[Closed] Garden Fencing... why so expensive?

Del we are getting g more quotes so will be able to compare.

To be honest his Labour quote at £500 seems fair enough. It's just the materials @850. I've priced it up at 350 online.

I'd get a few quotes then pick the cheapest I think would do a good enough job, I'd be looking for recommendations from friends. No point worrying about how much anyone needs to feed their kids, that's their job to get right.

including all the consumables / fixings / postcrete and all the other incidentals that the layman forgets that tradesmen need to supply on top of the big ticket items.

and of course your ensuring that they are absolute like for like products made from the same quality materials ?

stuff from tradesman will be more expensive due to his markup ok 500 Over and above is excessive however i dont believe thats the full picture .

I think any tradesman that marks up materials is taking the piss. If you get a discount when buying and choose not to pass it on then fair enough, as said above you have to cover time spent finding materials etc. If the customer is good to deal with and doesn't ask for discount for cash etc then I'll usually pass on any savings to them. I don't do many landscaping jobs as they are often a pain in the backside because people don't want to pay a decent rate for a hard days work.

however i dont believe thats the full picture .

I think any tradesman that marks up materials is taking the piss.

Same with bike shops. They should charge £5 to fit a headset bought off them at wholesale pric... 🙄

Trail rat I'm not sure I get what you mean when you say it's not the full picture. ??

I N R A T S but I just replaced a panel with separate slats (it blew out and the replacement matches the rest of the fence).

Only a 6' length, but 7' high, timber £30.

If the Trader supplies goods, he has to guarantee them.
So, of course he is going to add something to the cost.
He also has to go and collect the stuff, pay for it (probably on the day, as most fence suppliers do not do accounts, whereas Builder Merchants do do account payments).
It soon adds up in both time and money.

So, to the OP, you supply the goods, get him to fit it. You'll then have the benefit of paying slightly less for the materials, and have the added benefit of arranging the deliveries and getting rid of the waste too.
But be aware that some fences are not as good as others - they look the same, but once you have put one up, you soon tell the difference.

It's a litlle strange that you think he shouldnt be adding anything to his cost price of the materials - he is in business to make a profit, when you buy your groceries, do you complain that they are charging more than the shop bought the goods for?

He's unlikely to be in the business of retail so doesn't have storage costs and any markup is for hassle of ordering and collection - could just build into his labour costs really. If he was a retailer he'd be buying from a distributor so be paying less than the retailer who's already making a profit.

Yep but 500 more ?

This is the quote ..........
[URL= http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y33/renton1/IMAG0214_zpsw6vz5bjt.jp g" target="_blank">http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y33/renton1/IMAG0214_zpsw6vz5bjt.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

im saying - welches garden world or who ever - for 350 quid are probably supplying a fence of a lesser quality - as they full well know they wont have to warrenty it when they can blame fred bloggs for putting it up badly.

mr fence man has to use good stuff as he will be the one back to fix it when it blows to bits.

This is where I am looking online....
http://www.garden-fence-panels.co.uk/fencing-panels/garden-fencing-close-board-arched-or-scalloped-panel.html

Those panels don't look to bad at all do they ?

not passing comment on that - its a 2 dimensional picture of a fence panel at some point

Its very assuming to assume that what your see is what you get when it comes to the internet- yet we all do it from time to time.

I think any tradesman that marks up materials is taking the piss. If you get a discount when buying and choose not to pass it on then fair enough

Did you intend to just publish your address on the internet? Checks posting history to work out what bikes he has 😉

Those panels don't look to bad at all do they ?

They don't exactly look great. All those knots are going to fall out and provide a peepers' paradise.
I note from the quotation that fitting new gravel boards for the existing fence are also included- something you forgot to mention.
To be honest, I don't think the fencer is too bothered whether he gets this job or not. Some jobs, and clients, are just more hassle than they're worth.

" I don't think the fencer is too bothered whether he gets this job or not. Some jobs, and clients, are just more hassle than they're worth."

the fencers an STW regular then 😉

Come on trolls you must try harder than that.

My father in law has been dealing with him for me and he (fil) is a thoroughly nice chap.

So nowt to do with me being hard work.

If he is a nice chap, who does good work, then pay him his price.
You can always ask if he could do it a little cheaper beforehand.

On a general point, why is someone doing manual labour questioned about their costs and the amount they charge?
When you are employing a Solicitor, does anyone ask him why a letter costs £35+, when it will take 2 minutes to write?
The same goes for a financial advisor - I paid £300 for what, for him, was probably 2 hours work. If pushed, I could probably do it myself, but it would take me many hours to research. He's got the knowledge, so I paid his fee. I didnt question his fee, yet it is common to query manual labour costs, and then conclude that you are being ripped off as he is charging more for the parts than you can get online.

Come on trolls you must try harder than that.

I've not said I am being ripped off at all ? All I have said is that I thought his material costs are quite high compared to what I can source the stuff online.
Even if you add an extra 20 quid per panel to my figure it's still quite a bit more.

Anyway. Got another chap coming to give a quote later in the week.

No disrespect to yourself but if I was coming to price a job and the potential customer spoke in the way you are in this thread then I would include a "buggereation factor " into my price too.
The panels you linked to are the first ones that come up if you type "arched fence panels" into Google. Maybe have a look at a few others to compare. Tell you what, go down to a local fence supplier, have a look at their cheapest fence then the fence you would like to have and compare. Then come back to this thread.

Renton - it's easy, order the parts online, and ask him for a labour only cost.

I'm always happy doing that, if something goes wrong with the parts, I can charge for replacing them, but when I supply myself, I have to guarantee and repair free of charge.

Probably not useful for fencing, as there is little to go wrong, but I really would check the panels are the same quality - 2 mm thickness in the wood really does add to the robustness of the panel, but you can never tell that by looking at them.

LOL - and make sure you pay him for his down time when you don't order everything required inc fixings :O)

(not a dig at the OP, just a comment to that comment. I've been asked for a labour rate before and refused. Then again I won't put up panel fences either :O)

Iolo.... How exactly have I spoken ???

I've asked if a quote was expensive and that I've been able to source the parts online cheaper.

It's like shopping at your lbs when the same thing can be had online cheaper is it not ?

Alanl thanks for that.

Just out of interest would your Labour charge differ between supplying and not supplying materials ?

A rented property? so its an allowable expense if it is.

So it wont cost you anything in reality.

maths fail

I had 120m of fencing done for about £7k 15years ago. This was 4" posts, cant rails and feather edge boarding.

[url= https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8383/8683414218_1cbee8477f.jp g" target="_blank">https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8383/8683414218_1cbee8477f.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/eejLwf ]Daffodils[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr

My labour charge is the same whether I supply or not, but I'd rather the customer supplied the parts.
As outlined above - not supplying the materials has a number of plus points - no time going to wholesalers, no payment upfront for parts, no guarantee from me for the parts, if parts are late it isnt my problem, no waiting for the customer to pay the my Invoice for the parts, no arranging of delivery etc.

I had one last week, wanted outside lighting, I gave him a brochure, said go here, when you've got them, ring me and I'll fit them. It isnt worth my time getting them, then the customer may not like them, as they look different to the pics in the brochure.

Thanks for that.

To be fair if he does a good job of fitting the concrete posts then we could possibly get away with cheaper panels for now and then replace all of them including the ones that are already there in a few years.

I will see how much this other quote comes back at!

the original states fitting concrete gravel boards to an existing fence as well as building a fence from scratch...am I correct?

Yep. Three extra gravel boards.

Yep. Three extra gravel boards.

Last year when I went to my local timber merchant they were actually discussing this very issue. Boards were in short supply due to the repairs to flood damaged property's hoovering up all the boards. They were only getting limited stock and it was being shuffled around branches 🙄

Same with bike shops. They should charge £5 to fit a headset bought off them at wholesale pric...

Except the bloke in question is possibly charging more than retail price for the materials, not trade price and charging for labour. It'd be more like a shop charging you £30 for a £20rrp headset plus whatever they charge to fit it.

Is that whole sale retail or bnq retail ?

Impressive thread resurrection!!