electrics – really that expensive?

I’ve got 3 quotes for installing a small extra 32A circuit:

1. upgrade meter tails to distributor unit (about 50cm of wiring)
2. install 32A breaker in blank spot
3. drill one hole through exterior wall
4. connect 32A socket to distributor unit 3 yards away

None of them under £250. One of them claimed the socket itself was £30 – there’s one for £11 on screwfix. Am I being fleeced or is there something really hard about this?

It’s a cartel, so you get cartel pricing.

Doesn’t sound outrageous to me tbh.
It’s a custom install for the price of a decent car tyre, and it’s warranted too.

Doesn’t sound outrageous to me tbh.

Me neither, but what would I know?

A day’s labour and materials for £250 is damn good I think. Plenty that could be become more difficult than they should be within those jobs I think.

I installed an additional breaker and ring main to power my basement, easy DIY job.
I’m unsure about step 1. Though.. upgrade meter tails to distributor unit?

“A day’s labour”

!

Is that including getting it signed off and certified? You can always DIY it but you’ll need to pay someone to do the signing off (which will likely be more than getting someone in to do the work and self certify). Hard too say if it’s too much as you haven’t told us the prices but if it is not much over £250 all in then I’d say it wasn’t too bad and I really don’t like putting my hand in my pocket for trades 🙂

by god martymac what tyres do you put on your car? I reckon you could layer up a 155/80R16 from racing ralphs for that price o_O

I’m unsure about step 1. Though.. upgrade meter tails to distributor unit?

Pretty easy, done it myself, but not for the faint hearted, you’ll be handling a 600A supply with no effective breaker (you could short out the tails and the 600A fuse in the local sub station probably won’t pop unless you’re very near to the sub station).

“A day’s labour”

All depends, by the time you’ve been to quote, responded to Qs, sourced the parts, sat in traffic to get there, faffed around with problems and the sat in traffic to get home, you’re looking at a whole day gone, even if you only spend 3 hours on site…

It seems about right or rightabouts to me. My finger in the air guess would have been around £200 using my preferred contractor, but he’s an old boy and I think his pricing hasn’t quite caught up.

I would not expect many companies doing domestic work to do chargeable units of less than 1 day. Perhaps in a big city where you could stack up small jobs… but it sounds like a faff to me.

Sounds about right, we were quoted £110-£130 per socket when we added about 10 to our 1970s house. Not including making good. Onviously it ended up cheaper as we were being sensible with placement (i.e. making it easy putting them back to back with one in another room where possible).

I installed an additional breaker and ring main to power my basement, easy DIY job.

Sure is, take yours is tested and signed off by a competent person for insurance purposes?

Sure is, take yours is tested and signed off by a competent person for insurance purposes?

My insurance doesn’t require anything to be signed off by anyone…..

Most houses predate Part-P in which case anything goes….

My parents house has paper / cotton insulation, hand wound fuses, no RCDs, etc. They did get an electrician to look at upgrading it and he (very wisely) said, if you’ve survived 40+ years as it is, just leave it for the next buyer to sort – a whole load of cash for no real gain.

Being signed off doesn’t really make much of a difference to how long it takes or the fair price, beyond the time taken to do the test and a contribution to the kit and liability insurance. You’d expect a professional to be faster than a DIYer.

The only reason to justify the additional price is supply and demand, because supply is artificially restricted by the regulations.

Hmm well cheers all, you got me thinking I should add more stuff (that currently needs doing) to the job to get better value.

yes definitely make sure its a full days work. I had to upgrade my consumer unit, not something I would do DIY. Cheapest quote was £500 and it took the chap less than 4hrs. A chunk of that was him trying to find a shop that sold batteries for his test kit. I wasn’t impressed, definitely cartel pricing.

if you want to make it cheaper do all the stuff that takes time yourself, like chasing, cutting boxes and pulling boards. Then literally all the sparky has to do is run cable, wire up and test.

I would say thats pretty cheap myself.

All the tradesmen I have employed recently charge at least £200 a day.

Do not forget you are paying for expertise and as well as the time on the job there is the time spent getting the stuff

As for the £11 double socket – what make is it compared to what make is the electrician using? – not all sockets are equal

https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.uk/find-an-electrician/building-regulations/england/

https://www.mybuilder.com/pricing-guides/what-is-the-hourly-rate-of-an-electrician

It’s not cheap but its in the right area for a good quality job. Small jobs are a p in the a for anyone. It looks like half a days work, plus materials, plus a bit of travel, plus vat.
The socket for 11quid on Screwfix is at Screwfix, someone has to go and get it, and warrant its quality. A sensible tradesman will only fit higher quality gear, otherwise he will be back at more cost to fix it.
The guy needs to make a living

Sounds reasonable.

People tend to directly compare what it costs to hire A BUSINESS to employee wages. It’s not the same, especially trades where you have a big faff-factor..

This is quite a good video that gives an understanding of what you need to charge when you run your own business.

Sounds reasonable to me.

The advantage of renovating an old house like I did is that it gives you an appreciation of why tradesmen charge what they do. My plumber was £200 day plus parts but what he did in 3 days would have taken me 3 weeks!

My electrician was going to charge £1000 for the work I needed doing. I did some of the work myself, chased out 12 sockets in solid brick, did first fix then second fix once he had put all the cable loops in. Took me 3 days to do my bit at least, still electrician cost me £500 as there was a new ring main to install and a consumer unit.

@sideshow
Lol, I could do 2 oem tyres on my car for less than that.
But if you have something sporty it could easily be that price for a tyre.
Couldn’t it?

Do not forget you are paying for expertise

Oh man, I so wish that was true.  You are really paying for their insurance sign off to your insurance in case it all goes on fire.  There  really are some good people out there who really are experts but they are usually booked up well in advance.  Cheap/available/expertise- you know the score

Sounds about right however if there isn’t already a isolator between the meter and consumer unit then the electricity board need to send someone to isolate the house while the tails are done then refit and tag the main fuses. I had this issue when rewiring a house recently, luckily there was a fault with the meter so got the isolator fitted at the same time as the new meter.

As above, it’s worth getting an isolator. You might be able to get it done at the same time. It’ll make future (DIY) work easier. Last new meter I had they fitted one as standard. Also had one fitted a while back before I had a new cu. The electricity supplier arranged for about £70 which was worth it me rather than working live.

Sounds about right however if there isn’t already a isolator between the meter and consumer unit then the electricity board need to send someone to isolate the house while the tails are done then refit and tag the main fuses.

I just fitted my own and put back the lead seals with some bought from Ebay…

I’m sure supply companies had a duty to provide a safe means of working on the property (fit an isolator) if you asked them, probably for a small charge.

“I just fitted my own and put back the lead seals with some bought from Ebay…”

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/solicitors-guideline-hourly-rates

“I just fitted my own and put back the lead seals with some bought from Ebay…”

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/solicitors-guideline-hourly-rates

your link appears to be out of date. its nothing to do with electrics.

“A day’s labour”

!

well what else can be done in that day? another customer is unlikely to hang around until you finish “sometime after lunch or late afternoon” for you to turn up and then leave having not started a job because it’s too late in the day to start cutting power etc.

if the OP wanted 2 of everything on his list it would not of cost £500. it’s the customer who has to suck up the variables of how much they want done in a day.

as for the cost? sounds perfectly reasonable to me for somebody running a business, it’s often salaried people who think trades are expensive as they assume that’s all profit and they get that every single day.

Kudos for getting 3 quotes, round here trades are generally too busy to bother quoting for less than a days work, and would probably charge at least that. Electricians are taking home good money at the moment, should have trained as one of them rather than spending years at University.