£300 to move a radiator?

[cakehoover123]

£300 for labour, materials extra. Moving within the same room.

We're in the south west.

Sounds high to me, but maybe it's normal now? 😭

We've asked the guy if he can do it within the next week, which possibly makes things more expensive too.

A day rate for a plumber is £200-£270 which I assume would be nearer the higher end of down south and then add on a bit for getting it done quickly and you get to £300. A bit pricey but not unreasonable.

Thing is can you weld?

I'm doing a reno soon, been learning how everything is done to save money buy DIYing. I feel it could reasonably drain a radiator, remove a radiator, cap a radiator or replace a radiator but I couldn't move the position one.

It also look a bit like a soul crushing job to be fair, 1 might not be bad but if I end up having to do everyone in the house... oh god.

Thanks @Geneticsbunny - would it be a full day's job then? Agree reasonable to add on a bit for doing things quickly.

@housethatbuiltme lol at the idea that I could weld! I'd love to but... no. Sounds amazing to be able to do all that though!

It depends how far you’re moving it and how accessible the pipes are. We moved a good few during our house reno, mostly just to adjacent walls so they weren’t under windows, and we generally had 3 done in a day

That sounds cheap to me.

Tbf though I've only ever had one moved.
Had to reroute pipes, rehang the brackets with new fixings, connect it all and ensure no leaks etc.

To do it right for £300? sounds a decent deal to me.

Remember you ate paying for his time, his training, his insurance, the time getting the materials, the time planning, his holiday pay... not just the time he's there.

Plumbing is a skilled job. People pay £20 an hour for a cleaner... while many cleaners are extremely good, its not a trained profession in the same way.

£120 here plus extra for pipework by one of the best plumbers around. We're NW London.

I’m in the south east and would expect that kind of cost.

And that cost takes into account his training, experience and insurance costs! Always get three quotes OP.

A sound mantra but fairly difficult for smaller jobs when there's plenty of work to be had.
Depending on exactly what work is entailed it sounds reasonable.

Soldering pipes is loads easier than welding. If you are confident with the other radiator bits then you can definitely learn to solder pipes together. You just need a blow torch, heat proof mat, a couple of circular pipe cutters a measuring tape and some wire wool and some flux. You can buy elbows with the solder already in them. The most important bit it to clean the joint and the end of the pipe with wire wool before you stick them together to make the connection better and then stick some flux on.

It is very satisfying. Honestly have a go.

That would be 3 hours work for the company I work for. Definitely not a "day rate".

The heating system may need to be drained which takes time.
I'm assuming new pipework needs to be installed to the new position.
The radiator then needs to be taken off and moved to the new position.
The system then needs to be refilled and tested.

That's potentially a good 3 hours of work.

Its also important to remember that no one here has seen the job or what it actually entails.

It might need new brackets, or new panel or new connectors or pulling back carpet and removing skirting or taking up floor boards etc etc.

The person that has seen it has said £300.
If that's acceptable, accept it, if not, get more quotes, don't rely on anyone MN telling you how much it 'should' cost, they haven't seen what it actually entails

I'm struggling to see your point here. Nobody is suggesting 20 quid an hour is acceptable for a plumber.

Assuming it will take around 3 hours, that's 100 an hour, 5x the amount a cleaner gets on that rate. A cleaner who will also be self employed and have overheads/insurance/holiday pay to come out of that.

@CellophaneFlower the point was that its not just when he's physically there. There is the preparation work beforehand. And none of us know whether this is a 3hr job or a whole day job.

That’s quite cheap I’d say! I had 2 broken radiator valves and it cost me near 600 euro (Ireland) to get them fixed. Couldn’t believe the bloody price tag!!

You can't be messing about with 3 quotes for £300 jobs, what a waste of everyone's time. If the price seems fair and the person seems reliable and competent and actually wants the work, I'm not going try and find 2 more willing and able to come and quote for the sake of £30/£50.

I'm not looking for cheap with trades, I'm looking for something everyone will be happy with. Why would you want someone who's had to offer you a cheap price working in your house? If they're working cheap there's a reason for that.

I cannot imagine there is much to do off-site when moving a rad? When I had mine moved, the plumber turned up with his tools, he didn't bring anything he'd prepared beforehand.

I was told this was normal a few months ago. It took the plumber about an hour, but I do appreciate it’d have taken me a lot longer and been considerably messier!

Sounds about right for me, with a smaller job fitted in at the last minute you can’t expect a half day rate I think. More important to find and build a relationship with a local firm you can trust to look after your plumbing issues long term I would say.

Sounds cheap to me but depends on what sort of radiator. Plastic pipes easy. Metal ones less so.

If you want to get better value store up a number of small jobs and then get your plumber to visit to do all of them at once. Because a lot of cost/time can be in getting to and from the site.

So for example if you wanted two radiators moving my guess is you would get it done for less than £600.

I had one removed for £60, took them about 15 minutes and I thought that was dear!

They were here anyway to service my boiler.

I don’t know, obviously removing it is the easy part but it sounds expensive to me, I would definitely get another quote just to check.

I’ve just checked what it cost us last time we had a plumber in. His day rate is £225, he installed a radiator (pipes in place already), and did another from scratch moving across a room. £205 total for labour and materials (we already had the radiators and valves). The from-scratch was £130 + £35 materials, involved lifting carpets and floorboards, reinstating, clearing up . Your quote seems steep. He also balanced the system for free afterwards.