Plenty of trades work their labour out carefully and then hand the materials over at exactly what the merchant charged them. It feels honest. It’s also the quickest way to work a full day and take home less than you thought, because supplying materials is a job in itself — and you’re doing it for nothing.

This is about pricing the supply side of a job properly: why a markup is legitimate, how to set one without pulling a number out of the air, how to allow for wastage, and what to do when the customer turns up with a pallet of their own tiles.

Why marking up materials is fair

Customers sometimes assume the merchant price is the “real” price and anything on top is profiteering. It isn’t. When you supply materials, you’re providing a service with real costs attached:

Sourcing and specifying. Working out exactly what’s needed, in what quantity, that will actually do the job and fit together. That’s your expertise, and it takes time at a laptop or a trade counter.
Collection and delivery. Van time, fuel, waiting at the desk, and the trip back when something’s short or wrong.
Cash flow. You pay for it, often weeks before the customer pays you. That’s your money tied up and your risk if they don’t pay.
Returns and breakages. Handling the wrong item, damaged stock or a shortfall — usually on your own time.
Warranty and standing behind it. If a fitting fails in six months, the customer rings you, not the merchant. You’re carrying that.
Storage and handling. Getting it to site, keeping it dry and secure, moving it twice.

None of that is covered by your labour rate, which you worked out to cover the days you’re on the tools. If you’ve never done that sum properly, start there — materials pricing sits on top of it.

Trade price is not the customer’s price

Your merchant discount is something you earned: an account, a history, volume, a relationship, sometimes years of it. It isn’t a windfall belonging to whoever happens to hire you this week.

There’s no rule saying you must pass it on. What you’re quoting is a supplied and fitted price — the number it costs the customer to have that item bought, brought, fitted and guaranteed by you. What you paid for the box is your business.

Just be sensible about items a customer can price in ten seconds on their phone. A branded boiler or a tile from a national chain invites comparison; a merchant-only fitting or a “supply and fit” line does not. More on presenting that below.

Markup and margin are not the same number

This is the bit that quietly costs people money, and it’s worth two minutes of arithmetic.

Markup is a percentage added to what you paid.
Margin is the percentage of the selling price that you keep.

They’re different numbers for the same transaction:

Materials cost                £1,000
Add 20% markup                +  £200
                              -------
Price to customer             £1,200

Margin = £200 ÷ £1,200 = 16.7%

So a 20% markup gives you a 16.7% margin, not 20%. If you actually want to keep 20% of the sale, you divide rather than multiply:

Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin)

£1,000 ÷ 0.80 = £1,250   →  a 25% markup gives a 20% margin

Get these two mixed up on a job with a lot of materials and you’re several per cent light before you’ve picked up a tool. Decide which one you’re working in, and be consistent.

You want to keep	Add this markup to cost
10% margin	~11%
15% margin	~18%
20% margin	25%
25% margin	~33%
30% margin	~43%

(Illustrative arithmetic, not a recommendation — your number is your decision.)

Choosing your number

There’s no single correct percentage, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing on your behalf. What there is, is a set of things worth weighing up:

How much work is in the sourcing? A one-line order from your usual merchant is not the same as speccing a full bathroom from four suppliers.
How much risk are you carrying? Expensive, fragile or long-lead items, or anything where a failure means a return visit, deserves more.
How much cash is tied up, and for how long? A large materials bill paid weeks before completion is a real cost to you.
How easily comparable is the item? Heavily marketed products get price-checked; sundries and trade-only lines don’t.
How big is the order? Many trades taper — a healthy percentage on a few hundred pounds of sundries, a thinner one on a five-figure supply order, because the work involved doesn’t scale in proportion.

Whatever you land on, apply it deliberately and consistently rather than deciding fresh on every job when you’re tired at the kitchen table. A default that you occasionally override beats improvising every time.

Allow for wastage — every time

You almost never use exactly what you bought. Offcuts, breakages, a batch mismatch, a cut that goes wrong. Price the bare measured quantity and you’re guaranteed to be short — and the shortfall comes out of your margin.

So build a wastage allowance into the quantity before you price it — not as an afterthought:

Measured tiled area                     20 m²
Wastage allowance (pattern, cuts)      + 10%
                                      -------
Quantity to price and order              22 m²

The right allowance depends on the material and the job, not a universal figure. Diagonal or herringbone patterns, large-format tiles, awkward rooms and anything with a repeat all waste more than a simple brick bond in a square room — same idea in flooring work, where set-out and room shape drive the offcuts. Go with what your own experience tells you, and if you’re consistently ordering more than you priced, your allowance is too thin.

Two habits that go with it: price from live merchant prices rather than what it cost last time, and put a validity period on the quote — 14 or 30 days is common — so a price agreed in spring isn’t binding you in autumn.

Client-supplied materials

Sooner or later someone says they’ll buy the tiles themselves, or turns up with a suite from an online sale. You can say yes to this — but only with the terms written down.

If you’re fitting customer-supplied materials, put these in the quote in plain English:

You’re pricing labour only for that element, and the price assumes the goods are on site, correct, complete and undamaged before you start.
You’re not responsible for shortfalls, breakages, delivery delays or suitability. If the wrong waste kit arrives, that’s a delay you didn’t cause.
Waiting or return visits are chargeable. Say how — a day rate, a half-day, whatever suits you.
No guarantee on the goods themselves. You’ll stand behind your workmanship. The product warranty is between them and whoever they bought it from.

And be honest with yourself about the money. Fitting-only work strips out the margin that made the job worth doing, so your labour rate on those jobs may need to reflect that. It’s fair to say so.

Itemise or bundle?

Both are defensible; the question is what the quote is for.

Bundle as “supply and fit” when you want the customer buying an outcome. One line — “Supply and fit shower enclosure, tray and waste” — reads as a finished result and doesn’t invite anyone to line up your materials figure against a website. This is the default for most domestic work.

Itemise separately when the customer genuinely needs to see the split: they’re choosing between specifications, they’re supplying some items themselves, or it’s a commercial job where a breakdown is expected.

What you should always do is state clearly what’s included and what isn’t — the same principle as everything else that belongs in a professional quote. Sundries are the classic gap: adhesive, grout, trims, silicone, fixings, sealant, pipe insulation. Bundle them into the relevant line and mention them in your inclusions, rather than absorbing them silently.

If someone comes back having found the same suite cheaper online, that’s not really a materials argument — it’s a value conversation, and it’s handled the same way as any other price objection. You’re quoting for it bought, delivered, fitted and guaranteed.

The takeaway

Materials aren’t a pass-through. Sourcing, carrying, funding and guaranteeing them is work, and pricing it at cost means doing that work for free. Pick a markup deliberately, know whether you’re talking markup or margin, add a realistic wastage allowance before you price the quantity, and set clear terms for anything the customer supplies themselves.

Do that consistently and the supply side of a job stops being the part that quietly eats your profit and starts pulling its weight.

Queezy builds itemised quotes on site with your labour and materials lines side by side, so nothing gets left off. Join the waiting list for early access.

How to Price Materials: Markup, Waste and Margins