tapers being unrealistic adds to the problem of low prices

[RobPristine]

Hi, long time no post, one thing that needs to be said and i am all sure you will agree with is that many of the lets say wide boy tapers brag about how many metres they can tape to a finish in a week. if a single guy tells a contractor that he can tape and joint thousands of m2 to a finish on a commercial job in a week, then of course the contractor is going to offer him a low rate of £1.25pm2 to do it. the problem is then he goes on site and only gets 250m2 finished and so he earns £300 for the week instead of the £1000 he was expecting, and then his standard of work is crap due to him rushing and panicking about his lack of money, and then starts moaning about the crap money he is on, people like that mess it up for the rest of us. i hear so many idiots promising the world and i just dont take any notice, its bullshit. if there were less idiots quoting totally unrealistic production then things would improve. just my opinion but i am sure you have heard the same bullshit as i have, it makes me feel like smacking them with my 10 inch...........box

[amestaper]

I couldnt have said that any better myself. There are mercenaries out there who rush the jobs and have no sense of job satisfaction or pride in the finished result causing the trades image some damage, it could be because the rates they accept are total kack? Some new clients also never forgot bad experiences and I had trouble trying to convince them otherwise. The less some people know about your rates and how many metres you can tape in a week helps to keep a steady income otherwise certain clients will have a calculator at the ready working out how much you earn a week, then figuring out a way to make you sharpen your pencil.

Anyone who claims to tape well over 500m2 a week (other than straight walls) and leave a snag free finish is full of shit in my opinion.

[E.K Taper]

Nice one Rob, totally agree
Welcome back btw

[RobPristine]

The big suppliers are not helping either, they all offer these courses telling people they will be fully qualified and able to call themselves a trained taper after a two day course, so you end up with all these so called tapers offering their services on the cheap who have never done any on site work. its a nightmare. we were on a site the other week and they had these tapers on who were priding themselves on how straight and neat their tape joints were, i pointed out that they had sanded all their bloody joint compound off to get them that straight and when i came to spray it i could see every joint, ended up spraying a primer coat, putting a light box over every joint we could see, sanding it and then spraying topcoats. did i get paid for putting their joints right, no way.

thats the only reason we got into taping, we were fed up of putting peoples snags right for no money, so we just offer a rate for taping, jointing, priming, refill any joints and topcoating. if we do all the work ourselves we cant blame anyone else for any issues on site.

[wallpaul]

could not agree more.
had a phone call about some units from a mate who is fixing on this site in central london. asked the price and fell about laughing when told £1.30m2 all in!
told him i wouldn't even fill for that.
the sad thing is there will be tapers that take it do a couple of units,realise they cant make any money,leave then get stopped monies because the standard is rough.
this will then repeat itself until the entire job is finished.

[bulldog]

wtf is going on 20 years ago bdl paid a pound a m and that was s### how can you work in london parking congest diesel

[bulldog]

i mean congestion charge see why im dryliner

[happytaper]

Hi long time no post.could nt agree more too many tapers spend to much time blowing on about how many metres they can finish in a week. Every job is different every day brings its own problems be it bad boarding boards missing water a million miles away etc etc. Some guys quote unrealisticaly low prices to bag work and then find themselves in the shit in the middle of the job and as you say end up panicking and moaning cause they are not making a bob and the work ends up looking amateur at best.The guy promising mountains of meters every week is only going to get a shit rate then we all end up getting a shit rate. Everybody is out to undercut the next guy and we all end up working for peanuts and the main contractors are rubbing their hands together watching 100% margins saying god those tapers have nt got a brain between the lot of them!Times are bad but not that bad. 1.25 a meter? I think ill stay in bed

[JON RAMBO]

dont want to p*ss on anyones party but you lot talk a load of rubbish. i used to work for the second biggest dry lining company in the country and its always been the builders who control the prices, even more so now. if you wont work for what they are offering then there is plenty who will. we have never earned more than £1m. taping's not a hard job to do but yes it can be hard work at times, and yes i can tape 100's of m2 a week you just get there early and crack on thats how its always been and always will be.(sorry). i priced a commercial job the other day there was a weeks work for 2 men so i priced it at £800 inc materials and i didnt even get it! i think one of the joiners was going to do it,so i think we all need a career change.

[TonyM]

i priced a commercial job the other day there was a weeks work for 2 men so i priced it at £800 inc materials

Are you by any chance living in 1970 and travelling through time to work each day?

[amestaper]

Whats up with free discussion to compare rates all over the country? Some folks may want to honestly talk about what they have earned in the past or disclose information management doesn't want you to know. Its a real concern based on fact and posted by real site members, not just some made up fairytale to give people false hope or think they deserve more than their days labour is worth.

Have a wee read at the recent thread by DMC on Bovis which was also reported by several daily rags including the Financial Times here -> http://www.tapingandjointing.com/for...hread.php/1523

The best rates I've ever witnessed were in the 90's and someone I know was on £11 a m2 plus extra for beads AND a linear meterage on paper internals AND more for drywall primer making ££££££'s. I also know of a surveyor currently pricing @ £6.50 a m2 and getting work. This should either make you wonder what your company charges a client then what your small percentage of that is ... or recognize ignorance is bliss and be grateful you at least have a job.

For the record, I taped for nearly 19 years and only ever worked below £3 m2 on one single occasion on the continent which turned into a disaster. Over time, the price hikes for materials and the drop in labour rates will choke this industry leaving very few drywall companies dominating a whole lot of nothing, and one in which I have no intention of even trying to compete. There are far more rewarding and enjoyable things I could invest my time and energy in.

[JON RAMBO]

Are you by any chance living in 1970 and travelling through time to work each day?

.......and i didnt get the job!! nice to see you back tony you've been spending a lot of time on the plastering forum.

[TonyM]

.......and i didnt get the job!! nice to see you back tony you've been spending a lot of time on the plastering forum.

Yea, The Plastering Forum is quite funny. Been a member there for quite a while now, and they have accepted me, even though i'm a dryliner.
Even the 'shit' firms down my way pay around £2 a metre, so I don't envy you guys from up North.

[coastaldrywall]

problem is at the moment the plaster rates are so low and so many spreads chasing work that a lot of people are getting jobs plastered instead of jointed

[Captain perfect]

If we had any work to price up! we would allways price on the high side. It's allways possible to move your price down than to creep it up!

My Van has not moved of the drive since 19th Dec!!!

[chabev10]

Gees i was getting £1200 for doin a 3 bed house back about ten years ago which would work out to around £3m2 or 400m2 and the materials where supplied and loaded into the houses by the site labourers,i did 3 house's a week alone back then so around 1200m2 god i must have been fast in my prime lol.
The price's up here in aberdeen have not changed much but there's no way i would get out of bed for less than £3.75m2,,,,, topcoat sealer is an added extra at £50 a bucket,and around £300 a house ,Far to much foreigners taking our bread n butter away from us, this country needs to look after it's own workers instead of giving all these foreigners grants and hand outs to start up on there own. Now im off for a coffee to calm down. Public outburst over lol

[savage]

i sub contract, various nomadic contractors nomadic in the sense they rarely are seen on site and walk off with all the profits. i get 1.70 2m that works out about £560 for standard site three bed £750 - 850 for a four bed. crap really! supplying easi fill for speed and neatness but its not cheap. cant get away with bonding when finishing in a day now days... dont do sealer dont do height. its tough out there but lets be honest we all just fill tapered edges for a living! the avarage bloke who can do a three bed and rub down in say tow days is still earing over £200 pound a day. it not bad, if your capable of earning more doing a nicer job go knock your self out, i know i am not. if i were as fast and as good as i am now but twenty years ago i would be rolling in it but hay ho. guess what... we were all moaning five years ago about the prices... ten years ago... fifteen years ago... get the patten. we all just wish to be rich, just be happy with being busy enough to pay you way in the world. its great that we can do this just by spreading compound onto plaster board and rubbing it down!