean that the date rate should be any less. if I'm sweeping the yard or fitting a kitchen the overheads and costs are the same

Trishr8

Thank you - very helpful and I do take your point onboard re getting qualified tradespeople.

muffler

Id be offering much the same advice as above. Definitely get a registered sparky for any electrical work you need doing and expect to pay €20+ per hour. If you do have to get any plumbing work done then its best to get a qualified plumber. Quite a few lads out there do double up in plumbing and electrics so you might be lucky in that regard

For other odd jobs the qualifications of the person involved or your close relationship to them would pretty much dictate how much you should be paying. What you will be charged and what you pay may not always add up in your own mind as you could suspect that you are being ripped off and lets face it, it has happened numerous times but if its a local handyman the you are looking at a minimum of €15/hour + expenses and +materials

Risteard81

muffler wrote: »

Definitely get a registered sparky for any electrical work you need doing and expect to pay €20+ per hour.

I realise that this is an old thread, but €20/hr wouldn't be within an asses' roar of a realistic rate that a Registered Electrical Contractor would charge you per hour.

You need to double that at a minimum.

Sleeper12

Risteard81 wrote:

I realise that this is an old thread, but €20/hr wouldn't be within an asses' roar of a realistic rate that a Registered Electrical Contractor would charge you per hour.

Call out & the first hour 70 to 100 is the norm in Dublin now. I'd hazard a guess at 30 to 35 an hour af the first hour.

I'd be wary of a tradesman being too cheap, especially if you are getting a RECI or RGI

Sleeper12

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Call out & the first hour 70 to 100 is the norm in Dublin now.

I've had a registered electrician work for me and he'd charge about 20-30 per hour, depending on what he was doing for me. Very nice chap and professional and reliable.


I know lots of tradesmen that are charging silly money, but they don't seem to be getting repeat business. People will feel robbed paying over the odds a lot of the time and simply won't hire the same person again.




More on-topic, a general handy man in Drogheda area will set you back about €160-200 per day in my experience. Some of them are brilliant, others not so much. The one I used personally, and a different chap used by a friend, both did basic electrical and plumbing work for us as part of their day rate but nothing too elaborate.




Personally, I've a few bits to do around the house (fairly substantial, non-essential work, mostly renovating etc), but I can see the ass falling out of tradesmen's work in the next 18-24 months, so I'm putting it on the long finger to see what happens.

Sleeper12

Deleted User wrote:

I know lots of tradesmen that are charging silly money, but they don't seem to be getting repeat business. People will feel robbed paying over the odds a lot of the time and simply won't hire the same person again.

70 to 100 isn't silly money for a call out. My first job this morning is Bray and I live in Dublin 5. That's over an hour before I start work not to mention my time queuing at the trade counter. From Bray I am going to City West, Walkinstown, trim & lusk. If I only charged 30 per hour spent on each job today I'd come home with 150 before expenses yet my day starts at 7am working on invoices on the PC and then on to suppliers. I will drive over 100 miles paying for fuel and over 20 on tolls Inc port tunnel, east link, west link and M3 toll. Without a 75 euro call out fee my 30 year old shower repair company will be out of business by Christmas. I give to charity from time to time & I have worked for charities but I am not a charity. I give free advice here on Boards and I have an ear piece for the phone while on jobs. I receive dozens & dozens of calls from all over Ireland and the UK every day and I give free advice to all of these but I have to charge 75 per call out for me to stay in business because my time spent on a job doesn't start when I arrive at the door

Risteard81

Sleeper12 wrote: »

70 to 100 isn't silly money for a call out. My first job this morning is Bray and I live in Dublin 5. That's over an hour before I start work not to mention my time queuing at the trade counter. From Bray I am going to City West, Walkinstown, trim & lusk. If I only charged 30 per hour spent on each job today I'd come home with 150 before expenses yet my day starts at 7am working on invoices on the PC and then on to suppliers. I will drive over 100 miles paying for fuel and over 20 on tolls Inc port tunnel, east link, west link and M3 toll. Without a 75 euro call out fee my 30 year old shower repair company will be out of business by Christmas. I give to charity from time to time & I have worked for charities but I am not a charity. I give free advice here on Boards and I have an ear piece for the phone while on jobs. I receive dozens & dozens of calls from all over Ireland and the UK every day and I give free advice to all of these but I have to charge 75 per call out for me to stay in business because my time spent on a job doesn't start when I arrive at the door

Absolutely. I had to drive from Derry to Tallaght this morning, then on to a job in Newbridge tomorrow and back to Derry tomorrow night. Probably go to a nice "local" job in Letterkenny on Wednesday. No way any of that can be done for 20 Euro per hour spent on site.

Calahonda52

IIRC KKV has previous with these sort of garryowens: post 10 should be a sticky.

I do it slightly differently but it ends up the same: my work is different.
.
I charge mileage at CS rates, travelling time and then time on site as an energy consultant.
Travelling rate is a 1/4 of my site rate but then the site rate is a bit more than 30/hr:)

All this is made clear to the client before I leave home.
If I have any doubts I get paid 150 in advance, else no travel: it sorts out chancers

looksee

I have just had a handyman working for me - all sorts of stuff from minor demolition, taking up and replacing floorboards for the electrician and plumber to tiling and some timber construction. I was entirely happy with what he did. Charged €130 a day, was with me for a couple of months. I think if I were looking for someone for just an odd day I would expect to pay a bit more.

muffler

Sleeper12 wrote: »

70 to 100 isn't silly money for a call out. My first job this morning is Bray and I live in Dublin 5. That's over an hour before I start work not to mention my time queuing at the trade counter. From Bray I am going to City West, Walkinstown, trim & lusk. If I only charged 30 per hour spent on each job today I'd come home with 150 before expenses yet my day starts at 7am working on invoices on the PC and then on to suppliers. I will drive over 100 miles paying for fuel and over 20 on tolls Inc port tunnel, east link, west link and M3 toll. Without a 75 euro call out fee my 30 year old shower repair company will be out of business by Christmas. I give to charity from time to time & I have worked for charities but I am not a charity. I give free advice here on Boards and I have an ear piece for the phone while on jobs. I receive dozens & dozens of calls from all over Ireland and the UK every day and I give free advice to all of these but I have to charge 75 per call out for me to stay in business because my time spent on a job doesn't start when I arrive at the door

So you have €375 in your pocket today (5 x €75) before you start work on the 5 different sites. Nice money if you get it which you are getting obviously.

In this country there has always been 2 prices - the "Dublin prices" and the "rest of the country" prices. Im in Donegal and I can tell you now that there isnt any plumber or electrician getting anywhere close to those prices. Its just a fact of life. But people do have to understand that tradesmen here have to travel and insure them selves and their vans and pay their taxes, buy tools etc etc the same as those in Dublin yet they do so at probably around half the Dublin rate. So location is important when people ask what they should expect to pay a tradesman....or tradesperson

Calahonda52

Calahonda52 wrote: »

IIRC KKV has previous with these sort of garryowens

I've no idea what that means. I've googled garryowens assuming it's some slang I'm not familiar with but I'm getting nowhere?

listermint

muffler wrote: »

So you have €375 in your pocket today (5 x €75) before you start work on the 5 different sites. Nice money if you get it which you are getting obviously.

In this country there has always been 2 prices - the "Dublin prices" and the "rest of the country" prices. Im in Donegal and I can tell you now that there isnt any plumber or electrician getting anywhere close to those prices. Its just a fact of life. But people do have to understand that tradesmen here have to travel and insure them selves and their vans and pay their taxes, buy tools etc etc the same as those in Dublin yet they do so at probably around half the Dublin rate. So location is important when people ask what they should expect to pay a tradesman....or tradesperson

I'd assume Donegal prices aren't far off. 60 call out would be probably national average.

muffler

listermint wrote: »

I'd assume Donegal prices aren't far off. 60 call out would be probably national average.

Most independents dont have a call out charge here. They just charge a fee upon completion of the job if its small. Obviously if the job was bigger they may have to tender a quote in advance. The larger forms would have a call out of around €50 - €60

fred funk }{

Jesus, some on here haven't a scooby doo about the running costs of a business and think everything they get paid goes into their pocket. For every service call we do we need to get at least €70 at a minimum in order for it to be feasible. Not every call is 5 minutes away and quite often involves a couple of hours in the van across the M50 and €70 which includes VAT often isn't enough to cover costs.

Sometimes the calls can be close to each other so they balance out in the long run.

Lumen

Since this thread is about handymen (i.e. generalists), driving from D5 to Bray really shouldn't be an issue.

antiskeptic

Sleeper12 wrote: »

For most electrical work I just wouldn't get a handyman to do. Technically they might be allowed to do it but I've seen so many death traps left by them.
Anyway your question is how much. Around 200 per day if they genuinely know what they are doing. Remember that a real plumber or electrician get paid 25/35 per hour when working for a company. These would be fully insured. Don't pay a jack of no trades a tradesmans wages

On your last sentence. The jack of no trades who can do the simpler side of each trade has as much skill, when all added up, as a person dedicated to one trade. Assuming like comparison: competant vs competent.

Seeing as a one trick pony (if I might put it that way) is no use when you've a wide variety of jobs, you are forced into handyman.

In which case the market (as in all things) will decide. In the crash, tradesmen weren't getting what they are getting now. The market decided.

And so pay what the going rate is for the service. If that be more thana tradesman then so be it.

tayto lover

€200 a day ??

You would have to earn nearly €400 yourself to get that after tax.
Workmen are not cheap.

antiskeptic

Lumen wrote: »

Since this thread is about handymen (i.e. generalists), driving from D5 to Bray really shouldn't be an issue.

I'd be thinking it better to focus on building your name more locally. Thats serious downtime and cost, all that travel.

Rows Grower

muffler wrote: »

Most independents dont have a call out charge here. They just charge a fee upon completion of the job if its small. Obviously if the job was bigger they may have to tender a quote in advance. The larger forms would have a call out of around €50 - €60

It's the same around here, anyone looking to get a job done will usually just ask someone local they know to do it and ask how much they owe when it's finished.

Some tradesmen do have a call out charge and the same fellas can charge like a wounded rhino but they would lose out on more work in the long run.

FishOnABike

tayto lover wrote: »

€200 a day ??

You would have to earn nearly €400 yourself to get that after tax.
Workmen are not cheap.

All considered that's on or around the average industrial wage. I wouldn't expect someone to work for less.

IrishZeus

FishOnABike wrote: »

All considered that's on or around the average industrial wage. I wouldn't expect someone to work for less.

The average industrial wage is €103,000/yr?

(€400*5*4.3*12)

the_pen_turner

IrishZeus wrote: »

The average industrial wage is €103,000/yr?

(€400*5*4.3*12)

400 would leave 200 after all the costs.
then you have tax

you dont work everyday
you would be doing well to bill out 190 days a year. so thats 50-60 days doing accounts, servicing the van, rained off, sick, holidays, customers cancelling, customers that wont pay ect.

then your down arund the average industrial wage of 39 000

Peatys

IrishZeus wrote: »

The average industrial wage is €103,000/yr?

(€400*5*4.3*12)

That is cheap if you include the employers costs to have an average industrial employee.

Sleeper12

Don't forget that the client is your employer. Part of the money they pay goes towards stuff a regular employer pays. Holiday pay, bank Holidays, sick pay, pension etc

IrishZeus

the_pen_turner wrote: »

400 would leave 200 after all the costs.
then you have tax

you dont work everyday
you would be doing well to bill out 190 days a year. so thats 50-60 days doing accounts, servicing the van, rained off, sick, holidays, customers cancelling, customers that wont pay ect.

then your down arund the average industrial wage of 39 000

Fair enough. Only ever really looked at it from the Mon-Fri, 9-5 point of view.

the_pen_turner

IrishZeus wrote: »

Fair enough. Only ever really looked at it from the Mon-Fri, 9-5 point of view.

thats the problem . most customers never see or realise all the costs behind the scenes

monkeysnapper

Mines not quite a handy man job but moral of story same ....

Putting in stove with boiler and mrs says uncle is a "sort" of plumber ...does " od" jobs ....od is right!!!!

Spent a week installing ..... it didnt work right at all , over heating and pipes rattling.... tried to get onto him and hes constantly at pub and wont answer phone ....

Wife came out of hospital after youngest child had been sick to a cold house with fan heaters living out of one room ...

Got onto a " real" plumber with a excellent record and hes gasping saying aaggghhh this is a total mess

Week later and 1100 euro lighter it's running like a dream .....

5 years later and we haven't seen that excellent plumber since as we haven't needed him....