To think that tradesmen take the piss with their rates?

[Pomegranatecarnage]

Just that really. I have had a few repairs needed and some DIY recently. I paid £130 to have a leaking toilet valve fixed (it took 45 mins), £75 to have a pull string light replaced (10 mins) and then £270 labour for 6 hours work putting up some shelves, a small area of tiling and replacing skirting boards. He arrived at 10, left at 12 for lunch, back at 2 then was finished by 4pm. I can’t help wondering why I spent 5 years at University to get paid far less per hour as a teacher.

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.

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 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.

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....

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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

That seems the going rate for a full day's work. I think you are more annoyed that you aren't getting paid more, because it's crazy to be annoyed that a trained professional trades person is getting a good wage, just because you aren't. Join a union and try for higher wages, or put your own shelves up. I never understand why professionals get so annoyed that other people who didn't go to uni earn more than them. Don't you want them to have a living wage? It's the same as all the office workers who complain about tube strikes. Join a union then, or become a train driver!

Because that's capitalism, workers get paid according to how much as people are willing to pay for their skills, not according to a piece of paper they have.

Also op, some tradesmen charge female clients more than male

It's not DIY when you don't DIY.

Have you ever been self employed OP?

Have I missed the part where he had your hand up behind your back, forcing you to pay him to do this work?

Are you not competent to find someone you approve of to do the work?

If it boils your piss so much, employ someone else or learn how to do these jobs yourself. It's not his fault you chose to be a teacher and not a plumber/carpenter/etc.

@juiceinacup Post was spot on. Additionally good trades people are as rare as hens teeth so they can afford to charge at the ouch end of a pay rate. It's the 21st century now and about time we stopped looking down on the trades as somehow "less than" those with degrees. A tradesperson is always going to be useful whilst the same cannot be said of a graduate.

I think this is relatively common (ie feeling at the mercy of tradespeople). As with everything, the minority make it challenging for the rest.
Shop around for tradespeople. Ask for recommendations from friends and colleagues, and on FB and Insta (join local community pages).
I always tell tradespeople I'm having a few quotes, they're usually happy to better other quotes (and don't be shy about haggling).
A reputable tradesperson will have online reviews on their SM pages and such like, if you feel ripped off then detail your experience (just honestly, not in a vindictive way) in a review.

In your situation (given you weren't entirely happy), I'd've told the cash in hand guy (after he completed the job) that it was no longer possible to pay cash, and it'd need to be bank transfer. I'd've called his bluff, essentially.

Those are normal rates. You are paying for skills scarce enough that tradesmen are usually booked well in advance and with little real competition. Although I'd always look at reviews before booking; people will often comment on pricing and quality of work. I'm pretty good at DIY, but I would not mess with plumbing (gas or water) or electricity because of the potential consequences of messing up.

If you are a teacher, then that work will also likely have been done at inconvenient times - evenings, weekends, bank holidays or other times when a lot of people are on holiday.

And aside from all the other costs mentioned here, my most recent plumber/ engineer told me his van had been broken into 3x in the last year. Even with insurance, that's a huge cost to take into account, which will, in part, be borne by the customers.

I agree with you OP but clearly you've hit a nerve with many posters.
Funny how, post Brexit, it's become a massive problem! I miss my old Polish reasonably priced, turned up on time, communicated brilliantly, didn't take the piss builder.

So what you’re saying is all those red wall low paid voters who voted for brexit have got what they wanted, which was higher wages? And that all us moaning middle classes that wanted to remain (and have cheap labour…) are unhappy about not only brexit, but the fact that the low paid are no longer low paid

{ irony: off ;)}

Well said, @Tryingtokeepgoing

Do it yourself then if it's so easy and you don't value their time and skills.