How Much Should a Tradesperson Charge Per Hour? Why £15 Doesn't Add Up
The number doing the rounds on social media. The number that tells you everything you need to know.
The Headline That Stopped Us in Our Tracks
£15 an hour. That was the figure being thrown around on a well-known social media platform - not Facebook - where customers were openly debating what tradespeople should charge. £15 an hour, or £130 a day, was being described as a perfectly acceptable rate.
Let’s make one thing absolutely clear: no legitimate tradesperson in 2026 can charge £15 an hour. That rate is virtually identical to the National Minimum Wage. And that’s the crux of the problem - people are confusing a business rate with a take-home wage. They are not the same thing. Not even close.
“People are confusing a business rate with a take-home wage. They are not the same thing. Not even close.”
What £130 a Day Actually Has to Cover
Every sole trader is a business - and every business has costs. Before a single penny of that £130 becomes income, it has to stretch to cover:
Tools, equipment, maintenance and replacement costs
Vehicle costs: MOT, insurance, fuel, and ongoing maintenance
Public liability insurance
Accountancy fees and tax returns
Tax: at minimum 20% personal tax, potentially 19% corporation tax, and 20% VAT if registered
The overheads of running a business alone can easily reach £100 a day. You can quickly see that £130 a day is not a rate - it’s a myth. Any legitimate business would need to charge at least double once real costs are factored in.
As the time of going ‘to print’ with this Blog our current overheads are £130.60 per day. That's not staff wages per day, thats not diesel costs or ‘active’ costs like materials…. its our cost to fuel the business - our overheads that eat away at the business every day whether we go out to work or not…. those are our costs before we even get out of bed - we are £130.60 in the red every day before we even begin!
The £600 Quote That Caused Outrage — And Why It Was Fair
In one of the social media posts we came across, a legitimate business had been accused of “taking advantage” of a customer - a single woman living alone - by quoting £600 to paint the outside of her house. The comments were not kind.
Let’s break down what that £600 actually represents. The job was exterior painting, off-season, in February - a month where it rains almost every day. The scope of work would have included:
Full surface preparation: brushing down, cleaning, and removing loose or flaking paint
Wire brushing where required, and filling any gaps or cracks
Cutting out old, failing sealant and caulk around windows and replacing it
Equipment hire or depreciation - ladders alone cost around £500 to replace
Two days of labour on-site, up and down a ladder - prep alone can easily fill a full day
£600 for that scope of work? That looks very sensible to us.
What the Customer Got Instead
The customer went with someone who charged £130. Those two prices are so far apart that the cheaper one simply cannot represent the same job. Here’s what £130 in February almost certainly means in practice:
Paint applied directly onto a dirty, dusty, unprepared surface
Low-quality paint, one coat only - drying times and cold temperatures make more than one coat impossible in a single day
Paint applied in February, locking moisture into the surface - guaranteed to fail when winter really bites
Probably no tax being paid, no insurance, and no guarantee they’ll be contactable if anything goes wrong
“That coat of paint will last one winter. What the customer saved in money, they will pay for twice over — in time, in frustration, and in having the job done again.”
The Real Cost of Cheap
£130 is not a bargain. It is someone who is probably not paying their tax, does not fully understand what the job requires, and will not be around tomorrow if something goes wrong. What they have provided is a job that will not last - and a complete waste of the customer’s time and money.
When you see a quote that feels too good to be true, ask yourself one simple question: what is this person not doing - and what will it cost me later?
For further reading and more information, please check out our related blog post: How Much Do We Charge? The Hourly Rates of a Bonafide Limited Company — EXPOSED
Get In Touch
Questions, quotes, or just a second opinion on a quote you've already had - we're happy to help.
Call 01305 584459, email sales@upcycleinteriors.co.uk, or visit www.upcycleinteriors.co.uk.
Covering Weymouth and the wider DT postcode area: DT1, DT2 (part), DT3, DT4, DT5, DT6 (part).
You’ve had three quotes. They’re all different – in this guide we will explain why.
One company has a smart website, a detailed quote with written contract, and a team of DBS-checked staff. The second is a bloke who answered after you called him 3 times and sounded like he was half asleep – his number was passed to you by a friend of a friend. The third company sound half decent, you found their Facebook page, but they don’t have a website, you spoke to them on Thursday they can start Monday. All 3 are offering to do the same job.
This guide exists because those gaps needs explaining. Not defending - explaining. The financial figures you will read in this article are real, they are ours (individual to us), and by the time you've read them you'll understand exactly where your money goes when you hire a legitimate limited company - and exactly what you're not getting when you don't.