Am I being ripped off?

[Dolly79]

We’re having some work done on our property , it’s our first house and neither me or my OH have had much to do with tradesmen before. The first guy we had lined up went awol and we ended up getting several more quotes, which were substantially more - but given the price of everything has gone up we weren’t overly surprised. Anyway, we’re two weeks in and are very happy with what has been done so far. I’ve been paying the Main guy (project managing it) weekly and he’s outlined what each payment covers. I’ve now paid for everything but painting, kitchen fitting and second fix plumbing and electrics , but I still have almost £7k to pay. Does that sound right? I know it depends largely on the space - there is about 30m2 of newly plaster ceiling to paint and a room which is 7x3m where they are painting the walls. Kitchen is 9 base units, three tall units and x2 1000mm wall units. They are not fitting the worktops as this is being done by another company. Doesn’t seem like loads for £7k but then I’ve no idea really!! Any insight would be great fully received

The units are basically flatpack furniture if you can put together IKEA you can build those units the work tops of the tricky bits and worth paying for fitting. 7K means quite a lot to me though if I was in your shoes I be saying thank you very much we are done now and you do the painting yourself and order the worktops separately and get them fitted.

We we’re quoted nearly £3k to paint our hall and staircase and landing (by more than one decorator) so that doesn’t seem too bad to me. We’re London, where are you?

What is he actually contracted to do for you and how much will you pay in total?

The hallway is quite tricky though, ladders on stairs etc

Do the painting yourself and get a local trade person to fit kitchen?

It depends... what was the full price and scope of works... is there a % to be paid when you are happy that everything is done... what are you worried about... that overall you have overpaid (too late to renegotiate now)... that they will skip town and you will be left with this work to pay for with another contractor.

People often say.... you could have found someone cheaper.... well you didn't... as the cheaper guy disappeared. And those comments or that thinking doesn't help because you are not in a position to do anything about it right now.

You're not being ripped off if it's the price you already agreed.

@HiveBee Units will come already built so its a case of fitting them in place, and installing appliances ... there is all the 'finishing' that comes with that though the kickboards and plemet (may have got the terminology wrong there). We were originally going to paint ourselves but our fitter (who is a local guy) suggested it was easier to paint before the kitchen was fitted (makes sense) and as we both work full time and have young children we just dont have the time (or energy) to spend our evenings trying to paint to a deadline.

We are already getting worktops supplied and fitted by another company so that £7k does not include that.

@ChateauMargaux I'm not worried he will skip town. I'm just wondering whether £7k is reasonable for what is left to do. As someone else has said, we've already agreed the price so not much I can do about it now. Just interested to know really as he never gave a breakdown of costs with the quote and yet now he is telling me the cost of each element of the works and there doesnt seem much left to do with another £7k to pay.

@MoveOnTheCards thats interesting, although he's not doing stairs. I know it is expensive for decorators and something we could've done ourselves but we wanted to paint before the kitchen goes in (save having to paint round the cupboards etc) and we dont have time to do it ourselves working full time and looking after small children. We're in Bristol.

@girlmom21 very true. And to be fair, he's done a great job so far so if we're paying extra for being efficient, that so be it! (I didnt add to my initial thread that he was £2.5k more expensive that the next quote we had (and I'd already knocked him down from being £5k more expensive!) but could start sooner, so again, if we're paying for getting the job done before christmas - thats good too.

We're having some work done and went for the £2k more expensive quote too - the workman was more experienced and more flexible and I think, if you have the funds available, that's invaluable

Are you sure what you've been paying is the total for those completed jobs? When I've paid weekly it's been for materials then a final payment for all labour.

Yes, you usually just pay costs as you go along and then the final payment includes all labour

@helpfulperson I dont think he's done it like that - as an example one payment included for removing kitchen and flooring and another for laying flooring and we paid for the actual flooring ourselves (bought directly)