Am I being unreasonable?

[Kieron79]

Try and make this quick. Appointed builder, work starts in 5 weeks. We have asked him to give us the price he us quoting for bifolds as we are getting additional work that was bit planned so need to claw back money by trying to source cheaper ones (we are doing fixed price contract) though this will obviously go up due to extra work needed. Asked last Monday via text and he said he would get back as soon as he could as he has just started a job . Surely though it's just a matter of looking on his spreadsheet and texting price over?, or am I being a little impatient here? Jeez build ain't even started and getting stressed, general consensus from friends/family is builders do things at THEIR pace so don't get too worried! Thoughts?

I don't understand what is the question you are asking the builder.

Many builders do not employ an office person to calculate prices, so if the only person is working z hours a week they may feel they have not got some extra time to calculate a revision. They often prefer to do work they earn £x an hour for. Quoting pays nothing.

When he's working on your job do you want him to stop work constantly to check prices for other customers? I would want the builder focused on my job so I think he's being fair.

No but I want to know how much he has quoted originally for the bifolds as if I can get them cheaper than he is quoting then I will, hence saving money.

When I say quote what I mean to say is charge

he has most likely worked out a price based on "that sort of job usually takes about ten days, but add a bit on in case it rains or I drill through the gas pipe and have to cover the cost of repairing it, and if they send me left-handed screws again it'll take me all day to get them changed for right-handed ones, so we'll call it thirteen days." and then his wife will have reminded him he only made four thousand pounds profit last year, so if he can't put his prices up he might as well retire.

Or, if you intend to buy a cheaper kind of door, it might double the amount of time it takes to fit them, and he might not be familiar with the Norwegian hinges.

Cheers, would be looking for exactly same size/spec/style of bifold just wanting to know his price for the actual doors

It's not quite that simple though. He will have quoted based on the specified doors. Doors he has either researched or has experience fitting. If you give him free issue doors I would expect his fitting price to increase possibly to allow for the extra time or materials he may or may not need depending on the doors you choose.

He will be able to source the doors cheaper than you. So even with his markup you may not find any cheaper. If he is doing the extra work for you, he may seek to recoup any income lost on the doors by hiking up the price for this.

Yeah that's what I was reckoning for marmite, savings made on doors would be offset by the extra work so in reality not paying any/much more for the extra work I have requested.Gonna just leave it for now and talk about it when he starts job.