A really honest break down of rewire costings

[Dustydazzler]

I really good open debrief from partisan electrical on a recent job

 

[HappyHippyDad]

I expect the vast majority of us could charge silly rates if we wanted to , and we'd probably get away with it too. I don't see the money as the main objective though. If I charged £100 p/hour I wouldn't have such a large client base, it would be more emergency call outs and new clients. I like my regular clients, it feels good to look after their electrical needs. That is part of the payment. Money is important though......

I'm not cheap. £60 for the first hour, then £40 p/hour, so I make enough money, but I feel it's the right amount to keep my happy, regular client base with me feeling I am taking advantage of the fact they will always use me.

As for the chap in the video, he is a likeable person and it genuinely sounds like he cares about the customer and does a good job. He probably gets at least £70 p/hour (out of the £80 he charges for himself and the apprentice), that's a very good wage. Perhaps he is erring towards being more of a business man than an electrician though and I wonder how long you keep the enjoyment of your working life then.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Rewire rates have certainly gone up a lot since I started out in the trade.
I remember a basic 3 bed fully chased in rewire being around £1400-1500. I worked on loads during my apprentice days and actually are a good way to cut your teeth in the business.
You would be lucky to get a one bed flat rewired for that price nowadays...
I miss the old days and had the pleasure of working with some excellent old sparks.

 

[buzzlightyear]

I remember Working for firm when the prices where cheep and last week working for that firm before going solo working at a house on me own and a customer at the house says saying cost me a lot of money having this house done and make sure the boxes are straight. Me who gives a f&&k I'm not here next.

 

[HappyHippyDad]

I expect the vast majority of us could charge silly rates if we wanted to , and we'd probably get away with it too. I don't see the money as the main objective though. If I charged £100 p/hour I wouldn't have such a large client base, it would be more emergency call outs and new clients. I like my regular clients, it feels good to look after their electrical needs. That is part of the payment. Money is important though......

I'm not cheap. £60 for the first hour, then £40 p/hour, so I make enough money, but I feel it's the right amount to keep my happy, regular client base with me feeling I am taking advantage of the fact they will always use me.

As for the chap in the video, he is a likeable person and it genuinely sounds like he cares about the customer and does a good job. He probably gets at least £70 p/hour (out of the £80 he charges for himself and the apprentice), that's a very good wage. Perhaps he is erring towards being more of a business man than an electrician though and I wonder how long you keep the enjoyment of your working life then.

I meant to say 'not' taking advantage!

 

[richy3333]

I expect the vast majority of us could charge silly rates if we wanted to , and we'd probably get away with it too. I don't see the money as the main objective though. If I charged £100 p/hour I wouldn't have such a large client base, it would be more emergency call outs and new clients. I like my regular clients, it feels good to look after their electrical needs. That is part of the payment. Money is important though......

I'm not cheap. £60 for the first hour, then £40 p/hour, so I make enough money, but I feel it's the right amount to keep my happy, regular client base with me feeling I am taking advantage of the fact they will always use me.

As for the chap in the video, he is a likeable person and it genuinely sounds like he cares about the customer and does a good job. He probably gets at least £70 p/hour (out of the £80 he charges for himself and the apprentice), that's a very good wage. Perhaps he is erring towards being more of a business man than an electrician though and I wonder how long you keep the enjoyment of your working life then.

Hi Steve.
Totally appreciate your comments but aren't we all a business first and a sparky second?

I want happy customers but not at the detriment to my business and so my rate is based upon my running costs and making a reasonable profit rather than a rate that might make the customer happy.

Material costs are increasing substantially and so to the cost of living so our rates need to reflect this?

I can never get my head around the gas engineers that charge £5 -£10K+ for a new boiler and there are forum members n here that cry out 'rip of merchant' if we charge more than £300 for a CU upgrade?

 

[Risteard]

Hi Steve.
Totally appreciate your comments but aren't we all a business first and a sparky second?

I want happy customers but not at the detriment to my business and so my rate is based upon my running costs and making a reasonable profit rather than a rate that might make the customer happy.

Material costs are increasing substantially and so to the cost of living so our rates need to reflect this?

I can never get my head around the gas engineers that charge £5 -£10K+ for a new boiler and there are forum members n here that cry out 'rip of merchant' if we charge more than £300 for a CU upgrade?

Agreed. You owe it to your business to maximise what you can get for a job. It's not a charitable enterprise.

 

[DPG]

Hi Steve.
Totally appreciate your comments but aren't we all a business first and a sparky second?

I want happy customers but not at the detriment to my business and so my rate is based upon my running costs and making a reasonable profit rather than a rate that might make the customer happy.

Material costs are increasing substantially and so to the cost of living so our rates need to reflect this?

I can never get my head around the gas engineers that charge £5 -£10K+ for a new boiler and there are forum members n here that cry out 'rip of merchant' if we charge more than £300 for a CU upgrade?

That must be some boiler! I had a decent size Worcester boiler with smart stat fitted last year for £2400 all in. A swap rather than a fresh install admittedly.

 

[richy3333]

@DPG OK, but if you follow the analogy If I said a new CU would be £2K most people would have a fit. Why do we as an industry devalue ourselves so much?

 

[DPG]

@DPG OK, but if you follow the analogy If I said a new CU would be £2K most people would have a fit. Why do we as an industry devalue ourselves so much?

Yep, agreed.

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Hi Steve.
Totally appreciate your comments but aren't we all a business first and a sparky second?

I want happy customers but not at the detriment to my business and so my rate is based upon my running costs and making a reasonable profit rather than a rate that might make the customer happy.

Material costs are increasing substantially and so to the cost of living so our rates need to reflect this?

I can never get my head around the gas engineers that charge £5 -£10K+ for a new boiler and there are forum members n here that cry out 'rip of merchant' if we charge more than £300 for a CU upgrade?

Interesting. I was drinking a beer at the time so was in a particularly happy mood ?. I do absolutely get what you are saying, I just don't want to get too side tracked with purely making money. I think our working lives need to contain a number of different things (job satisfaction, happy customers, sensible working hours, fun and..... decent money). I think we all balance those things differently. For me making money is perhaps 3rd on the list after doing a good job and enjoying what I am doing. In other words it's very important, just not the most.

 

[richy3333]

Totally. I just see see some of that stuff in different spheres joining up in places like a venn diagram ?

 

[HappyHippyDad]

Totally. I just see see some of that stuff in different spheres joining up in places like a venn diagram ?

Very well put ?

 

[Dustydazzler]

Yep, agreed.

£1000 is the lowest I will go now on a rcbo board change with spd which includes a pre condition check of wiring and full certification afterwards

not worth doing for any less

 

[HappyHippyDad]

£1000 is the lowest I will go now on a rcbo board change with spd which includes a pre condition check of wiring and full certification afterwards

not worth doing for any less

In that case you'll be driving your Tesla soon, like your artisan mate ?

 

[UNG]

Many years ago I was involved in comms installs that took us all over the country and out into Europe. Every 3 months or thereabouts we used to pick 3 or 4 jobs and review the quote against what it was actually cost us to do the job, the results at times made interesting reading not least the "local" jobs (70 - 90 miles each way and 1.5 - 2 hours travel time) the distance threshold and the viability of whether to travel daily or stay out changed quite a bit over the years and first came to light when armed with the original quote for one job we looked at the actual costs which included traveling every day and and then we looked at the cost if we had stayed out, very surprisingly it would have cost us £10 less to do the job if we had stayed out