Re: Anyone actually used a sparky recently?

[Martin Angove]

At the risk of re-opening an old thread, some friends of mine have just had a quote from SWaLEC to rewire their house. It's a 1900(ish) terrace, electrics last done maybe 25 or 30 years ago, and they're wanting nothing very special; just a few more sockets than usual, an electric shower and an electric cooker.

I said I thought it would probably take a solid week of work for electrician plus mate and using Screwfix prices the parts should cost no more than £400 or £500 all in. Maybe £2,500 to £3,000 in total (£2,000 / 40 hrs = £50/hr)...

...and the man from SWaLEC, he say... £5,000 and 10 working days minimum.

Now I dare say they could get a better quote from a smaller local company, but is the SWaLEC man trying it on, or is this a serious quote?

Any similar experiences?

Hwyl!

M.

[Neil]

you say "week of work for electrician plus mate" = 10 man-days = 80 hours not 40 ? at £50/hr would add £2000 to your £3000 making £5000. Doesn't sound too bad then. Is there is anything your friends could do to help? like preparation work? to reduce cost. Sometimes there is some labour intensive activity that doesn't require much skill, but costs a lot for the expert to do. hth Neil

[LOZ34]

as a sparky we have just completed two rewires both of three bed semis and both were just under £3000.00 exc VAT time taken was 8days cause we was good and put the house back together every night. god you can be to considerate at times. on completion enquired as to the other quotes and these ranged from £2100 - £3200 must have been my charm.

[Martin Angove]

That's a lot more like my thoughts. I admit I wasn't really thinking about having the house "together" every evening, though I wouldn't leave a family with four children (2 under 2) without electricity for a week! How many people were involved on your jobs, and were they all "electricians", or were they a "senior" and a couple of "labourers"?

Hwyl!

M.

[LOZ34]

i used one electrician and one semi/ improver and one labourer/ handyman type for most of the chasing and plastering. somehow got stitched up with repairing the decor as well, need to give the lads lessons in anti customer care lol.

and we are NICEIC registered so all in all a bargin

[LOZ34]

i used one electrician and one semi/ improver and one labourer/ handyman type for most of the chasing and plastering for first 5days then myself and an electrician to move it on and do all the testing. somehow got stitched up with repairing the decor as well, need to give the lads lessons in anti customer care lol.

and we are NICEIC registered so all in all a bargin.

family and kids first one and 70 year old woman on the second it didn't need a complete rewire but she had been convinced by local electricity board free inspection it did.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Sparky and mate should nt cost more than £200 a day, together.

£1000 a week.

[parish]

May have been, or maybe the customer was like me; get several quotes, disregard the cheapest and most expensive and choose one of those in the middle. The reasoning being that they should represent the best quality/cost combination (assuming you are careful who you invite to quote in the first place). So you might have got the job if I'd been the customer ;-)

[tim]

They used this "I't'll take longer than it really does" trick on me to make the price seem more reasonable. I got told two or three days work (I needed this info to know how many days I had to be in the UK so that I could let them into my BTL). Unfortunately, I was in a hurry (or so I thought!) and had had two other sparks not quote for the work (one declined when I phoned and I'm still waiting for the other to reply despite a follow up call) so I had to go with them.

Day one, they arrive and I let them in. I said I'll leave you the keys so that I can arrive later tomorrow and they immediately said "Oh we won't need to be here tomorrow!"

They think it is. They are always on the high side sometimes, criminally so

Tim

[James]

When I had my 3 bed semi rewired 6 years ago I was staggered that the quotes varied between 2,000 GBP and 4,600 GBP for an identical job, all of them from NICEIC registered electricians. The most expensive - as you might expect - was from Seeboard, the local supply company who estimated the job would take 10 workings days. I got a local company - as it turned out the cheapest - to do the work as they seemed to offer best value. Two of them worked very hard for 5 days - 8 to 5 without really stopping for breaks - and completed the work. I tried to help by discouraging them from "wasting" time by putting things back in order at the end of each day - after all there was no way I could live normally in the house with all this going on - although I think they had health and safety concernes about leaving open floorboards etc.

James