Fuse box installed for £150 what!!!

[cagedanimal2010]

did we ever get the answer to the how much for that crabtree board? I prefer Hager boards (feel better made!!) and you cant get one of those for much less that £70.00.

£150 is daft,
db= £70
Tails= £10
labour= 7x£25ph ==£175

=£255.00 to me at lest!

(^ as an example of a straightforward job^)



Danny

 

[spark 68]

My last one,

10 Way Wylex, dual RCD/split, upgrade main bonding conductors + main Earthing conductor (Very short runs) + two new earth clamps, No faults (for once!), and tails were correct.
£380 all signed and registered.
Board cost £96 incl.Vat + MCB's (my choice of)

Customer was more than happy with that

 

[Sparky Ninja]

Make sure you consider a grouping factor if you are going to bunch them up tightly.

 

[telectrix]

View attachment 8481Heres How it should be done! Old photo of 16th edition Board from a small development I did in 2005.

I Think £150 is way too cheap!
I Charge between £ 350 & £ 400 plus Vat per board change, If the bonding is done then bonus, its swings and round abouts really, I do 2-3 a week, some can take a 3 hours and some can take all day.
At the end of the day most of the lads on this forum work for them selves including me, and we do it for more money and better life style.
Heating enginners can change a boiler in a day and earn a grand, why should we be any diffrent.

neat board. only way i can fault it is the bit of offcut cable used in place of a cable tie.

 

[Dale200bhp]

neat board. only way i can fault it is the bit of offcut cable used in place of a cable tie.

It did get replaced with a cable tie, I remember not having and small panel tie wraps on the van at the time

 

[brizospark]

Vernam.....Listen....Your first photo on Page 1 - quite tidy I suppose but just a pity you have your neutrals and cpcs in the wrong terminals...perhaps you should spend a little more time on the boards!

And I agree with the middle picture of the three excess copper issue...this would be picked up on a periodic....it's a classic sign of bad workmanship....any decent spark ensures that the insulation of the cable goes all the way up to the MCB

Anyway I know who I would want my to wire up my DB, if I were a customer, given the choice of the bloke who does it in the time you say you do and someone who takes 2-3 hours
Would you want a gas engineer to do a boiler changeover in an hour?

 

[brizospark]

Plus, may I add, Vernam, The Live tail in your first photo is entering the connection at a shocking angle, think about it!

This cable should be straight

 

[Octopus]

One thing nobody seems to have mentioned is time allowed to "map" the property. How on earth can you properly test a house/replacement CU unless you know exactly what each fuse does before you start, and from my experience VERY FEW householders know themselves.

My base price is £325 + bonding + tails + faults found and I think I'm a little on the cheap side.

 

[ses]

Why do we spend years training, £1000 on fees, schemes, insurances etc to then go and charge a pittance for what is a skilled job, with potentially a lethal killer.
Just because a board costs £50 and takes 3 or 4 hours to fit doesnt mean its worth £150!
There are many jobs that dont appear to be worth peanuts but we dont question them or there rates.
We are skilled tradesman, and if you only browse the broad range of topics on this forum you would appreciate the real knowledge and skills we all have to learn and put into practice every day.

 

[alarm man]

Why do we spend years training, £1000 on fees, schemes, insurances etc to then go and charge a pittance for what is a skilled job, with potentially a lethal killer.
Just because a board costs £50 and takes 3 or 4 hours to fit doesnt mean its worth £150!
There are many jobs that dont appear to be worth peanuts but we dont question them or there rates.
We are skilled tradesman, and if you only browse the broad range of topics on this forum you would appreciate the real knowledge and skills we all have to learn and put into practice every day.

that may be so ses,but the influx of pay to play sparks,the lack of work around etc will lead to people working to just pay the bills,its the way at the moment,in all industries..

 

[ses]

Yes i agree that price wars are going on and ppl are selling themselves short, if ppl are struggling for work then £100 is better than zero for a days work, however i find it amazing that ppl seem to justify charging peanuts for a skill by reasoning that ; well it only takes s few hours etc.

As stated earlier show me a car garage that charges less than £40 an hour, show me a solicitor who will work for £12 an hour or show me a doctor etc etc... Just because you cant see it doesnt mean its less dangerous or unskilled.
Downturn or no downturn we need to show ppl that what we do is worthy of what we all charge

 

[ses]

And if ppl are struggling for work maybe its not there prices they should just be looking at!

 

[Thomas123]

I charge at £12 per hour for tracing unmarked circuits and faults

Arrive at job 8am, done and cleaned up by 9am, testing till 12pm, onto the next job, simples

I have a image in my head of everyone being the typical tradesman, tea drinking and paper reading, come on lets be honest how long does it take to change a DB and test the install?

Am i the only one who has the "Graft" idea?

And after all the age old saying go's "Stack em high, sell em cheap", the referrals i get from customers who were pleased with the work i carried out and the price is excellent, TBF i dont have a lot of overheads and im not greedy just pleased that i actually have some work

EDIT: and for anyone thinking " i bet the DB's are a mess "

View attachment 8475

£12 an hour self employed?

i earn more than that employed.. thats worrying. i get a van, no overheads.. i'd want a lot more than £12 an hour if i went on my own

 

[alarm man]

Yes i agree that price wars are going on and ppl are selling themselves short, if ppl are struggling for work then £100 is better than zero for a days work, however i find it amazing that ppl seem to justify charging peanuts for a skill by reasoning that ; well it only takes s few hours etc.

As stated earlier show me a car garage that charges less than £40 an hour, show me a solicitor who will work for £12 an hour or show me a doctor etc etc... Just because you cant see it doesnt mean its less dangerous or unskilled.
Downturn or no downturn we need to show ppl that what we do is worthy of what we all charge

agree mate,but every householder will try their hand at electrics,i mean its easy b&q have boards up to show you how to do it,but they need their car for work so it has to be done right..

 

[ses]

Yes i totally agree, not many ppl will mess with gas but most will try their hand at diy electrics, why is this? Maybe because ppl realise the dangers of gas but dont realise the real dangers of something you cant see or smell!
We need to be putting pressure on the niceice etc and government to educate the general public more.
After all i wonder if the statistics for electrical injurys and deaths are alot higher than gas related