[drive surgeon]

do you guys have a minimum call out charge?  do you charge for a quotation?

one fella by me charges 3.50 a sq metre for blockpaving.

[trevor perry]

we just priced a job at about £1 a metre and was considered to expensive, it was very dirty and not good drainage either

[drive surgeon]

jesus thats cheap!  most people i know seem to charge at least 2.50 a sq m.

[lowesdarwen]

£1 ......whats that clean only



 what sort of price are you doing clean & resand for?

[drive surgeon]

i have seen that guy charging £3.50 a sq metre just for cleaning and he said he was chokker blokk. he said if your cheap people think your gypsies or something, a good firm usually is dear for reputation and quality work.  prob agree with him i suppose.

[trevor perry]

with the machine i use i could of made very good money at £1 a metre, the site was over 1000 square metres and on jobs this size i dont think you would get anywhere near £2.50 a metre but i may be wrong but i havnt got the balls to ask them sort of prices.

[DavyP]

In a street with alot of brick drives I would always give the first customer a price of £2.00 sq m and free sanding, explaining that i'm doing a special price for them as I usually get most work whilst on the job.

Then take my time doing the clean. ideally on a sunny Saturday morning and wait for all the enquiries from nosey neighbours.

Works a treat.

[TVCS]

we charge 2.50 psm.  with sanding.

[BDCS]

£2.25 - £3 clean and sand, the art is reading the customer and selling yourself to them, adjust the price depending on the amount of work you have. I aim to get about 2/3 of jobs and loose a third on price

[dandandan]

I don`t charge by the metre now,i work out how long job will take,if there is a nice border to aim crap at and if it has good drainage.I measure some of them to get a marker to work off ,multiply by £2 then add or take away depending how long it will take and how hard it will be.

[TVCS]

I agree with dan. 
When I price a job i never really get a tape and measure the whole area.  A rough idea is close enough.  guesstimate time to do it and like others have mentioned check for decent drainage.  We got cought out a little while ago with a small patch of blocks.  No drainage at all.  It took ages and made the hourly rate look pants.  Luckily half way through they decided they wanted the patio area doing too so we made up our rate by charging slightly higher than normal for the slabs, which took not time at all with a whirlybopper.