Steve Jones wrote:

Do what I did, ask an electrician to go round and quote for any work
that needs doing. Most do a free quote.

well, there's dubious ethics there (if you've no intention of getting
the work done); and you may get away with it multiple times if you live
in the smoke or similar large city - in a smaller place you'll exhaust
the supply of goodwill among the few sparkies willing to do speculative
quotes (many are too busy doing paid work anyway).

Sorry if this sounds sanctimonious - you may well have asked for a quote
in good faith. But we can't out of one side of our mouths bemoan the
difficulty of finding reliable tradespeople to do smallish jobs, and on
the other abuse them by getting free advice in the guise of quotes...

cheers, Stefek