Rough Price PIR???

[acvc]

Can anyone give a a typical price for a PIR in a small terraced domestic dwelling?

I wouldn't do it myself - don't really have enough experience I reckon - but friend of a neighbour is buying a house and is asking me about all about the electrics. I've told her to get a PIR done, preferably by the seller. She's asking how much that would cost. Never having done one .... A half day's work?

Ta folks.

 

[slocm3105]

I make it nearly a days work for say 10-12 circuits something like that. But if the cu is a real mess and un labelled it can take much longer. £250-300 rough price on average 3 bed terrace for me. I generally do things like take off the bath panel, pelmet in kitchen etc to see if i can find any hidden naughties also . And maybe a floorboard here and there if its ok with customer and a quick check up in the loft. All adds to the price and also gives a much better representatin of what kinda remedial work is involved. Test results dont always find those poorly wired things remember . Especially if your guna do any of the upgrade work be very thorough.

I would also say that this could be an ideal time for you to do a PIR. Take a day out and get cracking, check as much as possible and get your confidence up. They are a bit daunting at first but they certainly made me a better electrician. Good luck if you do change your mind and give it a go.

Cheers

Matt

 

[roukel01]

to do a thorough job, and by the time you've filled your cert in, I'd say half a day.

 

[skiandy]

We charge approx £140 for a PIR on a property that size. Guessing 6 Circuits on an old house. Half a days work to do it correctly assuming no existing certs.

 

[dufjax]

We recently got out bid on a quote for 3 x 2 bedroom flats.
A specialist "PIR" company did them for £50 a piece.
I know one of the tenants who reckoned the guy unscrewed (and tested I assume) 1 x Light, 2 x Light Switches and 1 x socket. Didn't seem to bother with cooker. Whole lot took the guy (one his own) half a day.

I estimated 1.5 days so obviously my quote was a little more.

Cheers
Jim

 

[tigerpaul]

You gotta charge at least a day. Even if it only takes you half a day, what are you going to do with the other half day? Not get paid?!

And it is not a job to rush. I've heard of sparks just taking a few things off and doing the basic tests and making the rest up! If your going to do it you have to do it properly or you might as well not do it at all. After all, its gonna be your name on the bottom of the sheet!

If you go in with a cheap price you;re going to be racing to get it done, and when you get problems you'll be struggling like **** at 7pm thinking "Was it worth it?"

You should do it, take your time, take photos of defects, get the paperwork right. You'll know you've done a good job, and you'll be more confident next time.

never miind all these chancers that make it up in half a day.

So charge whatever you want for your days pay, then add 70 or 80 quid or so

 

[Ross Trician]

evening guys.

I have toyed with what to charge for pir work over the last year or so. I took some advice from a chap I did odd bit of work along side he does lots of pir work. hes charges £25 per circuit.

I dont do that much pir work so decided on £20 per circuit with minimum charge of £80.

(p.s the chap i did work along side lives nowhere near me so wasn't undercutting/poaching his work)

cheers, Ross

 

[Des 56]

A system I have heard of is 40 minutes per circuit and 40 minutes per distribution board
Convert to hours and charge whatever hourly rate that you feel you must

A typical house with a 6 way board being 6x40 + 1x40 = 280 minutes or 4 and half hours and a bit for a tea break




The reply by tigerpaul is well worth thinking about,very sensible advise

 

[Sintra]

Company I work for charges £17.00 for a single phase circuit & £27.00 for a three phase for large jobs. For a house with 6 or so circuits they would charge for 8 hours.

 

[MarcT]

I think you guys have got it spot on. If you're very lucky then 4-5 hrs to do all the tests required, but mostly it's a test per day. Lets face it, we've gone to all this time and expense to get the most in depth and up to date training, keeping abreast of things, why sell ourselves short, of course we can't compete with johnny blagger who charges derisory sums for his p*** poor work. If they want us do do the work then they have to pay for what we know.
I saw a job advertised recently for a 2391 tester in uxbridge. the wording went something like this:
£48 per 5 year periodic £25 per 2.5 year periodic (????) properties are close together so opportunity to earn well.

i was incandescent with outrage, people who do these so called periodics for that price cheapen us all, humbug!

 

[Sintra]

I worked for a firm in the North of England some years ago as a test engineer. This firm carried out PIR's in large office blocks throughout the country and set targets for the engineers.

The targets they set where crazy.

40 circuits to test per day was the minimum they would expect you to do.
Needless to say i never met my targets and they didn't keep me very long although other engineers where able to hit their targets and be finished for 2pm.

 

[Davey101]

Thats just wrong.I'd say that they did nothing more than a loop test (nothing wrong with that), and 'calculated' a fair few.

Luckily I wasnt involved with it, but our firm tried setting a target of 20 per day (mostly on new build I think) and had to give up, as it just wasnt working. Even if you have perfect drawings, the circuits are labeled and there are no problems, I'd say 40 is impossible.

I reckon you could do 2 a day on a small house though, not allowing for paper work.

 

[MarcT]

I think we've hit upon that old chestnut, you can do it properly or you can do it competitively 'sigh'
I've just about made a living walking that line.

 

[steviesparks]

I do PIR's for rented properties, and charge about £175 for a 2 bed flat, but for that I sometimes have to do 100% inspection, but at the end of the day I put my signature to the cert, which is a legal document, and I sleep soundly at night. If someone undercuts me with a quickie inspection then thats fine, how can they manage sleep at night, in the past I've discovered earth reliant upon rusted flexible conduit (so no earth), I found a metal bath that a mother bathed her young kids in with copper hot and cold feeds, and no main earth bond, so yes I sleep well.

 

[ezzzekiel]

You gotta charge at least a day. Even if it only takes you half a day, what are you going to do with the other half day? Not get paid?!

er yes, or how about I work for you for say a month but you give me a years wages.

Customers are not there to make up a shortfall in your wages.

 

[tired of it all]

When you get paid for a Periodic, you are being paid foryour experience, knowledge and expertise. You are in effect reaping the reward for all the evening classes, late nights on site, long drives to work, lessons you have learned (often by making mistakes), and years spent on site. It therefore seems reasonable to charge a bit more than you would for a day's installation work.
Although it can be done in less than a day, I charge the same for an "average" Periodic (say 5 hours to do a 3 bed house) as I do for a day's work. The figures and times quoted on this thread seem realistic to me.

If you want to do a "cheapie" test, try the Domestic Visual Condition report (the NICEIC have a special form for this, I don't know about other schemes).As the name suggests, this is visual only, although you could add a few Zs readings to sex it up a bit!
Bear in mind that if you do one of these, you are not putting your name to anything dodgy - you are simply saying "these are the checks I have done". Make sure your client realises the limitation of the visual test though; if you want to be sure give them a printed info sheet and maybe get them to sign an ok first.

 

[TPES]

I dont do that much pir work so decided on £20 per circuit with minimum charge of £80.

I know this is a very old thread..

Just wondering if your price for a PIR is the same, and how many circuits do you include for your £80? and then £20 per cct there after

 

[robsparky1975]

You gotta charge at least a day. Even if it only takes you half a day, what are you going to do with the other half day? Not get paid?!

And it is not a job to rush. I've heard of sparks just taking a few things off and doing the basic tests and making the rest up! If your going to do it you have to do it properly or you might as well not do it at all. After all, its gonna be your name on the bottom of the sheet!

If you go in with a cheap price you;re going to be racing to get it done, and when you get problems you'll be struggling like **** at 7pm thinking "Was it worth it?"

You should do it, take your time, take photos of defects, get the paperwork right. You'll know you've done a good job, and you'll be more confident next time.

never miind all these chancers that make it up in half a day.

So charge whatever you want for your days pay, then add 70 or 80 quid or so

very well said.

 

[robsparky1975]

I done a visual condition report a while back,th boss of the firm said a client had paid £60 for a full on periodic,i just laughed and said it took that long to fill out the paperwork,as mentioned the inspector has a lot of responsibility,time/money,what does it matter,if a house has never had a periodic test i would be inclined to do 100% all circuits,take up boards if poss,check for alterations etc,what does the new owner want,i have done shedloads of periodics on hotels and on a dining area,there were 12 brass globes fixed to wooden stantions,r1 & r2 readings non existant,closer inspection found 4 gang switch containing all wiring/feeds/lights out etc,all cpcs cut off????????????looked a tidy job of the lights themselves but good job they had not gone faulty to earth(earth what earth)

 

[robsparky1975]

Oops forgot to say i would charge £200 i think and allow a day for average 6-8 circuits,any more got to be 1 hour per circuit dependant on the size of property.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Im charging £80 basic plus £20 per circuit. Take your time and work systematically through the board ensuring you know what is connected where. Lights and sockets can be a pain in bungalows, working out (if split) what is on each circuit.

Recently done an old house with 13 connected circuits only to find out one of them although wired didnt power anything. Have disconnected with a note left should the lady find something not working to give me a call back!!!

 

[TPES]

Im charging £80 basic plus £20 per circuit. !!!

So what you charging for a CU with 10 circuits? Are you charging per individual cct or per mcb/fuse?
As you could have a mcb with 3 circuits in it

How many circuits does your basic £80 include?

 

[rs250250]

Last set of sheets I came across the guy tested 20% fixed wiring which was 2 circuits!
That is pretty poor by my reckoning. There were plenty of limitations etc. He was niceic A/C..

I started off doing 90-100% but as I have become slightly more experienced I do no less than 70%
£25 p/circuit seems to work well if you want to be thorough