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Pricing per metre
- Thread starter bobski
- Start date
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There are so many variables when it comes to gutter clearing.
My advice is to use your formula and quote your own gutters, and then try quote your neighbours.
How do you measure the gutter length? Will it look professional trying to pace out the approx length? How do you account for clearing a blocked down-pipe. How are you going to do the job? What is a customer perceived acceptable price to do the job?
How are you going to dispose of the clearings?
My advice is to use your formula and quote your own gutters, and then try quote your neighbours.
How do you measure the gutter length? Will it look professional trying to pace out the approx length? How do you account for clearing a blocked down-pipe. How are you going to do the job? What is a customer perceived acceptable price to do the job?
How are you going to dispose of the clearings?
Last edited:
We have a 3 bed semi-detached dormer @bobski
I just tried quoting using your formula on our house.
Length of front and rear gutters (ground floor height - low level) paced out, 20 meters.
Gutters on the side of the dormer, 10 meters.
Gutters on dormer roof front and back, 12 meters
Garage gutters, 6 meters.
Total gutter length = 48 meters.
Gutter clear. 48 x 4 = £192.00
Gutter fascia and soffit clean. 48 x 8 = £384.00.
I'm sorry, but I would never get a single job if I quoted using your formula on Teesside.
I did my own gutter and fascia clean a couple of months ago. The Dormer gutters were clear, and I did all the lower ones manually off my stepladder, as cleaning the gutter vac at the end would take nearly as long as the job would.
It took me 3/4 of an hour to clear the gutters and less than an hour to clean the fascias, gutters and soffits, which also included cleaning the windows and doors.
Maximum time on the job, 2 hours.
I just tried quoting using your formula on our house.
Length of front and rear gutters (ground floor height - low level) paced out, 20 meters.
Gutters on the side of the dormer, 10 meters.
Gutters on dormer roof front and back, 12 meters
Garage gutters, 6 meters.
Total gutter length = 48 meters.
Gutter clear. 48 x 4 = £192.00
Gutter fascia and soffit clean. 48 x 8 = £384.00.
I'm sorry, but I would never get a single job if I quoted using your formula on Teesside.
I did my own gutter and fascia clean a couple of months ago. The Dormer gutters were clear, and I did all the lower ones manually off my stepladder, as cleaning the gutter vac at the end would take nearly as long as the job would.
It took me 3/4 of an hour to clear the gutters and less than an hour to clean the fascias, gutters and soffits, which also included cleaning the windows and doors.
Maximum time on the job, 2 hours.
Chris34
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- Stockport, Cheshire
That sounds fine to me. I use the pricing by metre with a minimum price, I don't tell the customer the price per metre, it's just what I use to work out the price. My price is £3.50 per metre, lower gutters I do half price as they're a lot easier.
Fascias and soffits, they're hard work and wreck your shoulders... possibly long term damage... so they have to be done at a price to make it worth it. I don't do a price per metre on fascias and soffits, I just look at it and think per side how long will it take. Generally speaking I want at least £70 per hour on fascias and soffits, ideally I want a lot more but it depends how busy I am. Lowest I'll go is £70 per hour though. I should go higher really as I think I've only been turned down once with fascia's, same with gutters.
If anyone questions the price I tell them straight, it has to be worth while for me as it's a really physically hard job.
ched999uk
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I have recently bought a gutter vac and have been promoting that and gsf to my customers. As a rough guide I count the gutter sections between the clips to give an idea of how many meters it is. I charge a little lower for 'ground floor' gutters than 1st floor. I also give a discount if an existing customer takes a gutter empty and gsf clean.
Prices will vary depending on where you are in the UK.
As I recently learned, you need to charge more where you can see there are issues like plants growing out of downpipes in in gutters.
Prices will vary depending on where you are in the UK.
As I recently learned, you need to charge more where you can see there are issues like plants growing out of downpipes in in gutters.
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- 13,553
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- Cornwall
Personally dont think a fixed price works well for this far to many variables , I look at a job and think it’s going to take xx amount of time and I want xx to do the job if it’s difficult due to tight gutters to tiles then I just charge more just in case it’s very rare that I get caught out . We charge more the higher the building as well ,
ched999uk
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The only issue for people new to this sort of stuff is they have no reference of how long it will take them. So at the beginning a per meter price is a good guide, yes you will get caught out now and again but that's how you gain experience.
Definitely higher cost the higher the gutters.
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- Cornwall
I hear what you are saying but if you don’t know how long it will take you to do the job how can you price per meter ? How long will a meter take to clean and vac ?
Chris34
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- 1,726
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- Stockport, Cheshire
You learn from others what they're charging and use that as a guide and work from there. There is no way of knowing how long it will take before you've done a few jobs, however pricing per metre at least gives a chance of getting it roughly correct in terms of pricing.
You don’t use others prices as a guide as everyone and every area is different
Work out what you think is a fair price eg £30 front £30 back on a normal 3 bed terrace and see what happens
If it takes an hour due to problems at least you have earned £60 then you get a feel for the job and what problems exist and change your prices accordingly
ched999uk
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- Lancashire
Good point. I tried finding out local prices and used that as a guide. At the moment I'm probably only earning about 20% more than window cleaning but I am getting quicker the more I do, so hopefully the more I do the better my prices will be.
ched999uk
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That is the tricky bit, how do you know what's a fair price? At a guess a 'normal 3 bed semi' is about 10m front and 10m rear - so using your prices that's about £3 a meter? I would say a minimum charge is worth having to avoid little low paying jobs.
Thinking more about it maybe my price structure should be more like a base price to cover setup, clean up, and pack up, then a per meter fee depending on height and how bad they are.
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The only real way to make good money doing gutters is to charge them high on a first clear and sell the annual clear "cheap"
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- Cornwall
Quite agree we have minimum price otherwise it’s not worth putting the vac on the van but generally we do a full day of vaccing as I found this the most profitable way, clean the vac at the end of the day rather than at the end of one job , unload at the end of the day .
ched999uk
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- Lancashire
That's a good idea, although I can actually fit the vac in permanently but I like the idea of a single clean out. Not sure my arms and shoulders are up to a full days vaccing yet ? At the moment I'm getting a fair few gsf cleans plus vaccing so decent jobs. I expect that to quieten off as I have now promoted vacing and gsf to almost all my customers. So I am hoping after the surge I will get a trickle as we get into autumn.
Cheers
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- 13,553
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- Cornwall
Vaccing should get busier during the winter months as it rains more and it becomes more obvious gutters are blocked so get those muscles in trim now ?????
Chris34
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- Stockport, Cheshire
By following the price of what others charge then you are closer to the correct price without making costly mistakes. It's also critical to know the market potential so you're not selling yourself short.
When you're a rookie expect it to take longer to complete jobs..... Charge what you want, but don't expect to be doing as many jobs per day as what someone who has been doing it for many years and has a van full of equipment to deal with every problem that can occur...
We do a couple of annual jobs, and they are much easier and quicker to do.
My plumber charges 75 for first hour , even if its a ten min job, he has travel and fuel etc.
Then 35 every additional hour.
I think gutter clearing should be similar.
You have fuel and travel, you are risking ladder accidents, and if you use a gv and not ladder you have an expensive machine to maintain and pay for.
My gv arrived yesterday, looking forward to pushing it instead of ladders.
Mattlekim
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We have minimum £50 charge. Then we add price based on that. Due to having to book in the work and it taking us away from our regular work we aim for about 45 to 60 an hour each.
But area you are in makes a big difference on price.
But area you are in makes a big difference on price.
