What would you charge for this?

[RGIvy]

Hi folks
Did a small job for a local shop, a simple melamine top. I've never done paid woodwork before and have NO idea what to charge.
Alli-in-all about four hours, for that we:

1. Built a base for the top (pretty standard)
2. Cleaned edges of the melamine top with a router (they were quite ragged) and/or cut to size
3. Cut out two indents for the vents. This was done very carefully and neatly with a router.
4. Rounded one of the corners with a router (really neatly done as it's where everyone walks past)
5. Covered the edges with a strip (iron-on) self adhesive

The melamine board, supplied by the shop, was in a bit of a sorry state. Took a bit of work to make it as respectable as possible.

I had one young chap helping me.
So a very rough idea on what to charge for myself and my assistant?

TIA
Rog

 

[Lazurus]

£15 per hour is my rate

 

[RGIvy]

£15 per hour is my rate

Do you ever use an assistant?

 

[Lazurus]

No I have never had the need to, yet!

 

[Dee J]

Depends where you are and what your overheads are like, but that's £100 easily.

 

[doctor Bob]

Is that 18mm board on pine legs? are there chunks out of the end.
Cost is horses for courses. Depends on confidence and speed and equipment levels.

 

[thetyreman]

I noticed the chips as well @doctor Bob, I wouldn't be happy with that as a customer....

I think you should work it out by looking at material costs + labour, that could be an hourly or day rate, completely up to you what you charge but don't starve yourself or sell yourself short.

 

[thetyreman]

 

[owen]

£100-£120 would be fair I guess

 

[pcb1962]

I noticed the chips as well @doctor Bob, I wouldn't be happy with that as a customer....

OP said "The melamine board, supplied by the shop, was in a bit of a sorry state."

 

[Doug71]

OP said "The melamine board, supplied by the shop, was in a bit of a sorry state."

It looks like if it was cut 10mm shorter the chips would be gone.

 

[johnny]

it depends on if you are trying to make a living with this work and it is your primary income source or whether it is just a supplementary income and you have another job for primary income.

If it is for some extra money then as Lazurus says £15.00 an hour plus expenses would seem a reasonable rate unless you are based in London .

If your assistant was essential to the job and you had agreed to pay them then you would have to pay them something around the minimum hourly rate at least I should think. If they were there to give moral support and fetch a tool or hold something occasionally then you can hardly charge the customer 4x hours labour for that really. Maybe bung them £25.00 for the help.

You should have worked this out before starting the job so the customer has no nasty surprises. You can hardly charge the rate of a professional carpenter or kitchen fitter if you do not have business overheads or the customer was expecting a cut-rate job.

Basically you need to work out how you intend to charge for your work. You are very unlikely to be able to charge for time spent chatting about the work with the customer before during or after the job but it is something that needs to be factored in somewhere as it is a cost to you.

You'll need to factor in expenses like sick pay, holiday pay, liability insurance , book keeper ,tools, transport costs running a car/van tax insurance repairs and spares etc for a year . Add a small contingency fund for emergency expenditure like car repairs or special tool purchases.

Calculate how much income you need to live on for the next year ie mortgage /rent bills food cloathes 3x weeks holiday etc and finally add whatever profit you think appropriate for your business .

Then devide those costs by 365 days to arrive at a daily rate for your work . devide by 2x for half days work and by 6x for an hourly rate etc.

Now you know how much you need to charge for an hour half a day a whole day or a weeks work for your overheads income and profit.

There are plenty of online resources that will help you calculate all this by filling in simple forms that will give you all the charges that will suit your income needs.
https://mikewalterz.com/how-to-price-your-services/

 

[Felix]

Personally, I think if you're charging £15 per hour as a self-employed individual then you are working for less than minimum wage - after you have factored in your costs of running a business - even an odd-jobber is going to incur general costs such as fuel, wear and tear on tools etc. I would say you should be charging a minimum of £25 per hour.

Unfortunately, in this country, there are people who offer their services for less than the 'going rate' which does not help any bona-fide tradesman at all - you can wake up tomorrow and decide you're going to be a plumber, carpenter, electrician and go out and tout for work in peoples' houses. Sadly, there are plenty of property owners out there who will pay 'tradesmen' to carry out work on the cheap whether that 'tradesman' has any relevant qualifications or not. In Austria for example (personal experience) all tradesmen have to be certificated in order to carry out their work - their rates are significantly higher over there (about 40 - 50 Euros an hour), but you get proper accredited tradesmen - not just someone turning up with a shiny new bag full of Makita tools.

I should add that I'm sure that a similar situation with regards to non-accredited tradesmen exists in Austria (and many other countries), but it seems much less of a problem there than it does here.

 

[Tris]

It's more like 240 days unless you are doing 7 days a week

 

[Felix]

It's more like 240 days unless you are doing 7 days a week

Unfortunately you don't stop paying insurances, electricity, gas, water and any other 'standing costs' over a week-end

 

[Tris]

Fair point, I read it as chargeable days

 

[Tris]

I think that's what Johnny was referring to

 

[HOJ]

I cant offer advice on a public forum as to how much you should charge for what you have done, the cost should have been established with the client before you started, I doubt if any shop owner has much in the way of disposable income.

Not sure it justified 2 people to make either, and the finish looks amateur, the first thing any one will see is the ragged edge of the top, not good for your reputation if you hope to do more work locally.

 

[Cooper]

A very long time ago I was approached by a friend of a friend who was setting up as a butcher to paint his signs. I had never done any painting for money and had no idea what I should ask. I decided that the friendliest way to proceed was to charge them in meat. I can't remember what the rate was but the whole job kept me in meat for over 6 months and I developed a taste for steak and fore rib. After that I knew much better how much work was involved and how long it would take and was able to make a realistic judgement what to charge other people in cash. As it was cash in hand and I also had a proper job I was always good value.
I think what you ask for depends on what you client expected, this time. In future will will have a much better idea of how much effort will be involved.

 

[RGIvy]

I noticed the chips as well @doctor Bob, I wouldn't be happy with that as a customer....

I think you should work it out by looking at material costs + labour, that could be an hourly or day rate, completely up to you what you charge but don't starve yourself or sell yourself short.

The board we were given was pretty ragged and we managed to get rid of most of the chips, the store owner didn't want any more cleaning up to be done so we left them.