Start with a day rate you have actually worked out
A day rate copied from the firm down the road tells you what they charge, not what you need. Work it out from the other end: what you want to earn in a year, plus what the business costs to run, divided by the days you can really bill.
Billable days are fewer than people think. Take 52 weeks, knock off holidays and bank holidays, then lose another fifth to quoting, driving to the merchant, paperwork, weather and gaps between jobs. For most sole traders that leaves somewhere around 180 to 190 paid days a year.
| Example | Per year |
|---|---|
| What you want to earn before tax | £40,000 |
| Van and fuel | £6,000 |
| Insurance | £700 |
| Tools and kit | £1,200 |
| Phone, software, accountant | £1,100 |
| Total to cover | £49,000 |
| Paid days (46 weeks × 5, less 20%) | 184 |
| Day rate needed | £266 → round to £270 |
Put your own figures into the day rate calculator and it does the sums for you.
Count the days honestly
Break the job into stages and put days against each one: strip out, first fix, boarding, tiling, second fix, snagging. Then add the time that is easy to forget - the morning you spend collecting materials, waiting for plaster to dry, the half day of making good at the end.
If a stage depends on another trade turning up, add half a day. It is cheaper to finish early than to work a day for free.
Materials: price them, then add handling
Price materials at what you will really pay, not the trade counter's best day. Then add a handling charge, usually 10 to 20%, for the time spent choosing, ordering, collecting, storing and returning things. Clients accept this when the quote says it plainly.
The things that get left off
- Skip or waste removal (and the permit if it sits on the road)
- Sundries: fixings, sealant, adhesive, tape, sheeting, dust protection
- Making good after other trades - patching, filling, touching up
- Parking, congestion charges and tolls in towns
- An extra trip to the merchant for the thing nobody mentioned
- Building control or certification fees where the job needs them
A worked example
A small bathroom refit, priced with the £270 day rate above. These are example figures to show the method, not a price for your area.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Labour: 5 days × £270 | £1,350 |
| Materials at trade price | £1,400 |
| Handling on materials (10%) | £140 |
| Skip and waste | £220 |
| Sundries and making good | £90 |
| Total before VAT | £3,200 |
If you are VAT registered, VAT goes on top. Either way, show the client the lines, not just the total - a broken-down price is easier to accept and harder to haggle line by line.
Write down what is not included
The cheapest protection you have is a sentence that says what you have not priced: rotten joists under the floor, moving the soil stack, the client's own tiles arriving late. When one of those turns up, it becomes extra work with a price agreed before you start, not an argument.