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Tradesmen unaware of Recession ?

May 26th, 2009 at 12:38 pm

Perhaps this is a peculiarity of Irish tradesmen - tilers in particular...

My mother, father (gamecock - we roped him in - hehe) and myself are paying for getting my brother's kitchen tiled...

My mother is making all the deals... The tiler reckoned it would take him a day and a half - and he wanted 450 for just his own labour - we're buying all the materials etc...

My mother agreed to this - I was shocked but didn't make too big a deal as I didn't want to upset mother - I work in a graduate job in my home town and earn approx 500 a week after taxes... this guy wanted almost 500 (450) for a day and a half !!!!.... you gotta be kidding right ? In a country where the construction industry (new houses = tilers) has collapsed and unemployment in that sector is huge ???? (supply of tilers greater than demand)

And you can bet your bottom dollar he will not be declaring all his income to the Tax-man (self-employed)...

Grrrr...... :-)

Rant over.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Tradesmen unaware of Recession ?”

  1. whitestripe Says:
    May 26th, 2009 at 10:28 pm 1243376893
    1243376893

    tradesmen are very expensive but they do have a lot of skill to go with that, atleast here they do. they're put in a lot of hard work and have a large bank of knowledge and experience to draw on - which is why they cost a lot. i agree, some rates are ridiculous, but i would think nothing of paying $450 for a day and a half of work for a tradesman here. if he is self employed, you have to think of things like his work truck, his business phone and possibly business place of residence, taxes, other materials, tools etc. just because he has tiles and grout supplied to him doesn't make his time less valuable.
    if there are any governing bodies that look after consumers, i would always check with them first to see if the tiler is legit. here we have BSA licenses (building services authority). if they do not have a license, they don't have a leg to stand on when you ask them to leave. everyone that does some type of tradesman work has one - if they don't, it's possible theyve had theirs taken off them.

  2. davera Says:
    May 26th, 2009 at 10:45 pm 1243377923
    1243377923

    Hmmm, if that 450 is in euros, that's about $630 US and $800 Australian.

    So for a day and half, say 12 hours, that's $52.50 US per hour. It's a bit on the steep side, I think. I don't know about the going rate in Ireland, but around here, skilled tradesmen charge about $40 an hour.

  3. Apprentice Bliss Hunter Says:
    May 27th, 2009 at 01:59 am 1243389568
    1243389568

    yesh its 450 in euros.... I think the going rate is whatever they can get away with !! There is no governing body certifying tilers in Ireland as far as I know... They serve an Apprenticeship and then they're out on their own...

    I've got a Degree from a college to do my job... I have skill and experience too.... yet I make 500 a week not 500 a day !!!!

    I probably wouldn't think twice about it in a healthy economy.... but the Irish economy is poorly at the moment... the construction industry crash being a major sympton/cause... there are 1000s of trademen with less work that they had 4/5 years ago... but they still keep their prioes high ???

    Where's the competition ? Or is there informal price-fixing going on ??

    I know they have overheads.... every business does... but I think more of that 450 will be going to profit than overheads tbh...

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