31st October 2006, 02:22 PM
Having spent the last twenty years variously as contractor and/or consultant, I would have to throw my hat in with Dr Peter on this one - I don't really feel that it would be feasible to produce any sort of reliable set of guide prices dur to the sheer number of variables that are involved.
We might all have a few rules of thumb that we use to come up with our own ideas of a potential price for a piece of work, and these estimates can sometimes be passed on to clients (heavily caveated of course) but the range of prices returned by contractors never fails to surprise me, even when the scope of works is clearly defined and the variables are limited.
If we did collectively produce a set of guide prices a la Spon, I suspect that I would have to spend a lot of time explaining to clients why the price for any particular job was so far removed from the guide price.
Beamo
We might all have a few rules of thumb that we use to come up with our own ideas of a potential price for a piece of work, and these estimates can sometimes be passed on to clients (heavily caveated of course) but the range of prices returned by contractors never fails to surprise me, even when the scope of works is clearly defined and the variables are limited.
If we did collectively produce a set of guide prices a la Spon, I suspect that I would have to spend a lot of time explaining to clients why the price for any particular job was so far removed from the guide price.
Beamo