Fixed Price Brickwork - who is right?

[Itsonlybridget1]

We're having a garden wall built at the moment - we are on a corner plot so it's a bloody big wall. We have to have a wall as we're in a conservation area and panels/plynths will not be permitted.

Brickies - salt of the earth - gave us a price and told us it would take them 3 weeks.

We have been blessed with good weather and they've done a cracking job and completed it in 2 weeks.

DH thinks I (yes me not him) should ask them for a reduction in the price as they had said it would take 3 weeks. I think that is totally unreasonable - they didn't give us a price per day they gave us a fixed price. I then said well what if it had taken them 4 weeks rather than 3 - do you think it would reasonable for them to come back to us and ask for more money???

My dad is a joiner (DH is in IT and all his family are either in IT or lawyers) so it falls to me to sort out the DIY stuff

YANBU - A fixed price is a fixed price

YABU - DH has a point and HE should ask for a reduction

It's a fixed price. He's being an idiot. If they'd given you a daily / weekly price, where would be their incentive to finish it in time?

YANBU & your dh is a dick for even thinking about it!

You agreed a price, they have done the work, pay the price agreed.

Agree with you.

It's the same amount of work to do it in two weeks rather than 3

It sounds like they quoted properly for the job, if the weather hadn't been kind it might have taken the full 3 weeks.

Please get him to ask for a reduction and let us know their reaction. I could do with a laugh.

Pay them the price agreed. Good tradies are worth their weight in gold…they also tend to talk, so even if you don’t want to use these ones again you don’t want it getting round that you don’t pay properly.

YANBU. My husband is a tradesman and will sometimes work longer days than usual to get jobs done in a shorter time frame than he originally said to the customer. He does this to benefit the customer as then he's out of their way quicker and the work is done sooner for them. If he came across a customer that then thought it fair to not pay him the full price he'd quoted he'd be fuming! The customer would be totally in the wrong and showing how naive they are to the work that tradespeople do.

Fixed price is fixed price.

your dh is unreasonable

Thank you all! I feel so vindicated 😂

What was the price, and how many people were on site and did it include materials?

figure the price of materials + 10% as well as (in London) £100/day for the apprentice/muck boy and anywhere from £200-£300/day for the experienced brickie +their profit margin. If you had a big wall (10m) you’re talking ~1-2k in materials (depending on the bricks) + I’d guess around 3-4k on the labour.

But all that aside- it’s a fixed price. Even if you’re being fleeced, you agreed it. The risk is on them (which is why fixed price jobs tend to have a higher profit margin).

I work in IT and can still sort diy, did I miss the memo on not being able to do diy 🤣

lol no not at all, I think it if weren't that my dad is a joiner, my brother is an engineer and from growing up I have all the contacts for the trades then it's just on me to sort it out

Tell him to try it and they’ll likely knock it down in front of him.

I had something similar happen and ended up using wirralbuildingservices.co.uk after things got messy with the original quote. They were clearer upfront about what was included and stuck to what we agreed, no awkward surprises halfway through the job. It made dealing with the rest of the build way less stressful. If you're unsure, sometimes it's best to get a second view from someone who'll actually explain things properly.