[Closed] Negotiating with builders

It all depends.

If builder is busy he will often quote high for jobs, on the basis, that he would drop other work if someone excepts it.

Also, outside of London, you would probably expect to pay at least around £20 - £30 per hour for a tradesman labour. Sounds expensive but it isn't really.

I'm not able to answer about negoatiating as I used a builder than came via word of mouth for my extension and the price was what I expected. What I would say is ask them 'what's not included in the price' to open discussion and thoughts about that subject. There was things that my builder knew would come up but weren't discussed until it became apparent. Also the nature of some builds can change during the build and your builder might use this time to suggest that things be done a different way (that would cost less money) but the final bill remains unchanged.

What are you planning?

200 a day for my best chippy, I have brickies/groundworkers happy to work at 185 a day. Jobbing electricians and  plumbers are all 35 n hr plus.  These are all proven good blokes though who I have worked with and used for years.
Crawley/Gatwick area. It is hard to get good people here.

Unlikely I would have thought, given how busy they are.
If a new clint asked me for a discount then alarm bells would ring. I would be concerned at their ability/willingness to pay.

someone negotiating the price makes you think they cannot pay . Why?

Not just that, but there were always people willing to pay the price given. Accept the price given and I was always more willing to cover any extras that may occur. Moan about the price at the start and these would be charged for, often costing them more than the original estimate.

To be honest, with a waiting list of 6-9 months I just didn't need the aggravation of customers "negotiating" at every opportunity. There are plenty who will just let you get on with things.

I wouldnt haggle a builder down, in my work the odd person tries haggling, i used to do a bit of a deal but the hagglers tend to be the most difficult clients.  Fortunately i dont have to take everything that comes along so now any haggler is ignored.

If you haggle a builder down they will only cut the quality or recoup the saving somewhere.

Cheers for the replies

In my trades - Kitchen, Bathroom and Tiling installations, I try to quote fairly for the job in the 1st place without a lot of fat, taking into account of the time, tool maintenance and materials required, then make it clear what's included.

We tend to get some people that want a 'deal' and will haggle regardless of initial price, most people seem happy with the rate and let you get on with it.  If they want the price reducing because of budget or whatever, then we'll look to see what we can reduce in terms of product supply or simplifying the design, I don't reduce the rates just because someone thinks it's too much though.

Does your boss negotiate a cheaper apy rate per hour for each week you work on, if no why should us self employed trades not do the same

Key is to get more than one quote. Ideally three and go from there.

But this is stw where if your not insulting the guy your paying way over the odds.

Some people need to haggle to feel masculine it appears.

Know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Said a wise man.

If you want to negotiate, think what you can bring to the deal. Payment up front, phased payment that suits what the builder wants, something else.

Just asking for money off is haggling not negotiating, it's disrespectful and a good builder won't be desperate so you could well piss him off and end up with him walking away.

Now heres an idea, the customer buys all the stuff required plus a bit more incase some material gets damaged and or nicked off the site,the customer also provides some of the more expensive tools.

Then when the tradesman turns up, he or she finds the products are inferior, not enough purchased, wrong size etc, so has a wasted day or two waiting for correct stuff to arrive.

They then charge the customer extra for the waste of time.

or Tradesman based on experience and previous jobs, will order whats required, and get it delivered or pick it up himself, using his trade credit account, will start work as planned and charge only what has previously been agreed.

The builders that did quote for our work were interviewing us rather than us them! The power was definitely their hands.
The builder wants to work with people who are going to make his life easier.

The ones who ask for a discount are always the ones who pick faults where there are none.
I've had it where they say 'we cant really afford that, would it be cheaper if we buy the parts ourselves?'
Yes, of course it would, my bill minus the part cost.
Then they price up the parts and realise that I get the parts as cheap as them, maybe cheaper (i only charged 5% on top of what I paid), then they come back with 'well, ok, you get the parts, but can you do it quicker so the bill comes down a bit'.
Thats when I look in my diary and find I'm fully booked for 6 months.

Go to m and s and ask for a discount...