Pricing - by size

[petegibbons]

I have been asked to price the periodic testing of local council properties, such as libraries, schools etc.

The only information I have been given is the size of the buildings, for example 145 sq/mtr. I have got to submit a price for testing each sq.mtr so if I charged £1 per mtr the full cost in this instance would be £145.

Has anyone done this before or know anything about it ?? Can anyone give me advice on typical costs ??

I do a lot of things like this but this method, pricing by size is new to me.

 

[Johno]

I have never heard of this, and cannot understand how it can work, though I haven't got a vast experience in pricing PIRs this is a new one for me.

 

[poheZ]

Sounds like they dont even have their own spec!

Live only testing?
restricted areas?
sensitive equipment?
weekend, weekday?

If thats all the info they have given you then either do it to a real minimum spec and stat it on your inspection report or request more info!

oh, and to answer your question i hvent priced a pir on a sq meter basis before!

 

[petegibbons]

Sounds like they dont even have their own spec!

Live only testing?
restricted areas?
sensitive equipment?
weekend, weekday?

If thats all the info they have given you then either do it to a real minimum spec and stat it on your inspection report or request more info!

oh, and to answer your question i hvent priced a pir on a sq meter basis before!

They have give me lots of information to be fair to them, a 70 page tender document and specification, certain items they want doing, drawings to be made, working hours etc.

I fully understand the rest of the specification it's just pricing the work by size if the properties that has got me as I've never done it before.

 

[Sintra]

Don't get how you can price a PIR on area. The only accurate way is to price per circuit tested.

 

[lj.l]

I priced a job like this recently and It was a nightmare!I visited some of the 90 properties and googled others and with a lot of guess work decided that allowing a day to test a certin amount of sq footage was the best option. I think it was 3500sq ft per day .
This meant when I went to do a breakdown some properties were as low as £110 and some were way over the top,but its guess work and I thought what I would lose on some I would gain on others.as well as the remidial work.
I didnt get the job and am kinda thankful.
Hope this helps.
I also told the company if they were measuring up a job again to include an estimate of the number circuits and possiably a foto or two of the switchroom or dbs

 

[mogga]

like PAT testing at pennies per item PIR testing has been reduced to testing by price not quality of test £10 a circuit seems about the norm
as for by area mob I worked with did it by area and totaly cockedup as it was client who gave areas but didnt give the full area it was banks and the client only gave the customer area oly way to estimate and price is to see how many circuits

 

[UNG]

Only time I've seen electrics priced by area was for budget quotations for installs at £x/m2 to give a rule of thumb price

Seems on odd way to price inspection and testing and yet another way of pushing prices down. I just wonder how many other ways the bean counters can come up with to reduce costs and increase their efficiency bonus

 

[ezzzekiel]

sounds impossible to me

 

[UNG]

Just thinking a bit more about this has this cropped up because somebody has found it in a bill of quantities and decided to use the principle

 

[robsparky1975]

Never heard of ot being done that way,ehat if you have 20 circuits in a small area,you are gonna be the one losing out

 

[Voltimax]

That's a ridiculous way to price for PIR's.
If electrical contractors refused to price in this manner, you wouldn't have companies and associations demanding things to be done this way. It seems to me that they're the ones that get rich from this. I fail to see how decent money can be made.

My advice would be to visit the IET forum. There are alot of guys posting there that specialize in testing like this.

 

[alarm man]

council work can be cut throat,what ever price you put in you will beat the council sparks hands down,but a lot of companies go in low thinking they will get more council work and then go bust when they get a good contract as its costing them to do the job,i was talking to a school caretaker about this just last week,only you can calculate how long it will take and what profit you want to make from it