[Closed] Sparkies does this Quote sound fair.....

Full test of the entire electrical installation due to the consumer unit being changed

And there the story begins....

a price may help..

£450 + VAT? (assuming no more changes needed when new RCD is fitted).

Sorry......Price

£1290............

I like MF's price.....

I'd be getting a second quote.

:-O

Sounds [b]very[/b] high.

I only paid £1500 for a new extension wiring up (lights + power), new code RCD fitting, new lights in existing kitchen, power and light to outside, wiring fed to relocated meter and subsequently wiring up and testing (3 years ago).

It's probably only a days work and whilst routing large diameter wires can be a pain it's not *that* difficult.

So £180ish for the new consumer unit - where does he get the rest from? How many days work does he estimate it will take? What is his day rate?

He did not say how many days I was hoping it would be done in a day??

That`s a bit high. How big is your house?

Bend Over!!! And 6mm/10mm is hardly dragging in a 3phase armoured!

Seems high to me, get a second quote.

would have thought £800ish

I know the cables are expensive, especially for 10mm stuff for the shower as it sounds like a long run.

price up the parts on Screwfix and that should give you an idea of what to expect.

Normal sized 3/4 bed mid terr house

Second sparkie on his way Monday??

Seems a lot of money for what should be done in a day and not a lot of material cost. See what the second man/woman says.

That sounds rather high to me.
Cable and tails will be £70-100 ish. Consumer unit, probably £90 - yes, you can get some for £60, but they are not the best, and who wants to take a trip to Screwfix/toolstation when your own electrical dealer is just around the corner, and you have to go there anyway to get the usual consumable that SF/TS do not keep.
Pull cord is £15 for a good one, yes, you can get one for a fiver, but they are rubbish.
So, with the other bits needed, parts cost will be £230ish, I dont think I could do that in a day, I would definitely book 2 days to do it.
So £250 for labour, and rounded up, it'd be £500 for me to do it.
I'd be included any smaller bits like new sockets needed after a CU change, as well as tracing faults - if there is a fault on an existing circuit, he has to fix it, or leave it disconnected. That's why it may take 2 days, if you have a problem, it would be hard to get it finished, well, to do it properly anyway.

Alan.

AlanL

cheers will see what the other sparkie says.

Parts sub £100 including a fully loaded and branded board.

Oldgit, maybe you could give a link to the parts listed being available for £100?
Here's a clue - you can't.
10mm T+E is ~£2.50/metre, you'd need 15 metres of that for a start, add on £8 for the tails,and your cable will be £50 at the majority of dealers.

MK 6=6 loaded board £60 10 MCBs only though.
25mm 6181Y tails 1.95/M metre or two each
45A pull cord MK/Contactum £4.65
48mm surface or dry liner £0.80
16mm 6491X green/yellow £1.10/M again one or two metres
10mm 6242Y T&E I'll have to take your price on that

Wouldn't touch the el cheapo boards that the wholesalers are knocking out at £40 fully loaded. Or the cheap DP switches.

change board £250.00 inc test cirt. as long as all ok.
shower rewire £200.00
no more than £500 all in. not including shower itself.

Shower already in, have a feeling the Plumber who fitted shower never checked the power supply, pull cord switch shows signs of heat damage but nothing tripped the circuit breaker for shower!

Happy to have the house checked over in case anything else is dangerous!!!

£500-750 sounds a bit nicer!

Two things spring to mind:

1. The price is seriously daylight robbery.
2. Why is he saying you need a new consumer unit?

Regardless of the answer to 2. I wouldn't entertain using him based on his price. For a new CU + shower supply I'd charge in the region of £500-£600, excluding any other works thrown up by the board change.

alanl - Member
That sounds rather high to me.
Cable and tails will be £70-100 ish. Consumer unit, probably £90 - yes, you can get some for £60, but they are not the best, and who wants to take a trip to Screwfix/toolstation when your own electrical dealer is just around the corner, and you have to go there anyway to get the usual consumable that SF/TS do not keep.
Pull cord is £15 for a good one, yes, you can get one for a fiver, but they are rubbish.
So, with the other bits needed, parts cost will be £230ish, I dont think I could do that in a day, I would definitely book 2 days to do it.
So [b]£250 for labour[/b], and rounded up, it'd be £500 for me to do it.
I'd be included any smaller bits like new sockets needed after a CU change, as well as tracing faults - if there is a fault on an existing circuit, he has to fix it, or leave it disconnected. That's why it may take 2 days, if you have a problem, it would be hard to get it finished, well, to do it properly anyway.

Alan.

You would do 2 days labour for £250? That seems very cheap!

Yes, £125/day.
That is above JIB rates, which are around £14.50/hr.
I make a living at it, not brilliant money, but I pay my bills on time mostly.

just do it ur self its not that hard.

alanl - Member
Yes, £125/day.
That is above JIB rates, which are around £14.50/hr.
I make a living at it, not brilliant money, but I pay my bills on time mostly.

with referance to the first quote which no one else has mentioned

All of these works will be carried out in line with current regulations & on completion
registered with building control & a Part P certificate issued.

brick is right Alan your rate must include all costs therefore £25 is competative ( taking into account cost of tools meters professional bodies accountant liability insurance etc)

perhaps a price of about £800 /900 would be about right but the job may be a bitch and the guy has quoted accordingly without seeing the job no one can realy give an opinion

All electrical work in the house has to be to current regs, and if necessary, registered with building control, so putting that in a quote is just stating the obvious.

As to prices - it is very easy to say something is too cheap/expensive. When you have been doing it a long time, you know what the market will bear, and in my area, £125 labour/day is the going rate for a domestic electrician. I know sparkies who are working for £12.50/hr who have to work very hard to earn their money for a local firm, and are treated appallingly.
To be self employed, choose what jobs you want, when you start/finish is worth a lot to me, and I'm happy with what I earn.

Yes, there are people who try to charge £250+, but in the real world they do not work every day, and are not recommended by their customers - I was with a plasterer last week who charged £200/day for a ceiling and other bits on an extension, the builder was shocked by this (he had clearly thought he would charge typical a price of £125-150/day), he was paid, but the builder said he wouldnt be using him again afterwards - he had priced himself out of a number of upcoming jobs, so there is a fine line between earning a reasonable days rate, and taking the mick.

Alan.

You could look at running in the cable yourself as that looks like it could be the time consuming bit of the job. That way your not paying an electrician for the unskilled part of the install. You will have to check that you properly protect the run as required.

Hard to say without seeing the job.
The vast majority of the cost will be the labour and who knows, without seeing it, how long this will take?

I was guessing at about £1000 ish before you posted the quoted price.

alanl- the company that I used to work for charged £50-60 per hour. And we were very busy. Lots of repeat business too; so people were happy to pay that amount knowing that they would get a top job done. A lot had had poor experiences (or had heard of these)from <£20 p/h, one-man-bands- however I know that there are many excellent self employed electricians out there that do a great job- I used to sub work to them 🙂 Still paid them way more than you are charging though; typically £20-£25 p/h for someone that I could rely on. (Manchester area btw)

I personally never got involved with domestic installations, but from my own personal (my houses) experience of fitting new RCD consumer units, be prepared for some fun as slightly damaged cables and fittings, that have been fine before, start to trip your new unit :-/

I work for a mid sized contractor and we charge £200 per day so 400 plus materials with 10-20% markup on and then as stated the re-testing factor so without seeing it I would say around £750-800

£500 should be your starting point absolutely NO reason to pay more than £600

we often have to do the job to install new electric showers, the materials price quoted above are accurate and the job can be done in a 9 - 6 day ( inc fitting electric mira shower

anything else and there having you pants down over the barrel.

£500 should be your starting point absolutely NO reason to pay more than £600

And at that price you'll just get someone who'll throw it in. I find that people seem to have this bizarre attitude to the leccy, not an attitude shared when it comes to gas. Both can be killers if done wrong.

I'm glad I stick to commercial installations these days, some of the things I've seen by domestic customers getting someone in because they were cheap.

Well second sparkie came today, £65 does not think the rest has to be checked???? All it needs is a new Switch?

so what to do now???

What is wrong?
If a like for like change, then no, you do not have to fit an RCD, you can stay on the rewireable fuses (so long as the outlet/cable resistance is low enough to enable tripping within the specified time).
There will be a couple more tests needed, but if just a switch has gone, then there is no need to upgrade anything, though, it would be advisable.
Alan.

Alanl

I agree with your last comment

But alas some folk think that appliance on appliance off means everything is ok and not worry about is it safe 🙄

yet still pay £30 each for a tyre for there bike 😯