To think that tradesmen take the piss with their rates?

Apart from the issue of all the expenses as detailed by PP’s
As a teacher you should know that your remuneration from your job is not just your hourly rate. You travel to one destination, get paid the 35hrs wages ( or whatever your contracted hrs are) you are guaranteed that pay every week no waiting for customers to pay their billls.You get holiday pay, sick pay which is usually generous as a teacher, you get enhanced maternity pay you get employers pension contribution which is a percentage of your salary on top. Your term time only work will be paid equally over 12 months so you don’t have periods of no pay. You could use the school summer holidays for an extra job if you chose.
How is that being worse off than a tradesman, who if they work for themselves have no guaranteed weekly income, if they don’t work due to holiday or illness ( unless it’s so bad that can’t and they have critical illness insurance) they get nothing, they would get SMP They have to pay fully for their own pension.
If it bothers you that much, look at retraining as a trades person.
And it shouldn’t be beyond the intelligence of someone working as a teacher to get a price agreed for a job up front, then decide if you want to go ahead. It really doesn’t matter if it’s someone you know or not it’s whether it’s worth that cost to you or not.
edited for spelling

Also, a job that takes 5 minutes may still have needed the workman to block out several hours and forgo other work to ensure he got things done and could make his other bookings.

When I did consulting, we estimated that we could only bill for approx a third of the hours we worked as there was a lot of time spent on developing work (networking, writing estimates, etc.), chasing for payment, managing projects and sick/holiday/travel/down time that couldn't be billed to a client. So a £60/hr charge would be roughly equivalent to a £20/hr wage.

Of course some clients came to us out of the blue, required almost no time to quote and were on our doorstep, but others took up far more than their share. If we could have charged clients individually for it, we would have. But people often baulk at paying full rate for a quote, for travel time and other overhead needed to coordinate projects. So we were left with the practical but blunt instrument of rolling all that up into an hourly rate for our time spent at someone's place.

I do think some tradies seem to earn more than their skill set would suggest is reasonable (as much because they tend to be atrocious at the business side of it - something I have noticed teachers offering tutoring on the side also tend to be poor at) though there are plenty of people working in offices and other professional roles that I think that's true of too!

Wasn't he only there 4 hours? The maths is not mathsing. Edit - someone beat me to it.

Your paying for their years of experience, travel, van and tool upkeep, labour.

A job may take 5 minutes, but it took years to gain the knowledge to know how to complete it in 5 minutes.

Find someone new.

My diy man accepts my monzo payments, PayPal etc and he gives me receipts. I have never once paid in cash over the 3 years I’ve had him.

And he is clear and upfront about the costs / expected time from the start.

He doesn’t take long breaks, will stop briefly for a swig of water or something or a chat while he’s still working but usually he will eat a meal before he arrives around 1pm and then be able to work through for up to 4 hours. If he did maybe 6-8 hours worth of work I’d expect him to stop for a proper break but even then not 2 hours.

I usually pay him slightly extra, he’s an absolute gem.

My maths isn’t great but I’m pretty sure according to you this mean he should have charged her £120 for the 4 hours work he did? Or even if you include one hour of the taking-the-piss 2 hour “lunch break” , it should’ve came to £150.

That sounds fair. I agree with this

Exactly. I don’t understand some of these responses. And it wasn’t even 6 hours work @Pomegranatecarnage

It was 6 hours minus a 2 hour gap.

2 hours is not a lunch break!

30-60 mins is a lunch break. My odd job guy would’ve done that in 4-5 hours and had a quick lunch during that time and then charged about £150 total.

You have asked for a plumber, electrician and carpenter. 3 different skills each requiring training and experience which you don't have.
You are being ridiculous.

Plumber and carpenter I'll grant you but a pull string change does not need an electrician! It's unlikely that the entire fixing was changed in which case and it does not sound like she got a minor work certificate....

I think it depends on the skill
I wouldn’t try my hand at anything electrical for example but quite happy doing all my own joinery, plumbing, painting, carpet laying etc.
Carpet layers are one example that I find very expensive. It’s such an easy job even if starting from scratch
Putting up shelves again I would do this myself. I’m not surprised how much your guy charged you OP, there’s maybe not much work out there as a lot of people do their own these days.

What a rip off. Any fool can teach. What's that saying - those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

(Heavy sarcasm font)

I'll give you a plumber, but a qualified spark to replace a pull cord and a carpenter to put up some shelves is pushing it!
Handyman stuff that doesn't require specific trade experience.

No tax or insurance was paid, this was a cash in hand job from someone who crossed the road to do the job.

Well don't pay them then if you don't trust they process their cash correctly. Choose someone else!

Doesn't mean trade rates are wrong.

@Pomegranatecarnage
I pay my dog walker £20 p/h
If you feel your 'friend' is cheating the system then why did you pay cash?

God I can't stand clueless clients like you OP.

Buying the parts and tools necessary would probably cost you more than you paid, had you the skills to do the job yourself.

You should also be using legitimate companies who pay their taxes but this would cost you even more.

@MartinCrieffsLemon is totally correct. There is so much more than the time they are in your house.

You have asked for a plumber, electrician and carpenter. 3 different skills each requiring training and experience which you don't have.

You are being ridiculous.

If you wanted tradesmen to pay tax then you should have hired a more trustworthy professional and be prepared to pay VAT on top. Yabu to generalise

Did you get other quotes?

There's an excellent south park episode about this. The tradies are all in fancy pimp coats etc.

I tend to just you tube easy jobs.

I don't know why posters keep citing "materials" because they are charged for separately!!

It’s not unreasonable for tradesmen to charge for a full hour even if they complete the job in less than an hour.
You used the example of having to prepare for a tutoring session meaning that your £30 income is really £20. Tradesmen have to pay things like insurance, petrol, possibly parking and things like congestion charge as well as wear and tear on tools and car. I’m surprised that you’re hiring people who aren’t professionals issuing receipts and charging VAT for their work. I am not a confident DIYer so am careful of hiring people who aren’t professionals who will do a proper job.
Have you considered watching videos on some of your DIY problems ? Things like replacing the string are all on YouTube.

If you don't like their terms, call someone else.

So pay someone else or do it yourself?

Presume the problem was that it was leaking and he resolved that.
What else did you expect him to do?

Why didn't you do the jobs yourself? The reason why you didn't is the reason you paid what you did!