Hiya,

I just wanted to ask a bit of advice. I've just had a bedroom (5m x 4m) reskimmed and I removed all the old 3" skirting board and want to replace it with 5" taurus. Not having the right tools, I got a few quotes in and the first couple of people that have been have quoted £150 and £175 for just this one room. It's a simple job, with no unusual cuts (7 mitre cuts in total) or anything, and those prices were just for the labour!

It just seems really expensive for the time this would take, and when I questioned this, they both said that there are two of them that work together and they need to pay their wages...

So, am I being naive to think that this is a really easy and quick job for even a novice joiner, and that £175 is massively over the top?

Thanks! :)

Oops, forgot the DIY advice part!

I am thinking of having a go at this myself, and am also thinking about laying some engineered oak flooring too, so would like to buy some tools. Can anyone recommend a reasonably price electric saw for these kinds of jobs? And any other essential gear that I might need?

Cheers :)

The price you were quoted is not unreasonable. You have to remember that those guys had overheads and i'm suprised they even bothered to give you a quote as it's such a small job.
Small jobs will always cost you more as they take up a lot of time for little results.

If you want the job done cheaper try a handyman but you will not get the same standard of workmanship as a joiner.

What type of electric saw do you need? If it's for oak flooring, then you dont really "need" any electric saw, can be done with hand tools easily but as we are men then you will need a jigsaw, mitre saw, scroll saw, reciprocating saw, circular saw, band saw and a JCB

Get yourself a decent jigsaw as it can be pretty versatile.
Good luck

sorry dave this isnt unreasonable, jobs like that are often rather labour intensive and cost a bit. might be worth asking them if the are going to scribe the skirting internally or mitre.

(mitre = cowboy.)

hope the oak flooring goes ok i have fitted alot of that stuff. just pay attention to the board with, very if then the shoulders arnt the same size and when you push them together it leaves a gap. last one i did i had to plain the shoulders off with a clifton 3110 shoulder plane. (poor blade wasnt well after )

you can spend alot of money on tools, alot more than £170.00

wouldnt want to contradict ross but a jigsaw is a little rough. very usefull but doesnt give a nice finish.

you need to work out a price, because you will be spending into the 100s.

as a general try get a mitre saw with a 260mm blade. - its not the machine that makes a saw rather the blade so look into saving on the machine price and look into getting a decent balde.

a mid range sliding mitre chop is a good investment and is useful for doing floorboards, skirtings, decking, fence posts, shelves, batons etc etc...... but It will be more than £175 and you will probably need a few different blades for different tasks.

_________________
- Dave
http://www.pamperhouse.net
http://www.invertedcircle.co.uk

with 2 of them on.. half a day. mitres, scribes, possibly have to scribe to the floor if uneven. nail guns, drills, cordless's mitre saws.

they possibly wont be enough time of day left to get to another job and get set up etc before home time.

price of their tools. joiners tool kits are quite often worth a fortune when all power tools are included.

diesel... that isnt cheap. and trades people probably use more than most getting to and from different jobs. when were busy we can be putting 40 or 60 quid in a week. dependent on traveling distances obviously.

factor all this into it and then consider the price.

also consider what your daily wage may be aswell.

my dad charges 20 quid per hour per man for the smaller sort of jobs like this. and id think id probably charge the same anyway. i get asked for mates rates quite often. and used to do it... but ended up working for buttons in some instances.

as for the tools you may require. decent advice soo far form everyone else.
thats their wages that your paying them.

Dave M...................I would be taking close on £1000 worth of tools onto that job, 3 years college for City&Guilds, over 20 years experience. £170 is cheaper than I would be.

I would charge £220 labour. I would have already looked at the job (my time), done a quote (more time), bought skirting so that I know it is quality and not the 5hite from the likes of B&Q (more time). Turn up at your house.....put dust sheets in hall, up stairs and on landing, fit skirting, dust and hoover the bedroom, dust sheets up, hoover hall, stairs and landing. Go Home do an invoice and wait for money.

The actual skirting is one little part of the overall job.

This is the problem with some clients in that they think everything is an easy 5 minute job and they haven't a clue about everything else that goes on in relation to that job. Not that I am saying this applies to you.

wow next time i need my house cleaned im giving you a call. hehe

you are so right though ROC i remember a job i did a couple of years ago, she told me she turned dpwn 2 guys who quoted her £60 a door to fit internal fire doors.

so i priced it per hour (still came out around £60 a door)

But she said, "i hadnt realised how much went into hanging a door!!! i thought anyone could do it."

so annoying!!!!!!!!

I hate doors because of all these ' £15 to hang a door' adverts.

I sometimes get told £50 per door is dear. My reply is ok then I will charge £15 per door. Did you want latches and handles fitted too............that will be £15 for that and what about scribing the door to fit the frame and floor..........that is another £20.

hahahahaha i love the out look. will have to remember that for the future.

what they dont say is,

hang a door for £15

that with a nail and it will swing! lol

I found a cheap way round that...... The current van has a reg. ending in JCB. Any digger drivers want to make an offer?





Nah! I thought not

Sorry to disagree with you Alexander, but that isn't necessary for most trim work. For years I used a non-slider with a 250mm blade as my "go to" saw (Makita LS1040s or MLS100s - available for under £200), despite also having a larger double bevel compound mitre saw. I've recently changed to a smaller deWalt DW777 which has a 216mm diameter blade. Granted it's limited to cutting stuff less than 2in thick (but most framing is done with 2 x 2, 3 x 2 and 4 x 2in stock, so no problem there) but it's good for skirtings and architraves up to 10 in or more AND in addition it can cross cut shelving and the like up to 265mm. For years I saw guys carting these and their predecessors round sites and didn't get the point (the basic design actually first appeared as the Elu PS174 in the late 70's/early 80's). The epiphany, if you like, was when I hired a mitre saw and one of these came. Suddenly the compact size, reasonable dimensions, high power rating (1800 watts in 230 volt, 1650 watts in 110 volt) and low weight (14kg) made a lot of sense, especially as they can be had with a leg set which is somewhat smaller and cheaper that the aircraft carrier normally sold for the purpose. Also means that I can go to jobs in a small white van rather than a Transit 3.5 tonner......

Incidentally, to the OP, I'd suggest hiring a saw (and transformer if they only do 110 volt) for the weekend as that is a much lower outlay to get the use of a proper industrial tool than buying one - and probably a more satisfying way of learning about mitre saws than buying some cheap, bendy piece of DIY cr*p

I have just done a skirtings and archs job and charged £150 plus parts for it. I also hang doors for £30 each plus parts. Doors are a pain in the rear as they can go easily or take forever! Most customers have no idea what is involved in fitting most things and assume you wave a magic wand and it's done....I aint Harry Potter!

_________________
Never enough hours in the day!
http://www.alanwilley.co.uk/

ive been asked to fit some doors in my local pub by the land lady. the doors will be in the flat they live in upstairs.

ive mentioned these elsewhere on the forum. the doors are going to be a mega nightmare. 7 doors and not 1 is a straight forward fit.

they keep going on to me saying come on..... cant be more than 25 quid per door. and the landladys mother then mentioned that a local diy shop advertise on the radio 3 white colonial doors supplied and fitted with furniture for £199

they would take one look and say sod that id bet lol.

i pointed out i would have to strip out the timber frame of the door. cut the door close to size. refit new timber. glue and pin it up. then plane to fit. and they wanna pay 25 quid lol.

i really need to sort out some propper prices for myself to charge and earn decent money.

i have that saws predecessor. the dw701. im gonna get me a huge ass saw as and when cash allows. that saw is too small. it cant cut some kitchen cornice. i cant cut trenches with it if i need to. the guard on occasions gets caught.

my mate up the road has a bosch slider with a 216mm blade. dunno model or nowt. not that much of a geek. it seems canny. similar weight to my dewalt. bigger cross cut. bevels left and right iirc.and no annoying guard. but personally i want either the big makita. or that big bosch thing thats just came out that doesnt use rails. it has some berserk arm mechanism going on