I've received a quote from an electrician to move a consumer unit (a distance 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!

wrote:
I've received a quote from an electrician to move a consumer unit (a distance 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

wrote:

I've received a quote from an electrician to move a consumer unit (a
distance 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!

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.
--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

Thanks to respondents. You summaries of the situation seem fair enough to me. I'll go ahead with the job I think.

In article ,
wrote:
I've received a quote from an electrician to move a consumer unit (a
distance 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!

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.

--
*Red meat is not bad for you. Fuzzy green meat is bad for you.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 27/11/2012 09:42, Bill Wright wrote:
wrote:
I've received a quote from an electrician to move a consumer unit (a
distance 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

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 ,
scribeth thus
Thanks to respondents. You summaries of the situation seem fair enough to me.
I'll go ahead with the job I think.

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?...
--
Tony Sayer

On 27/11/2012 09:54, Tim Watts wrote:
wrote:

I've received a quote from an electrician to move a consumer unit (a
distance 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!

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.

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

In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
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.

Sounds like a good reason to find a one man business. ;-)

--
*Why is it considered necessary to screw down the lid of a coffin?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Tuesday, November 27, 2012 10:29:23 AM UTC, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

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.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
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.

Sounds like a good reason to find a one man business. ;-)

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

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"stuart noble" wrote in message
...
On 27/11/2012 09:42, Bill Wright wrote:
wrote:
I've received a quote from an electrician to move a consumer unit (a
distance 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

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 ,
Brian Gaff wrote:
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.

That's one problem - it had to be changed to brown.

--
*One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On 27/11/2012 14:48, Bill Wright wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
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.

Sounds like a good reason to find a one man business. ;-)

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

As an electrician I guess it must be difficult finding a domestic job
that isn't 75% dogsbody work

tony sayer wrote:
In article ,
scribeth thus
Thanks to respondents. You summaries of the situation seem fair
enough to me. I'll go ahead with the job I think.

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?...

£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:-)


--
Adam

stuart noble wrote:
On 27/11/2012 14:48, Bill Wright wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
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.

Sounds like a good reason to find a one man business. ;-)

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

As an electrician I guess it must be difficult finding a domestic job
that isn't 75% dogsbody work
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

Bill Wright wrote:
stuart noble wrote:
On 27/11/2012 14:48, Bill Wright wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Bill Wright wrote:
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.

Sounds like a good reason to find a one man business. ;-)

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

As an electrician I guess it must be difficult finding a domestic
job that isn't 75% dogsbody work
Yes, well with us a lot of jobs comprise a vast amount of cable
laying, which we try to foist on the electricians,

And we still have some1st year apprentices to do that work for you:-)

--
Adam