Day rates, hourly rates, quotes and markup: how a trades business works out its prices and still makes money.
Every rate published anywhere is somebody's average, and averages do not pay your insurance. The arithmetic that does is the cost of running the business divided by the hours you can actually bill, with a margin on top of that.
Day rates and hourly rates by trade and by region, markup on materials, what to put in a quote and what to leave out, and the difference between a quote and an estimate on the day a customer decides to argue about the bill.
New rules in England let councils charge for advice that used to start with a free hour, for checking private approvers' paperwork and for enforcement work. Each council sets its prices, in a scheme that has to be online before it applies.
Council charges can exceed the figures in cost guides. These 33 English tables show the size band behind your extension allowance and whether VAT is included.
Diesel is up 35.2p a litre since July and past the RAC's 2022 record, Electrical Times reports. If you priced jobs before the rise, the fuel line on those quotes may be short.
Construction Enquirer says self-employed tradespeople in England and Wales averaged a record £1,110 a week in Hudson Contract's figures. What that means for the labour line in your quotes, and what it can't tell you.
Your materials and labour split needs the subcontractor's direct costs behind it. Their markup stays in the CIS base, along with expenses you might never pay into their bank account.
The Trade Remedies Authority has put provisional anti-dumping duties on boom lifts imported from China. If you buy a Chinese machine, the duty lands on your import bill. If you hire from a UK yard, nothing so far shows your rate has moved.
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