Hourly rates plus materials uplift?

[Mr Blobby]

Just got the electrician rates at £33 per hour. 

This is Northern Ireland so I had hoped for something a bit lower. 

The bit I don't like however is he also wants to be paid a 15% uplift on materials.  Is such an uplift a standard thing?  It sounds like a con. Is it?

 

Edited March 11 by Mr Blobby

[Conor]

My spark charged 20%, basically wiping out the VAT saving. For labour rates, most I paid was £200 a day, £25/HR including breaks. That was knocking on the door of two years ago tho. £33 now is probably reasonable.

[Thorfun]

maybe a little high for NI but is about right for SE England. approx costs for the boss sparky for me is £300 and his underling is £250.

 

the material uplift is normal I think. I am a nice guy and offered to uplift their daily rate by 10% to compensate for the loss with me buying materials which he accepted. tbh, I'm pretty sure it was better for me as I managed to source materials at a cheaper price than he would've (I think) as he has an account with CEF and we all know how expensive they are! by shopping around on the internet I'm sure I was quids in. at least that's how my man-maths justifies it.

[nod]

I hate day rates 

Ours works for a national company doing mainly housing associations 

40k plus overtime But he pays a lot of tax £300 overtime leaves him with £180 So if he can make £200 cash from us per day It’s equivalent to over 300 

I got him to work out a price 

He’s run over by two days 

and two hours Saturday morning 

£500 in his hand 

I’ve bought the materials in from the wholesalers 

 

[Mattg4321]

Those rates sound ok to me, but I don’t know the local area. Here in SE England I charge roughly £300-350 a day and mark up materials by 20%. This covers the cost of sourcing the materials, sometimes having to pay my account before I get paid by the customer and also the cost to replace or repair materials should they be faulty. 
 

I’m happy for customers to supply materials, but if they’re wrong and I’m hanging around, they’re paying for my time and if they’re faulty and I have to return to replace then, again, they’re paying for my time. 
 

It sounds like a lot of money, but after all the expense of running the business, periods of quieter times, no holiday, no sick pay and no pension it doesn’t work out to be as much as you’d think. 

[nod]

21 minutes ago, Mattg4321 said:

Those rates sound ok to me, but I don’t know the local area. Here in SE England I charge roughly £300-350 a day and mark up materials by 20%. This covers the cost of sourcing the materials, sometimes having to pay my account before I get paid by the customer and also the cost to replace or repair materials should they be faulty. 
 

I’m happy for customers to supply materials, but if they’re wrong and I’m hanging around, they’re paying for my time and if they’re faulty and I have to return to replace then, again, they’re paying for my time. 
 

It sounds like a lot of money, but after all the expense of running the business, periods of quieter times, no holiday, no sick pay and no pension it doesn’t work out to be as much as you’d think. 

I run a tiling framing and render business and totally get that 

No sick days or holiday pay 

The lads that work for me earn between 250-400 per day NW England All are on price work 

None have done a day on our self build or our previous build 

The electrician I’ve used wrote a list of what he needed and I added it on my account But items where often not what he had asked for