"Iain Miller" wrote in message
...

At
the end of the job it worked out that the fitter (and there was only one)
cost me about £350 a day....nice work if you can get it.


Ah, but if you had paid by the hour the job would have taken 2 days at £175
per day! (;-)

Its rather like garages, most do not charge actual labour hours for a job
they charge "standard hours" from a trade reference guide. The good garages
make more money by consistently beating the "standard" times. That's how
come they can have multiple jobs running at the same time without keeping
detailed timing records.

To an extent it is the same in Gardens: what you should expect to pay for is
a combination of time and expertise. Ask a novice to prune your fruit trees
or roses and he will take far longer than an expert. It is fair and
reasonable that the expert charges a higher hourly rate.

Whenever employing someone in the garden,that is part of the choice you have
to make.

pk