"Hugh" wrote in message
...

"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


Dave,
I reckon there's more than one way of looking at it.
Firstly, and not aswering your question, you should have asked how much
extra, beforehand, so it's a lesson learned.

Although I said the work was "extra" to the main rewire, he knew about it
right at the beginning before ever starting work in the house - I didn't add
it on after. He said he would work for £100/day no matter what I wanted
doing.

Electricians tend to set a price according to how many points (sockets)-
irrespective of how easy or difficult the job will be, maybe that's what
he's done - neglecting to take into account that all the hard graft has
been done - having said that it doesn't tally with his £100 per day claim.

Imagine you got in a different electrician for this extra work only - I
believe that price is probably realistic for that number of 'points'
installed.
Perhaps he underquoted a bit on the main job in order to get it , and
priced up the extra accordingly. A bit like a restaurant - bread and
butter is the food (er, ignore the pun) the money is made on the extras,
drinks and desserts etc. all grossly over-priced.

Have you confronted him? How about ' I think your charge for the extras is
a bit steep, are you prepared to drop it by a hundred?'

I'm going to see him tonight to discuss it with him but I just thought I'd
see what you people here thought first.

How much was the original mains re-wire by the way?

£2100

I don't think you should look at the extra work as how easy it was for
him, but rather whether you are happy with the work, and what you may be
charged by someone else doing that job alone - I'm fairly sure it would be
around that or more - unless you are in the trade - I'd expect to pay
around £800-900 for a full re-wire of a 3 bedroom house, at a guess £2000
is a more realistic 'retail' price.

Hugh
ps hope that makes you feel a bit better!!

I can see your point Hugh and yes, someone else would probably charge me
more but I don't really see that is relevant. He, not me, said that he would
do everything including the extra for £100/day and I just don't see that
cabling for the heat/smoke alarms, fitting 12 back boxes and running a cable
from each of them to a central point under the stairs, should take
approximately 32 hours of labour.

Dave.