!...Is £495 to little to charge to supply & fit a consumer unit..?!

[nickblake]

id do a CDU upgrade for around £350.00 days work half a day to change the board half a day testing throw in the bonding for and extra £50 if its easy but i dont use a cheap £50 board i always install a hi integrety board so there may be an RCBO in there too

 

[slelectricalhud]

We get an 8 way split load MK CU for £54 +vat and thats fully loaded, I'd say your a bit on the expensive side. I did a 15 circuit change the other week and because it was originally 2 boards i had to through crimp alot of the conductors cos I didnt have the length. I charged £450 for that but then made another £550 earthing the lights etc so i could give it a cert.

 

[JD6400]

yeah, but he was asking if 495 was too cheap. i would go between 300-450 depending on size of board and whether or not it was in a stupid place. like one i came across last week, not a board change, but a socket replacement. new build 2005, CU at ceiling height directly above bog. made the customer stand on bog to turn off RCD> no way am i going to fork out £200 + labour for a broken bog.

Been there and done that !
Fancy bathroom suite now discontinued , not cheap .
I was not a happy bunny !

 

[Electricalserv]

I think £35 an hour is way to much especially if its domestic. If its commercial or Industrial its about the right money. £20 an hour on domestics is more than enough

 

[hopkins85]

20 pound an hour. Are you being serious. You can earn more than that washing cars.

 

[Dunc]

I think £35 an hour is way to much especially if its domestic. If its commercial or Industrial its about the right money. £20 an hour on domestics is more than enough

£25 is the going rate where I am. Was talking to a guy the other day who has upped his rate to £28-£30 depending on the scale of the job.

With regards to the OP, the price sounds fine IMO. If people ask me for a guide price I would usually say £400-£600 depending on whether or not bonding is required or if tails need upgrading etc.

 

[rocker]

£600? Where abouts are you dunc?

 

[Dunc]

£600? Where abouts are you dunc?

£600 is proper top whack with big board for a big house. Live in South Lincs where there are plenty of big old properties that need plenty of tlc and you never quite know what you're going to find. Also specify MK high integrity boards on all jobs and 15ways with breakers and a RCBO or 2 doesn't come cheap. If I'm being honest generally £400 with bonding is what I usually allow but by the time you've carried out the remedials you're getting closer to the £600 mark.

 

[mozzo]

Interesting reading, a lot of threads on here are filled up with people grumbling how theres no money in this industry and they are working
for next to nothing, yet as soon as a price that is sensible based on the job, experiance, training, and qualifications required to complete and certificate to a high standard is posted, it is often advised to lower prices! We can't have it both ways...........just a thought?

I agree, we are undervaluing the work we do and that is because there are people out there doing work under the radar and therefore forcing prices down to unrealistic levels. A consumer unit change in itself involves a periodic inspection and testing and if done properly is a days work if not 1.5 depending on size of house. The last thing you want is to swap out a CU only to find things are tripping and you have already removed the old CU and there is no way back. Old houses with old rewireable fuses and evidence of lots of electrical work usually have issues when moving to a modern CU and if you need to extend cables to reposition a new CU then that adds time again. So it depends on the work requirement and if you have to fix faults as well that will be additional charge but 2 days work excluding materials is a fair price to pay given also the level of responsibility, skill and experience involved in doing this type of essencial service work. We are selling ourselves for nothing doing CU changes for less than £250 all in and doing a CU change when there is no previous certificate history in a single day is suspect and corner cutting in my opinion. A person tiling a bathroom is probably earning more money without the risk and implications than a lot of people doing cheap CU changes. My view is make it a criminal offence to do electrical work in the house without building control approval or via a certified scheme provider contractor and this should help to weed out the cheap unrealistic priced cowboy jobs and reduce fires. We will then get the respect we deserve for the nature of the job that we do and earn a sensible living.
I could go on an on about this as it is really a touchy subject as householders generally only appreciate cosmetic appearance work that improves their lives visually like tiling, extensions, plastering etc but yet our work has drastic consequences if performed by cowboys or builders who do everything but give no certificates for electrical work. We need a "respect your profession campaign".

 

[mozzo]

"A consumer unit change in itself involves a periodic inspection and testing and if done properly is a days work if not 1.5 depending on size of house".

What I meant is that a periodic is a day to 1.5 days in itself without a CU change if done propertly. So this infers that a CU change on an old property is unrealistic to be done in one day if it is an old board and old electrics. That has been my experience and my working method is not quick in quick out.

 

[telectrix]

know what you mean. last month i went to a house on a recommend. client wanted 6 extra sockets in 1 room and 2 wylex rewireable boards replacing. one was lights only and the other for all else. obviously there was going to be a fair bit of cable extension required so i priced at £750, bearing in mind that a new ring final was to be run for the sockets in the room, working in an unlit 4ft. high cellar to cable to them. got a phone call back saying he had got someone to do it for £600.

 

[mozzo]

It's crazy! I don't know about you telectrix but one of the first things I do when going into these houses is talk about the legality of doing work, the need for certificates and the good procedure for swapping out these old boards given that faults could be present that may not be apparent at present. If somebody only wants the cheapest cost then maybe not the ideal client and you can bet they will also be the first to complain and want to take action if things go wrong during the change or when they are hit with unexpected extra cost if problems are found. Some tactics that others use is to go in cheap to initially get work and then present the client with extra cost during the process once the client is locked in and has little option than to go with them or risk more cost going with someone else to take over a job that has already started by someone else. I just try to outsell these people and show to the client that a too low cost is not realistic and present the client with the above advice. Reasure them that they can still call me if they have any problems or need a 2nd opinion at any time. No burning bridges and still be plesent even though they have wasted tons of time. Don't want to appear preaching to all you guys on the forum but I go in selling the value of what I do and never selling low cheap prices.
Value and quality!

 

[Kelrich]

I know a fella thats just done a consumer unit for £65 how cheap is that

 

[Octopus]

I know a fella thats just done a consumer unit for £65 how cheap is that

With the greatest respect thats bxllxcks!

 

[morph]

£65 ?

cheapest little board is probably £40 to buy