Plastering - feeling a bit ripped off!

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Got a quote from a plasterer.

Room 14ft x 12ft
skim ceiling flat over old artex
board over chimney breast and refit coving around the breast. Skim 3 walls and around large window.

Quoted 4 days to do the job, said it would be tricky due to artex.

Cost £1300

They came and did 5 hours work yesterday and 6 hours today. Have finished and yes, it’s a nice job and they admit it went a bit easier than they expected.

Even though it’s taken 2 whole days less they won’t budge on the price. And they want cash. Well I can’t get cash out so bank transfer it is.

Why do trades lie and make out the job is bigger than it is. I feel pretty mugged off!

What dies minimum wage have to do with anything on this thread?

There is a lot of time spent going round to provide free quotes, shopping for materials and doing back office stuff. Not all work is on the job site. It was more to point out that a sole trader isn’t going to be on a job site 5days a week. So they aren’t going to have revenues of £1300 (£650 each) every two days.

maybe you should go into your local builders merchant or wickes to find out how much plastering materials actually are.

unless the prices have risen considerably in the the last ten days then …

1200 x2400 12.5 mm wall board £10 9.5mm ceiling boards are cheaper.
25kg bag of multi finish £71 for 7 bags. So £10 a bag

plasterboard adhesive 25kg bags £101 for 7 bags so £14 ish a bag

those prices are 10% off for having a trade account so slightly more for normal price.

Mabye prices are higher ( slightly) in other parts of the country but i know what i paid and they are not the prices quoted by your websites.

My hairdresser can earn £100 an hour for four mediocre cuts.

Plastering is an extremely skilled trade and I think the OP got lucky.

I usually pay £300 a day in london for 1 plasterer so i think you paid a fair price

But that 5-6 hours assumes that they magically appeared with the materials at the OPs address and all the waste just disposed of itself afterwards. You need to add on time for going to the suppliers, proper disposal, plus time for the paperwork involved. Then there's the cost of van and tools to be taken into account - it's not like all that money goes right in their pockets

OK they're probably still not full 8 hours days, but that's contracting. Sometimes things go smoothly, other times you have a nightmare - either way you stick to the quoted price. OP can't ask for money back just because they were lucky on her day. She wouldn't pay more if they had an unlucky one and were stuck there late.

Contractors can't afford to lose 1/4 of a days money every time they can't perfectly fill an entire day of work - it's not like they can go and half plaster someone else’s wall to finish the day off!

If people think it’s a good price and are happy to pay £300 a day each for a5 - 6 hour shift. Then fair enough …. Personally I think it’s a lot of money for the work they did and so does the op . I don’t and wouldn’t pay anybody that to do that amount of work.

That's fair enough, but what OP has done is agree to the quote and then decide it's too expensive after the job has been done

Well to be fair it’s a beautiful job and he’s been paid in full. I did have to stay firm on the bank transfer as he wanted cash as he reckons he didn’t add VAT to the quote. 🙄