These eastern europeans are prone to adding 400 percent to extras, (must be
an e.e. to work for 100/day). Is he part P registered?, will he give you a
certificate to BS7671?
Jaymack
"Dave Sharp" wrote in message
...
Victorian mid-terraced house, 10ft high ceilings, and 6 rooms in all,
including bathroom and kitchen. House is empty and being completely
renovated and because I can't always be there, all trades have their own
keys to come and go as they please so I don't know exactly how much time
people are spending on site, or when.

The house is being completely rewired and, although not part of the
rewire,
as the sparky will already have floorboards up etc., etc., and I haven't
got
the time or the energy to do it myself, I ask him to do some extra work
and
run a TV aerial coax, a Cat5 cable for computers and a seperate Cat5 for
phone, from each of the four main rooms back to a central point (in this
case, that means under the stairs). I also ask him to cable up for 6 smoke
alarms (1 in each main room + hall and landing) and a heat alarm in the
kitchen.

I've provided the coax, the Cat5, the RJ45s etc., and will be doing the
terminations myself, and I've also provided the heat/smoke alarms. He has
provided 12 metal back boxes and the mains cabling (lets round it up to a
*very* generous 50 metres - in reality it's nowhere near that amount) for
the alarms (T&E from CU to first one then 3core&E for the interconnects).

Before the job started, sparky tells me he hires himself out at £100 a
day -
fair enough, I said, and I have no qualms whatsoever regarding his main
bill
for the rewire. But when he handed me the bill for the completed job
yesterday, he's charged £440 for the extra work. Now, allowing £40 for 12
back boxes and 50m of cable, that leaves £400 = 4 full 8-hour days = 32
hours!!! Surely it can't have taken that long???

I know that some of you will be saying that "£100 a day is cheap. I charge
£30 an hour so think yourself lucky" but that's not the point. The point
here is, should the work I've described take that long given that
floorboards are already up etc., etc., etc., or is he ripping me off for
this extra work?

TIA
Dave