I've received a quote from an electrician to move a consumer unit (a distan= ce of less than a metre). He's quoted =A3335.00, including a contingency o= f =A3100 to extend or re-route one or two cables. Does this seem a reasona= ble sum? He suggests it will be about a day on-site; I can't see that any = materials will be required beyond half a dozen screws and wall plugs, and a= metre or so of cable. I'm not a cheapskate or anything by the way!
of less than a metre).
He's quoted £335.00, including a contingency of £100 to extend or re-route one or two cables.
Does this seem a reasonable sum? He suggests it will be about a day on-site; I can't see that any materials
will be required beyond half a dozen screws and wall plugs, and a metre or so of cable.
I'm not a cheapskate or anything by the way!
Sounds reasonable to me. Because of overheads (vehicles, insurance, compulsory training, accountancy services, H & S, etc), we need to turn over £400 per man per day.
Bill
He will possibly have to at least perform a basic test on the circuits too as it's a CU move. He will definitely be required to verify bonding/earthing before he touches anything.
Before you think that is overkill, a certain percentage of houses he touches will have hideous wiring problems hiding that *must* be rectified before certain other works are done.
Is he replacing the CU? The cost of that is not a significant part of the job, so if yours is old, or full up it might be worth considering.
Thanks to respondents. You summaries of the situation seem fair enough to me. I'll go ahead with the job I think.
Depends on many things. At worst, every single cable might need extending. At best, they'd only need shortening. And any combination in between - has he actually seen the job? It's much quicker to cut one down than extend it.
You need £400 per day, and I'm only prepared to spend £200, so the job doesn't get done. Soon you'll need £500 because you're only working 4 days a week. This about sums up a recession.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com scribeth thus
Also...
Where are you?, I'd expect different pricing for sarrf of Watford to north of the M18/A1M junction...
Thats sounds about darn sarff pricing...
Adam W might prove me otherwise?...
With the above in mind, I'd have thought this could be a dead straightforward and quick task OR a bit of a nightmare (or anywhere in between); which suggests to me that contingency ought to be a lot higher than £100, and that the actual cost might be a lot lower than what appears to be the minumum possible (£235)
David
Sounds like a good reason to find a one man business. ;-)
On Tuesday, November 27, 2012 10:29:23 AM UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: =20
To e-mail, change noise into sound.
Yes, he's seen the job. None of the cables needs extending but he's asked = me to arrange for a 100amp double pole isolator to be fitted first. There = are some questions about the efficacy of the earthing (hence my other post = about the location of the incoming water pipe!).
I'm in Cheltenham. The guy who did the quote filled me with confidence - ve= ry cautious and gave me a very comprehensive and detailed quote. I'm certa= inly inclined to give him the business, particularly after these very usefu= l comments, for which again many thanks.
the maths don't change that much.
There's an irony here. Although one-man businesses are likely to be more efficient, what they don't have is a team of cheap workers. If I take on a job I most likely have to do it myself, because if it's a small job it isn't worth organising a low paid casual worker.If the job is a simple menial one this is not cost effective, because I'm obviously looking for the hourly rate that I would otherwise get on a more demanding job.
Bill
Yes but one made worse by all the expenditure many businesses have to bear that really could be a lot less with less red tape.
Brian
That's one problem - it had to be changed to brown.
As an electrician I guess it must be difficult finding a domestic job that isn't 75% dogsbody work
£300 would be about right for a CU swap when you have to do all the tests and need certs etc. All repairs and fault finding are extra to the £300 (as you know there are massive variations in such a job)
However it seems that in this case a 16th edition regs CU is about to be highered or lowered by a metre or so and that the 17th edition regs with regarding RCD protecion are going to be slightly ignored:-)
Yes, well with us a lot of jobs comprise a vast amount of cable laying, which we try to foist on the electricians, and the actually electronic gubbins which we do. Obviously I'm not talking about domestic jobs.
Bill
And we still have some1st year apprentices to do that work for you:-)
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