The cost of guttering - how much??££££

[JMAngel1]

We just had a gutterer replace our guttering - we didn 't get quotes stupidly as we were finding it hard to get anyone to return our calls so jumped at the first one who said he was available. We've been having problems with overspill of water on really rainy days - gutterer came out said it all needed replacing. Fair enough.
He came out and took no more than 6 hours to do it - not sure exactly as I was at work - but he hasn't changed the position of any of the brackets, just the upvc guttering. We live in a large 1930s 3 bed semi in NW. He is charging £640. Does this seem reasonable? He took away a cast iron 2 story downpipe which he will probably sell as well.

I should add we live on a very naice street - we're in the cheap seats at the back! but we often do suffer from inflationitis due to the apparent wealth of our neighbours - we're lowly NHS workers so I may be being overly suspicious of this bill but it seems like a lot for less than a day of one man's work?

Ask for a complete breakdown of the exact cost of the guttering, the number of hours worked + the hourly rate, and the cost of disposing of the old guttering.

Materials?
Scaffolding/access tower hire?
Running costs of van, quoting for jobs he doesn't get?
Was he actually working alone or did he have a colleague with him?
Plus his day rate needs to account for the fact he can't work every day due to illness, weather, holidays etc.

I'd expect a reasonable labour only day rate for that sort of work to be around £250/300 plus you've got the cost of materials and the other costs listed.

But the job has been done now, so if you wanted to get three quotes to compare, you could still be here with knackered guttering this time next year.

sounds about right tbh.
we paid 1500 for new gutters and fascia for a 3 bed mid terrace in se.

He didn't mention scaffolding and I think he was on his own but I will check.
If it's the right price then fair enough, but it just seemed like a lot. I don't think customers should have to pay for time for jobs quoted that may not have been won or holiday/sickness leave for self employed tradesmen - surely that's just a downside to any self employed business that has to be absorbed?

He can't have done the job safely with a ladder. Usually there will be 2 people and it might be slightly high but not ridiculously high. Have you had rain since then so check it is a good job?

Well that's the problem, my DH wants to check the work out this weekend as he said he heard water gushing down this morning outside a downstairs window - obviously if it's not been done correctly, he will have to come and re do.

shameless bump

Do you plan to haggle the price after he did the work?
Why on earth did you not check the price first?
We paid 3k for new guttering and fashias on a standard detach. The price seems fair to me.

I had mine done within the last year, and it seems an ok price. I had all my clips done, too. Due to the height, I had to pay for him to do the work, and another bloke for safety. This is common. I also had a new clip not done properly, and a mini waterfall when it rained. I phoned him, he came back and fixed it in 5 mins. I held the ladder for that. If he's a decent tradesperson, he'll just pop back and re-clip.

It was because he hadn't seen the roof in daylight until the day he came to do it - but to be honest, it's sounding like it's a fair price.
I'm always gobsmacked at how much people charge for labour.

Think mine was about £500 three years ago for guttering and fascia.
Was pleased with that..semi bungalow. With high gable roof.

I'm always gobsmacked at how much people charge for labour

Nothing to stop you setting up as a guttering fixer if you think it's easy money.

I'm always gobsmacked at how people think it's OK to pay bankers, lawyers etc a fortune but think that skilled and experienced tradespeople who do hard physical work in all weathers should work for a pittance even though it's often obvious there's a shortage of reliable workers.

If you saw in my OP that I'm NHS does that not put my incredulity into perspective? A gutterer could be on £50-60K and there are nurses literally saving lives on less tban £30K - something isn't right.

This type of work is high up and risky and this is what you are paying for.

Then swap jobs, no one forced you into the NHS, his job isn't lesser than yours and to be frank you are coming across appallingly

Sounds fine to me. We live in a 5-bed detached & to replace ours we’ve had quotes between £700-£1,200 (the more expensive ones use scaffolding).

Your price sounds fair. As to the water overflowing, he should have used deep flow gutters. Just a slightly different shape to them. Also, is your drain/downpipe blocked up? Could cause it as well. Google deep flow guttering and look at the shape and then compare it with yours/your neighbours ones or simply ask him.

We paid a roofer o fix our guttering at the front of a mid terrace, 2 men took 2 hours. Charged us less than £100 with a replacement piece of guttering. So to do a whole semi, for 6 hours, I'd expect to pay upwards of £500. But I always negotiate the price up front!!!

you need to check the work.
the gutters (should) have a slope towards the downpipe, but in our case the roofers installed it the other way round at first. but that was easily and quickly solved.

Sounds about right to me. But never ask someone to do work without getting a quote first. That's just crazy behaviour.