Aibu to be confused by this interaction with plaster

[hellowembley]

I am away from home this week trying to escape paint fumes as our house gets painted. I need a small plastering job done in my kitchen, where I've pulled some tiles off. Someone recommended a plasterer to me and he went round & quoted on Monday. He said he's do the job for £240 (no idea if this was reasonable but I needed it done quickly this week and he promised this). He wasn't able to get in the house to quote (I wasn't there, decorator was supposed to let him in but was late). So he had to look through the window to quote but would have had a pretty good view.
Anyway, I agreed the price. He said he'd do the job Wednesday. Wednesday morning I get a phonecall from him. He says he reassessed the job, he wants £300 for it, take it or leave it. His main justifucation for hike seemed to be that he'd have to remove the microwave and fruit bowl off the worksurface (?!) I was a bit surprised/ put out but concluded that, ok, he hadn't been able to see the job properly to quote. I asked if he would do it for £280- a tiny negotiation to avoid coming across like a complete mug in case he was just chancing it.
Next thing, i speak to the decorator in the afternoon who told me plasterer had left after speaking to me rather than getting on with job. Tried to phone a few times. No response. Got annoyed and sent him a - reasonably restrained in tone- msg asking him not to come back and telling him i felt he'd behaved unprofessionally and should have told me he was not happy to do the job. His reply was 'i don't know what your job is but you were unprofessional in trying to get a price reduction'.
Leaving aside the obvious point that i was not actually the professional in this scenario, have i breeched some kind of trader etiquette in asking for £20 off?
On review, this is a pretty tedious anecdote but I would appreciate your thoughts if you did manage to stick with it to the nailbiting conclusion

[Aspergallus]

He sounds nuts.

Forget about it.

[LittleBearPad]

No, he sounds terrible. Go on Checkatrade or equivalent and find another one

[CantChoose]

He sounds like a dick. You probably should have cleared the area ready but £60 to move a microwave and a fruit bowl?? Then having a strop you didn't immediately accept an unexpected price hike?

The plaster who did work on our house was batshit crazy.

Maybe it's the fumes...

[sooperdooper]

He sounds a pita, get another plasterer, get them to look at the job properly before agreeing a price

[hellowembley]

Ok, thanks! I've never posted on mumsnet before but it is actually really useful and I can now stop worrying about this trivial matter (which i clearly should have stopped worrying about 2 mins after it happened)

[flanjabelle]

He was definitely a chancer! You did nothing wrong!

[Motherinlawsdung]

He doesn't want the job. In our area plasterers are scarce and if the job isn't what they regard as worth their time they will either give a ridiculous over-the-top quote or will find all sorts of complications about how the job needs to be done.
Get another plasterer.

[TheHiphopopotamus]

No he sounds like a knob.

Also, how big was the area? We had our entire hallway, stairs and upstairs landing done for £450, so that sounds excessive to me (although I'm up north where things tend to be cheaper).

[GruntledOne]

He was unprofessional in not sticking by his original quote. If he didn't have enough information to enable him to give an accurate quote, he either shouldn't have quoted or should have told you the quote might have to be revised when he could see properly. Either way, you as the customer have no duty to be "professional" and it is perfectly reasonable for you to raise the possibility of negotiating.

You're well rid of him.

[hellowembley]

Only the backsplash area where tiles would go in a kitchen, on 2 sides. I'm in the south east where I guess it'd be more but I thought it did seem pricey

[HaveIGotAClue]

He's an a-hole.

[shutupandshop]

Lucky escape! Did he know you were desperate? Chancer.

I had a run in with a bathroom fitter who couldn't be arsed to come round and measure up even though had agreed to. I think he thought I couldnt afford to get the work done? anyway, I messaged him to let him know I'd gone with someone ekse for the two ensuites. His loss. Toss pot

[KayJBee]

Sounds like he didn't want to do the job in the 1st place so gave you an inflated quote to put you off. When that didn't work, he scarpered at the first opportunity. We had a whole double bedroom plus a small wall skimmed for £300 and he did a very good job.

[thecatneuterer]

I'm in London and recently had a small bedroom completely replastered for £300 and a very large bedroom for £380. £300 to do a splashback is nuts. I would say £100 maximum.

[ABetaDad1]

I'd say £200 was a fairer quote for a days work and materials.

Plasterers are difficult to get though and I suspect he just got another job with one his builders that he works for and wanted to frighten you off with a £300 quote.

Most plasterers have a series of builders they do regular work for and generally only do on off jobs as a fill in if they have nothing else on. They quote higher prices to householders than they would to a builder if they were subcontracting for them.

I know this from long experience of using plasterers on small jobs and even trying to get a quote for a very large job I have starting soon. Most trades will prefer steady repeat work form a main building contractor than a series of one off jobs. The result is they keep their builders happy and will drop small jobs if the builder calls.

[Pipbin]

What a twat. You didn't need to be professional, he was the professional in this job. The quote was a lot too. We got a box room reskimmed for £280 and a large livingroom/ dining room done for about £400.

[ExasperatedAlmostAlways]

What's the rough dimensions of the job, do you know? Il be able to give you a quote based on that roughly so you know you aren't being ripped off. He sounds like a plonker tbh and you did the right thing getting rid.

I'd ask people for recommendations of others they have used or go on to my under as its got reviews. Does your painter not know anyone?

[HaveIGotAClue]

Can I just add a completely irrelevant point to this thread.

I initially read your thread title and thought that you had had an allergic reaction to a plaster...

[ExasperatedAlmostAlways]

My builder that's meant to be!

[BlueJug]

I do think you should forget about it and find another plasterer but I don't think it is fair for PP s to call him names.

Just to see it from the other side for a bit. He went to quote, (what an hour/ two hours unpaid?) - and you weren't there. And he had to look through the window to quote. I am sure you aplogised though. However he did look though the window, (impossible to tell how easy it is from that view) and gave a rough quote.

When he returned and said that having actually seen the job he would have to ask for £300 - you haggled. At that point he had made two journeys and probably wasn't going to waste any more time. I'd give up at that point.

£300 is a lot but you have to factor in the time taken to quote etc and the fact that he could probably not do another job that day.

But - forget about it and find someone else who needs the work more and is more used to doing small jobs.

[hellowembley]

Oh thanks exasperated! I'd say about 2.5m sq.

Havent got a clue- haha I know! Stupid typo from me. I don't interact with plasters!

Blue Jug I know what you mean- it was the timewasting I felt bad about, but I think he should have just told me he wasn't going to do it rather than disappearing.

Thanks everyone!

[CornishDoll82]

Unfortunately there are a lot of nuts tradesman it seems. And unprofessional ones. And downright scammers.

I negotiated a price for a roofing job where the man said it would take 2 men most of the day to do it. He then came out alone and it took him an hour.

When we brought the price up he got aggressive about it so we paid him.

And we'd got him on one of the trade checking websites. Strangely he kept asking us to leave feedback but we didn't as he was so aggressive we were a bit worried to leave negative feedback.

Also the roof fix didn't work...

[SpotOn]

I think he was massively overcharging you initially, and when you agreed the price he decided to completely take the piss.

[Spandexpants007]

I would expect to pay between 120 and 180 for a whole day of plastering, depending on area

[CantChoose]

Meant to say earlier, have you looked at your local 'streetlife' page? I've seen lots of people on there say what they need doing and they get a mix of people recommending those they've used as well as trades offering to do the work - at least you'd know they are after that kind of job.