reasonable price or not?

[Burnz0]

i've just had my kitchen fitted and (very unreasonably!) the carpenter now wants paying. The cost was £540 - 3 days work for him and his "boy" plus materials on top, for which i gave him £100. The £540 bit seems pretty good to me?? but im not sure where he's spent the £60 on materials (he proposed to give me £40 back when prompted). The only materials i can see are some timber lengths to batten the base and wall units of the wall - 2.5m run of units and a large sheet of mdf that he's used to box in the boiler pipes and create a plinth/soffitt type thing above the units that goes to the ceiling. And also £5 worth of ducting attachments from screwfix for the extractor I suppose there must be a few screws here and there but is there anything im missing? like glue etc?
it's not crazily high by any means but ive had a few issues with him so far so automatically assume the worse now. He broke one of my sockets that was loose and due to be fitted in the back of the cupboard and looked like he'd tried hiding it in the back of the unit. I guess this might be £10? so reasonablly i should be able to deduct this?

[khalid]

...you had an entire kitchen fitted for £540...that's pretty cheap!

[Burnz0]

that doesn't include electrics or plumbing and I drilled the hole for the extractor but it's still quite good i think. I've since realised that timber is much more expensive than id thought so all in it's probably pretty good and fair

[happy handyman]

I feel this is very reasonable.....was it a good finish ? Did he do anything over and above what he said he would do ? Also depends on the part of he country our in.....personally it's better paying a premium price, than a cowboy botch job !

You could ask him about the socket, although he maybe a bit embarrassed about it.

[wine~o]

Think that sounds a fair price for the job...£120 a day for the Guvnor, £60 a day for the "Apprentice"...Materials ????

But if you think you are being overcharged..I'd say about right ...

[philprime]

That's not a bad price if it was just fitting the units

But if he did the tiling also I would say under priced

[Job and Knock]

I agree with others £540 seems quite reasonable - viewed from the point of view that he has to run a van, maintain a toolkit, advertise, etc, so that £120 won't be what he gets in his pay packet.

On the issue of materials I reckon on possibly having to use the following - screws and plugs, silicone sealant (often 2 to 3 tubes and I don't use the cheapest carp, either), coloured adhesive for worktop joints (£6 to £12 a pop), fresh cutter for worktop joint (£12 or so for 2 or 3 joints MAX - not resharpenable as the diameter changes), MDF (£18 from B&Q), battens (2 x 1in and/or 3x2in PAR softwood) and possibly steel hanging rail on awkward walls (at £20 odd for 3 metres), etc. I don't know what your fitter used but I have been known to burn £150 on "ancillaries" on a problem job where I just had to swallow the difference. That's without hitting snags with plumbing

[fin]

were on a job currently... the home owner had a b&q kitchen fitted by b&q... its an L shaped kitchen with an island. also some units in the utility room. it has solid wood work tops. the b&q fitting charge was over 4k... its not as if its a massive kitchen or anything.

[Burnz0]

yep, i've concluded the price was fair and the materials cost is also about right. Finish-wise, there's a few odd bits here and there and others that i he fixed (after prompting) but overall i can't complain. The doors, however, are all slightly out of line. Im not sure if im being fussy but i want them all square with the units, in line with each other, equal gaps etc. He's already made some adjustments such as a door that didn't close at all, but i'm swaying towards getting him to have another go at getting it right

[happy handyman]

Hiya, getting him in, it might be that the hinges have not been adjusted etc.....

This will also give you an idea of his character , so you know if he is genuinely bothered.....so you can use him again in future !

( don't forget to thank people who have guided you....just need to hit the thanks button.....I know I get happy with a thanks ! )

[philprime]

were on a job currently... the home owner had a b&q kitchen fitted by b&q... its an L shaped kitchen with an island. also some units in the utility room. it has solid wood work tops. the b&q fitting charge was over 4k... its not as if its a massive kitchen or anything.

Your not that only person that's said that about b&q fitters iv taken a few jobs on as homeowners won't pay their prices

[darrenba]

Hardly surprising when you see B&Q charges like £120 for fitting a free standing fridge - so you plug it in and push it into position

[joinerjohn]

Ahh lining up the doors. A time consuming job to get "just right" I usually spend about an hour on this at the end of a kitchen fit (depends what the customer is like though, some are more pernickity than others) As long as the units are put in all plumb and square, adjusting the hinges isn't too bad.

[fin]

this kitchen was fitted. sod all this joinery work im gonna go and fit kitchens and charge 4k for a basic kitchen haha...

at the op... sometimes people query labour prices. they ask me if its fair. etc etc. one of my mates asked me to replace a few tiles on his roof and fix some guttering. he said off the top of your head how much? i said i dunno maybe a hundred quid... i had to pick him up of the floor. it was basically a days work. he is a engineer on a ship. hes probably on 3 times my yearly wage atleast. yet begrudges me making a living at his expense (if im working on his house) we dont do our jobs for a laugh

[CarpenterChris]

Typically £500 is quite good, I've worked on kitchens before that have costed £4000+ and they're nothing amazing, the thing people don't understand I don't think is the money given to the worker isn't what he gets paid (As in, a wage) he has to pay for the van, insurance, materials, anyone else who he's working with etc)

I recently worked on a job where the lady gave me £1,200 and everyone I knew was like "The milky bars are on you then!!" and I only actually took home £700.