I've been done but he's my friends husband

[Mottledhellibore]

My friends husband is a tradesman. I asked if he could cut and screw 3 lengths of planks to a small bedroom, cladded ceiling. I had bought the wood. He took and hour and 20 minutes to do it. I will be painting. He charged me £80. I feel this is excessive and want to ask if he had included the planks in the price
The issue is he is my friends husband and I don't want to cause any awkwardness but equally I feel hurt that I've been taken advantage of. I didn't expect it for free, just not that price. Any thoughts? Thank you

And just to be clear, I was happy to pay, electrical stuff is beyond me, and bathing by candlelight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Sounds perfectly reasonable.
My DH was self employed for years and the worst part was always friends and extended family expecting things done for nothing. Would you work for free?

Let this go if you value this friendship. I don't think £80 for the work you have done is excessive.

It might have been a handyman's job, but sounds like you hired a skilled carpenter to do it.

And I don't think you've been done, but perhaps communicate better and get a quote next time.
(Were you expecting a freebie?)

It's rare for someone to just have to spend a short time on a job, unless they are more of a handyman who goes from job to job.

I think he charged you correctly for what he did. I had a plumber spend 20 minutes here and charge £140 as he has a minimum call out charge.

I didn't ask.

Always open to new friends.

I think it was cheap given he has to travel between customers. Most tradesmen around here would have a higher call out charge than that.

You agree a price before hand.

Probably figure out whether it is worth losing your friendship over the sake of £80-(what you think the job was actually worth).

Then simply follow the golden rule of not doing business with friends, as this sort of stuff is one of the likely outcomes.

It is a reasonable price.

He is not your friend, so of course he is going to charge for his time unless you agreed a price beforehand.

If it took no skill then why didn't you do it yourself?

Good question. @IMustDoMoreExercise got you there @Mottledhellibore 😆

Why couldn't you do it yourself if its just screwing something... no tradesman would work for less than that really.

Also you had renovations and the trade rate was under £80 per hour? when?

Standard call out fee is £70-£160 and thats just to attend your house and look at what you want doing, no work included.

Also whats the job? sounds like boarding the ceiling? Did he plaster it too, is someone else or are you painting bare wood?

Exactly this. The ignorance around the difference between tradies - and people who are doctors and teachers and the like - (and the way they are paid, and all the advantages and benefits doctors and teachers get) is shocking. Are people really that clueless? 🤔

That's actually pretty cheap for a couple of hours' work including travel time etc.

Surely you didn't expect to pay NMW for a skilled self employed tradesman??

In fact, that's probably still "mates rates".

But where would we be without the mumsnet martyrs who talk about how mean everyone is for calling out CFs because they spend their life selflessly driving round extended family, neighbors, coworkers, friends of friends, their husbands mates etc... between baking cakes for birthdays, weddings and school fayres and of course watching everyone's children before and after school and at weekends... all for free of course because their heart is pure goodness.

Good for you! You're a better person than anyone else on this thread. NO-ONE else on here has EVER cooked a meal for friends without charging them, or looked after anyone's child without invoicing them, or give them a lift without asking them for a tenner for petrol.

We need more people like you in the world.

He’s a tradesman. He has bills to pay. You got a good job done, what you asked for.
He took the time, he could have been out doing a bigger job.
Tell him and your friend that you appreciate it.

This! ^

Why would you engage a skilled tradesman to do a "handyman" type of job in the first place?

And why would you think a skilled tradesman would charge less for a job that a competent DIYer would do in the first place? If he could have earned more for 2 hours' work doing his proper main trade, then he'll expect to charge the same for "lesser" work.

I'm an accountant. I charge the same hourly rate for book-keeping as I do for completing tax returns and even complicated tax planning reports. Why would I charge a lower rate for the low skilled book-keeping work when I have the clients and enough work requiring higher levels of skill and knowledge that I could fill my time with more complicated and demanding work. It makes no sense for someone charging their time to charge different rates according to how easy/hard it is - if you're time based, you're time based!

My husband is a carpenter. I am a teacher. We both trained for 3 years to do our jobs. When I worked full time my husband earned almost double my salary per month. Wow, they do charge too much you may say...
However I get paid holidays, sick pay, good pension etc. I also have no insurance to pay, no tools to buy (maybe the odd glue stick), no quoting for jobs I might not even get. My salary comes in every month regardless of other factors like the economy/ cost of living etc. Suddenly that double salary doesn't look so appealing.

Your friend came round and boarded your ceiling without you asking then charged your DH... that is peculiar, almost unbelievably so.

Maybe crack on yourself then?