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Original poster

What is driving the crazy labour costs??

100 replies

TheEconomista · 28/01/2022 09:34

We've moved to a house that needs a lot of work. We're only looking at the essentials at the moment, but planning an extension in the next few years.

I cannot believe how much the cost of labour for all trades has risen. We've got quotes for decorating (basic), moving radiators (plumbing already in place) and installing a bathroom (small and not changing the layout). In all cases the labour is coming in at somewhere between £450 and £500 per day!! This is at least double what we were paying five years ago. I know cost of living has risen somewhat but this seems completely bonkers to me.

Is everyone else experiencing the same? And what's driving it if so? I can only imagine people are paying it as it seems consistent across trades.

OP posts:
fuckyourpronouns · 28/01/2022 10:21

[quote TheEconomista]@fuckyourpronouns - he chased me to see if he could book me in, so yes, he definitely wanted the job![/quote]
Lol. I bet he did. Probably wanted to see if you were daft enough to pay the price!

Original poster
TheEconomista · 28/01/2022 10:22

Although I do wonder if the bathroom person doesn't want to do it now you say it! I'll try and gather a lot more quotes and see if there's any variation...

OP posts:
EmmaH2022 · 28/01/2022 10:24

£500 a day for painting is odd but someone might be trying it on due to shortages and waiting list. Are all the painting type quotes coming in around that?

My mum - 83 - wants to get the outside of the house painted and she's been told by a couple of decorators that they are booked up for months.

OnlyFoolsnMothers · 28/01/2022 10:26

I don’t think workmen have ever been cheap, I’ve used British, Irish, Eastern European, Carribeam, African - I wouldn’t say the foreign ones were particularly cheap.

We live in a country that has sent out a message for decades that only a desk job and uni means success. No apprenticeships, looking down on manual Labour- I hope to god my children don’t want to go to uni and instead gain a skill.
People also wfh, we are obsessed with our houses and the money we can make off them.

onedayoranother · 28/01/2022 10:30

Wow. I'm renovating my house in London currently and have had separate plumber, carpenter, two decorators, fence guy, tiler, pointer and electrician plus general builder and day rates have varied from £140 to £200. Plumber and carpenter being the most expensive, but the plumber also had an apprentice with him. True many tradesmen have left, but it's been materials that have gone up in my experience, not labour. Your quotes sound insane.

wannabeamummysobad · 28/01/2022 10:40

[quote TheEconomista]@wannabeamummysobad - we live in the South East home counties.

We were quoted £7k to refit the bathroom. No change in layout, no raising ceiling, nothing complicated. That includes no fixtures and no materials apart from things like grout and sealant.

We were quoted between £9k and £14k to paint walls and ceilings throughout the house. It's a four bed house, not a mansion.[/quote]
Definitely get more quotes.
We had 4 for both p&d and the bathroom.

Your current quotes sound ridiculous. I do think a lot of the issues are that lots of people are doing work so there are waitlists.

Ariela · 28/01/2022 11:15

Blimey, can I come and paint yours for £9K?

Blinkinname · 28/01/2022 11:17

Supply and demand innit. Imagine it's worse is less populated areas.

mindutopia · 28/01/2022 11:29

I would assume also materials costs. Dh buys raw materials for his company that are the sorts that would often be used in the building trade (he isn't a builder). The cost has doubled since Brexit.

Starseeking · 28/01/2022 12:25

[quote wannabeamummysobad]Where do you live? I live in west London and am having a bathroom installed (incl raising ceilings, plastering, building units, changing doors etc) for

wannabeamummysobad · 28/01/2022 13:01

@Starseeking the painting and decorating is inclusive of all materials.

The bathroom is purely installation and modelling. We've paid separately for bath, shower screen, toilet, fan, radiator, tiles etc. He did provide the grouting however.

The works are ongoing now but I've been keeping an eye on the progress and are happy.

Starseeking · 28/01/2022 13:06

[quote wannabeamummysobad]@Starseeking the painting and decorating is inclusive of all materials.

The bathroom is purely installation and modelling. We've paid separately for bath, shower screen, toilet, fan, radiator, tiles etc. He did provide the grouting however.

The works are ongoing now but I've been keeping an eye on the progress and are happy. [/quote]

That still sounds very good! I am wanting to get a bathroom done for a budget of £8k all in, which I thought was sounding impossible, but your costs makes me think otherwise. Would you be able to PM me the company details so I can arrange a quote, please? Thank you so much in advance.

A580Hojas · 28/01/2022 13:10

Yes, that is crazy.

I recently had a quote for electrical work at £384 per day which, considering 1. electrics is highly skilled and requires years of training, compliance and onward training 2. this is in London - seems reasonable. Up to £500/day for labour from a semi skilled tradesman seems v much on the high side to me.

beautifullymad · 28/01/2022 13:18

It's supply and demand.

People haven't been able to go on multiple holidays and are spending the money on home improvement. Especially watching property prices rise again and again.

The result is over booked tradesmen and they push their prices up because they can.

Why would you do a job for £150 when the next plumber is charging £200 for the same visit?

We had our guttering replaced last year as they were leaking badly and the prices were staggering. We called one company and said their price was £800 more than the previous quote (it wasn't) and they instantly matched the lower price. The price they had quoted was double the before pandemic cost.

I think they are pricing outrageously and relying on the market being so generous at the moment.

Be cheeky, Un-British and negotiate hard.

kitcat15 · 28/01/2022 13:46

We don't pay anything like that where I am in NW....of course labour has gone up but not massively.. ..but what I've found it waiting times have increased +++....we waited 6 months for a plasterer and we are currently waiting 10 months for our drive to be done....its no big deal to me ..but if you want work done quick its just not happening

user1497207191 · 28/01/2022 13:51

And what's driving it if so?

It's basic economics of supply and demand. All kinds of manual trades are very busy at the moment, so they're increasing their prices accordingly and "over pricing" jobs they either don't want or think will be PITA or difficult jobs. It's not just trades, I've been waiting 2 months to get my car repaired after a neighbour pranged it - some bodyshops were quoting 3+ months to do it, and their charges have also been pretty horrific, i.e. £2,000 for a bit of straighening and a bit of dent removal/filling, which is similar to what happened a couple of years ago and only cost £750.

You also have to remember that overheads are rising too. Tradesmen need vans, and fuel costs have rocketed, as have costs of vans! Tools etc have shot up in price as has skip hire. It's right through every level at the moment.

user1497207191 · 28/01/2022 13:53

@beautifullymad

Be cheeky, Un-British and negotiate hard.

But using your own words, why would a trader be knocked down from his quote of £200 to just £150 when he knows the next phone call will be a similar job for £200.

In this market, I think hard negotiating is more likely to put the trader off and make him think you're going to be a PITA customer.

AmberLynn1536 · 28/01/2022 14:43

Be cheeky, Un-British and negotiate hard.

Good luck with that, I’m sure they will be happy to drop their price for you rather than do a job for a customer who will pay the going rate.

TizerorFizz · 28/01/2022 16:44

In my borough in London, parking is now £6 an hour! Every single item adds up. There is more work than people to do it. So the cost goes up. This isn’t really factored into inflation calculations but it’s very real if you need work done!

It’s clear there’s jobs out there if people want to retrain. Also we are very slow at adjusting to supply and demand. This was always going to be an obvious result of Brexit.

The very unfortunate issue will be that house building will slow down a great deal. People need homes but we will be way adrift of targets if there are no trades people! So Brexit has caused more problems!

EvaDene · 28/01/2022 16:53

We just can't find tradesmen - especially for smaller jobs. They don't even turn up to give a quote. So frustrating, such a shortage of skilled labour caused by Brexit ( added to lack of materials, customs charges, delays at customs, delays through lack of drivers and higher costs).
Well done Brexit voters.

user1497207191 · 28/01/2022 18:42

@EvaDene

We just can't find tradesmen - especially for smaller jobs. They don't even turn up to give a quote. So frustrating, such a shortage of skilled labour caused by Brexit ( added to lack of materials, customs charges, delays at customs, delays through lack of drivers and higher costs). Well done Brexit voters.
The problem goes back 20 years when Blair made his crazy pledge of 50% of school leavers going to Uni, alongside the conversion of colleges and Polytechnics into Universities. Our local college used to do all kinds of "trades" courses in a few blocks of workshops but all that's gone and been replaced by classrooms and seminar rooms.
RussianSpy101 · 28/01/2022 18:56

@onedayoranother be very wary of cheap labour. Usually cheap for a reason. We’re in Yorkshire and DH pays labourers £150 a day.

MintJulia · 28/01/2022 19:01

Looking at it longer term, there are clearly opportunities for people to train as plumbers, roofers and electricians, and avoid the dreaded student debt.

user1497207191 · 28/01/2022 19:23

@MintJulia

Looking at it longer term, there are clearly opportunities for people to train as plumbers, roofers and electricians, and avoid the dreaded student debt.
Trouble is there are few colleges/employers willing nor able to provide the training.

Employers either have to provide in house training facilities (to a standard) or go through a college to get apprentices. If the college only has, say, 10 places on their bricklaying course (if they do it at all), then that's only 10 local tradesmen who can have apprentices that year, and that's before the inevitable drop-outs etc.

The country has really screwed up the training of young people into the trades. It'll take a long time to reverse that mistake, and there's no sign yet of any real effort to start that process.

user1497207191 · 28/01/2022 19:27

@narcdad

Anything between £200-300 per day is reasonable for qualified trades, £500 is very expensive.

Cheap labour has crippled a lot of English tradesmen who have spent many years training and have relevant qualifications, experience and insurance.

Yes, the cheap labour from abroad has been a double edged sword. It's been good in one respect in that people wanting work done could get it done cheap. But, because of that, a lot of experienced/older tradesmen have given up as they lost work due to cheap competition, and because of the "cheap" nature of the work, it added to the problems of encouraging younger people to train in the trades as the elder tradesmen weren't recommending it to their own children, their friends, etc due to the cheap competition downgrading their trade.
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