Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm not having a carpet laid, but my grandmother had one laid yesterday, and paid a family member to lay it for her. How much might the labour for this cost, because I am wondering if she didn't overpay them for the job.

It was a carpet for a rectangular single room - a small living room about (at a guess) 6 yards by 4 yards.

PS - the job was for the laying the carpet, not actually buying the carpet, which was separate (given to her by someone else).

When I had the carpet laid in my house, which was for a livingroom, hallway, stairs and 3 bedrooms it cost me about £185 I think. On that basis anything more than £30-40 would be a bit of a ripoff.

She paid £100, and the person she paid it too went off in a huff (see - she asks how much the person wants for the job, and the person never, ever tells her - says 'it's up to you, whatever' - but my gran will never, ever underpay for a job - but she doesn't know what the job should cost, so she gave the person £100, and this person went off in a giant huff after one and a quarter hour's work.

I knew when she said it that it sounded like she had overpaid.

That sounds like you had a really good deal! Did you have them all done at the same time?

Would it be more by your experience, Mr Vision?

That's a fucking bargain, surely?

It would in mine.
Did you have underlay or anything?

I can't imagine charging a family member for anything I did for them.

This person was pissed off they didn't get more than £100 to lay one carpet in one room, and for a family member? The guy sounds like a right wanker. I've never charged my family for anything, and they tax me for hours worth of computer help at a time.

Yeah, had all the carpets laid at once. Again, that was just for the laying and not the carpet itself.

Well, I haven't had a massive experience to be fair.. I can tell you that I had 2 bedrooms carpeted recently. One normal size room and a small box room. Both with the same carpet fitted at the same time and I paid £340 for the carpet, underlay, grippy things and fitting.The carpet isn't exactly the best quality carpet but it's not exactly cheap either.. I'd say it's top of mid range.

The price I paid sounded reasonable from the shopping around I did but i did get more than just the fitting. I hope this helps somehow!!

If it's an elderly family member you'd think tea and biscuits would be payment enough anyway

If it was a professional, you might expect around £40/hour (basically a manual labour job but with some skill needed), and then £30 or so on top for transport. And if it's London, double the total. But still, it sounds as if piss was being taken to some extent.

My conservatory is small, about 1.5 yards by 2.5 yards, and I paid about about £30 to have lino fitted to it, and lino is easier to lay than carpet because it doesn't need stretching so much. Then my dogs destroyed it six months later. I did buy the lino at the same time from the same place but the fitting charge was on top.

CG's £185 sounds cheap, particularly as it involved stairs, and stairs are a bastard.

The underlay was already down and the carpet already cut.



Woman rather than guy. It was my mother She was laying her own mother's carpet

At home with the Vogons...

(Sorry)

Your mother is not awesome. Sorry

I think 100 is more than we paid when we got it from Carpetright a year or two back. I think we paid 70 for fitting back then.

It's difficult to get an accurate idea of costs as most carpet fitters are very quick and will do a large room in about 30 mins and they price accordingly. Your mother is insane to think she was underpaid for an hours work ferchrissakes - we had the whole house done over a period of six weeks a few years back and I can remember it being very very cheap, including the hallway and stairs - IIRC it was less than £200 for the whole house. It's not like it's rocket science so paying someone more than £10-15 per hour for that is a con.

If your mum didn't need to buy underlay, gripper rods or even stanely blades then £100 is far too much. Did she hire a carpet stretcher though? They're about £30ish to hire for a day. It should have been a tea and biscuit job though for family.

Am I the only one here that would charge my parents for jobs like this? If it takes 5 minutes then fair enough, but if I'm taking a significant chunk out of my day (when I could be earning other money) then it's fair game in my opinion.

Before I get jumped on for being a twat, I wouldn't charge them "full whack" as it were About £75 per hour would do.

By a similar token your parents could have been off earning more money instead of spending time looking after and raising you. Best hope they don't think to charge you for it one day.

I don't charge my immediate family for anything I do for them, as they do a hell of a lot for me. Even my somewhat extended family (and people who technically aren't family at all) only pay me if they really really want to.

I recently formatted my sister's boyfriend's mum's PC and set it all up again with a Linux system so she can browse the net and do emails in safety, and I didn't particuarly want paying. In the end I had to accept a tenner, though. I did get the most huge, choclatey, awesome cake for my birthday from her though (homemade!).

That's how I prefer it. I'll do favours for people as long as I think they would do the same for me. Or in the case of older people who can't, just being ace is enough.

I know, I know, Simpsons on the internet again, but this is exactly what Principal Skinner's mother makes him do.

Which is illogical given that it's already been proven he's not her real son. Odd. Simpsons.

I made and host a couple of charity websites for nothing other than the warm gummy feeling of being useful.

She spent money on someone dammit! Hehe.

I was trying to find an online carpet fitting cost calculator, but the only promising search result at ezcarpets.co.uk doesn't want to load for me.

Funnily enough, from the age of 4 it was basically the other way around in my case. By the time I turned 7 my brothers had moved out so I was basically left looking after my parents by myself

No, my mother bought nothing, hired nothing.

And there is no need to apologise, we do not get on/speak, and I know she's not a nice person.

But no, I can't imagine ever, ever 'charging' my grandmother for doing anything - after all she has done for me, I'd never, ever expect anything to help her out - my mother more so as my gran is ALWAYS doing things for her and never, ever done anything in return, and especially not for 'free'. I am just a bit narked that she took this attitude with my gran after my nan seems to have overpaid her by a big whack.

OK, well thanks for your opinions and estimates. My nan has been a bit upset that my mother was this way and thought that she had perhaps underpaid her for her work, but at least I can tell her that this is not the case and she can at least relax about this.

Tell you gran that she overpaid your mother by £100, love from the Beex forumites (except GazChap).

Oh well,

I think I'll just tell her that she paid her enough, definitely didn't underpay her at least, anything else would be liable to upset her.

Tell your Gran I'll make her a website for free, http://www.mimisgran.com. I'll set up a blog and she can talk about carpets, tea and biscuits.

Amusingly that managed to link through to this on my PC.

My gran is getting into the internet a little, actually, since I got the shop up and running. I have to explain it in terms of being like TV channels and me owning my own TV channel, but still, she liked my shop and some of the picture accounts I had.

trying to explain the internet to an 86 year old is interesting, indeed.

Confused family...

Note to self: Pay attention as I get old and technology advances.

Somehow I have a worrying sense that it'll overtake me anyway.

"And BEEX is a magical internet pixie world WHERE I AM A WORSHIPPED PRINCESS"

Not terribly relevant, but I really like the quote.

Einstein predicted longcat? He truly was a genius!

Would saying 'more than enough' upset her? I wouldn't like to give her the impression that that's what the job was actually worth, lest she get fleeced a second time.

Your mum sounds like a horrible person

Yeah, I can't stand to be near her, but my nan has a slightly misplaced idea of family, where the blood bond is stronger than any amount of upset. My nan doesn't actually like the person my mother is one bit, but she will always put up with her and give her money when she asks for it, but ho hum.

I will probably just say that she paid enough. I doubt she'd ever get another carpet fitted in her lifetime so I'll just say that and tell her not to worry about it any more.

You know that Mint credit card advert about the balance of the world?

That's Mimi and her mum, that is.

I like that. Mimi's Gran apologising for not updating in nearly a year, and telling people to be patient.

And talking about AutoStitch for making photos. And talking in Crazy Moon Language. I think it actually *is* Mimi's Gran, straight after Mimi leaves her house.

Oh, I think that Nan already had all of the grip rods in place, is what I meant. I know that my mother has put downa fair few carpets, so i assume that she has done it correctly - she used to put carpets down in pubs and the like, and my nan herself also laid a carpet for her sister when she was younger (with one hand, as it happens) so I imagine that it was done OK. I know they damaged all of those little metal strips that hold down carpet from oen room to another, but my uncle told her he'd go to her house today and sort those out (and not charge her to do so...)

I don't know if I have seen this. Is it the clever/stupid balance?

I wouldn't wish to guess which side I was on

I wouldn't expect payment for doing work for friends/family. I would offer payment if I was asking for help tho.

We had my office room done a few months back, it's not rectangular (one wall is on an angle) it's a bit smaller than the room your nan had done. The fitter charged me £100 that included the carpet, the underlay, the grippers etc.

He's just done the complete upstairs of my house too (along with the stairs, for £1,400).

Malc

Every time I see the title of this story I think it's a pubic wig question. I'm not sure why.