Thanks to those who responded to my questions... Labour only on two separate jobs: (1) Replace an existing cooker hob and oven. (2) Replace an existing kitchen sink.

Just as I thought most of the enquiries on this and other web sites are for pricing comparisons only, most of these time wasters already have some one in mind for the job, The trouble with people down this part of the country they have no concecpt of the cost involved in running your own business, ie insurance, being a member of reputable trade services, running costs of van telephone and all the normal day to day expenses, When we price for jobs there is sometimes a built in buffer zone and also a small profit margin, if we price for a job and come across a problem the customer will never offer to pay extra? but if we being proffesional tradesman get the job done quicker and make a bigger profit we are the bad rip off tradesmen. A lot of the time the job is done quicker because we spend money on good tools to help us and give a 1st class job, none of this is ever taken into consideration. N J Baker D & N Plumbing & Heating PS I am not ashamed to put my name to this responce and I trust other tradesmen will follow.

who was the over priced plumber? Most guys price for the following travel expenses Day rate or half day rate plus any materials/fittings used thanks

Well, What can I say!! I come across so many customers that think my charges ar at the high end!! some just want a price on something because a frend/neighbour has had some work done??. Some are time wasters, Some just want it cheap, Some genuin, but for every customer i call on it cost me an adverage £300 for the visit and Estimate all of this I do at no cost to the customer. I have a good cross section of old and new customer base, I am good at what I do like a lot of other tradesmen out there,so dont be taken in by the cheap as the other tradesmen have stated we all have overheads to take into concideration. I believe in "you get what you pay for" Some builders Etc dont need to charge as much as others due to there scircamstances say better off than others smaller overheads moor personell so bigger turnover the list goes on, in the end some of us Do charge moor for our goods and services and I am one of thoes companies and I make no bones about it!! I like other tradesmen work hard to be very good at what I do and charge in accordance with the Nat average pluss my overhead allowance. The My Builder sight is great, but still has its number of ROUGE CUSTOMERS. May all the good guys stand up and be accounted for. regards Ashley (owner) "ABACUS DESIGN and BUILDING" South West England