Will it bring the earnings down?

[Varley]

Nothing wrong pricing a little cheaper on your first few jobs, but i know of people in trades around my area who are good workers but never charge near what they should be, and these are not new to the trades either, this eventually has a knock on effect and could result in other good traders around the area having to drop their prices to compete then what? someone else comes in cheaper and so on and so on, once you are doing jobs quickly and confidently you should be pricing your jobs accordingly. Thats only my opinion

[CON5933]

Originally Posted by Varley

If they are good and are charging that price then it will ruin the trade, didn't say they were bad tilers, could be good tilers charging stupid prices then everybody gotta start competing and before you know it we're working for nothing

That's true mate, all we have to rely on is the 'see & want' scenario.... tradesmen see what others are earning and want the same. When you get someone who doesn't really need the money and is working for buttons I find the motivation isn't there and the job either gets done badly or takes an age to complete.

[guy1976]

people who are under pricing jobs to guarantee the jobs are going to realise that it doesnt pay to be a busy fool and they will soon realise its harder to get the prices back up than it is to drop them

[simonb43]

we all know there is a large influx of tilers both from home and abroad. I believe that none of us should worry if we are good at our job and do it for a reasonable price. My main concern is that a lot of tilers are undercutting others just to get the work. They may have their reasons, but all of us should stick to the rates that we know are reasonable. This then gives the customer the choice on who to employ for the job. If they pick cheap estimates, then they will probably get a cheap job. Work for me at the moment is better than last year, and i don't advertise at all. Word of mouth and good reccomendations will see the goods on are ok.

i have been in the trade for twenty years and i reckon i've seen the lot, great work, bad work and even work that my budgie would have done better, i dont agree that an nvq is just another piece of paper as leatherface puts it, i took that course last week just because it was available, if your a chancer then you wont get through the practical side never mind the theory, you have 7 hours to complete the test, i did it in 4 hours and fifteen minutes, you have to go on a health and safety awareness course that you pay for but that is common sense when you do it. site work is unvailable to those who do not have the relevant cards and h&s paperwork, gas fitters have to be corgi registered, electricians have to take part p, the day will come when anyone who works in domestic houses will have to show that they have taken the required courses and are competent to carry out the work, the goverment want it, trading standards want it and all genuine tradespeople should want it to, it will get rid of the rouge traders and chancers and clean up a dirty industry, all i can say is "bring it on",

[a1tiler]

good point , well made

[pjc]

I am totaly self taught and have trained at least 20 guys and have employed a lot more very few have the knack but the ones that havent can still make quite good tilers as someone said not rocket science at the bottom end but it if the can make a good job and make money at it good most of the trained guys i get carnt lay 60 x60 porclain with a 2mm jiont on a solid bed i also have 2 Polish and 1 Albanian they get more money than my engklish guys because they work harder