A question that is often posed to me by customers is can we manage the whole job?
Or they say that they're looking for somebody just to take care of everything.
Some kitchen fitters do indeed provide a full management service which would include costs for all the different trades. We work differently and I'm going to outline why.....
For example, if you were having a plasterer in, the kitchen fitter will provide a price for the plasterer and liaise with him on time and date.
The problem with that is that the person doing the project management (ie the kitchen fitter) has to account for their own project management fees and is likely to add their own markup on top of the plasterer's costs. There can be many reasons why a markup would be applied such as a contingency fund in case the job turns out to be bigger than expected or just taking a slice of the profit for the hassle.
We choose to work a different way.
Once you have accepted the cost of the initial kitchen installation we are more than happy to introduce you to a series of tradesmen we interact with weekly who can provide costs for their own aspects of work.
For example, we would provide you with the phone number and name of the electrician we regularly use. You can then make appointments for them to come and see the job and discuss your requirements, along with what they feel may be required to complete the job. They will then provide you with a full written quotation, providing transparency on their costs and materials.
Once you have accepted their quotation and costing we are more than happy to talk to them about dates and times.
This approach does make more work for the customer but it does also provide a series of advantages for the customer.
It means that the customer has control over who is coming into their house.
It gives them the opportunity to meet them beforehand.
It means that they have a proper budget for each trade and that they know no additional markup has been applied to their fees.
It also gives the opportunity for the customer to obtain comparison quotations from other tradespeople, for example, if you felt that the electrical cost on a job was too expensive, you would be able to invite another electrician in to provide an estimate for the same works.