Does this seem reasonable or am I on my own in thinking this is expensive?

[maybeIwillmaybeIwont]

I was thinking of repainting all the roofline peeling wooden sofitts, fascia and barge board thingies, but on reflection I decided that my local handyman, despite telling me he wasn't afraid of heights, might not be the best man for the job. He's very good, but I feared for his safety.

So the next thing I thought of was to replace it all with good quality Upvc stuff. I called a local family company who have done excellent work for my sister and in fact built the conservatory I have [for the previous owners], and the surveyor has just left .

The quote is £7428! I have a large 5 bedroom detached house with various gables and bays (not easy for access to roofline] and a large conservatory (ditto), and it's all singing and dancing stuff but really! I apparently need full scaffolding on both end gables [it is high] . The quote also includes replacing all the gutters and downpipes. It is a total replacement of everything not a cover up job, and they have full insurance cover.

Anyone any idea if this is about right? I think I'm in shock

Seems very high to me. I had ours done about two years ago - large house, very high gable ends, conservatory - and needed full scaffolding. I had it at the same time as my windows and doors were replaced, and the total cost for 15 windows, front door, back door and replacement roofline (including all guttering and downpipes) was £9600.

I'd imagine you should be looking at no more than £3000 for a job like that.

next door neighbour just paid £10,000 for a similar job on a very large detached Victorian property.

Ooh! Sound really expensive to me too. We had our guttering/fascias etc. replaced last year and got a handyman to do it. He said it was quite a rip-off generally as the fittings are cheap as chips and he could just click them into place without much trouble. He managed in a couple of days and it has been perfect this whole time, no trouble and looks great. We just have a little end-of-terrace, but it cost under £500 (with labour).

I think it sounds about right. You may be able to barter them down if they need teh work.

I wanted to say outrageious cowboys, you get ridiculous prices from those cowboys, but you say it's a firm you trust, and maybe in London with full H&S attitude... Definitely get more quotes, anyway.

Got our fascias+soffitts etc. sanded & repainted (detached 4 bed house, not a lot smaller than yours) for £450 4 yrs ago: 1.5 days work for the painter but he did a good job, still looks good.

DH does our guttering & could replace the lot of guttering + fixings on our 2 storey house+single storey extension+garage for £150, I reckon (including new water butts). I know that's free labour & a straightforward 2 box shaped buildings, but even so. Are your gutters rusting, leaking?

AM basing this of parents 4 bed detached 30s house and big conservatory lots of windows 1 lot of scaffolding SE £6k

Thank you all so much for the replies.

Yes, this is a company who do good work but that doesn't mean I want stitching up. I have rung two other local companies but they haven't got back to me, had to leave messages on answer phones, so hopefully I'll be able to arrange quotes from them over the next day or so. I now know the questions to ask to try and get a comparative price. (Then the plan is to go back to company one and try and haggle )

Mind you, I might prefer one of the others anyway. I did keep hinting for a discount but he scribbled down some more figures (aha, I thought, here it comes) and then told me how much deposit they would require to book the job . Perhaps if I go back with an actual lower figure, the price will come down.

I am known in my family as the Queen of haggling, so am quite disappointed with myself!

I'm not in London, but an hour away, so not London prices but this company are very H&S, no bad thing. I wish I had your painter AWV, my painter took nearly a week to paint just the porch, but he did do a wonderful job and he is vair cheap!

Have you had a nosey on Check a Trade? My Mum swears by it and I have only had good service from the site. Might be worth having a nosey for reputable firms on there.

Ooo, off to do that now, thank you financialwizard.

Booooo, nearest one is 39 miles away and doesn't work in this area.

Never mind, still have the other 2 to quote yet.

Oh well, it was worth a nosey

Yes, it was. The other two were coming today to give quotes, both rang me yesterday evening.

One turned up as agreed and he has gone off to do the calculations. I quite liked the way he didn't get a figure after 3 minutes on a calculator! Should know in the next couple of days.

The other one didn't turn up . I did ring him when he was 40 minutes late, got the answerphone again and left a polite message, just saying maybe I had the wrong day [no I didn't but giving him a get out clause] but he still hasn't rung me! He might do in the morning, let's hope!

Gulp !

Scaffolding is expensive. we needed a house painting as it was rendered and on 3 floors. Luckily an abseil company could do the job and saved us a fortune

OP, if someone can't even be arsed to show up to do a quote it doesn't bode well for their customer service.

I'm watching this thread with interest - we need something doing to our soffits/fascias and guttering, because a lot of it leaks and the woodwork is peeling.

No scaff needed, because it is a bungalow, but the house has a huge footprint (5-bed) so many many miles of guttering...... It sounds like Niagara Falls when it rains, there are so many leaks.

OP, my house sounds exactly the same as yours & I was recently quoted more or less the same as you were. I am in the Home Counties if this helps.

I was quoted £4,000ish to have the wood made good & painted.

Cointreau, I'm with you on that thought.But I always try to think that there might have been a family emergency, etc., but unluckily for him I will be ringing until I get hold of him, just to tell him that I won't be using him but I will be telling everyone .

So, when I get back later, I will ring another company, sigh.

I know scaffolding is expensive, but when I asked the man yesterday, he just said he had his own scaffolding, and he states as such on his website.The other 'good' company surveyor said they had to contract it in but really, wouldn't a locally reknown gutter/fascia company invest in their own? Mmmmm!

Watch this space.

Sounds high - we had it done in our last house which was smaller than yours (3 bed semi but wide) and cost around 1.7K.

we got a quote to replace just the guttering along the back of our 4 apartment villa (2 flats up 2 down) not a huge building and it was £3700! it is special cast iron guttering but we were still shocked. They did say they would need to use scafolding, because the cast iron guttering is heavy, which hikes up the price.

The 'missing' surveyor, rang back this morning while I was out but didn't leave a message. Then rang again this afternoon, full of apologies and 'very embarrassed'.

Apparently he made two appointments on Tuesday, for Wednesday (me) and Thursday (someone else), then switched them in his diary and turned up at the other person's yesterday, who he said looked a bit confused. He did ask if I still wanted him to quote and I said yes, so he's coming tomorrow (and said how understanding I had been, little knowing the revenge I was plotting how kind I actually am, ).

FWIW I think that sounds silly money. You can hire aluminium scaffold towers for just over £100 / 7 days here - even hiring a few wouldn't break the bank, then UPVC guttering for a large expanse can't be more than £200-300? (guess) and labour - £200 a day?
Is it just me, or do trade look at you & your house and price based on how much they think you can afford?
We will be doing our own.

mylovelymonster I think you're right. I always say 'oh, by the way, big house, big mortgage!' but I suspect they do think I should pay more.

The scaffolding is becoming a mystery. Surveyor No. 1 told me that they would have to contract in full scaffolding as the gables are so high and their towers won't access the roofline (and then blinded me with H&S guidelines). The scaffolding would cost £1500!!! (kindly included in the quote, as if I should be grateful!), the cost was because I have 2 gables so need 2 sets at £750 each.

When I asked couldn't we just use one and then move it round to the other gable he said that then it would take twice the time [dismantling, erecting) and still be the same cost

I know it sounds as if I should have shown him the door but I do have first hand experience of their work, (very good) but this surveyor is new (and son of the boss!), and to be honest I really wasn't happy with him sitting there using the calculator on his phone and talking to me at the same time, while scribbling figures on a bit of paper!

I questioned surveyor No.2 about the high gables and he just said, no problem I have my own scaffolding system and scaffold towers for the bay windows/conservatory. I live in hope that tomorrow's surveyor also thinks the height is no big deal.

Doing our own is not possible as my husband is overseas and he hates heights anyway

So surveyor No. 3 has just left. He did the walk around, no pressure talk and has gone off to do the quote.

He did mention the height of the bloody gables but said that only one side was a problem and then only one part of it due to the access from lovely neighbour's garden. He 'might' have to scaffold that corner only, (which he said he would try not to as it pushes the price up).

So now, of course, I'm wondering why surveyor No.1 was so insistent on me having contracted in scaffolding for £1500, hmmm? Suspicious mind!

Now waiting for the quotes!

Any job I have done I divide by how many days and how many people are doing it because I know that locally a good decorator is between £100- £130 a day. If you do the same with your local price per day of a tradesman and how long the builder said the job will take you can see if it is a diddle or not - roughly of course.

Unfortunately, we didn't budget for replacing our wooden sofitts, fascia and barge boards and settled for a tart up paint job. In retrospect, we should have replaced it with plastic whilst the scaffolding was up - too late now! The painter did a good job and fixed the rotten parts with spare wood so it'll do for another 5 yrs or so before we wiil have to replace with plastic. He also stripped and repainted our tatty double garage doors (can't stretch to replace them with RC doors yet so another tart up job). Cost = £950 + VAT. My one regret/mistake so far!

Update........nothing! I haven't had the other two quotes yet, even though I asked for them by the weekend.

Mmmm..... I hope they turn up tomorrow or maybe nobody wants this job? First quote too high on prurpose maybe? Grrrr.:(