EICR pricing per circuit

[mat.baglow]

Having some pricing debates in the office recently.

What are people charging for EICR's at the moment? We're about 18.50 per circuit but recently lost one of our caravan park customers. This aside, 18.50 still feels a bit cheap to me.

Cheers

 

[westward10]

£18.50 Is probably considered premium in the open market today if you are submitting tenders.

 

[James]

seems fair to me, especially on a site where you have long cable runs and therefore spend a lot of time walking around.
£20 or less per circuit is CHEEP in my mind, the only way to make money doing it for less is to do a LOT LESS actual testing but make sure that every circuit is recorded and charged for. (read into that as you wish but consider the term "Drive By EICR")

 

[mat.baglow]

seems fair to me, especially on a site where you have long cable runs and therefore spend a lot of time walking around.
£20 or less per circuit is CHEEP in my mind, the only way to make money doing it for less is to do a LOT LESS actual testing but make sure that every circuit is recorded and charged for. (read into that as you wish but consider the term "Drive By EICR")

It's only recently I've been getting involved in the pricing side of things and that's exactly what I'm thinking, I carried out an EICR the other day in a nursing home, nothing was labelled, the building was totally neglected and it got me thinking there's no way we're making money on this. I like to be quite particular and do things properly.

 

[LukeD]

It's only recently I've been getting involved in the pricing side of things and that's exactly what I'm thinking, I carried out an EICR the other day in a nursing home, nothing was labelled, the building was totally neglected and it got me thinking there's no way we're making money on this. I like to be quite particular and do things properly.

Same as PAT testing ..its a race to the bottom

 

[SparkySy]

It depends entirely on the size of the installation, but for domestic I charge £150 for the board then £20 per circuit.

Commercial I charge rather more but a recent inspection on a large ish warehouse with 3x 10 way 3phase dis boards and all paperwork from installation to present. (last EICR 2018) The circuits I tested were identified correctly, about 8 days work by the time I had completed the induction and paperwork came in at £4100. Still got to go back and do some rather awkward remedial work to make it satisfactory.

Some commercial ones end up taking ages if the installation has changed a lot and not been labelled correctly!

I am currently testing 16 commercial units on a business park that was deemed satisfactory in 2018 even though there were several C2's that had not been rectified, and there were as I found them and more when conducting my inspections.
So far the inspection has taken 10days and at least another 10 doing rectification work. I still have 2 units left to test and looking at the previous report more remedial action to sort out!

 

[Dustydazzler]

As above there are many variables...

Initial EICR on an old building that you have never tested before will take ages . identifying circuits , testing the circuits , labelling up the circuits etc etc. But once you have done this all properly the next EICR should be easier and quicker.

So based on that surely we need to be charging a 1st EICR price and then a slightly cheaper follow up EICR price ?

I personally feel 18 quid a circuit is very cheap (if you are doing the job properly) , 12-13 quid a circuit was the norm like 20 years ago so in today money we should really be charging £20-25 per circuit minimum ?
less than 20 quid a circuit and I personally couldn't be bothered

 

[rewireIT]

Charge more. It has several good knock on effects - one is that if everyone did it, we'd all earn more since going rate would climb.

Second is that if you charged say £10 and hoovered up the work, but charged £30 and only hoovered up a third, you get the same money for a third of the work.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Charge more. It has several good knock on effects - one is that if everyone did it, we'd all earn more since going rate would climb.

Second is that if you charged say £10 and hoovered up the work, but charged £30 and only hoovered up a third, you get the same money for a third of the work.

That has been my theory since the pandemic , I would rather do half the amount of hours for twice the rate and to be fair for the last 4 years it has served me very nicely

 

[James]

So now we know the two people responsible for high inflation in the U.K.!

 

[Dustydazzler]

So now we know the two people responsible for high inflation in the U.K.!

I don't think me as a one man band increasing my call-out from £50 to £95p/h is the root case of spiralling inflation....

 

[Tart83]

eicrs are a nightmare, some people barely testing anything and issuing a satisfactory report, other people (like me) testing probably too thoroughly and coding probably too cautiously. The standards vary so widely from one tester to another, as does the interpretation of codes on whats acceptable and whats not. I gave up charging per circuit and now just charge by the hour, else you can go elsewhere. Other people charging £100 for an EICR, well I cant match that, i test too thoroughly which some may laugh at but i do what i'm comfortable with

 

[Dustydazzler]

eicrs are a nightmare, some people barely testing anything and issuing a satisfactory report, other people (like me) testing probably too thoroughly and coding probably too cautiously. The standards vary so widely from one tester to another, as does the interpretation of codes on whats acceptable and whats not. I gave up charging per circuit and now just charge by the hour, else you can go elsewhere. Other people charging £100 for an EICR, well I cant match that, i test too thoroughly which some may laugh at but i do what i'm comfortable with

!00%

if you can't do the job properly then why bother at all

£100 for an EICR is a joke and the jokers that bodge out 10 EICRs a day for that rate are the rats of the industry

 

[littlespark]

Bog standard 3 bed semi, i can do an eicr for £200. That's 4 hours on site, and a bit of admin. I also charge by the hour, not by circuit.

Bigger properties expect to take longer, and cost more.
Multiple boards take longer. (thinking main board plus a heating board which can add another 10 circuits on the 3 bed semi)
Properties packed with furniture and other crap.... takes longer.


Ive been asked to report on a farm cottage thats been empty a few years.... last tested 2017, so im not expecting any surprises.. but the other cottages in the row have been using it as a dumping ground, i think.
I counted 5 free standing cookers, 4 fridges, 4 bikes, a couple of kids scooters and a swivelling desk chair.

 

[Diddy]

One of my good friends owns several properties and looks after several more. Lets say ball park 50 properties. I could have had all of his work for the last 20 years. He is a good landlord, his properties are all kitted out to the exact same spec. Dream jobs for the trade he employs because everything stays the same, all the houses are exact replicas he only buys and manages a certain type and all are within 5 miles of each other too.
His current electrician who has been doing my mates work for 15+ years charges him £100 per property. When me and my mate were having a bit of a jokey discussion about it he was amazed that I not only wouldn't even consider taking over his whole portfolio and asked why/how I could not see that his spark can do 5x a day simply by walking doing certain roads and they are all right next to each other. I pointed out that I can do 2x a day and make the same money.
There is a reason why his spark can do 5x a day...He has wired/rewired them all. He has been testing them for years and has backup copies from last tests etc. Due to the fact that these are all rentals there are NO alterations or anything like that. so he really can do them quick and easy and cheaply.
But I would still rather charge 2.5-3x more than the guy and make the same money. I have been like that since I went sole trader about 10 years back...I used to subby a lot before that. It was actually when I was subbing that it hit me that guys would walk on site and immediately ask if there were lates and weekends on with many declaring that they couldn't afford not to do 70 hours a week. It was then that I recognized hmm if only i could charge double and win half the hours/work that these guys do. So on site i opted for pricework and did less hours than most of them while earning at least the same money. Then I went sole trader stopped subbying and went after my own work.
It is fair to say i do not get work from facebook nor any of the parasite middle men such as my builder and the like. One of the most important bits of kit i have is my vacuum cleaner as imho when working for certain types of clients it is the small things like being spotless that give you the reputation of being "really good"...Obviously not burning their house down with shoddy work also helps a bit like lol.