Reasonable price for DIY?

[justoffshift]

Been quoted for some DIY work I desperately need as working all hours as an NHS worker.

2 freestanding clothes rails
A small kids wardrobe from IKEA
2 bedside tables
1 cabinet with 6 drawers
A shoe rack with 4 levels.

All items are ARGOS/Habitat apart from the IKEA.

How much would you expect to pay for assembly of these? In the South East.

About £100 would be reasonable, about 3 hours work.
If you're in SE I'd guess you've been quoted a lot more though

My handyman was £50 an hour up north. I've had good and bad experiences with hourly raters..

I would try and fix a price rather than hourly rate as I've found the odd chancer. Sounds a good few hours work tbh, so based on that maybe as much as £200?

For some of the jobs could you call upon anyone else to do it in a safe way? I fear relatively straightforward forward assembly may end up costing you over the odds.

I'm doing this more for convenience sake, could wait for DH to do it (approx 5 years at the rate he does things), this tradesman comes highly recommended from the street WhatsApp group. It is simple stuff though which is

I had a massive IKEA wardrobe assembled. One with 3 sets of double doors, 3 sets of drawers inside (4 drawers each), shelves etc. I think I was charged £200, 3 years ago. Midlands (but expensive part unfortunately and one I struggle to afford to be in)

Interesting, I'll see if anyone else comments before I say what I've been quoted!

Our handymen around here (south east) charge £25 per hour.
I’d say that’s anything from 4-8 (?!) hours work so could be anything £100 upwards.

I’m guessing they quoted around £500.

If you don’t want to pay and don’t trust DH why don’t you do it?

Why don't you put them up OP?

It sounds like simple stuff op, I'd just do it myself. Not thinking about them as a whole, just one at a time, the sound like things that will take between 15 minutes to and hour max each to do. And I'd be giving DH a kick up the bum to help me!

Ah, so pleasantly surprised! Been quoted £140 for all of the above. Thought it seemed expensive but judging by these posts I'm getting a bargain!

It's not just the time, it's managing the children and general everythingness, plus the whole tools thing as well. Hate paying for things I can do myself but this would just take a weight off my mind.

If they take 5 hours that’s only £28 per hour, which won’t include any additional tools, petrol etc so I’d say that’s not bad

@Newfor2021

If they take 5 hours that’s only £28 per hour, which won’t include any additional tools, petrol etc so I’d say that’s not bad

Exactly this. And if it's around a 5 hour job they'll be unlikely to be able to take on another job that day. So sounds fairly reasonable to me.

He can only come in the evening which is a bit annoying with kids bedtimes etc but is what it is.

That's 3 hours work max OP, so I woukd expect to pay half a day's labour. For a handy man 150 a day would be a lot and therefore 75 would be the max I would pay

My DH is £180 for a full days labour so I think you're in the right price bracket if he can only fit you in on an evening.

I know you’ve already said what you’ve been quoted but I think that’s reasonable. I was going to say anywhere between £120 and £180 would be fair

Taskrabbit do a flat rate price for IKEA furniture assembly, so you could take a look at their website and see for a comparison

Fair enough op, and to be fair you came on asking if the price was reasonable, not for idiots to suggest doing it yourself like you'd not already considered that! So sorry for being that idiot!

Completely reasonable IMO. £140?

That's about £25 an hour and he's bringing his own tools? For what he's doing he's charging barely more than an ironer which is another of those 'I could do it myself but actually my life would be massively and quickly improved if someone would just do it so I don't have to worry about it any more' jobs!
Go for it!

Honestly I wouldn't pay anyone to assemble this stuff, they seem to charge a ridiculous amount and it's not rocket science, and if I start DH tends to take over so I leave him to it and make the tea......is that a tactic you could use?.

@justoffshift

Ah, so pleasantly surprised! Been quoted £140 for all of the above. Thought it seemed expensive but judging by these posts I'm getting a bargain!

That is more than reasonable, I'd definitely pay that for the chance to get all that work done and dusted in one day, and not having had to lift a finger to do it myself!

No I would do it myself, but of time poor id pay. Seems reasonable to me.

Sounds fair enough to me. I’d have said £25 an hour and it’s at least a half days’ work so 5-6 hours seems fair enough. Evening only is a bit pants tho cos use of electric screwdriver I’d assume & they’ll be there all night!

If I said I’d intend to pay my DH would find the time sharpish...

That's a bargain! There's actually quite a lot to do there. A good 5-6 hours would be my guess.