Why are tradesmen so expensive
- Thread starter fez
- Start date
I am in the trade and its going crazy at the moment, if its not just lake of decent tradespeople, then its them getting pinged on the app or its material demands so when you factor in all of those its leading to serious delays on jobs. There is a massive upshot in demand for decent tradesmen when all the schools are closed for the holidays as well because that's the only time schools can realistically have work done. I know in parts of the country bricklayers are leaving sites because they are being paid more on a site down the road and earning more than some site managers. I have heard that some bricklayers are on £600 a day currently and they are being paid that because there isn't enough of them to do the job.
Soldato
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- 27 Mar 2013
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Soldato
Yeah was an article on the bbc about it. Think it was Manchester too, not even London.
He'll be on a brick price and be smashing it out.
Soldato
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Yes, I've read you typically pay brickies by the square meter including openings. So a good brickie I guess can bang them out. With all the housebuilding going on domestic work is a real bugger to find trades for.
Soldato
I did too, with Wimpey. £600 per day is making me reconsider. Actually, I'd do it for £500 per day.
Agreed, i have paid my bricklayers this sort of rate equivalent before when they work by the metre. Up to them if they want to start at 7am and hammer it all day until exhaustion at 6-7pm without a break, suits the customer and they get an inflated rate by working harder than i ever could.
The thing is, is it £600 a day 5 days a week 52 weeks a year, that's the question.
Rather have a decent reliable income these days.
Had the chance to do plumbing with a local plumber but didn't fancy that at all. Ended up in electronics in the end, then specifically aviation electronics, so low graft high pay.
Soldato
Yes of course you need the work coming in. Good luck to them, make hay while the sun is shining!
Associate
Not what I expected, thanks for the reply.
Soldato
I don’t know any electricians earning 80k
You might get that if you had your own company.
Wages are terrible 30k-35k
With very little benefits
I hate it (if you couldn’t already tell).
My Dads a decorator and I've worked with him on and off over the years between jobs. He has the mindset that charging less to guarantee repeat work is far better then charging more and having the customer look elsewhere for future jobs. Some of his customers have been with him for 20+ years at this point, almost all of them live in enormously expensive properties in the more upmarket areas of Birmingham (Harborne, Edgbaston, Sutton Coldfield etc.). He could almost certainly charge more and it used to irritate me that he didn't when I was younger, especially when I worked with him, but we've had the profit back in other ways. We have free use of a holiday home in Saint Cyprien for 2 weeks of the year, every year for the past 8. Usually costs £3000 to rent the place for that long. Good people will reward you for honesty and hard work one way or another.
For those people on OCUK that are in the trade, I'd be interested to hear of how you find it honestly. I ask as someone that has an interest in it for the sake of my kid who is expressing an interest in doing something like electrician/plumber/carpenter. He likes working with his hands. He's actually quite bright but just eyeing up career prospects and likes the sound of these kind of jobs. The vast majority of anyone I ask about their job as a career (in anything I mean, not just trades), almost always reply negatively and to not go into whatever they do. I think this is a British thing though. We like to focus on the negatives of work and the rat race that it becomes. I think some people like trying to keep their area protected and as competition free as possible so they ultimately stay relevant and in need for as long as possible, so there is a little bit of that going on too. I think there is a real lack of people willing to take others on under their wing to learn things as well these days.
For me personally with trade jobs it looks like you can earn a hell of a lot of money these days but I suspect it does come with less guarantee of work over long periods. I suspect it is more stressful having to always be "on it" and perform to good standards to not tarnish your rep. Managing actual real life customers and Karens could be hard especially when young and just starting out. Then there's the real realisation that yeah...come 40 years old your body is going to be rinsed out a lot. The amount of traders with physical knee/back/hand issues is staggering. I know someone that is a mechanic and in his 60s still doing it... He's in and out of hospital multiple times a year just to keep going.
I would worry about young apprentices breaking into a trade as I guess people want tried and trusted, experienced people.
For me personally with trade jobs it looks like you can earn a hell of a lot of money these days but I suspect it does come with less guarantee of work over long periods. I suspect it is more stressful having to always be "on it" and perform to good standards to not tarnish your rep. Managing actual real life customers and Karens could be hard especially when young and just starting out. Then there's the real realisation that yeah...come 40 years old your body is going to be rinsed out a lot. The amount of traders with physical knee/back/hand issues is staggering. I know someone that is a mechanic and in his 60s still doing it... He's in and out of hospital multiple times a year just to keep going.
I would worry about young apprentices breaking into a trade as I guess people want tried and trusted, experienced people.
This sounds not ideal at all, are you working for a large company or housebuilder or something?
I always think with trades, what a terrible job unless it is for yourself. The way the guys which ive employed to do things work, they'll be useless by the time they are about 40 years old, they absolutely beat themselves up to complete work which is on a price rather than day rate.
Soldato
Electrician doing well to earn that a week.
Associate
I've been a self employed joiner for nearly 30 years, the first 5 were a bit of a struggle but once you build up a good reputation you'll never be out of work, I think been a tradesman is a great career, and you don't need to kill yourself to earn a good living, but I do think you need to be self employed.
+1 on cutting out the middle man and being self employed. I did that and doubled my wage. If you're working for someone else the nature of the beast is you're being underpaid for work produced. Make sure you're getting something else out of that arrangement for your time. Gardner wanted to charge me 3000+ to cut some thick bushes back. Obviously a sign he has more than enough work on the go. Don't blame him business wise just won't be using his services on this occasion. In fact now I have the tools he'll not be much use going forward when it comes to clearance.