(What) Would You Quote For This Job Then?

[ProDave]

Some of you will know that I sometimes fit tv aerials and satellite dishes as a side line.

I've just been approached by a company who has the contract to replace the external rendering on some council houses.

Any house that has a sky dish, will need the dish removing and temporarily fixing to the scaffold, and then replacing back onto the house when finished.

So I'm guessing an hours work each way, so 2 hours per house

There's 80 or so to do over a 5 month period probably 5 or 6 at a time.

I asked them for more details about the type of houses and what they were cladding the outside with. Here's there answer:

"Dave the houses are a mixture of two storey, bungalows and some three storey.

Yes the houses will be clad with insulation then roughcast applied on top. We will be installing a plywood packer behind the roughcast for you to fix back onto."

The three storey ones are flats. So before I quote I'm going to go for a walk around the estate to see how high up the dishes are on the 3 storey ones.

What would you qoute for this?

I'm thinking I don't really want the job so go in at £100 per house on the basis I probably won't get the job, but if I do it will be worthwhile money.

I'm factoring in to that some allowance for replacing rusty bits on some dishes and new fixings etc.

 

[steptoe]

I'd guess the bolts will snap on almost all of them on removal,

£100 doesnt sound way mad TBH Dave, will you have the scaffolding up when you go to take them down/refix ?

you will also most probably need some fly leads to extend the cable.

deffo makes it worthwhile @ £100, I'd guess a bottom margin would be 70 if you allowed for 3 a day.

 

[wozz]

id factor in a bit more pain in the arse time. Id imagine customers would get pretty shitty about loosing signal when the cladders knock the dish around.

 

[ProDave]

Good points.

I'm deliberately going in at what I consider a high price.

I think I'll make it clear the price is to move the dish onto the scaffold once and back onto the house once, and if the dish gets knocked and needs adjusting again, an additional charge will be made.

Presumably the scaffold will be in place to do the initial move (otherwise there will be no scaffold to fix it to) Not sure what will happen when the scaffold comes down. If I get the timing wrong, then a bent mangled dish will be left lying on the floor for me.

that's one of the things putting me off, is I will have no flexibility over time and the dishes will have to be moved when the scaffolders are there, not when it's convenient for me to go and move them.

 

[NozSpark]

Also factor in a percentage of replacement dishes or make sure that they know that replacement parts or rewiring are extra.

 

[rins]

Hi we were offered a similar contract a few weeks ago the scaffolding was already present at each house so the price per sat dish was £45 they supplied the fly leads and the signal setter if required. an alarm was £55 and we were told the majority were fakes and an outside light was £25 we were asked to blast a full street off and return to refit havent heard back from the guy i thought it might of been a decent bit of cash if we got a good run at it

 

[elvis]

100 each sounds about right to me.

Give them a written quote and include.

Note 1: Estimate based on scaffold being in place at time of removal of dishes.

Note 2: Estimate based on scaffold being in place for re-fix of dishes.

Note 3: Estimate based on pre-installation by main contractor of fixing pads.

Note 4: No scaffold being present for re-fix will impact the cost of the re-fix.

Note 5: No fixing pad being in place for the re-fix will impact the cost of re-fix.

Note 6: Damaged dishes will not be re-installed.

Note 7: Damaged dishes will be replaced by the main contractor.

I know this all sounds a bit arsey but you need to cover your arsey when you're dealing with awkward jobs like this... all you're doing is putting in writing what they've promised you anyway.

And... you're not that bothered if you get it or not. I have to say it sounds like a good one to me!

 

[binky]

with all Elvis' get out clauses I would have said £50 - it's a doddle, but insist on doing more than 1 at a time at that price, and work on guaranted some faulty dishes etc etc where you can put some figures on to make decent profit. Think 'no repairs' unlike what you would do for one of your own customers - monkey see monkey do is the correct attitude for this type of work, anything else is extras.

 

[elvis]

Yup...

50 quid each, a pile of get out clauses and you've cracked it!

Then on that freezin' cold January ' X( where's the scaffolding? bad day explode where's the sat dish?' morning, you've got yourself a full shift and have covered yourself for the bill you are gonna hit them with. :red card

Happy days!

if it is a customer, particularly a commercial customer that you don't really know, and when there are so many factors outside of your control that can turn what should be a straightforward job into a complete pain in the erse then you need to cover yourself.

I do a bit of light building and joinery and when I quote for these jobs, I don't think twice about putting clauses like these on the estimates.

 

[Evans Electric]

I'd guess the scenario would be ................. 2 visits, Scaffold up , Dave moves dish onto scaffold and returns to ProDave Castle. Phone call from Builder , we've finished and need to remove scaffold so Dave returns dish onto the wall , nice n easy with plywood block to fix to .

£50 per visit .

But how about incuding for a scaffold clamp for the dish bracket ??

 

[binky]

scaffold clamp - couple of cable ties :innocent

 

[elvis]

Note 8: Missing scaffold brackets, cable ties will be charged at 60 quid each. :Blushing

 

[Andy™]

you could use a U bolt to fix the dish to the scaffold

 

[batty]

You can guarantee they will want dish lined up on scaffold remember some of these people only have there TV in life and what happens if they say its not working any more that will be another call back. Personally I would avoid this work like the plague.

 

[ProDave]

Yes I fully expected the dish to be set up and working properly on the scaffold. I also wonder how many times the builders will knock it out of alignment.

I also realise I will be at the beck and call of the scaffolders expected to go to move dishes when they say jump, not when it's convenient for my schedule.

so clauses about damaged dishes, extra charges for extra re alignments. Set out my working times most specifically NOT weekends as well as all the above mentioned points.