Quote from builder, is this reasonable?

[gotosleepmybaby]

We've been quoted 3,950 for a small brick porch (about 1m x 2m, front door, two windows at the side, roof tiled, plastered inside etc about 2 weeks work)

This is the first time we've done anything like this so I wondered if this sounded reasonable or if he will be expecting us to haggle a bit on the price?

Will it really take two weeks? I wouldn't expect it to take longer than a week so it seems expensive to me. Get at least two more quotes.

Sounds good to me.

Inclusive of materials??

Was he recommended? Never just get a builder out of the phone book.
Try to get recommendations and several quotes, not just one.

... and never go for a builder who randomly posts leaflets through your door as even average builders rarely have to advertise like that

My dad just built something similar for £700 so seems expensive to me. He didn't do the walls a brikkie did those and put windows and doors in but he did do the roof

Seems a good price to me. I'd bite his hand off.

redandblacks - that is a little unfair - i have put leaflets through peoples doors for DP in the past, if we have a quiet spell, the thing is, he is actually good enough that he doesn't have to advertise and mostly gets repeat work or work through word of mouth, so please don't assume. They may be new to the area or not want to spend £££s on advertising.

It seems a slightly expensive (but not hideously so) quote and I would be tempted to get another, however the time scale sounds about right to me.

It is obviously better to go by recommendation if you can, but you should be able to get a general feel for someone when you meet them.

You need to take in to consideration that a violet needs to charge labour which will be min 150-200 per day. It's not usually materials that are the expensive but, it's the labour. My neighbour paid 5k for her porch 6 years ago, do your quote sounds reasonable. Best is to get 3 or 4 quotes to compare, recently we had quotes which varied in as much as 1.5k for some work!

You are right valium, although i find that if you just stick violets ina little vase they will sit there quite happily

It is definately labour that costs, DP charges £150 a day, for himself and would charge the same for other tradesmen, not quite so much for unskilled/semi-skilled labour. We are in the South East and he is one of the cheaper ones!

I think it sounds reasonable but does depend on quality of materials, have you specified the door? This could cost at least £500, windows are another few hundred.

Just a thought, have you included any electrics for outside light and is cost inclusive of VAT?

Really difficult to say without knowing what quality of windows/doors he is using. That makes a huge difference.

I'd get a second quote though - we had massive differences in prices when we had work done recently.

A violet?wtf?! bloody phone...

I have just had a single storey extension done, I had a fully glazed back door (not a half and half) and a small window of 1.2m wide, one half of it opens like the bog standard double glazed window.

They are German made UPVC and the door and window alone cost £1300

Based on a minimum of £1000 psqm for your build plus plastering, I think you have a good deal if the quality of the door and windows is decent.