Am I expensive?

[bcm_spark]

Not sure if this is the right section or not.

I priced for a job yesterday to fit a new double socket. There were no sockets nearby that I could come from etc and reckoned that the job would take 2 hours max plus a couple of lengths of YT2, double pattress and a double socket, test and cert for £70 at the most. The lady nearly died!!

Needless to say I haven't got the job and she told me there and then. I've lost a couple of jobs through price but just reckoned I was unlucky. I don't see myself as being cheap cheap but I do a good quality job with quality materials.

 

[beaver74]

2hr @28.00 = £50.00

materials 2g skt
2g box
2 lth tunking
7m 2.5 if you can spur
fixture and fitting
fuel to get to job
print out a cert
all for £20.00 dnt worry about it eigther she will ring back or get a polish guy to bo it

 

[Archie]

BCM Spark

Don't fall into the trap of doing jobs for nothing, at 'cost' I mean.

I've recently lost out on a few jobs.
One was a rewire on a 3 bed 17th century Cottage. It wasn't going to be a simple one as you can imagine, crumbling lathe & plaster walls, massive floorboards which won't come up, flat roof Kitchen extension, new earth electrode etc. etc.
Only round the corner from me so went in at about £2700, didn't get the job they found someone at half the price??
We can't compete with the non-Registered, non-insured and probably non-qualified, glorified Handymen who are allowed to garrote our Trade.

Don't get me started!

In seriousness, I feel the Bodies ( NICEIC, NAPIT & ECA) don't seem to be doing anything about it.

 

[kung]

BCM Spark

Don't fall into the trap of doing jobs for nothing, at 'cost' I mean.

I've recently lost out on a few jobs.
One was a rewire on a 3 bed 17th century Cottage. It wasn't going to be a simple one as you can imagine, crumbling lathe & plaster walls, massive floorboards which won't come up, flat roof Kitchen extension, new earth electrode etc. etc.
Only round the corner from me so went in at about £2700, didn't get the job they found someone at half the price??
We can't compete with the non-Registered, non-insured and probably non-qualified, glorified Handymen who are allowed to garrote our Trade.

Don't get me started!

In seriousness, I feel the Bodies ( NICEIC, NAPIT & ECA) don't seem to be doing anything about it.

Well said Archie ! i agree 100%

 

[Tapouchoke]

No your not that is the going rate
I charge £55 per socket and £35 for minor works
I think these people live in the dark ages and still think a pint cost 2 guineas
This person probably lives in a big house nice car and won’t spend a brass farthing

You are a trade’s man not a painter
sorry for ranting

 

[bcm_spark]

Thanks for the comments guys. You are dead right about unqualified persons carrying out electrical work. I have lost a few rewires to these type of people who turn up at the weekend after work with a car full of nicked gear and cobble a rewire together in 2 days with no cert. I thought I was pricing about right but after loosing a few jobs over prices it got me worried i was going wrong somewhere.

 

[Staffie]

Yeah, couldn't agree with the above posts. I Recently done a double socket and an outside light, really straight forward job, very short cable runs, YT2 etc. Charged the woman £100

Quoted a 3 bedroomed house with a flat roof kitchen etc for a rewire, pretty big rooms etc. The job was 35 miles from home. To be honest I never wanted the job and just threw in the figure of about £3K max.

Another spark turned up while I was there, he told me he quoted a similar job the other week for £1700! I congratulated him and told him the job was his! He then told me that his £1700 quote had been beat and he never got the job!!!!

I charge £25p/h and I usually add around 20% on top of cost for materials!

You ain't expensive brother!

 

[megaman83]

excluding family and friends ill charge £25 an hour or if its a job that i dont particually want ill go sky high. and if i do get the job ( and 1 in 10 i do ) its really worth my while to do it. i didnt train at college for four years to work for peanuts.

 

[Tapouchoke]

excluding family and friends ill charge £25 an hour or if its a job that i dont particually want ill go sky high. and if i do get the job ( and 1 in 10 i do ) its really worth my while to do it. i didnt train at college for four years to work for peanuts.

hear hear

 

[irishsailor]

I am new to this and trying to learn, What is YT2??

 

[Scott F]

Not sure about yt2 but round our way mt2 is slang for mini trunkling or marshall tufflex (a brand) mt2 being the one most used for rewires socket drops etc 2 being the size of it

 

[kung]

Hi Irishsailor
YT2 is trunking !

 

[bcm_spark]

Its trunking my friend

 

[Guest123]

I am new to this and trying to learn, What is YT2??

Hey there.

YT2 is PVC mini trunking for surface wireing, 25x16mm in size.

You get other sizes too - YT0, YT1, YT2, YT3, YT4 etc etc they vary in size from 8x16mm up to 100x100mm which is then PVC maxi trunking.

Cheers

 

[pattester]

Dont worry BCM its even worse in pat testing. The price has gone down so much in the last couple of years I cant believe anyone can do it properly anymore - specially the big companies offering to do it for almost nothing - its a scandal. dont think the registered bodies are interested in that either

 

[kung]

Dont worry BCM its even worse in pat testing. The price has gone down so much in the last couple of years I cant believe anyone can do it properly anymore - specially the big companies offering to do it for almost nothing - its a scandal. dont think the registered bodies are interested in that either

The registered bodies are only there to lift dosh from your wallet ! nobody is intrested in some bloke down the pub doing the work for a few beers ! The rules are there but were the only ones that follow them ! when we compete with these prices even now with the ressesion most people just want a cheap job done by a cheap cowboy (the few pints bloke in the pub).

 

[bleward]

christ i only charge £15 an hour, i need to up my rates haha

 

[bcm_spark]

you do need to lift you rates pal, christ, how do you survive on that?? I get £15 per hour subbying working need a lot more to cover my overheads when doing my own work - niceic, insurance etc etc.

 

[suburban]

The sooner there's a registration scheme for proper trades people the better, then customers would realise their paying for a person who's taken the time and money to get where they are.

 

[maddfridge]

The sooner there's a registration scheme for proper trades people the better, then customers would realise their paying for a person who's taken the time and money to get where they are.

hi there

oh come on my friend even if there was a proper trade organization would people realize that !
simply not

all they want is to have the job done at the lowest cost they are not in the least bothered about your qualifications etc .

all they want is the job done cheap and you know someone will do it cheaper than you.

especially now with the way of the world. think corgi !


cheers

 

[suburban]

I live in hope, maybe one day.

 

[matt456]

If no one informs the authorities about flybynight sparkies with names and job locations how the hell are they supposed to know??????? You have to give them a chance if you see something suspicious i.e botched wiring or mega cheap jobs that are likely to be done dangerously, inform building control or similar body. its ok whinging on here about it,why not take a stand against them

 

[alexg]

Matt's has GOT to be THE most important post on here for ages guys.... on all levels.

What do you say - made me think and have already listed 3 jobs in my head I've seen recently that I'm goinh to get onto.

All for one and one for all and all that?

 

[suburban]

Good points matt and alex, now's a good time to stand up for the decent sparks.

 

[Rulin]

i am new to this and trying to learn, what is yt2??

mini trunking,...

 

[marcusone]

YT2 is the size code for 25mm x 16mm mini trunking. SPF is speed fix trunking . ZT is twin compartment trunking . There are others too, just "google" mini trunking.

Mark

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[Richard Andrews]

Not sure if this is the right section or not.

I priced for a job yesterday to fit a new double socket. There were no sockets nearby that I could come from etc and reckoned that the job would take 2 hours max plus a couple of lengths of YT2, double pattress and a double socket, test and cert for £70 at the most. The lady nearly died!!

Needless to say I haven't got the job and she told me there and then. I've lost a couple of jobs through price but just reckoned I was unlucky. I don't see myself as being cheap cheap but I do a good quality job with quality materials.

You're not too expensive - add the travel to and from the job, getting your tools out, etc, etc, etc...

Re the reply concerning non-Part P probably undertaking the work... Simply phone your local building control to ask if a notification or planning ap have been made for the address.

After the Floods in Carlisle I was sorting out all sorts of issues on behalf of house-owners AFTER reinstatement works as a consequence of non-compliant electrics and, believe me, don't be afraid to be on the right side of the law and Part P is the law.

If you want to safeguard your future you have to do what's right, but what's right is for you to decide.

 

[markythesparky]

we are currently taking a client to court over non payment of our electrical work.

The courts decided in their wisdom to appoint an 'expert' to value the job. each party were asked to give him an instruction adn in ours we asked him to ascertain whether the work was priced between the highest and lowest price in the area for this sort of work (domestic).

Even after we had obtained over ten other quotes for the same work and sent them to the 'expert' he dismissed them as saying that even if they were to be taken into account he would need to allow for JIB rate increases and Materials increases and then the current economic situation. We are currently in the process of waiting for a reply as to why he didnt do this.

Any way his report has stated that we should be charging £16.41 an hour as this is based in JIB electricians wages!!! He gets this from Luckins.

We are not JIB affiliated and nor our our sparks.

WE'RE ALL DOOMED LADS.

 

[Richard Andrews]

The rate is for JIB Sparks - not for the business that utilises the human resource!

Whatprice? is an independant site on the web - have a look at the prices for electricians...

What was the 'Expert Witness' Qualifications? Was he a spark and a member of institute electrical engineers (M.I.E.E.)?

Cowboys give us a bad name, but those who don't pay what's agreed or try and sometimes do wriggle out of such make me sick. I've been done right over in the past and now work on the basis that prevention is better than cure...

we are currently taking a client to court over non payment of our electrical work.

The courts decided in their wisdom to appoint an 'expert' to value the job. each party were asked to give him an instruction adn in ours we asked him to ascertain whether the work was priced between the highest and lowest price in the area for this sort of work (domestic).

Even after we had obtained over ten other quotes for the same work and sent them to the 'expert' he dismissed them as saying that even if they were to be taken into account he would need to allow for JIB rate increases and Materials increases and then the current economic situation. We are currently in the process of waiting for a reply as to why he didnt do this.

Any way his report has stated that we should be charging £16.41 an hour as this is based in JIB electricians wages!!! He gets this from Luckins.

We are not JIB affiliated and nor our our sparks.

WE'RE ALL DOOMED LADS.

Thought I'd add a bit more...It's strange for a court to appoint an expert witness? Regarding other issues I had to do a google search for my own expert witness and those on the other side of the proceedings could either get their own expert witness to challenge mine (or throw in the towel). The towel was thrown in because facts are facts.

We're not doomed - we just need educating in how to deal with those so low they can walk under the belly of a snake standing up!

 

[markythesparky]

Richard,

Where did you find you expert witness. just in case we have the opertunity to bring one in for ourselves.

To put you in the picture, the court asked the defendant to come up with three experts and then we could choose one of them and send an instruction. this was done and we sent our instructon to the court for approval but nothing was heard from the court for over 6 months. we then recieved a court order stating that a witness (that we had not chosen) had been apointed by the court! therefore acting in breach of their own previous court order!

Honestly i have never been in a situation like this before and i have totally lost faith in the coutny court system. even the judges dont read their own orders. its a joke. i would never go through this again.