Call-out fee and hourly work: how the final bill is actually built

What happens when you call and book a time

When you ring or message us with a job in Tallinn, we ask what the problem is and, where it helps, for a couple of photos. For straightforward jobs — hanging a shelf, assembling a wardrobe, fixing a dripping tap — we simply book a time. For anything bigger or unclear, we may ask more questions before confirming, because that decides whether it makes sense to bill by the hour or to give a fixed price first.

Booking itself does not cost anything beyond the call-out fee, which applies within Tallinn and is 25 €. That fee covers us getting to your address with the right tools rather than the work itself, so it is charged once per visit, not per hour worked.

Hourly work: how minutes become an invoice

Odd jobs and furniture assembly start from 39 € per hour, plumbing from 45 € per hour. The minimum charge is one hour, even if the job takes forty minutes, and after that first hour time is billed in 30-minute steps. A job that runs one hour and ten minutes is billed as one and a half hours, not one hour twelve minutes.

The call-out fee is deducted from the bill if the work goes ahead, so in practice it is an advance rather than an extra cost. If you cancel before we arrive, or decide on site not to proceed, the 25 € stands on its own. This is the detail people find confusing, so it is worth remembering: book, work happens, call-out fee comes off the total.

Example: replacing a kitchen tap on one invoice

Say your kitchen tap has started leaking at the base and you book a plumber. We arrive, that is the 25 € call-out fee. Removing the old tap, fitting the new one, checking the flexible hoses and testing for leaks takes an hour and twenty minutes, which rounds up to one and a half hours at 45 € per hour, so 67.50 €.

If you supply the new tap yourself, that is all that appears on the invoice: 25 € call-out, minus 25 € deducted, plus 67.50 € labour, total 67.50 €. If we bring the tap, its price is added with a 10 % handling fee on top of what we paid for it.

The invoice itemises all of this — call-out, hours, any materials — and is sent by email, payable within seven days. Nothing on it should be a surprise if you have followed the hours on site.

When it makes more sense to ask for a fixed price

Hourly billing works well when a job is contained and predictable in scope: a tap, a lock, a piece of flat-pack furniture. It works less well when the scope depends on what we find once we open something up, or when the job clearly runs to several hours or days, because then the total is harder to estimate in advance.

For larger jobs — refitting a bathroom, several rooms of painting, a run of built-in furniture — describe the job or send photos and we give a fixed quote instead, valid for 30 days. That figure is what you pay regardless of how the hours actually fall, which makes budgeting straightforward and removes any tension about whether something took longer than planned.

What affects the total besides the hours

The hourly rate and call-out fee are the baseline, but a few other things move the final figure. None of these are hidden extras, they are just part of how the job is scoped.

Materials are the most common one: bought by us with a 10 % handling fee, or bought by you and simply fitted. Access matters too — a flat with no lift and furniture to carry up four floors takes longer than a ground-floor job, and that time is billed the same as any other.

• Materials: 10 % handling fee if we buy them, none if you supply them
• Access: stairs, lift size, parking, distance from the door to the job
• Scope found on site: a tap that reveals corroded pipework behind it
• Urgency: call-outs are available around the clock for genuinely urgent jobs
• Cancellation: free up to 24 hours before the appointment, otherwise the call-out fee stands