How much!! :(

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Merlin Cat, Mar 4, 2021.

  1. Merlin Cat

    Merlin Cat Moderator

    50A8C62B-9BF1-488B-896F-9A58EF613159.jpeg Buying some copper fittings to do a re pipe job yesterday I don’t know the price until I get the email later as is on account. My estimate was somewhat low!!

    the bulk of one of these bags is 7 boxes of TRV plus lock shield.

    for the two bags the cost was £248!!

    oops forgot the photo!!
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2021
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  2. Barry Haynes

    Barry Haynes I dance in leopard skin mankini’s

    Or as they say in Barnsley aw mooch :p
     
  3. Dubs

    Dubs Sponsor supporter extraordinaire

    I blame brexit...
     
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  4. Hell's teeth! For £300, I bought this;

    DSCN3438.JPG
     
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  5. crossy2112

    crossy2112 Supporter

    But is it made of copper? :)
     
  6. I'm glad I sticked up

    I'm glad I stocked up before lockdown, been shielding so there's piles of fittings and copper waiting for me when I get back
     
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  7. Merlin Cat

    Merlin Cat Moderator


    You did well as I nearly felt faint when I saw the price!! I also had to go to Toolstation as Plumco didn’t have enough of the parts I wanted. It turns out Toolstation have shortage too :(
     
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  8. T

    Thanks Tbh most of what I use comes from toolstation because prices are normally reasonable. Guess I'm going to have to look at prices before I start work...
     
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  9. Looks kinda Gold to me :D
     
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  10. Good job you didnt get smart programable ones then!
     
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  11. I blame the parents.
     
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  12. That colour is actually called executive beig.e.
     
  13. Dazza

    Dazza Eyebrow not high brow

    @Merlin Cat I'll post a photo tomorrow...they're cleaning our stores out...no messing if it's not likely to be used in the next few weeks ...in the skip it goes....
    I imagine fittings will escape the chop but some of the stuff I saw being put into the skip pile today was heart breaking and I don't know what most of the stuff is..

    I got a litre of leak seal stuff out of it though
     
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  14. crossy2112

    crossy2112 Supporter

    Only person that would paint copper gold is our Snotts :thumbsup:
     
  15. Merlin Cat

    Merlin Cat Moderator

    NOOO! I have a garage full of plumbing parts that I never get round to clearing out :oops::oops:
     
  16. Material prices are getting stupid and a lot of stuff now has long lead times.

    I can see quite a few people deciding to put bit installs on hold when they find out that the quote they had before lockdown just went up 20-25% due to material increases.

    I was talking to a roofer last week. A particular size of timber that he uses was £1.65 a length before covid. Same piece now over £3. On a roofing job it’s added hundreds to the job so basically all his materials profit is now gone. He said he might as well just go and work for someone else’s business on a day rate, as he’s basically providing the gear for the job for no mark up now.
     
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  17. I have never really come to terms with the notion of "materials profit", seems disingenuous to me :rolleyes: I guess if you go contracting in my game, you can't bury extra profit in providing materials, perhaps I am just jealous.
     
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  18. You are correct. Since Brexit has clogged up the British ports, those big old Maersk ships haven't been docking in the UK as they can't afford to just sail up and down the channel until a port has finished enough of it's mountain of new paperwork to have some space. Result is they dock them in Holland and then unload and then the containers have to be put onto wagons and driven on to ferries and brought across to the UK that way, where they then sit in the UK ports for between 3 and 5 days waiting for their turn to be the pile of paperwork before they can leave the port and enter the country. Friend of mine that imports timber in large quantities is having to pay a grand per day per container for the privilege of this delay. This has just about doubled the cost to him of timber as a raw material and pretty much all similar trade related supplies are going the same way.
     
  19. Think of it this way. When you go to Tesco and buy some baked beans for £1. Tesco didn’t pay £1 for them. But you don’t question that. You assume they are making a profit but selling you a can of beans, but Tesco didn’t manufacture those beans did they.

    It’s not burying profit. As a tradesman there’s generally a mark up on what we sell. When I go to my merchant and buy a boiler part, it has a retail price, I buy it for the trade price. I sell it normally a bit under the retail price. So in fact the customer is still getting it cheaper than they could buy it, cos they don’t have a merchant account. If they go into my merchant they will pay the retail price and they’ll be expected to pay for it there and then, where as I don’t have to pay for it for thirty days. So the customer gets the added luxury of also not having to pay on the day of the repair. So effectively I’m facilitating credit for them and I’m also taking the risk as even if they bounce me, in thirty days I’m paying for that part.
     
  20. Here’s a very quick real world example.

    there’s a particular fuel pump solenoid that fails pretty regularly.

    if you go into city plumbing they will charge you £28.80 for that part. Retail.

    I buy them for £19.80 because I buy them in bulk. I sell them for £25.

    there’s a bit of profit for the merchant. A bit of profit for me and a bit of a saving for the customer. I’ve never once had a customer tell me that they’d rather get in their car, drive to the store and pay more for the part than from me as they are concerned I might be making a fiver.
     
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