Roofer

[copycopypaste]

I noticed a few weeks ago that I had a couple of cracked tiles in my roof. This weekend my neighbour had someone come round to fit a chimney so I had a chat with him and he quoted me £40 to replace two tiles which I agreed to.

Whilst he was on the roof he noticed that one of the wooden batons the tiles attaches to was knackered and that the cement on the eaves had come away which meant that some of the tiles on the edge were loose. He took my phone onto the roof and took a picture so I knew what he was saying was correct.

He quoted me £300 to fix it all and said it would be at least a days work, maybe a day and a half. I agreed to this, he said he'd be back the next day as he didn't have anything booked in, I paid him his £40 and off he went.

He arrived today just before 10am, worked until 11.45, I watched him so know he was brushing out the old cement and putting new in (my office is at the bottom of the garden so could see what he was up to) then started putting his ladders away. I asked him if he'd finished, he said yes, it hadn't taken him as long as he'd thought. I then asked him how much I owed him. £300 he said. I laughed at this point and said '£300 for two hours work?' He said he hadn't realised it had only been two hours and that the clock in his van hadn't been working . I mentioned in a nice way that he'd quoted me £300 for a day and a half's work and he'd only been at the house 2 hrs, he then said he'd charge me £200, again I laughed, kept it nice and friendly and said I appreciate he'd had to travel (he's local) and that he's spent a few quid on wood and cement but £100 an hour is a bit steep especially as his initial quote equated to £200 a day.

We agreed he'd come back with an invoice tonight (he didn't have one to hand) and we'd discuss it then.

Aibu to offer him £100 which i still think is a bit steep but appreciate he's had to travel about 15 mins and labour etc. It's also worth noting that he admitted he has no work today or tomorrow, and that he could come when convenient as I work from home, so it's not like he'd have to rearrange other jobs (maybe I should have seen his availability as a red flag)

You repeatedly laughed in his face and call that keeping it "nice and friendly"?!

While £300 for 2 hours of work may seem expensive, I am actually quite amazed he was willing to negotiate anything at all. Quite a few people would have said you agreed to pay for the job, i.e. the outcome and the desired outcome was achieved.

This reminds me of the plumber joke. The plumber is called to a fix a blocked pipe. Quotes £100. Comes in, knocks on the pipe and says the job is done. He then gets challenged on how he can charge £100 for simply coming in and knocking on the pipe. The plumber replies, "It's actually £5 for knocking on that pipe and £95 for knowing where to knock"

Other people's time and knowledge is always hard to estimate. I don't really know what I would do in this situation but most likely wouldn't have had the nerve to start negotiating something after agreeing to pay for the job's outcome. It takes many of these folks a couple of hours to do the jobs that would take me days to sort. However maybe I am just being an idiot :)

@tiggerkid that's what I was interested in. I appreciate what you are saying re the expertise.

YABU. If you have to get someone round yourself, independently of your neighbour, it would easily be £200. I'd pay the £200 and be grateful.

I’d question what happened exactly that meant it was originally going to take a day/day and a half and actually only took two hours.

He said the cement wasn't as bad as he first thought, so didn't need as much digging out or replacing.

Then he originally quoted for that instance. It turned out to be a much simpler job that he would have quoted for differently had he known. But then he might not even have taken the job if he knew it was going to be that small!

I agree you shouldn’t pay £300. I’d probably suggest £150 (and be very glad it hadn’t gone the other way and turned into a bigger, more expensive job).

It doesn't seem particularly nice and friendly. If his price was for the job rather than an hourly rate you're a CF.

He said the cement wasn't as bad as he first thought, so didn't need as much digging out or replacing.

So it wasn't as big a job, and took him nowhere near the time he made upthought it would, but he still wanted to charge you the same price. He's at it. How can someone estimate that a job will take them a day and a half and then have it done in 2 hours?

If his price was for the job rather than an hourly rate

But the job wasn't as big as he initially thought.

Fed up of seeing this sort of thing on here. You agreed to a price for a given job and then kick up when the job is done, the fact that it took less time than originally thought is irrelevant, you agreed a price to have the job done. You seem to be concentrating on the fact that his price equated to £200 a day (it didn't as he supplied materials) I wonder what your thread would of been about if when he started it became apparent that it was going to take three days and when finished he asked for £600 plus materials! let me think, I reckon you would be saying ''but we agreed on £300'' You must have thought £300 was decent value for the work to have engaged him in the first place.

Grade A cheeky fucker!

I’ve had some cementing redone on my roof a few years ago and I think it’s was about £300 ish. But the whole lot was redone. £200 sounds about about right then in your case.

But he quoted for a ( much bigger) job that was going to take a day and a half....job was nowhere near as big as first thought and took much less time/materials! How can he possibly want to be paid the same amount???

How much do you want to bet, if the OP hadn't been working from home, he would have claimed it did take the whole day, and didn't mention it wasn't as big a job as he originally thought.

It is so hard to find good trades people you can trust isn’t it. Bane of our lives.

You agreed a price for a job to be done and he did it. Pay him his money.

And if you think roofing is so easy and lucrative, why not re-train?

Lots of differing opinions, thank you for responding

Yabu. My husband is self sometimes jobs are done quicker some times they take longer. If it was a bigger job and it took him 3 days you wouldn’t be volenterring to pay him £600.

Quite a difference between a day and a half and two hours using less materials! How can it possibly be the same price??

Have you heard the story about the guy who is called into a bank when it’s main computer system goes wrong. He takes 90 seconds to press one button and presents a bill for £1000.

The manager says £1000 to press one button, that’s a bit steep isn’t it!

The IT guy says, it only costs £10 for me to press the button. The other £990 is for my knowledge of which button to push.

Unless you were prepared to fix your roof, don’t begrudge someone who can and did do it their wages. You agreed a price, he got the job done quicker than expected!

Ooops x post with @tiggerkid for the same story.

Regarding less being used in terms of materials: this sort of topic often comes up with various workers. I think I'd still be likely to lean slightly towards the roofer's side on this one. Say, he estimated that it will be a bigger job and quoted for that job. He would have purchased materials for that job and even if he used less, he can't exactly go and return a bucket of the pre-mixed cement or, say, a third of an open bag of it. And we can't assume that he has another job to go to where it can be immediately reused.

The fact that he agreed to reduce the price after the job was done is pretty amazing, to be honest. I still don't think I'd have enough nerve to argue for more in that circumstance.

My dh was a roofer. I always thought he was poorly paid compared to other tradesmen. After all, unlike plumbers, electricians etc it seems a highly dangerous job.Scrambling about on roofs takes a lot of bottle.

YABVU and you’re being a cheeky fucker.

You were quoted a price for the job, not for X amount of hours, and you agreed to it so you should pay it.

You shouldn’t be trying to negotiate and I’m surprised he’s allowing you to. You’re being very unreasonable.

Been mulling it over all day tbh.

If the job turned out to be bigger and say I needed part of the roof replaced then yes, I would expect to pay more tbh. If he'd been here over half a day today I'd have paid the full amount as I know travelling costs, experience mean that hourly rates can be misleading.

He was here yesterday and replaced two tiles (which is how he noticed the other work needed doing), he was here longer than two hours doing the tiles and charged me £40. This amount was agreed on beforehand and I paid that. Not sure how a job that took a shorter amount of time costs £260 more (plus less materials). I just feel a bit like he's taken the piss a bit, and rubbing his hands together. I'll certainly be a lot more careful in the future.